The Department of Stage Speech was established during the 1968–1969 academic year within the Azerbaijan State Institute of Arts and, since 2015, has continued its activity under the Faculty of Theatre Arts.
The primary objective of the department is to teach students the norms and expressive possibilities of the Azerbaijani literary language, voice production techniques, and the effective use of speech in character creation and stage performance.
Throughout different periods, distinguished representatives of Azerbaijani theatre, including Abbas Mirza Sharifzade, Mirseyfaddin Kirmanshanlı, Kazim Ziya, Ismayil Dagystanli, Mukhlis Janizade, and others, contributed to the teaching of stage speech.
The department’s faculty members have developed methodological guidelines, curricula, and teaching materials for the discipline of Stage Speech across various specializations. Special recognition should be given to the distinguished pedagogue and Associate Professor Azizaga Guliyev, who headed the department from 1989 to 2001 and made a major contribution to the professional training of actors. His publications, including Diction and Methodological Guidelines (1975), Working with Text (1979), Methodological Guidelines on Stage Speech (1981), Methodological Guidelines on Orthoepy (1983), On Stage Speech and Its Teaching (1989), K.S. Stanislavski on Stage Speech (1989), Improving Speech Technique through Tongue Twisters (1996), The Importance of Working on Fables in Actor Training (1998), and the textbook Stage Speech (2011), remain of considerable academic significance.
Viewing stage speech as inseparable from acting, Azizaga Guliyev also translated into Azerbaijani several major theoretical works, including Grigori Kristi’s Actor Training Based on the Stanislavski School (1979) and Boris Zakhava’s The Art of the Actor and Director (1984, co-translated with Nasir Sadigzade). He also authored numerous scholarly articles and became the first scholar in Azerbaijani theatre education to produce a dedicated textbook on stage speech.
The department’s academic staff have prepared 19 curricula for different specializations. Among the department’s published teaching materials are Working with Text and Other Problems of Stage Speech (2008), Selected Materials on Stage Speech (2018), The Importance of Folklore in Acquiring Stage Speech Skills (1999), Integrated Teaching of Stage Speech and Acting (2013), and Methodological Guidelines on Stage Speech by Mahira Yagubova, Kamala Mehdiyeva, Agalar Bayramov, and Azad Shukurov (2018).
Since May 2024, the department has been headed by People’s Artist, Professor Mammadsafa Gasimov.
Academic Staff:
- Kamala Mehdiyeva — PhD in Art Studies, Associate Professor
- Azad Shukurov — Honored Artist, Professor
- Agalar Bayramov — Consulting Professor
- Mahira Yagubova — Honored Artist, Associate Professor
- Ayan Mirgasimova — People’s Artist, Associate Professor
- Aleksandra Nikushina — People’s Artist
- Alizaman Mirzayev — Senior Lecturer
- Parvana Namazova — Lecturer
- Laman Salimova — Laboratory Assistant
Courses Offered:
Undergraduate Level:
- Stage Speech (Drama and Film Acting)
- Stage Speech (Musical Theatre Acting)
- Stage Speech (Film Directing)
- Stage Speech (Television Directing)
- Stage Speech (Theatre Directing)
- Stage Speech (Popular Music and Jazz Performance)
- Artistic Reading Techniques
- Fundamentals of Acting and Speech Culture
Master’s Level (1.5-year program):
- Mastery of Artistic Reading
- Dubbing Techniques
- Stage Speech and Speech Culture
- Methodology of Stage Speech
Master’s Level (2-year program):
- Speech Culture in Television and Radio
- Methodology of Teaching Stage Speech
- Actor’s Dubbing Practice, Methodology, and Diction Issues