Contemporary Drama Research Articles

Artistic Negotiation of Emma and Lucy Annual Drama The Musical Jekyll & Hyde: A Performance Quadrilogue View

The main focus is on the artistic aspects of the two female characters, Emma Carew and Lucy Harris in the production of “The Musical Jekyll & Hyde” by the Annual Drama team of Faculty of Language and Arts, Satya Wacana Christian University Salatiga, in 2023. The study focused on the process and artistic decision making within the context of management, musicology, dramaturgy, and literary studies. The study highlights how Emma and Lucy, are constructed in feminism artistic analysis in contemporary drama. The characters represented female with their domestic and private roles. Observation, interviews, documentation, and library studies were conducted to gather the data. Using performance centered approach, the study thoroughly observed the artistic decision process of the three actors of performance quadrilogue, namely the source, producer, and performer. As a college theater, all the artistic decision was made by the students. The four artistic elements of theater production, comprising the verbal text, song, movement, and scenary, portrayed the story’s setting in the 1800s in England. Emma’s verbal text depicted the English women of the elite with their domestic orientation. On the contrary, Lucy portrayed liberal English women. The four artistic elements in a theater production, referred to Broadway theater of the same title. This study positioned artistic elements as its study object instead of drama as a media of English learning. These two domains are discussed to sharpen on the construction of the female figure in the artistic perspective of feminist analysis. Post-production studies are also conducted to examine how students gain experience of an artistic decision-making process in producing a performance. It was conducted through the management’s delegating mechanism in the chart of the structured organization.

Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism, Postcolonialism and Hybridity in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and August Wilson’s Radio Golf

This paper is a thematic study dealing with a postcolonial critical view of Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and August Wilson’s Radio Golf (2005). In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha views Western cultures as superior and she ultimately opts for Afrocentrism. The spirit of Beneatha will be analysed with a focus on Frantz Fanon’s arguments against ‘négritude’ and Eurocentrism. Hansberry, through the voice of Mama Lena, calls for a union between the African and the American selves, as well as between the Western and the non-Western cultures. The issue of the oscillation between Eurocentrism and Africanness is shared by August Wilson in his last contemporary play where he exposes different facets and layers of identity. Contemporary black citizens have achieved their American dreams of collecting lucre, but they are still grappling between keeping faithful to their African heritage and cultural repertoire or adopting the Western way of life and distance themselves from their roots. This dilemma is best exemplified through Harmond and his wife Mame Wilks. Unlike Wilks, who imitates the prestigious way of life and looks for appearances and social status, Harmond crosses the boundaries of Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism and he tries to find a space for intercultural communication between the Western and the African cultures. The discussion part will relate the two plays to the recent events surrounding Floyd’s murder during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The aim is to examine the critical situation of blacks during crisis and to demonstrate that they are disproportionally targeted. The rationale for choosing a modern African-American text that explores contemporary Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism, assimilation, nativism, and decolonization is to show that race is a universal issue. The goal is to suggest hybridity as the best alternative for establishing a more humanitarian society where different races can be interwoven.

Explore Contemporary Significance and Market Dynamics of Jiangxi's Chinese Paintings

In the context of cross-cultural perspectives, drama is considered as an imported commodity for Chinese theater. Tian Han's early works marked a crucial point in the development of Chinese drama. This paper uses textual analysis to examine Tian Han's early drama ‘Death of a Noted Actor,’ exploring its significant role in laying the foundation for the emergence and development of Chinese contemporary drama from a cross-cultural viewpoint. The analysis focuses on cultural integration, market integration, dramatic aesthetics, and the utility research of how Tian Han's early dramas transcended the temporal constraints and shaped the theatrical concepts that promote the development of contemporary Chinese drama.

Роль нарратива в новейшей русской драматургии

The research aims to answer the question: why is the role of storytelling increasing in the plays of young authors of the 2020s, rather than the showing that is appropriate for drama? The paper examines the genesis of drama narrativization in the 1990s-2010s (in the plays of Yevgeny Grishkovets, Nikolay Kolyada, Oleg Bogayev, etc.), traces the history of the issue in literary studies and criticism, and conducts a textual analysis of Polina Korotych’s play “Street” (2022) using the methods of modern narratology. The scientific novelty of the research lies in determining the specifics of narrativity in contemporary drama. The theoretical significance of the work is in applying the narratological analysis methodology to a modern dramatic text. As a result, it was found that contemporary drama often moves away from both showing-performativity and narrative as plot. The new narrativity of contemporary drama manifests itself in the fact that the play often turns into a narrative act from the perspective of the author or the characters. The events in the plays of Yevgeny Grishkovets, Dmitry Danilov, Polina Korotych, Olga Potapova, etc. become mental, not physical actions. The focus shifts to the verbalization of narration; the intrigue of the word becomes central in the reception of such plays. Similar phenomena are observed in other genres of contemporary literature, but drama is at the forefront of the modern literary process.

A Critical Appreciation of the Commercial Blockbusters by Zhang Yimou

It is essential to note that for the past two decades the majority of the Fifth Generation directors have experienced an obvious shift of film-making from art cinema to the production of commercial blockbusters. By means of borrowing Hollywood’s “high concept” cinema, the local blockbusters featuring Chinese cultural elements are very emphatic about symbolism and visual effects of productions that are bringing to the audience new and stirring feel. And in the blockbusters of Chinese style, the stardom and renowned directors are the guaranteed success of box office. In terms of thematic subjects, the representative director Zhang Yimou has with certainty showcased his reflections on the unlimited power hierarchy and the impulse to deconstruct it in his works, which contain social and cultural allegories and morality problems of family. The so-called “commercial blockbusters” as <i>Hero</i> and <i>House of Flying Daggers</i> have utilized the unique on-site shooting and color effects to achieve the desired results. At the same time Zhang Yimou has in his art house works benefited from Akira Kurosawa, master of the genre, and some technicalities in gangster film. Zhang’s blockbusters of swordsman and Wuxia (martial art) have made an immense box value owing to their tactic violation of the mainstream ideologies. As a result, they are not regularly categorized as the most significant movie of the day. Being Zhang’s last blockbuster, <i>Curse of the Golden Flower </i>takes advantage of merging spectacular scenes and artificial staging for the purpose of authentic representation and imagination. This is also materialized by his cleverly adapting the original work of fame by Cao Yu, a contemporary playwright. Zhang Yimou’s blockbusters, with his special aesthetic, has largely succeeded in an economic sense, but failed ideologically to merge in the mainstream cinema of China.

Theatre Control Policy or Why After Goran Stefanovski and Dejan Dukovski, No One Is Known Outside the Borders of the Macedonian Theatre? (2010–2021)

To capture the dramatic situation in/of the contemporary drama theatre in Macedonia, I will try to draw certain characteristics of the state of the theatre by referring to several political and social conditions with us, that erode the spirit and matter of everyday life.

Balāgah al-Jasad al-Furjūwī baina al-Ta’bīr al-Ĥarakī wa al-Kalimah al-Manṭūqah Masraḥiyyah “Kharīf” Numūżajā

This research aims to analyze body rhetoric between motor expressions and spoken words in the play "Kharif" as a model for the work of director Asmaa Houri. This qualitative research has a case study type of research on literary appreciation in drama performances in Morocco. The research data is in body rhetoric played by several drama actors. Data collection techniques use in-depth observation and documentation. The data analysis uses data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. The research results show that the body is important in constructing a drama performance. Rather, the motor elements contribute to the production of a diverse group of connotations. Several topics that shape the picture of contemporary drama in Maraco include women's movements and the duality of body and soul, men's and the duality of presence and absence, body language related to eye movements, and silence and the body in choreography.

ROUND TABLE “FROM TEXT TO GAME...”: TALK ABOUT TODAY AND ETERNAL. REPORTAGE

The constant attention to dramaturgy at the Department of History of Contemporary Russian Literature and Modern Literary Process is associated with the scholarly heritage of its former head, Doctor of Philology, Professor B.S. Bugrov (1936-2002). He brought the plays of Russian symbolists back from oblivion, published the plays by L. Andreev, explored modern drama, and directed his students along this path. The round table, reviewed in this article, brought together colleagues whose academic interests were in one way or another connected to the theater and drama. The problems of theatrical and dramatic language and the synthesis of arts; innovations in drama and theater of the 20th and 21st centuries; representative texts by contemporary playwrights; adaptations of plays for theater and cinema, as well as non-dramatic material for the stage; reception of Russian drama outside Russia; contribution of B.S. Bugrov to the study of dramaturgy of the 20th century were discussed.

“Nobody Loves Me and the Sun’s Going to Kill Me”: Toward a Darker Ecodramaturgy

Scholars of performance and ecology have recently argued that Western drama has ecological consequences and that those consequences have historically been primarily destructive. This article identifies an emerging subgenre of contemporary drama – the ecodystopia – and analyzes two representative examples in order to develop a darker ecodramaturgy. Building on Theresa J. May’s ecodramaturgical framework, a darker ecodramaturgy forces readers and spectators of drama to confront difficult questions about the role of humanity as a species. A dark ecodramaturgical analysis of ecodystopian drama reveals how the plays push up against the conventions of naturalist/realist dramatic forms. In doing so, the plays identify the elements of Western drama that have historically presented humanity as the cosmic protagonist, and they break down those elements so they can be reassembled anew. This article argues that the seeds of large-scale ecological awareness lie within those reassembled dramatic forms.

The Interpretation of the Modern Spirit of Chekhovs Drama on the Contemporary Stage -- Taking Butusov Theater as an Example

Chekhovs plays have long been very popular in modern theater, especially in the major theaters of Russia. Many theatrical masters have adapted his classic texts. However, some adaptations have a strong avant-garde and experimental color, and the creators consciousness is too strong. So it is easy to ignore the fundamental of the text, in other words, the modernity problem. This paper takes Russian director Yuri Butusovs adaptation of Chekhovs plays as an example to study how the contemporary drama stage interprets the spirit of modernity in the text. This paper applies the relevant theories, which are all reflected in the Butusov Theater, including Meyerholds cubist stage concept, the contextualizing cubism proposed by the British scholar Amy Skinner, and Bakhtins carnival theory. Butusov deeply explores the modern spirit of Chekhovs drama and presents it with his unique directing art, which is also an alternative expression of the classic text.

The Poetics and Politics of We-Narration on the Contemporary British Stage

Abstract We-narratives are proliferating in the contemporary novel. Constructing a collective subject that cannot be reduced to a singular individual who speaks for the group, they have been hailed by narratologists as remarkable fictional possibilities. This article registers a similar increase of plural narration in contemporary drama and explores how an analysis of the phenomenon’s linguistic dimension can be combined with a consideration of these plays’ orientation towards performance. Drawing on British examples, we chart an intriguing variety of we-narratives and argue that the political potential of these forms of community building lies in their turn away from mimesis and dramatic realism. Rather than merely representing a collective entity on stage, they also forge one in and through performance and frequently unsettle the conventional identification of one voice with one body. Thus, contemporary uses of “we” model the relationship between stage and auditorium in ways that assert, but also interrogate, the potential for community building in the shared space of the theatre.

Contemporary Censorship Debates in Germany

During the past five years the cultural world in Germany has been shaken and divided by a series of controversies involving contemporary works of art charged with being anti-Semitic. Obviously, with the Holocaust continuing to occupy a major position in modern German consciousness and history, sensitivity to anti-Semitic expressions is particularly keen here. This sensitivity has been increased by a number of recent developments, including the growing visibility of far-right political groups, the rise of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) protesting Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and the official politicization of these tensions by a parliamentary ruling in 2015 restricting the activities of the BDS. The conflict between legitimate criticism of policies of the Israeli state and legitimate censorship of ethnically offensive material has recently become increasingly bitter in Germany. This article discusses the dynamics of three of the most significant recent examples: the conflict involving Germany’s most prestigious arts festival, the Kassell documenta in 2020; the withdrawal in 2022 of the European Drama Award, the continent’s largest award, from British dramatist Caryl Churchill; and the withdrawal from the Munich stage of the most recent play by Wajdi Mouawad, who has been widely heralded in Germany as the most significant contemporary dramatist.

Mining and Modeling Both Association Patterns and Determinants for the Attendance of Performing Arts Activities

ABSTRACT The literature has explored related issues about the audience of performing arts activities with empirical investigations using various analytical approaches in different countries. Certain studies have concentrated on the univorous-omnivorous framework, aiming to examine if people participate in a wide range of performing arts genres or if they exhibit a more distinct preference for a specific type, while others explore what factors may influence individuals’ participation in different types of performing arts activities. This paper analyzes data from a survey that focuses on related issues about the attendance of performing arts events in three cities located in northern Taiwan. Performing arts in Taiwan are classified into four categories: music, dance, contemporary drama, and traditional theater. We mine patterns about how the audiences consume various type combinations of performing arts events through the association rule as well as identify determinants related to events’ attendances. Both the association mining approach and appropriate statistical modeling analytics are applied to achieve said purposes.

Actualization of Ancient Images in Works of Contemporary Playwrights

The article explores the reception of ancient imagery in contemporary playwrights’ works. The study focuses on the plays “Besieged” by E. Grishkovtsev, “Two Wives of Paris” by E. Isaeva, and “Micropolis” by E. Vodolazkin. A comprehensive analysis of these works is conducted to examine the modernization of ancient images, identifying intertextual connections and individual stylistic features in the use of precedent phenomena by different playwrights. The novelty of the research lies in tracing the discursive properties of motifs and images rooted in ancient culture and reimagined in contemporary plays. The analysis demonstrates how contemporary playwrights' engagement with familiar material enriches the semantic field of new works, offering fresh perspectives on eternal themes and exploring new and unexpected connections between the past and present, myth and reality. This study is relevant for the study and development of cultural dialogue across different epochs and communities. The authors conclude that in contemporary dramaturgy, ancient images possess significant discursive potential and serve as a means of artistic exploration of modern reality.

A corpus-based approach to the reception of Chinese television dramas streamed overseas

In recent years, the state government of China has vigorously supported the export of cultural projects. As the carrier of cultural output, television dramas carry important missions of cultural communication. In the age of convergence when the practice of watching television involves more viewer engagement, audience reception investigates how audiences may engage in a broad range of interactive experiences and activities. This paper focuses on the reception of Chinese television dramas streamed overseas on two prominent video streaming sites, YouTube and Rakuten Viki. Adopting a corpus-based approach, it first identifies the top ten most popular Chinese television dramas on the two sites. Subsequently, user-generated reviews and comments for the selected dramas are collected, and a corpus analysis is conducted on the data derived from the two platforms. The findings reveal that a) viewers exhibit a notable preference for Chinese contemporary dramas, and in particular, modern romance dramas; b) the predominant concerns underlying the reception of Chinese television dramas revolve around storylines, actors/characters and subtitles; c) reviews and comments related to subtitling can be categorized into distinct themes, which reveal the major concerns of international viewership. Through the investigation, this paper attempts to promote the translation and reception of Chinese television dramas and expand the export market of Chinese productions.

Laikmeta komentārs teātra valodā. Latviešu dramaturģija Rīgas Strādnieku teātra repertuārā: modernisma aspekti

The repertoire of the Riga Workers’ Theatre (1926–1934) reflected the trends of the time and leftist progressive ideas. City life as a nodal point of modern reality became inspiration and material for plays, poetry performances, dramatised feuilletons and interludes commenting on current events. The aesthetic programme of the theatre envisaged the creation of a peculiar sovereign artistic style, where the new dramaturgy played an important role. Topical and recently created works by contemporary authors were chosen for the repertoire with an emphasis on the search for novelty. In the first years, while the director was Roberts Dukurs, the dramaturge was Jānis Grots, then Arvīds Grigulis; after this function was taken over by the director Kārlis Dziļleja. The article aims to introduce the main principles of the Riga Workers’ Theatre repertoire policy, focusing on an overview of the contributions of Latvian authors. Rainis, Andrejs Upīts, and Pāvils Gruzna played a dominant role in the ideological decisions of the repertoire. A circle of progressive authors gathered around the theatre, creating a contemporary drama laboratory. Young authors Aleksandrs Čaks, Valdis Grēviņš, Fricis Rokpelnis, Jūlijs Vanags, and others experienced their first works on stage in this theatre. The research object is dramaturgical works and testimonies describing the productions – programme leaflets, reviews, reminiscences, etc. The article discusses innovative trends in drama and the expansion of the concept of dramaturgy to the dynamics of stage set, musical and choreographic action. As a result, the consistently executed repertory policy heralded a new type of drama programme by achieving a synthesis of contemporary content and new visual, musical and choreographic forms. The article concludes that creating innovative drama forms and genre experiments on the Riga Workers’ Theatre stage significantly contributed to the development of Latvian dramaturgy.

Exploring the Themes of Conflict and Peace in Contemporary English and Iraqi Drama

This research paper explores the themes of conflict and peace in contemporary English and Iraqi drama. The paper analyzes several plays from both traditions to examine the portrayal of conflict and peace, as well as the cultural, political, and historical contexts that inform these portrayals. The paper argues that contemporary drama serves as a powerful means of artistic expression that reflects and responds to the complexities of the world around us. In English drama, conflict and peace are often portrayed as elusive and difficult to achieve. The plays examined in this paper depict a range of conflicts, including those arising from personal relationships, social injustice, and political upheaval. The paper analyzes the causes and effects of conflict in these plays, as well as the ways in which conflict is resolved or perpetuated. The examination of the challenges and benefits of achieving peace highlights the difficulties in achieving resolution and the toll that conflict takes on individuals and communities. In Iraqi drama, the potential for hope and reconciliation is emphasized, even in the most challenging circumstances. The paper examines the causes and effects of conflict in these plays, as well as the ways in which peace is achieved or lost. The examination of the cultural, political, and historical contexts that inform the portrayal of conflict and peace in Iraqi drama emphasizes the significance of Iraq's recent history of war and occupation and the ongoing struggle for social justice and human rights. The paper also identifies similarities and differences between the treatment of conflict and peace in the two traditions. While both English and Iraqi dramas address the complexities of conflict and the difficulties of achieving peace, they do so in different ways. The examination of the cultural, political, and historical contexts that inform the portrayal of conflict and peace in the two traditions highlights the diversity and richness of contemporary drama as a form of artistic expression.

ENACTING THE GODS: THE PERFORMANCE OF HAOBA NURABI EPISODE IN THE LAI HARAOBA OF MANIPUR

This paper examines the performance of the Haoba Nurabi episode in the Meitei Lai Haraoba of Manipur. It attempts to delve into the intricate rituals of Lai Haraoba, a celebration that combines elements such as dance, music, sports, and sacred ceremonies to honour the presiding deities. The paper also provides insights into the performance space known as the laipung, shedding light on the staging and realisation of this traditional performance style. Throughout this paper, the terms drama, theatre, and performance are used interchangeably with due emphasis on spectator experience rather than the technicalities of the terms and methodological challenges. The episode under consideration reenacts the interactions between the divine lovers Haoba and Nurabi, who initially fail to recognise each other, which offers moments of humour and clever dialogues while performing activities like tilling, sowing, and harvesting. With multiple constituent elements making this propitiatory festival an entity unto itself, Lai Haraoba holds significance within India's broader landscape of performance traditions. And Haoba Nurabi sets itself apart within the ritual-rich ambience of the Lai Haraoba festival by exhibiting structural and presentational similarities to contemporary drama.

Пьесы Б. Джейкобс-Дженкинса: традиции мелодрамы и этнически нейтральный кастинг

The article concerns with the plays An Octoroon and Gloria by contemporary American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The dramaturgy of one of the most notable authors, writing for the US theatre at the present time, is thematically varied; besides, it includes both Jacobs-Jenkins’ original works (e.g., Gloria, 2015) and his adaptations of plays by other authors and/or other epochs. Among the adaptations there is the most famous of Jacobs-Jenkins' plays so far — An Octoroon (2014), which is the author's treatment of 19th century melodrama The Octoroon (1859) by Anglo-Irish dramatist Dion Boucicault. Working with the play of the 19th century, which reveals the problems of slavery in a simplified, melodramatic form, allows the contemporary playwright to actualize the consideration of racial conflicts and to reconstruct/deconstruct the generic model of melodrama. The author of the article draws attention to the reception of the minstrel tradition in the play An Octoroon, both at the level of interaction of D. Boucicault's work with American minstrel show coinciding with it in time, and in connection with the comprehension and overcoming of the “minstrel archetypes” by B. Jacobs-Jenkins. The question of casting is very important to Jacobs-Jenkins, the playwright puts forward his requirements for ethnic conformity between actors and roles in his plays, and this brings together An Octoroon and Gloria, though the works are diverse in genre and subject matter. The cultural context for the works of the American playwright is, first of all, the drama and theater of the United States throughout their development. For further studies it also seems interesting to consider B. Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays in connection with folklore traditions or, e.g., in the context of sacred genres.

Limits of trauma / Possibilities of solidarity. Depiction of Belarusian events from 2020 and 2021 in contemporary Belarusian drama

What type of drama, and with what possibilities of expression, emerges in cultures constrained by power? How and what do playwrights who are forced to write anonymously and cannot count on seeing their plays performed in their own country write? Using the example of several dramatic texts by Belarussian contemporary playwrights (first of all we deal with the texts I will emerge from the forest, straighten my backbone, and it shall become my sword by noname67 and Half a Year by Victoria Koval) and theatrical projects that emerged in response to the suppressed protests in Belarus, the study presents the themes, motifs, and modes of narration of the events that will become part of the national history and memory as its traumatic experience.