Theatrical Culture Research Articles

Самодеятельный музыкальный театр Дальнего Востока России (1940 – 1980‑е гг.)

This article undertakes the first systematic study of the amateur music and theatre art of the Soviet Far East. Based on a wide range of unknown sources, the author traces the development and creative activity of the amateur music and theatre groups in the Magadan Region, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories. Such theatre activity is considered by the author as one of the non-stationary form of the Far Eastern music theatre. As a result of the study, the author identifies general trends in the development of amateur musical theatres in all regions of the Far East: the heyday of activity is connected with the end of the 1950s –1960s; increased attention to the Soviet and local repertoire, the presence in the repertoires of the Ukrainian national operas, Russian and Soviet operas, Soviet and European operettas, independent solution of the problems of training and education of personnel, solving the problem of cultural services for remote territories.Conclusions are drawn about the representation of amateur music theatre in the regions of the Far Eastern music theatre system that developed before the early 1940s. There is also mentioned a problem of considering the amateur music and theatre art in the Russian Far East being a part of the music theatre life of the regions within the framework of their music and theatre culture.

Panic at the Picture Show: Southern Movie Theatre Culture and the Struggle to Desegregate

This paper explores the complex desegregation process of movie theatres in the southern United States. Building off of historiography that investigates regulations of postwar teenage sexuality and recent scholarly work that acknowledges the link between sexuality and civil rights, I argue that movie theatres had a uniquely delayed desegregation process due to perceived sexual intrigue of the dark, private theatre space. Through analysis of drive-in and hardtop theatres, censorship of on-screen content, and youth involvement in desegregation, I contend that anxieties of interracial intimacy and unsupervised teenage sexuality produced this especially prolonged integration process.

Театральная жизнь уралмашевцев на страницах заводской газеты в период с 1934 по 1939 год

The article examines the theatrical life on the territory of the urban microdistrict Uralmash in Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk. The Uralmash residential area was built in the period of the 30s of the 20th century, simultaneously with the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant "UZTM", a brand of the Soviet industry. The study provides an anthropological description of Uralmash in the 30s as a new type of settlement – "soc.the city". The analysis of theatrical events spanning from 1934 to 1939 in the conditions of constructing a social city reflects the growing interest of researchers to the processes of cultural construction during the first fiveyear plans and to the policy of the Soviet state aimed at formulating a new cultural standard. The purpose of the article is to characterize the theatrical life of the working district during the period of cultural construction. The research objectives are the following: to systematize and chronologically restore information about the theatrical events of the period of the 30s of the 20th century in Uralmash. The method of investigating the processes associated with the theatrical life of Uralmash is the analysis of 1934-1939 publications from the large-circulation newspaper "For Heavy Engineering". The article includes authentic texts from the factory edition. The materials of the newspaper "For Heavy Engineering" are conditionally divided into several blocks–"visiting performances", "tours", "amateur art", "organizational work", "reviews (including impressions and gratitude from the audience)", "performance announcements", "information about theater figures of the capital, republican and Sverdlovsk theaters"--and arranged chronologically . Theatrical life in the period from 1934 to 1939 at Uralmash was diverse, interesting and eventful. The strategy of building a cultural policy in the "sotsgorod" Uralmash was aimed at ensuring the accessibility of theatrical art by all categories of citizens. Theaters, as social institutions, built their activities and repertoire policy, correlating them with the slogan of that time – "Art should belong to the people." The factory's multi-edition "For Heavy Engineering" played a significant role in this process. Being the only mass media, the newspaper formed the theatrical culture of Uralmash residents. The newspaper provided coverage of events related to theatrical activity in all their aspects. The analysis makes it possible to restore the undeservedly forgotten history of cultural formation processes during the emergence of the Soviet society

Panic at the Picture Show: Southern Movie Theatre Culture and the Struggle to Desegregate

This paper explores the complex desegregation process of movie theatres in the southern United States. Building off of historiography that investigates regulations of postwar teenage sexuality and recent scholarly work that acknowledges the link between sexuality and civil rights, I argue that movie theatres had a uniquely delayed desegregation process due to perceived sexual intrigue of the dark, private theatre space. Through analysis of drive-in and hardtop theatres, censorship of on-screen content, and youth involvement in desegregation, I contend that anxieties of interracial intimacy and unsupervised teenage sexuality produced this especially prolonged integration process.

“French element” in the Russian art culture of the mid XVIII century

The subject of this research is the reflection of Russian realities of the mid XVIII century in cultural sphere. The article touches upon the problem of cross-cultural communication between Russia and France in the XVIII century: the theme of “French presence” in the Russian art and theater culture of the first half and the middle of the XVIII century. The acquired results elucidate the characteristic features of the relations between French and Russian people during this period. The research was conducted with consideration of the unity of internal and external, subjective and objective factors within the framework of the cultural-historical process. The conclusions were made leaning on the analysis of the entire range of sources use and existing research traditions. The article reveals the contribution of the French representatives of art and culture while their stay in Russia, as well as describes the forms and manifestations of their activity that in prospect affected the image of Russia. The author believes that working at the Russian Court, the French representatives imposed the vision of their country on Russia, transforming the Russian images in the French spirit. The presented materials are valuable for the study of cross-cultural communication between Russia and France in the XVIII century. This article is important and relevant in the conditions of constantly developing cultural dialogue and determination of the new vectors of cooperation between the countries.

Эпический театр: культурные и культурологические параллели

The purpose of the article is to identify cultural and cultural parallels between the Yakut storytelling of the Olonkho and the theatrical cultures of the East and West. The work compares the cultural features of B. Brecht’s «epic theater», traditional Chinese theater and Yakut storytelling, which belong to different eras and cultures. Based on this analysis, the idea is put forward that Yakut storytelling can be considered as a model of epic theater, since it is inherent in the signs of the indicated theatrical system. This creates a new perspective in its study as a phenomenon of culture and allows to show the importance of Olonkho in the search for new communicative models in the form of theatrical art.

Имени Чехова. К тридцатилетию Международного театрального фестиваля

The Anton Chekhov International Theatre Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary. The festival was first held in the fall of 1992, and soon became one of world theatre culture’s greatest events. Its audience could see performances by legendary foreign theatres in the country’s main cities. Over the years of the festival’s existence, the spectators have seen over 600 performances from 54 countries. Viewers in Russia had the opportunity to witness the elite of the world stage engaged in the best performances created from recent decades in theatres of Europe, Asia, Africa, and both Americas. And it has been most significant to see that Russian theatre exists within the context of the processes happening in the world’s performing arts. From the first steps of its history, the Chekhov Festival has been organizing the tours of Russian theatre groups around the world. A few years after the Chekhov Festival started, international co-productions, created by Russian and foreign theatres, became a usual venue. Among them there were Oresteia by Peter Stein, Boris Godunov, Twelfth Night and The Tempestby Declan Donnellan. The Chekhov International Festival has an incredibly rich past, with an equally bountiful future awaiting. The basis of modern theatre is in its universality and capacity to unify people, which is the highest goal of theatre art.

The role of theater culture in the pedagogical discourse of the Smolny institute in the epoch of Empress Catherine II

The role of theater culture in the pedagogical discourse of the Smolny institute in the epoch of Empress Catherine II

A Letter from the Editors-in-Chief

A Letter from the Editors-in-Chief

ПСИХОЛОГІЯ ТВОРЧОСТІ АЛЄКСАНДРА ФРЕДРА: ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЯ ТВОРЧОГО ДИСКУРСУ, УКРАЇНСЬКА РЕЦЕПЦІЯ

The article studies reception of the work of Alexander Fredro, the comedy playwright in the Ukrainian Galician theater culture. the sources of his artistic development and, at the same time, the reasons that led to the completion of the publication of new works almost at the peak stage of his creative burning. Already in the first quarter of the 19th century, the dramaturgy of Alexander Fredro gradually turned Galicia into a center of Polish culture. The article ex- amines the peculiarities of the psychology of creativity, the transformation and creative development of the playwright: from children’s plays to juvenile obscene poetry during the Napoleonic Wars, and then to comedies. Fredro’s comedies are not a theater of characters, schematized and precisely outlined by the classicist cutter of stylistic devices. These figures go beyond the boundaries of schematism. Fredro moves away from presenting his characters as special human types, unambiguous in their weaknesses and passions. His char- acters are alive and complete – even in their pettiness, worthless passions and the neediness of their ideals and aspirations. All this makes them real. Together they create a great theater of the life of Galicia. S. Goszczyński really insisted: the cosmopolitanism of A. Fredro’s comedies can be seen from the fact that his heroes are not national characters: they are borrowed from French classical comedy and linguistically stylized according to French ease. He was the last prophet of Clas- sicism, who heralds the dawn of Romanticism, destroying the poetics of classicist comedy, laying bridges and paving new ways of development for comedy. The Ukrainian Galician theatre, which began to form somewhat later than the Polish theater in Galicia, was not interested in A. Fredro’s comedies. The most important reason for this is the huge gap between the mental and cultural spaces of the Poles and Ukrainians of Galicia. The world of Fredro’s comedies is often a timeless world of aristocratic courtyards and city residences, aristocratic families with their values, traditions and ideas of the noble people of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ РОЗВИТКУ ТЕАТРАЛЬНОГО МИСТЕЦТВА ПІВНІЧНОГО ПРИАЗОВ’Я В УМОВАХ ВОЄННОГО СТАНУ

The article outlines the activities of theater groups of the Northern Azov region after the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine. The author analyses the activity of both professional and amateur artistic groups of the Northern Azov Region. It is revealed that the only theater company that managed to resume its work almost in full in Ukraine is the Mariupol Theater of the Author's Play Conception. The paper describes the updated repertoire of the theater and highlights the main features of the company’s activities. It is emphasized that it was the Mariupol Theater of the Author's Play Conception that was able to unite Mariupol residents and revive theater culture in the territory controlled by Ukraine. It has been established that the People's Theater «Teatromania» from Mariupol has resumed its activities in the German city of Hanover. Young people from Ukraine as well as Ukrainian actors who are currently staying in Germany join the theatre. From now on, «Teatromania» successfully presents their performances not only to Ukrainian, but also to foreign audiences. Through each of the performances and their activity in general, the «Teatromania» company continue to support the development of the culture of Mariupol and Ukraine as a whole. The group has now been renamed the Theater Studio «Teatromania 2:0». At the same time, it has been found that today many theater actors of the Azov region have become collaborators and started working in the occupied cities. The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time in cultural studies, the peculiarities of the development of the theater art in the Northern Azov region under martial law have been highlighted. Key words: theater, Northern Azov region, Mariupol, theater art, war, occupation.

THEATRICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF V. I. TSVIETKOV IN THE FORMATION OF THE UKRAINIAN ACTOR AND DIRECTOR

Vsevolod Ivanovych Tsvietkov (1918–2011) belongs to the famous artists of Kharkiv region. His name is associated with an extremely fruitful period in the activities of the leading theatres and theatre universities, in particular, O. S. Pushkin Kharkiv Drama Theatre, Kharkiv Institute of Arts (now – I. P. Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts) and Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. V. I. Tsvietkov’s acting, directing and pedagogical activity dates back to 1937–2005, he acted as a teacher in the 1960s. The background of V. I. Tsvietkov’s pedagogical principles was, first of all, his own creative experience gained during acting and directing, theoretical and practical achievements of outstanding masters from the school of psychological theatre (K. Stanislavsky, V. Petrov, A. Kramov, F. Shishigin, G. Tovstonohov). In the critical heritage dedicated to V. Tsvietkov, the problems of the stage originality and pedagogical creativity based on the specifics of his directorial views, are revealed only fragmentary (Sedunova, 2005; Kolchanova, 2015; Botunova, 2017). The stage and pedagogical activity of the artist has not yet become the subject of in-depth scientific research, so this article is the first attempt in this direction. The author of the article sets the purpose to systematize, generalize, supplement and expand information about the work of V. Tsvietkov and his principles of educating acting and directing youth, with the aim to reproduce his image of an actor, musician, director, and theatre teacher, addressing, first of all, to personal archival materials and previous works. V. Tsvietkov’s scenic searches are rooted in the creative discoveries of outstanding masters of Ukrainian and foreign theatre of the XX and the beginning of the XXI century, his “personal” page of aesthetic, professional, methodological research in the field of acting and directing, which are organically continued in theatrical pedagogy. The main part of the article examines the stages of formation and creative activity of V. Tsvietkov as an actor, director and theatre teacher. Summed up, that V. Tsvietkov, a talented director who was long seeking his way in directing theatre and cinema, methods of upbringing the actor, and finally found it, basing on the pedagogical discoveries of K. S. Stanislavsky, staged 80 plays, brought up a whole galaxy of Ukrainian actors, directors, theatre teachers, who nowadays successfully work in national theatres and abroad. Based on the analysis of the creative and pedagogical work of V. Tsvietkov, his contribution to the formation and development of the Ukrainian theatre school is determined. The artist successfully embodied the traditions of K. Stanislavsky and heuristic discoveries in the psychology of creativity in his directing and pedagogical method. Not least important for V. Tsvietkov’s creative method was the experience of joint pedagogical work with the luminaries of the Ukrainian theatre, who passed the school of Les Kurbas on educating a “synthetic actor”. V. Tsvietkov’s multifaceted scenic and pedagogical activity, which unfolded in 1937–2005, significantly expanded creative possibilities of acting and directing, and became an integral part of domestic theatrical culture.

CVM을 활용한 연극 스트리밍 플랫폼의 가치추정: 디지털 활용 역량이 지불의사에 미치는 영향을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic value of the ''theater streaming platform'' form of online concerts to preserve the theater culture using the contingent valuation method (CVM). This study attempted to analyze the effect of digital skills on the willingness to pay for the establishment of a ''theater streaming platform''. A dichotomous choice and two-step approach were used to reduce exaggeration bias that could occur in CVM. As a result of the study, the higher the digital skills, the higher the willingness to pay for the establishment of a ''theater streaming platform'', and the economic value was estimated at 8,245 won per person. The results of this study will suggest that in the case of online performances held via the internet and mobile environment, consideration of the user''s digital divide should precede the system construction process.

The scene as a space for artistic searches of the director-author. Part 1. Rainer Werner Fassbinder: stage-screen experiments

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems of creativity of directors who have realized their artistic potential both in auteur cinema and in the space of the stage and to determine scientific guidelines that will contribute to a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of the filmmaker in the performing arts. Research methodology. Methods of scientific analysis, comparison, generalization, self-analysis of the artist were used in the elaboration of the theme. In addition, analytical and systematic methods were applied in their unity, which is necessary to study the art aspect of the problem. The scientific novelty of the study is to determine the universality of directing as a specific kind of artistic and aesthetic activity; in clarifying the interaction of performing and screen arts in the use of expressive means; in determining the features of the filmmaker's activity in the stage space through the adaptation of screen means in theatrical productions, which first became the subject of a special study; in the coverage, the activities of directors-authors who resorted to reforming the language of language and the language of stage production; in identifying the original principles of filmmaking and specific means of cinematic expression, which not only found a direct embodiment in films and contributed to the emergence of outstanding authorial films but also had a significant impact on the author's theatrical direction, which sought to visualize stage images. Conclusions. It is proved that the stage work of filmmakers-authors calls into question the theoretical postulates about the perniciousness of the intrusion of theater culture into screen works. It has been found that pictorial and expressive means provide a chronology of image creation (long shots, in-frame editing, acoustic, light, and shadow effects), the use of which in cinema is considered a high degree of skill, have their origins in the performing arts. Keywords: director-author, stage space, directing means, theater, screen.

Intercultural Polylogist of Modern Acting Training

The article examines the features of intercultural polylogue of modern acting training; identified and analyzed ways to unleash the potential of cultural diversity of theatrical, physical and spiritual practices, as well as identified strategies for the most effective exchange of methods and techniques of training actors between different cultural groups. It is revealed that modern world theatrical culture is characterized by increasing interest in methods of acting training, which, despite their diversity, combines not only the idea of the importance of the actor's training method and the need to develop his psychophysical apparatus, but also specific principles of training as a unique research method. helps to achieve a harmonious interaction of soul and body. Modern acting training in many countries is becoming increasingly intercultural: crossing borders, intercultural exchange in modern theatrical practice and the growing interculturality of the actor mean that at the present stage acting training is determined by many ways of learning and different worldviews. It is stated that the intercultural polylogue in the globalization period is becoming more intense, due to the rapid development of information technology, and this, in particular, applies to modern acting training. The phenomenon of acting training is that, differing in its unique intercultural principles, it becomes a kind of point of intersection, which marks a qualitatively new era in theatrical culture. It was found that the result of intercultural polylogue of different methods and techniques of acting skills was the formation of a unique approach to training as the most important condition of the creative process in the context of understanding the value system of another culture, the development of universal values

Dal mimo, al butō, alla scena queer

Dancer, mime, performer. Stefano Taiuti is a Roman artist who since the end of the eighties has investigated, crossed and mixed body expression techniques by intertwining the principles of modern Western and Eastern theatrical cultures. By experimenting its presence in the halls of small theaters and in the crowded spaces of the clubs of the major European capitals, in video performance expe-riments and site-specific installations, Taiuti has made his body the very place of the event, making it fluid and traversable by forms and genres. The contribution traces his path from butō dance to the Berlin queer scene where he currently carries out his creative research, identifying the legacy of his masters and the originality of his performative language.

Il ponte e lo specchio

Starting point of the article’s thesis is the author's personal experience of theatrical practice and contact with other theatrical cultures, especially in Asia and, even more, in Japan. Aim of the text is to analyse the reasons for the mutual fascination between typically Western theatrical forms and practices, such as what is generically defined as Commedia dell'Arte and others that, equally generically, are defined as Oriental Theatres. This attraction has origins (even if subconscious) that are not only theatrical but rather cultural, or even better, related to cultural visions. The image of the Commedia dell’Arte - a tradition re-invented in the course of the 20th century and made mythical in the collective imagination by the theatrical avant-gardes in the perspective of a profound renewal of European theatre - corresponds to a vision of a generic Theatre of the East, repository of a sort of imaginary purity that has remained uncontaminated and unchanged over the centuries - the so-called living traditions. These theatrical visions are, in turn, the result of the construction of induced cultural identities, of distorted visions of the Other. They are thus part of a cultural imagology that rests on the sedimentation of ideological constructs ranging from mythopoiesis to exoticism, and even corresponds to an induced vision of identity of Japan and Italy. Finally, by returning the discussion to a purely artistic sphere, the importance of the dynamics leading to the hybridisation of languages is assessed, a fertile ground for the connection and construction of cultural bridges and a heuristic practice, moreover, typical of the Commedia dell'Arte, as it made hybridisation its essence, modulating and regenerating itself in European theatres, and not only, from the 16th century onwards.

Specifics of interpretation of traditional eastern practices in European acting training

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of adaptation of oriental theatrical, physical, and spiritual practices by representatives of the European theater in the process of developing methods of actor training based on the analysis of acting training of leading directors of the twentieth century. - K. Stanislavsky, E. Grotovsky, E. Barba. Methodology. A typological method was used (to determine the specifics of acting training methods by K. Stanislavsky, E. Grotovsky, and E. Barba; interpretive method and method of comparative analysis (to identify common and different aspects of interpretation of Eastern practices by European directors); phenomenological method (to identify features of Eastern and spiritual practices and their adaptation to acting training), etc. Scientific novelty The specifics of borrowing and interpretation of traditional in East, Southeast, and Central Asia elements of actor training by Russian and European theater directors of the twentieth century are considered. K. Stanislavsky, E. Grotovsky, and E. Barba and revealed the peculiarities of adaptation by theater directors and teachers of elements of hatha yoga and Raja Yoga in accordance with their own understanding of the purpose of training in the art of acting. Conclusions. Various elements of traditional Western and Eastern cultural practices have been the focus of twentieth-century theater directors. in the process of developing innovative methods and techniques of educating the actor. Their research of local theatrical cultures contributed to the search for universal laws of stage conventionality, new acting methods of self-knowledge, and the disclosure of their own creative potential. In their own search for methods of educating the actor theater directors of the twentieth century. turn to the Eastern worldview, because the extraordinary method and a special view of the nature of consciousness and its functioning in the world contributes to the creation of training to solve a number of applied problems in the context of the specifics of acting. Translating material (Eastern practices) into a Western conceptual structure or any kind of synthesis of Eastern and Western concepts, simplifying, does not reveal the full depth of Eastern practices and religious orientations, but contributes to the actor's mastery of innovative methodological approaches, including intuitive insights, contemplation, contemplation. etc.

Carmen M. K. Gitre. Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1869–1930.

C<scp>armen</scp> M. K. G<scp>itre</scp>. <i>Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1869–1930</i>.

Bootlegs over Broadway: musical theatre (re)productions, digital circulation, and the informal media economy

In recent years, the longstanding practice of producing and circulating bootleg recordings of Broadway musicals has escalated as have condemnations of this activity as detrimental to the commercial theatre industry. Drawing on work from media industry studies, this article reframes theatre bootlegging not as a detrimental practice, but as one that may have generative contributions to the theatre industry for its promotional effects. Rather than celebrating such efforts as wholly resistant or co-opted, however, we must understand bootlegging as essentially fraught, staging the inherent tension between the Broadway musical as art and commerce and blurring the distinction between producers and consumers. Critical attention to theatrical bootlegging as a social and cultural practice foregrounds the range of stakeholders in theatre culture as well as the myriad ways that they function as market actors.