Theatrical Genre Research Articles

Xiaomei Chen. Performing the Socialist State: Modern Chinese Theater and Film Culture

This book presents a nuanced, revisionist exploration of the development of modern and contemporary Chinese theatre and related arts, challenging the conventional demarcations between Republican, high socialist, and post-socialist periods. It discloses subtle entanglements in theatre theory and practice, underscoring the persistent approaches to aesthetics and politics across eras and theatrical genres.

From ‘musique concrète’ and Acousmatic Art to the ‘New Music Theater’. The Austrian Composer Dieter Kaufmann

This article follows the way the Austrian composer Dieter Kaufmann has gone with his conceptions taken from musical and extra-musical domains, as literature, visual arts, religion and politics, describing some of his theatrical works. For him the function of music is to improve the society and therefore his works are a critic to politics or to religion. Having studied in Paris by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, François Bayle and René Leibowitz, he contributed to the development of the electronic music in Austria with his creation and his teaching of electroacoustic composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He went further than the Parisian ‘musique concrète’, which worked with sound objects, and consciously selected and worked with objects of sound ambient in order to manage the sound environment, to musically shape it. The acousmatic art deals with sound objects, which are recorded and projected in another space, the theatre scene being an ideal space of it. A large part of his works are included in the genre of New Music Theater of the 20th and 21st century, where sound (tone and word) and movement come together, each of them having the same weight. Keywords: musique concrète, sound object, acousmatic art, multimedia, electroacoustic composition

Aesthetic Grounds and Practice of Screen Adaptations of Theatrical Productions in the Light of Film and Television Language in the 1970s

The aesthetic grounds and methods of screen adaptation of theatrical performances in the context of film and television art in the USSR in the 1970s are investigated in the article as well as the influence of film and television technologies on the theatrical genre, the peculiarities of the adaptation of stage performances to the cinematographic and television environment. Attention is also paid to the revealing the peculiarities of cinematographic art as a synthetic phenomenon and its interaction with the theatrical tradition. These issues are considered in the context of the cultural and political realities of the USSR of that period, highlighting the relationship between aesthetic searches and ideological attitudes of the era. In general, a deep and systematic understanding of the process of film adaptation of theatrical performances within the framework of Soviet cinema and television art of the 1970s is submitted in the article. Since the films of this period become a time of development of existential problems of human life. The typical life of a Soviet person recedes into the background, instead, the basis of the plot becomes the search for peace of the soul, its urges for freedom, which usually unfolds against the background of something insignificant. Unlike the adaptations of literary works, when ”current ideological content” is imposed on classical original sources, adaptations of the best plays of leading Ukrainian theaters have offered perfect art, introduced a wide audience to the achievements of stage masters. But the screen adaptation of the performance is a fixation of one staging, which, of course, is shown unchanged on movie screens. The play cannot remain as it is conceived from the very beginning, and therefore gradually it has started to transform itself according to the requirements of television. However, such transformations are not always successful either. This is the beginning of the creation of a kind of the average genre between cinema and theater, which wished for better, because the aesthetic content of such a specific genre has remained opened.

The semantics of language in Eugène Ionesco’s plays

The goal of this paper is to present the characteristics of Eugène Ionesco’s dramatic texts, a reason why the genre of avant-garde and theatre of the absurd are also considered, with a view to revealing their major ways of functioning. By pointing out the different dimensions of dramatic language, the emphasis is on those elements that differ from current oral and written language. Starting from the times of decadentism, a crisis of character can be noted in the theater around a type of individual who, as an alienated individual, cannot find his identity in a hostile surrounding world. One of the direct consequences of this crisis will be the impossibility of interpersonal communication, which will be best demonstrated with the concept and tenets of the theater of the absurd. In this context, the study of the theater of the 20th century is done from the perspective of cognitive semantics, as an autonomous level of language. The approach is organised around two notions: dramatic conventions and the actual language of the dramatic texts. The interpretative theory rooted in semantics is applied while analysing Ionesco’s short plays. The starting point is the linguistics of the text as described by Eugen Coşeriu. Capturing the meaning and the means by which it is constructed is one of the objectives in accord with the main principles of cognitive linguistics. The way of analysing the meaning in a text is given by the presence of some textual functions, as possibilities provided by language through relationships that the linguistic sign establishes in the discursive act. The specificity of the discourse comes from the combination of verbal and non-verbal elements, in order to highlight the playwright’s original style. The particularities of this type of language based on an ontological representation of the actional nature in human existence are also investigated. There are two dimensions recognisable in the language of literature: one is specific to the genre and the other one is particular, giving originality and uniqueness. The textual meaning in between these dimensions needs to be reconstructed from all their constituents identifiable at different levels of analysis. Ionesco distanced himself from the conventional and traditional theatre, finding a new formula for the dramatic genre in his own vision of what drama should be like. Ionesco’s dramatic work includes short plays and extensive plays in which the author expresses his adversity against totalitarian regimes. He is the representative of the theater of the absurd and anti-theater. The corpus for this research is composed mainly of the plays The Bald Soprano, The Lesson and The Chairs, the most representative plays for the avant-garde spirit, short plays on the theme of language emptied of meaning and non-communication. Language has an impact on thinking and the resulting actions, which relates it to the ontology of human existence. As dramatic language is preponderently structured on dialogical interactions (and less on monologues, soliloquies and asides), its essence can be revealed by decomposing and recomposing them, from the angle of the conventions specific to the dramatic genre. The analysis of the selected fragments from the corpus has the role to highlight their semantic features in terms of conceptual representations.

Мадридские комики и их влияние на испанскую культуру 60-80-х гг. XIX века

The paper examines the significance of the group of comedians led by F. Arderíus (Los bufos madrileños) for Spanish culture in the second half of the 19th century and the formation of a new type of the zarzuela as a genre of musical theater. The scientific novelty lies in the formulation of the research aim and research tasks within domestic science, as there is no single source on the topic in Russian-language literature. The author aims to generalize the contribution of the comedians to the development of the Spanish buffoonery genre. As a result of the research, it becomes possible to trace the evolution of the genre on Spanish soil and conclude that there is a significant resemblance to the “small zarzuela”. The popularity of the comedians’ performances contributed to the rapid flourishing of the chico genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

La reescritura en la obra de Joaquín Dicenta: el proceso genesíaco de Encarnación (1913)

Part of Joaquín Dicenta’s large literary production is currently overlooked in Spanish literary history, despite being one of the most unique figures of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century period. He is primarily remembered for his prolific journalistic work and for introducing social drama to Spain—a theatrical genre cultivated by European playwrights at the time. This paper aims to shed light on an aspect of Dicenta that has been relatively neglected by scholars: the genesis of his novel Encarnación (1913). In composing this book, the author appears to have merged stories from Spoliarium (1888) and certain passages from Idos y Muertos (1909), both inspired by biographical events. I focus on several aspects, including the textual transmission of Encarnación, the underlying process of rewriting, the biographical episodes that inspired the novel, and the similarities and differences with the other two works with which it has been linked.

Interface Theatre: Watching Ourselves Disappear

We propose, in this essay, a new theatrical genre we term interface theatre and examine three theatrical works from the past ten years that exemplify the form: Big Art Group’s Opacity (2017), 31Down’s DataPurge (2015/2016), and Marike Splint’s You Are Here (2020). These pieces, and others like them, depict, and critically reflect upon, a world pervasively mediated by interfaces: the apps, social media platforms, and device operating systems that screen so much of our everyday experience and personal communication and distil them to data, both for our own self-tracking and for the scrutiny of corporations and state surveillance. All three works act as transducers: they create theatrical microcosms of the processes by which human life gets transformed into data, allowing spectators to momentarily assume the perspectives of a surveilling algorithm. We offer the term interface theatre as a means of adding nuance and texture to current discourses about theatre in the digital world, which can encompass so many different forms, practices, and politics that greater specificity is required. Equally importantly, we argue, works of interface theatre make a strong case for the necessity for the theatrical form itself as a medium through which to grapple with the role of interfaces in social and political life writ large.

How Culture Was Planned: Shanghai’s Troupe-Relocation Project in the 1950s

Abstract: This article examines Shanghai’s troupe-relocation project in the second half of the 1950s. I argue that this project, by its nature, represented the way of resource allocation in a “planned culture” system, in which the state sought to replace the market and dominate the allocation of cultural resources. Popular culture hence was to be transformed from a market-based business into a section of the “planned culture” system under the Party-state. In the “planned culture” system, Shanghai’s troupe-relocation project, on the one hand, was aiming at providing cultural facilities for the inland industrial cities under construction and state welfare for the working class; on the other hand, it was beneficial for balancing the supply and demand in the local theatre market. Since yueju (yue opera), a local theatrical genre performed in the Shaoxing dialect, played a significant role in the troupe-relocation project, this article focuses on the stories of two yueju troupes, Xinxin and Chunguang. Migrating from Shanghai to northwestern industrial cities during the First Five-Year Plan (1953–1957), their considerations and reactions to political mobilization, their lives in new environments, and their destiny in the post-Mao era reflected the connection between the “planned culture” and planned economy, as well as the interplay between state planning and the cultural market. Their stories expose the inherent flaws of the “planned culture” system: First, it was undeniable that the economic cost of the “planned culture” was enormous. Second, administrative orders made resource allocation inefficient and inflexible .

Between a Fairy Play and an Opera: Razryv-trava (Rip-grass) by Evgeny Goslavsky and Alexander Schaefer at the Maly Theater (1901)

The production of Evgeny Goslavsky’s magic fairy tale carried out by Aleksandr Lensky with his students and colleagues in his repertory company of the Maly Theater presented a producer’s experiment, a combination of varieties of several theatrical genres within the limits of one performance. The narrative of the play was based on the fantastic motives of folkloristic epos, which required the use of the typical means of a 19th century stage fairy play. On the other hand, the storyline and the language appealed to a poetic style of symbolist and pre-expressionist dramaturgy in the context of which the customary visual effects and machinery appeared as naïve archaic effects. Great expectations in the sphere of synthesis were exerted on Alexander Nikolayevich Schaefer, a composer who was specially invited to St. Petersburg, a graduate of the Conservatory, a chapel master of the Panayev Theater, who had already composed two of his own operas. The complexity of the musical task was in the subservience of the work to the producer’s artistic vision, simultaneously with the application of a maximal amount of professional equipment. What was especially helpful, in the first place, was a knowledge of the fairytale musical scores of Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov and, moreover, the ability to adapt to the modest means of the theater’s orchestra. The musical score preserved at the Russian National Museum of Music is variegated in terms of the instrumentation in each of the numbers and is not devoid of imitative qualities. While marking the musical potentials of the play and the production, the reviewers expressed their disappointment regarding the insufficient amount of freedom granted to the composer. Nonetheless, it could hardly have been otherwise. The failure of Razryv-trava [Rip-grass] symbolically marked the instance of a farewell to the old theatrical style and its harsh constraints of genre; the measure of the admissible freedom for the composer, the boundary beyond which the “performance with music” becomes closely interlocked with opera and ballet have yet to be ascertained.

О НАИБОЛЕЕ РАННИХ ЖАНРОВЫХ ПРИЗНАКАХ КОМЕДИИ

The system of classical theatre genres is very well studied, but still, it needs more research so that scholars were able to solve some theoretical problems, to reach certain clarity in the interpretation of its primary philosophical reasons and to interpret specific problems of ancient theatre practice. In the article it is suggested to return to primary principles of the system of classical genres and restore questions which need more efforts from researchers. One of such questions concerns the fundamental reasons of the division of genres in two: tragedy and comedy. The author studies the ethical motivation of such division that was used in treatises by Plato and Aristotle. The essense of the ethical division in two is rather simple: people are divided in “spoydaioi” (decent, good) and “phayloi” (vicious, bad). Another division used by Aristotle is based on the idea of three kinds of people as three different objects for mimesis: people “same as us”, “better than us” and “worse than us”. These two divisions being applied to theatre cause a series of controversies and, at the same time, draw a perspective for future research to be taken to reach a new grade of clarity and distinctness in the understanding of ancient fundamental ideas. One of the problems to be newly studied too concerns the ancient roots for a so called “middle genre” which is to be found in most theories of drama since the Renaissance.

Can the village speak? Leftist Assignment Theater and documentary theater in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This essay examines the genre of documentary theater with a particular focus on environment issues by the theater group “Assignment Theater” (chaishi juchang). Chung Chiao, the founding leader of Assignment Theater, was inspired by Taiwanese leftist writer Chen Ying-zhen and began his collaboration with People’s theater groups in many Asian countries since the 1990s post-Cold war period. Chung investigates histories, social issues and current circumstances through testimonial performances and documentary dramas with villagers, aiming to develop esthetic and critical reflections on social and cultural issues. In 2016, Chung directed and produced a work of documentary theater entitled Return to Hometown: A Story of Taixi Village by focusing on how villagers were suffering from severe air pollution, marginalization, and the complexity of their experiences since the launch of the Formosa Plastics Corp’s (FPC) sixth naphtha cracker complex in 1998. The essay starts with a critical question raised by Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak” in the hope of re-locating the question in Return to Hometown. It continues to explore how Assignment Theater positions itself in the historical context of the leftist movement in post-war Taiwan by paying attention to the people. By re-examining the above, the essay discusses the ways in which environmental discourses, the village people, documentary theater, and the imagined subject of Taiwan nationality, etc. are interwoven.

Peculiarities of the mutual influence of Italian and Chinese musical theater tradition in historical development

Statement of the problem. Despite the fact that the musical is one of the leading theatrical genres of American musical culture, no attempt has yet been made to identify its invariant parameters. The purpose of the study is to determine the main features of the genre invariant of the musical and its interpretation in the musical “Wicked” by S. Schwartz. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time S. Schwartz’s musical “Wicked” is considered from the point of view of embodying the features of the genre invariant. The follows methods were used in the study: structural and functional analysis, which helps to reveal the main components that make up the musical genre; genre-stylistic analysis – aimed at identifying a genre invariant; comparative analysis to juxtapose the features of the libretto and compositional and dramaturgical principles of the musical “Wicked” with the structure of the genre invariant. Research results. Based on the overview of the researches, we consider such invariant traits of the musical genre as: 1) a two-act structure with a more detailed first act and a shorter second act, because that the second act is aimed at the resolution and contains much less new material; 2)the presence of three key dramaturgical nodes – the finale of the first act, which brings with it a plot twist (or the development of the main character line), which should bring the audience back after the intermission; 3) the thematic unity of the musical, which is provided by repetitions of large musical fragments or whole numbers, which we propose to call the reprise system; 4) thematic unity at the micro level, which is ensured by the use of cross-cutting themes and leitmotifs; 5) the leading role of the duet as the main compositional

Visual Perception of Sound Images in Piano and Orchestral Music of "Vii" by Ukrainian Composers

The purpose of the article is to analyse the visual perception of sound images in the piano and orchestral music “Vii” by Ukrainian composers (I. Aleksiychuk, M. Verykovskyi, V. Hubarenko, A. Rodin, S. Yarunskyi). The research methodology is based on the use of the following methods: analytical – to analyse the piano music using logical abstractions in the study of R. Arnheim’s works; historical – to draw parallels with different incarnations of “Vii's” sound images; generalising – to update and specify the basic information about piano and orchestral music “Vii”. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the analysis of piano and orchestral music “Vii” by Ukrainian composers from the point of view of visual perception of sound images is conducted for the first time. Conclusions. Based on R. Arnheim's definitions of visual perception from the point of view of psychology of creativity, piano suite based on the novel “Viy” by Iryna Aleksiichuk is analysed in comparison with other works of the same name: M. Verykivskyi, V. Hubarenko, O. Rodin, S. Yarunskyi. The use of fragmentary musicological and comparative analysis allowed us to state that composers' decisions in embodying the images of Gogol's novel "Viy" depend on time (M. Verykivskyi, V. Hubarenko) and creative comprehension, previous experience, and means of musical expression. The idea of Gogol's story is embodied in all works under this title in a similar way. Therefore, the visual perception of the audience is guided by the title of the source and the motifs, and the interpretation of the images depends on the experience of the recipients. The plot of the story in the musical and theatrical genres (M. Verykivskyi, V.Hubarenko) fits quite clearly into the libretto. In the ballet by O. Rodin – R. Poklitaru, the events are transferred to a timeless space. S. Yarunskyi's mystery-buff recounts the events of the story and synthesises the music and video sequences of the film of the same name (1967). The means of musical expression used to present images based on Gogol's story in different genres are quite similar. I. Aleksiychuk's suite is dominated by dissonant melodic and harmonic complexes. The titles of the pieces suggest that Gogol's story is reproduced in the sequence of the original source. Musical works by Rodin and S. Yarunskyi show similarity in the use of dissonant means of expression. Since M. Verykivskyi’s work is represented exclusively by the aria of Pannochka, the melodic and harmonic constructions here are classical-romantic. V. Hubarenko's opera-ballet is a unique combination of genres and embodiment of images: realistic ones in the opera numbers, mystical and fantastic ones in the ballet. Key words: piano music, orchestral music, academic musical art, psychology of visual perception in the works of R. Arnheim, programme music, ensemble performance, Vii, sound image, Ukrainian composers.

Correspondence of Linguistic Content and Creative Narratives of Composer Yuriy Shevchenko

The purpose of the article is to determine the correspondence between the linguistic content and creative narratives of the contemporary Ukrainian composer Yuriy Shevchenko, taking into account the general intentions in music as an emotional mood. It also aims to investigate the linguistic content of the composer expressed in interviews in close connection with the reading of the artistic intent of the composer's work. The research methodology is related to the study of human thinking, the consideration of narrative as a certain discursive structure that is formed on the basis of a person's own experience, and is presented by systematic and comparative approaches that help to determine the specifics of certain compositional structures in music in comparison with the author's approach to his own creativity in the linguistic content of the interview. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the disclosure of narratives in the author’s music, taking into account the composer's thinking, his feelings and socio-cultural influences on his work, for example, in the author's appeal to fairy-tale "worlds" as a sign-sound space. Conclusions. The existence of social contradictions leads to the emergence of the idea of "pure classics" among composers and is expressed in the appeal to symbolic attitudes through the synthetic genres of theatre, opera, ballet, and musical. The narratives of new thinking are also expressed in the composer's frank interviews, as opposed to the music itself, in which these directions are expressed in a veiled playful form. Key words: linguistic content, creative narratives, intentions in music, symbolic settings, synthetic genres.

Contentious Politics, State Repression and Civil Dissidence: The Discourse of Resistance in Utpal Dutt’s Nightmare City

In the Post-Independence era, the prolific playwrights of India started using the aesthetic form of theater to contest authoritarian structures, and to voice their anti-establishment dissent. Utpal Dutt, a pioneering figure in Modern Indian Theater, used the medium of drama for propaganda and political conscientization of the oppressed. The indefatigable thespian contributed significantly towards the formation of modern Bengali theater, as his plays voiced his intransigent protest against the authoritarian government and concurrently, showed his impressive experimentation with different dramatic techniques, theatrical devices and theatrical genres. Dutt’s anti-establishment play, Nightmare City presents a fastidious account of the turbulent years of late-1960s and early-1970s Bengal gripped by Naxalite violence and police brutalism. Set against the backdrop of Naxalite insurgency, the play savagely exposes the ideological hypocrisy of the autocratic government leaders of the time and their violent hooliganism. However, the playwright, in sync with his earlier plays, has not only portrayed the tumultuous socio-political ambiance of the 70s Calcutta, but has also constructed a soul-shattering voice of resistance to the political oppressions perpetuated by the state apparatuses. The objective of this paper is to study the revolutionary propaganda of Dutt and redefine his concept of “political theater” with special reference to his intricately structured political satire, Nightmare City.

ANALYSIS OF RECORDED VIDEO THEATER PR ACTICE: FRIEND, BY IRINA KOUBERSKAYA

The article outlines a system of analysis of the theater prac-tice in situations of reconstruction. The repercussions of the absence of communicative interaction in the reception of the viewer are argued, especially as a result of the Corona virus and the global health crisis. It starts from the awareness that theater artists are in a constantly chang-ing world that brings with it specific demands to know what is really done on stage. Some analytical possibilities that open up with the audio-visual record of the theater are shown, comparing the cinematographic and theatrical genres, expanding the context of the research work to various hybrid audiovisual subgenres such as the trailer or the theatrical tea ser.For the analysis of the video recorded stage show Amiga, produced by Irina Kouberskaya at her Theater Company, Tribueñe, we first pro-ceed in general terms, explaining how the practice could be broken down into manageable and, in turn, relevant segments. Afterwards, the most typical theatrical activities in the staging are analyzed. Finally, we reflect on the preliminary usefulness of these explorations and the knowledge resulting from their application. The reality of the film re-cord studied shows that the applicability of video as documentation of theatrical praxis is subject to multiple intervening variables.

Omnivorous cultural consumption and the co-creation of cultural products: Interactive versus participatory art

How do omnivorous consumers perceive co-creation in cultural consumption? In this article, we combine observation data on co-created cultural productions, focus groups and field interviews to investigate omnivorous consumers’ perceptions of artistic experiences characterized by different degrees of co-creation. We explored this topic in the context of co-creative theatre, an emergent theatrical genre that provides for the active involvement of omnivorous consumers in the staging of a theatrical performance. Our findings reveal new dimensions of what it means for omnivorous consumers to be culturally open by showing their perceptions of interactive and participatory art, two distinct co-creative artistic experiences. While interactive art encourages consumers to intervene in the artistic experience by following the precise direction of the professional artists on stage, participatory art entails an even more active and autonomous role of consumers in the design of the experience. Our findings indicate that there are differences between the way in which consumers perceive interactive art and participatory art and that two distinct dimensions of cultural consumption – novelty and authenticity – emerge from different co-creative dynamics. The observed co-creation experiences portray the transformation of the omnivorous consumers from spectators or visitors to co-authors of the experience and mark the dissolution of the existing boundaries between production and consumption.

COVID-19 Symptom Reporting Compliance Rates Among University Performing Arts Majors.

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the performing arts sector by temporarily closing venues. As venues reopened, COVID-19 symptom self-reporting and monitoring were one tool to identify potentially symptomatic cast and crew, who would then undergo contact tracing, testing, or isolation to prevent spreading COVID-19. However, the compliance rates for submitting a COVID-19 self-monitoring checklist among undergraduate performing art majors remain unknown. This retrospective medical chart review investigated 282 cast and crew (68 males and 214 females) regarding their daily COVID-19 symptom report documents across the genres of dance, musical theater, and vocal performance throughout the production runs of 11 performances at a midwestern United States university's integrated performing arts campus. Compliance regarding the completion of the COVID-19 symptom checklist was compared between gender identity, performance semester, and performance type throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. There was no statistically significant difference on masking compliance when comparing males (mean 73.6%) and females (73.8%). The completion of the symptom self-reporting during the fall 2020 semester was statistically significantly higher than in the spring 2021 semester (F = 6.065, t = 4.485, df = 229.661, p = 0.014, d = 0.52). Additionally, those participating in musical theater were more compliant than those in vocal performance (F(2,280) = 4.410, p = 0.013, d = 0.031). There was no statistically significant difference between dance and musical theater or vocal performance and dance genres regarding overall compliance. These findings can help understand the groups of performing artists who would comply with the public health measure of completing a daily symptom checklist for COVID-19 or similar communicable diseases.

About new stage genres in the music of the second half XX century

New musical and theatrical genres that demonstrate post-non-classical musical thinking are considered. The most common are happening, performance and instrumental theater. Genres are considered differently by V. Petrov, M. Pereverzeva, Yu. Gnirenko and M. Katunyan, but, however, without disclosing their ontology and logical basis. The main distinguishing features of the new stage forms are the openness of the structure, the creative function of the performers and temporal unlimitedness, which indicates the rhizome and rhizome thinking of the composers. It is proposed to consider the new musical and theatrical realities as non-linear, in particular dissipative, based on a non-linear type of determinism – self-determinism. On its basis, a rational construct is established in the form of self-organization (performer), or performing will, which provide the musical material with the quality of integrity. Alternative musical theater is another form of new musical stage genres that have emerged in the post-non-classical era, or in the post-modern era. It is presented by alternative opera and alternative ballet, which establish the aesthetics of consonance, antimimesis and display (instead of experience), as well as the multivariant implementation of the musical and theatrical concept (concert, theater stage, etc.). The works of the American composer D. Cage, the Russian composer V. Martynov, the Belarusian composers V. Kuznetsov, L. Simakovich, A. Korotkina were selected as analytical material.

The ERC PuppetPlaysproject: contribution for a non-linear history of the European theatre.

This article is a presentation of the ERC Advanced Grant project PuppetPlays - Reappraising Western European Repertoires for Puppet and Marionette Theatre (GA 835193). After a short overview of the project itself, it begins with a definition of puppetry, based on the phenomenon of double vision. Then it explains the choice of the corpus limitations, describes the variety of the available resources, and underlines the great discrepancy in the amount of material available in the different countries. The article continues with a brief overview of the role played by puppetry in the wider frame of performing arts: how much can we consider that puppeteers developed specific repertoires? What kind of differences can be observed between puppet or marionette theatre and actors' theatre? The answers to these questions differ in a considerable way according to the cultural and sociological contexts: sometimes puppet and marionette theatre were the only forms of performance allowed, and they acted as substitutes for actors theatre; but sometimes also - and this is increasingly the case since the end of the 19th century - these instruments were chosen for their specific expressive qualities. In a last movement, I emphasize that collecting and analyzing puppet and marionette repertoires brings us to reconsider the general historiography of theatre: firstly, because we bring into the light theatrical genres that have been neglected by the historians; and secondly, because the plays written by the puppeteers, when we look closely at them, reveal a stratification of different layers that can be considered as a kind of heterochrony; an alternative construction to social time. The forgotten patrimony of puppet and marionette dramaturgy conceals therefore many possibilities for research in humanities and social sciences.