Modern Theatre Research Articles

Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception by George Oppitz-Trotman

Reviewed by: Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception by George Oppitz-Trotman Matteo Pangallo Stages of Loss: The English Comedians and Their Reception. By George Oppitz-Trotman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. xv + 310. $90.00. Stages of Loss explores the English players who toured to German-speaking countries from the 1590s through the 1620s and "the circumstances that have shaped their reception within a larger history of European theatre" (9). The book is thus less a study of English players and their journeys and more a study of the cultural, political, and economic contexts of the countries through which they travelled, as well as a highly charged assessment of how theater history scholarship has engaged with those activities. As George Oppitz-Trotman puts it, the goal of his book is "to understand the role of these playing companies in the development of national theatres in Germany [and] their importance to a European theatre history" (10). The stories it relates, then, as well as the archives it opens and the scholarship it draws upon, are largely German. Given the substantial preexisting scholarship on English players who toured the Continent, it is surprising to encounter the assertion at the start of this book that "English theatre scholarship" on these troupes is so "meagre" that "the travelling players may as well have passed from life in passing across the Channel" (9). Scholars with whom Oppitz-Trotman disagrees are "culprits" (56), and their arguments (which are no less speculative than many advanced in Stages of Loss) dismissed as "vague" and "delicate" (66), "more than conjectural" (171), and "too eager" (201). Singled out for particular scorn is scholarship that delves into the archives to recover primary evidence—work Oppitz-Trotman characterizes as "always confusing" and that has "greatly distracted from more salient questions" by engaging in "largely fruitless quibbles" (14, 21). It is disconcerting to see such important work denigrated as "scrappy and knotty," merely "secondary stuff" to the "larger tapestry" that this book seeks to weave, or, in unconscionably dismissive terms, "exceptionally bad" (10–11, 76). As the fabric metaphor indicates, without such "stuff," no tapestry can be woven; it is not "secondary" but precedent, and thus essential, to the kind of broad conclusions this book wants to draw. Indeed, while Stages of Loss often declares that the traditional archival practices of theater history are useless and distracting, the book itself relies deeply on that scholarship and even at times engages in such work itself. As Oppitz-Trotman [End Page 523] admits, such research "has laid foundations without which my task would have been next to impossible," which makes it all the more peculiar to see it repeatedly denigrated (21). There is a fair amount to Stages of Loss that is of considerable value, not least because it contributes to our appreciation of the connections between the English stage and both Continental theater and broader cultural, political, and economic developments in Europe. Stages of Loss is a vivid reminder that early modern theater history should not be constrained by geopolitical borders. More specifically, it argues that players' itinerancy created the conditions "by which the value of the player's work could be preserved and maintained, since the interim between performances in a particular place contributed to popular demand for those performances in that place" (260). Essential to commercial success was the periodic absence produced by itinerancy. Oppitz-Trotman demonstrates that practices such as repertory management, the revision of play texts, and improvisation improved theatrical durability by providing "a ward against the devaluation of repetition" when players returned to places (261). He also draws attention to the challenge of determining the "cultural context" of these players: that is, "whether the English Comedians were representative of England and Englishness" or whether they should be "treat[ed] in terms of Germany and German culture" (261). In identifying this dilemma, Stages of Loss speaks to the enmeshments between theater in Shakespeare's England and theater on the Continent, and thus troubles the idea of theater histories tidily divided by national boundaries. One of the more frustrating aspects of Stages of Loss is the often awkward or vague prose—for example, the use of...

Using the Poetry Material in Stage Speech Classes

The aim of this paper is to identify the main paradigms of Ukrainian stage speech. The indentifying and understanding of the specific educational function is very helpful in training the artists in the field of theater art and involvement in further searching of innovative teaching methods in stage speech.The relevance of the research is due to the fact that stage speech as a coursedirectly depends on the changes taking place in the modern cultural process and requires new methods and approaches in the education of actors.Research methodology. The authors have used theatre approach that made possible to identify new approaches and exercises to work with the poetic material. The study also inquires into this issue by comparing, analyzing searching for innovative methods of teaching stage speech in higher educational institutions, colleges and specialized schools with the classical theater school.Results. The article considers the professional training of competent spe-cialists for Ukrainian drama theater and cinema. Now, in the Post-Soviet phase of the theatre development, one of the most significant aspects of such training is stage speech, its melody and poetry. The national theater has always had an inclination for the Ukrainian language euphony and its poetic way of expression and thoughts. This should be the main focus in the stage speech training of future actors, with the national theater undergoing Ukrainization.The novelty of this article is to search for innovative methods of teaching stage speech in the modern theatre process of Ukraine in the 21stcentury.The practical significance. The key results of this research can be used by higher educational and theatre institutions of culture and art of Ukraine and for further improvement of studying, researching process and practical activities.

Специфіка техніки сценічного мовлення в акторському мистецтві початку ХХІ століття

The purpose of the research is to characterize and determine perspective methods of stage speech technique development in modern acting art. Research methods: chronological method is to study the stages of formation and development of stage speech in theater pedagogy; comparative is for a comparative analysis of theoretical and practical applications of methods of stage speech techniques; typological is aimed at identifying the factors influencing the transformation of stage speech and determining the features of this process; theoretical generalization is to summarize the study. Scientific novelty. The development of the stage speech technique problem in the acting art has been theoretically substantiated and logically completed, the main problems of stage speech in the modern domestic theater have been determined and perspective ways of their solution have been characterized. Conclusions. Review of the classic principles of creating a play in modern theater dictates new approaches in the field of stage speech. New trends related to the return to the priority positions of the word, give rise to the search for new techniques and approaches of expression associated with the actor’s voice capabilities. The system of teaching stage language skills requires improved and innovative methods.

Експерименти біомеханічних тренінгів Всеволода Меєрхольда в процесі підвищення психофізичної техніки майбутнього актора

The purpose of the article is to reveal and analyze the experience of the Georgian National School of Theater Pedagogy in the context of didactic verification of biomechanics by Vsevolod Meyerhold. The research methodology is based on a comparative, historical analysis of continuous and innovative principles developed in theater pedagogy by Georgian and foreign theater scientists. Scientific novelty. Using the examples of biomechanics exercises of the director and teacher Vsevolod Meyerhold, the experimental experience of the Georgian school of theater pedagogy in the implementation of psychophysical trainings in the process of training theater actors has been revealed and analyzed. Conclusions. World theater schools, where Vsevolod Meyerhold’s biomechanics occupies a significant place in modern theater art, pay great attention to the psychophysical training of students, especially in recent years. Biomechanics is studied in theater centers and studios in America and Europe. In Georgia today, there is a very low degree of interest in biomechanical trainings in the teaching of acting skills. Based on this, the author’s concept of introducing a psychophysical trainings complex in the process of training drama theater actors in a higher school is proposed.

Agafonov’s Early Kharkiv Creative Period: Dialogue with the Theatre

This article is dedicated to the study of the nature of E. Agafonov’s creative ties with the theater – a topic that has been insufficiently covered in the native art history. The author’s field of view is set in the artist’s early Kharkiv period, marked as the years of 1905–1913. The article focuses on the exceptional role of E. Agafonov in the organization and the artistic practice of the first modernist theater “Blakytne Oko” in Kharkiv (1909–1911). Agafonov belonged to the constellation of masters who was very sensitive to the problem of evolving the artistic speech. He viewed the theater as a convincing platform for promoting and approving of the latest artistic values, discovered by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Experiments in easel art (with color, plastic, line, techniques, materials, etc.), largely inspired by the work of D. Burliuk (1906–1908), were directly reflected in Agafonov’s stage practice, namely in numerous designs of the modernist productions based on plays by M. Maeterlinkc, A. Schnitzler, S. Pshybyshevsky and O. Blok. In turn, it was established that theatrical motives were reflected in E. Agafonov’s easel art, as well as in the art of the students of his artistic studio – O. Rybnikov, I. Terentyev, M. Sinyakova, and K. Storozhnichenko. In this regard, a special attention is given to the linocuts by F. Nadezhdin. It was found that the program of “total” design of theatrical space (stage and auditorium), as well as the implementation of production ideas in the cabaret theater “Blakytne Oko” were the result of the master’s fascination with the concepts of artistic synthesis, actualized in the era of Modern. Agafonov moved from dramatization of paintings (of A. Beklin, F. Malyavin, and O. Rodin) to staging experimental show-programs like “The Evening of Autumn”, “Visiting Pierrot” and “In the Middle of Nowhere”, partial reconstruction of which was undertaken for the first time by the author of the article. Agafonov was close to the idea of artistic synthesis, identified by him in F. Malyavin’s paintings, in V. Komissarzhevska’s theatre and A. Duncan’s choreography. The study of E. Agafanov’s theatrical art expands the understanding of the history of formation and development of Ukrainian scenography at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The physical movement of form in the modern theatre

The physical movement of form in the modern theatre

:Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability

:<i>Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability</i>

Shaw and Legacy: Introduction

Shaw and Legacy: Introduction

Dnipropetrovsk Ukrainian academic youth theater in the contemporary sociocultural context

The purpose of this article is concentrated by researcher into revealing of the particularity for modern theater on the example Dnipropetrovsk Ukrainian academic youth theater. The author studies performances for young people that the theater has in its repertoire. The dialogue between the theater and the audience has its own scientific interest for the author. The author uses the most effective methods of scientific research. The author has a need to understand the peculiarities of the style of acting and directing. It is also necessary to understand the general style of the theater. This position is significant, because there is a specificity in the interpretation of theatrical performance. Scientific novelty. This article has its own peculiarity. The author aims to determine for the first time the main provisions of the activities of the Ukrainian academic theater for youth from the Dnieper. To achieve this goal, the author of the article makes an analysis in which there is a specific meaning of the theater's activities, the subject of this research. Theater is analyzed as an artistic value. The author assesses the state of the collective as a theater historian. The activity of the theater is analyzed in the context of the functioning of modern theater culture. This is what makes it possible to understand the features of the historical phenomenon. It combines the present with the past. It aims to understand the perspective of contemporary theater time in the future. Methods. The performances of this theater have the characteristics of a synthetic genre. These performances have the ability to explain the nature of the interaction between theater and music. Therefore, research methods are based on the synthesis of various areas of scientific activity. In which there are various scientific disciplines. Specifically: the structural system of the history of the theater, the use of analytical methods in the analysis of drama, direction, skill of actors, singing, orchestra work, scenography. The author explores their analogies and connections, what unites them and what is opposition. Conclusions. The performances of the Ukrainian academic theater for young people from Dnipro are of different genres. The principles of the dialogue between the theater system and the audience, which exists in mutual exchange, are revealed in these performances. The author notes the real mutual cooperation between the theater and the audience. At the same time, there is an addition of one dramatic tradition to another. You can also observe how professional directors worked with the texts of the plays. The fact of how the structure and style of the performance is changing is significant. The academic professional artistic transformation of vocational performances in modern society is essential relevant.

Czar rewii. Nowoczesne oblicze teatru robotniczego Erwina Piscatora

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of political revue, which in the 1920s became a form of political propaganda in Germany. Erwin Piscator’s revue RRR described here is a good example of its agitprop success. Piscator used the revue (which had been associated with bourgeois entertainment until then) for revolutionary goals, appreciating its form primarily for its huge staging potential. The open form of the revue enabled him to combine different genres and contrasting threads, and exploited the new technologies of the time, including the new media (film, photography, radio). Another interesting point is that for Piscator the revue was the future of modern theatre – not only agitprop theatre, but theatre in general.

How Can the Living Ties be Severed in the Field of Culture

In this paper we will try to apply Kuhn’s views on the structure of scientific revolutions in the field of culture and film art. We will try to find to what extent we can apply or reject such understandings of the field of culture, even if only in the strictly national dimensions of a cultural phenomenon. By tracking the development of the film art and industry through the changes they cause or the cultural functions they perform, we can verify whether and to what extent the ideal in science is comparable to the ideal in the culture and the arts. We will also be looking for anomalies, non-functional paradigms and paradoxes, which could influence not only the development of culture in national context, but also the construction of the essential matter of the cultural field as a unique global phenomenon, the result of human activity, ideas and creativity.Through the history of building the first movie theater “Modern Theater” in Bulgaria, in 1908, the beginning and evolution of cinema as an art, a national cine-ma industry, film networks and film distribution, film studies and film education will trace the genesis of a new layer in the field of the Bulgarian national culture and the preconditions for its sustainability, significance and vitality.

The Seven Deadly Sins, by Wesley Savick, Micaleen Rodgers, and Sydney Grant

The Seven Deadly Sins, by Wesley Savick, Micaleen Rodgers, and Sydney Grant

The director's concept of the opera performance through the prism of modern theater aesthetics

The aim of the study. Rethinking conceptual approaches to creating a director's concept for an opera performance through the prism of modern theatrical aesthetics.The object is to determine modern transformations of opera performances as the results of experimentation in the field of musical theatre of young directors of Ukraine.The methodology of research consists of an integrated approach to solving the problem of modern directorial incarnations of opera performances; it involves the use of a system and analytical method to study the factors of influence on modifications in musical theatre and a structural-functional one – to determine the concept of a director's intention in the relationship of its structural elements.The relevance of the study due to the need to comply with the method of work on the performance developed by many generations of directors in the context of the search for new forms of musical and theatrical art in the context of postmodern aesthetics.Findings and conclusions. The article examines the latest trends in the development of the European opera house, their influence on the formation of repertoire policy in Ukraine. The search for new forms of musical and stage art at the junctions of theatrical genres, the increasing role of provocative forms of displaying life, the break of modern methods of expression with classical ones are investigated. The process of transformation of opera performances is analyzed through the prism of modern theatrical aesthetics, experimentation of young creators. The dualistic nature of the director's concept of an opera performance and its characteristic features have been clarified. The directorial content of staging a musical performance in modern socio-cultural realities has been established. The importance of cooperation between the director and the conductor in the development of the concept of the future performance and its implementation is outlined. The structure of the director's idea and the content of its components have been determined. In the experimental works of young directors, the interpretation of a stage work as a creative definition and concretization by the director of the super-task, the end-to-end action of the performance, clarification of the genre and style features of the work, the main and secondary conflict of drama is characterized. The crown of the director's intention is highlighted - the formation of the contours, the main components and components of the general stage image of the performance. Conditional, polyphonic, metaphorical in the art of theatre are emphasized, which, by means of associative transformation, shape the life stream of reality into an artistic and stage image. It is proved that the concept as a generalized creative intention of the future performance gives the process of its creation a specific directorial format, determines the direction of the search for expressive means, and contributes to the formation of its integral artistic and stage image.

What did The Modernist Playwright Expect from The Mask in The Context of The Self-Crisis?

Modern tiyatroda mask, oluş ile ilgili krizlerin örneklenmesinde kullanılmıştır. Tiyatroda benlik krizi, yüzü başkalaştıran, genel ifadede donduran mask aracılığıyla farklı amaçlarla, farklı yazarlar tarafından sıklıkla kullanılmıştır. Özneyi yeniden bütüncülleştirmeye çalışan bir çağda, çağdaş yazar somut veya soyut masktan ne ummuştur? Bilindiği gibi dramatik yazarlıkta bir kavram olarak karakter, modern özne biçimlerine derinden bağımlıdır. Aynı zamanda benliğin algısı ve benlik ile dünya arasındaki ilişkilerdeki değişikliğin bir tezahürünü kendinde oluşturmaktadır. Benliğin asal krizi yüz/maske kutuplaşmasına dayanır. Batı düşüncesinde maske, her zaman muhalefet anlamına gelir. Maske öznelliğin göstergesi olmasının tersine, eşsiz benlik, insan yüzü fikrinin son çaresidir. Maske, gerçek benlik yaratmanın imkânsızlığının bir işareti olsa da altta yatan bir melankoliye işaret eder. Maske ile belirgin yakınlıkları olan başka bir kavram ise metamorfoz kavramıdır. Kimlik kararsızdır, ancak metamorfoz onun hem kaybı hem de garantiye alınmış halidir. Metamorfoz anı, hem kendinden önce hem de sonraki anları içine alır. Paradoksal olarak, kimlik istikrarsızlaşırken bile kendisinin hayatta kalmasını sağlar. Bu çalışma Pirandello, Brecht, Genet ve Müller örnekleminde maske ve metamorfozun modern oyun yazınındaki yerini inceler

Jonson, Marston, Shakespeare and the Rhetoric of Topicality

The revival of commercial “private” theater by the Children of Paul's in 1599 and the Children of the Chapel in 1600 transformed the culture of playgoing in London at the end of the sixteenth century. It was during this period that John Marston at Paul's and Ben Jonson at Blackfriars attracted attention at these theaters by ridiculing each other personally and denigrating each other's work. In doing so they converted these playhouses into forums for staging ideologically opposed interpretations of drama. Rather than aligning themselves with each other against the “public” theater, as Alfred Harbage had assumed in his influential chapter on “The Rival Repertories” in Shakespeare and the Rival Traditions, Jonson and Marston's satire of each other's work used Paul's and Blackfriars to debate the question of the legitimacy of the drama they staged and the status of the writers who composed it. Their debate on what drama should and should not be constitutes one of the most significant critical controversies in early modern English theater. It constitutes part of the first significant criticism of contemporary drama in English. The point of this essay is to account for how, when Jonson began writing for the Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars in 1600, Marston at Paul's became one of his principal targets through personal invective framed as a series of generalized strictures excoriating the obscenity and plagiarism of contemporary private theater.

РОЛЬ ПЛАСТИЧЕСКИХ СИМВОЛОВ В ДРАМАТИЧЕСКОМ СПЕКТАКЛЕ (К ОПЫТУ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОГО АНАЛИЗА)

In modern drama theater directing, there is a tendency to translate literary or verbal idioms into the language of the stage. In the space of the scene, every day, familiar expressions are recreated in the literal sense, and are read in the figurative sense. Drama theater directors strive to give symbolic meanings to the associative characteristics of certain events and situations. The theater has long used plastic and/or dance in its arsenal of artistic means to symbolize artistic images. Symbolists of stage art affirm the search for inner meanings in expression and attempts to make super reality visible. The desire of dramatic art to form a new stage language, which is based on the reorganization of the action, character, time and space, and the speech component of the play, becomes natural. The appeal of directors to the plastic nature of the actor, as one of the bright means of artistic expression in the structure of a dramatic performance, is supported by the nature of the multi-valued artistic and figurative specificity of the choreographic art’s language, which is a set of visual signs. Such visual and acoustic forms of stage action make it possible to trace the process of transformation of visible objects in the mind of the viewer before their projection into the subconscious. A symbol expressed in plastic language and focused on identifying internal emotional processes that are usually summarized in a dramatic performance by a word can be called the main typological characteristic of the interweaving of plastic and dance in the canvas of stage action. The modern theater considers the role of semantic physical activity, plastics and dance fundamental in the formation of the language of symbols. The authors offer an attempt to comprehend and compare the works of "Othello" by the Lithuanian director E. Nyakroshus and "Block" by the Kazakh director D. Zhumabayeva, where the role of plastic symbols in the formation of a special semantic performance’s structure is revealed through the prism of multi-episode, open play and physical actors action. The expressive symbol’s language of the analyzed performances of each director has its own characteristics and way of expression. The active appeal to the principles of performance organization and plastic symbolization of artistic images remains common for all. The completeness and autonomy of each individual scene together make the multi-episode performance, where there is no causal relationship between such independent acts. Involving the viewer in the situation of an open game used in the works of the mentioned directors allows the viewer to see the material in an unexpected angle, to engage in a situation of meaningful activity, in which the motive is not the result, but the gameplay itself. Specific physical actions of actors aimed at their direct application, without any additional subtext or intent, allow the actor to live these feelings in performances as their own, without any artificial addition. This all shows the similarity of directing techniques of Lithuanian and Kazakh theater figures. Along with acting, metaphors and symbols in plastic embodiment act as a constructive and semantic means in the context of the dramatic canvas. Appealing to the viewer's subconscious through plastic symbols, which play a huge role in creating the performance, contributes to the generation of complex associations, it appeals to the feelings of the viewer.

Trends in modern theatrical interpretation of A. P. Chekhov's play “Uncle Vanya”

This article is dedicated to the analysis of trends in interpretation of A. P. Chekhov's play &amp;ldquo;Uncle Vanya&amp;rdquo; in modern theater. The subject of this research is the four theatrical productions of the play on the national stage: by Rimas Tuminas in Vakhtangov Theatre (2009), by Andrei Serban in Alexandrinsky Theater (2009), by Andrei Konchalovsky in Mossovet State Academic Theatre (2009) by St&amp;eacute;phane Braunschweig in the State Theatre of Nations (2019). These productions reflect the eternal existential questions raised in A. P. Chekhov&amp;rsquo;s play, as well as the relevant transformations in modern perception of the play. Examination of the aforementioned productions, as well as their analysis in the context of Chekhov's play and modern life realities in comparison with such in the XIX century, has not previously become a separate object of research. The scientific novelty consists in comprehension of the message delivered by play written in the late XIX century for the XXI century, as well as in determination of problems relevant to a contemporary person that are raised in the play. Using the meaning-making topics of the play, stage directors imply death of kindness, deterioration of nature and human, human disunity and misunderstanding. Therefore, the play &amp;ldquo;Uncle Vanya&amp;rdquo; indicates its timeliness and everlasting lifelikeness for the XXI century.

The image of an actor in the modern theater

The purpose of the study is to determine the main features of the appearance of the actor and show that he is an indispensable carrier of today’s stage art. In the article, focusing on the skill of the actor, universal human values and the specifics of theatrical art are also considered. The content of the concept of the phrase «Theater for people» is determined and demonstrated in the actor’s special mission: to convey the feelings, excitement of a living person and give true feelings of the whole atmosphere of what is happening. The idea is substantiated that nothing can overshadow the game of a professional actor, as a material of live communication between him and the audience, allowing you to feel all the nuances of the action. Scientific novelty lies in the study of the degeneration and development of acting skills against the backdrop of a developing age of technology and the introduction of innovative special effects. As a result, the fact that innovative technologies should help the viewer understand the essence of the production is highlighted and characterized, and the actor’s skill should be directed towards the universal values of the viewer.

LIGHT IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF MODERN THEATER BUILDINGS

The article discusses the role and functions of light in the space of modern theater buildings outside the auditorium and stage space. The architectural and structural factors of the formation of the lighting environment in modern theater buildings are determined; trends and features of the functioning of light in the space of modern theaters are revealed. The influence of the architectonics of buildings on the nature of the illumination of theatrical spaces is established. The experience of the formation of the lighting environment of theater buildings on the example of modern domestic and foreign theaters is analyzed.

Revealing “beauty” in modern Chinese theatre: Max Reinhardt as an anti-Ibsenite emperor in Yu Shangyuan’s translation

ABSTRACT Traditionally, the Chinese indigenous theatre did not require a director. In 1924, Yu Shangyuan published two articles on the prominent modern theatre director Max Reinhardt, “Xianzai Niuyue de Laiyinhate” (Reinhardt in Today’s New York) and “Laiyinhate de “Qiji’” (Reinhardt’s The Miracle), offering Chinese readers a rare glimpse into the Western theatre directing system. Existing scholarship tends to regard the two articles as original works. The present paper argues that they were composed mainly of “unmarked translations” rendered from four foreign works. Anchored by this observation, this paper gives a detailed study of these two articles, covering the incentives for translation, the translation results, and the reasons behind the results. It unveils Yu Shangyuan’s orientation of theatre director as an artist-director instead of an administrator, presents his reconstruction of Max Reinhardt’s image as an “anti-Ibsenite emperor,” and discloses the relevance of his textual strategies to his artistic view. It demonstrates that Yu Shangyuan, influenced by the vision of “aesthetic drama,” purposely reshaped the image of Max Reinhardt so as to spread the gospel of a new conception of drama, that is, drama should purport mainly to afford the aesthetic experience, or reveal “beauty,” as Yu Shangyuan termed it.