Popular Theatre Research Articles

Nondeictic accusative and dative clitics and their variant forms in European and Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract This article raises the hypothesis that 3rd person, accusative o/a (“him/her”) and dative lhe (“to him”/ “to her”) clitics, as well as the indefinite clitic se (“one”), contrary to 1st and 2nd person me/te (“me/you”), were never part of the grammar of the populations who acquired Portuguese as L2 in Brazil; rather, 3rd person clitic pronouns have been learned by a small number of Brazilians with school access (0.5 %), in the beginning of the 19th century. To bring support to this hypothesis, socio-historical information is presented, according to which, during about 350 years of colonization, slaved Africans and their descendants constituted the largest part of the population; their contact with several waves of Portuguese immigrant workers contributed to the emergence of Brazilian dialects differing in many aspects from European Portuguese (EP). Data from European and Brazilian Portuguese (PB) popular theater plays, written across the 19th and the 20th centuries, show that EP exhibits a robust and stable system of 3rd person accusative and dative clitics, contrary to BP. Analyses of recorded EP and BP since the 1970s attest the extremely rare use of such clitics in BP, very close to the percentages shown in the more recent plays, whereas formal writing reveals the school relative success in the effort to teach 3rd person clitics.

Nora Helmer and Thora Helmer: Henrik Ibsen at Play with the Vaudeville

ABSTRACT This article gives evidence for considering the vaudeville genre as a factor that complicates our received understanding of the plays of Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It situates Ibsen’s activity as a theater practitioner in relation to both the prolific French dramatist Eugène Scribe and the Danish theater director and dramatist Johan Ludvig Heiberg, explores Ibsen’s own critical writing about the popular theater, and then traces intertextual resonances with the work of yet another Danish dramatist, Erik Bøgh. In particular, the author links Bøgh’s all-but-forgotten 1853 vaudeville, Et enfoldigt Pigebarn (A Guileless Girl) with Ibsen’s universally acclaimed modern dramas, Et Dukkehjem (1879; A Doll’s House) and Hedda Gabler (1890; Hedda Gabler). What this re-contextualization reveals, is an Ibsen who was far more oriented toward and influenced by transnational popular theater genres than previous scholarship has recognized.

Greek theatre, electric lights, and the plumes of locomotives: the quarrel between the Futurists and the Classicists and the Hellenic modernism of Fascism

Abstract The controversy between the Futurists and the classicists over the Greek theatre of Syracuse remains largely overlooked within the scholarship concerned with the relationship between Futurism and Fascism. The Futurist movement launched a polemic against the staging of Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers in 1921, counterposing Greek tragedy to new forms of drama drawing on Futurist performance aesthetics and Sicilian popular theatre which, according to the Futurists, could express the spirit of the modern age. In a similar vein, the manifesto that F. T. Marinetti addressed to the Fascist government in 1923 advocated for the staging of modern Sicilian plays in the theatre of Syracuse. Contrary to Futurism, Italian Fascism turned to Greek models in creating new forms of popular theatre. Mussolini’s state supported the production of ancient drama throughout the ventennio, as evidenced by the consolidation of the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico (INDA) in 1925. The theatre of Syracuse should be viewed as a field of antagonism between the different versions of modernism represented by Futurism and Fascism. By examining the convergences and divergences of Futurist and Fascist visions of theatrical renewal, this article highlights not only the Hellenic character of Fascism’s modernism but also the role of Fascism in transforming classical traditions.

Oduvaldo Vianna’s Brazilian Sainete, an Innovative Popular Theatre

Resumo À diferença da crescente pesquisa sobre Oduvaldo Vianna filho, Oduvaldo Vianna pai conta com poucos trabalhos e nenhum que se centre no seu projeto de teatro reflexivo, o sainete brasileiro. Tendo em conta essa reiterada ausência, o objetivo deste artigo é recuperar o sainete brasileiro e a figura do seu esquecido dramaturgo, Oduvaldo Vianna pai. Procuramos apresentar esse gênero dramático popular menosprezado pela historiografia e entender a relação desse sainete com a sociedade e com a heterogeneidade cultural contemporâneas à sua produção.

Tradițional și actual în obiceiurile de iarnă din Cajvana, județul Suceava

This article presents the customs and traditions of the winter holidays in Cajvana, with references to the transformations that have occurred in the last 50 years, the disappearance of some customs, the renewal of others, and the identification of the causes that have produced these changes. The winter holidays encompass most of the traditions and customs specific to the three major holidays: Christmas, New Year, and Epiphany. The article aims to structure the New Year's traditions and customs in Cajvana into three branches: the popular theater of the “outlaws”; the popular religious theater, which includes the religious drama “Irozii”, and the popular masked theater, which encompasses the customs of “Mascații”, “Jocul Caprei”, and “Căiuții”. The article also presents magical practices/rituals for predicting fate, weather or crops, prosperity, and health specific to this period, which was the richest in this regard. This material is based on data obtained from practitioners or knowledgeable individuals of the customs in the locality of Cajvana, Suceava County.

Play, Defiance and Imagination As Forms Of Knowledge Production : Examining Bidesiya As Folk Theatre and Its Pedagogical Implications in Classrooms Of Literature

India houses a number of folk theatrical forms that are simple and closer to the rural milieu. After the decline of Sanskrit classical drama in India, from the 14th to the 19th century, folk theatre emerged in myriads of rural languages. These theatrical forms can be categorised under two broad genres, viz., "Ritual Theatre" that was religious in nature, and the "Theatre of Entertainment," which was more secular in mood. One such example of the secular form is Bidesiya, the dynamic and popular theatre of Bihar. Bidesiya, like the name suggests, revolves around the "bides" / "pardes," i. e., foreign land / homeland dichotomy. Bidesiya emerged and was given shape by Bhikhari Thakur, the highly-acclaimed poet, playwright, and actor, and aimed at disseminating some kind of social message through the plays. Bidesiya also makes use of a plethora of folk songs that are rooted in Bihar's soil, and these plays were primarily performed by actors belonging to lower-caste communities. The most crucial aspect of Bidesiya is that this folk theatrical form is fundamentally radical and fluid in terms of how it deals with gender. Bidesiya showcases Launda naach — or the dance native to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that is performed by female impersonators — as a powerful theatrical technique. The present paper seeks to scrutinise Bidesiya as a gender-fluid folk theatrical form of India, and further explores the manner in which Bidesiya problematises the essentialist notion of fixed gender identity. The paper, therefore, begins with an elaborate discussion on the origin of Bidesiya, and moves on to study its various aspects, including the structure of the plays and the performers' troupes, the "men's" and "women's" folk songs which are associated with the genre, and the underpinnings of the staged performances. The paper then investigates the obfuscation of gender by the actors, visible in Launda Naach — the central element of Bidesiya plays — and the presentation of the songs, written from feminine perspective, by men. The concluding section of the paper highlights the pedagogical implications of Bidesiya and its relevance in classrooms, with a special emphasis on how gender is revealed as performative in the plays. Introducing Bidesiya in classroom education resists didacticism by promoting hands-on learning, creates a space for the students to locate themselves within the broad spectrum of gender identities, and also indulges imaginative voyages, as this paper will show.

CREATING VIRTUAL REALITY USING A SOCIAL VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT: PHYGITAL EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM PASSION IN SORDEVOLO

Abstract. The paper addresses the digital curation of immersive and virtual spaces for the cultural heritage sector. One of the research objectives is to define a methodological and operational workflow for developing a virtual environment designed using a social virtual environment. The use of social worlds in virtual reality (VR) is one of the possible entry points to the metaverse, understood as a way of experiencing digital reality. The possibility of creating a digital space that replicates real space offers not only the opportunity for people to gather in a virtual place but also allows designers to provide a parallel and augmented experience in terms of content.The case study aims to create the digital twin of the temporary Phygital Exhibition, which opened in July 2022 at the Sordevolo Passion Museum in the Church of Santa Marta. Unlike the permanent collection, which recounts the tradition of popular theatre in Sordevolo for the performance of the Passion of Christ, the Phygital Exhibition focuses on documenting the activity related to the design and construction of the scenography. In the virtual environment, the physical space is replicated with a low level of detail to emphasize the VR exhibition, composed of a series of panels with the possibility to interact with historical documentation, drawings, and pictures. The virtual space is also enriched by video and 3D models not available in real space, which documents the transformation of the scenography over the years.

"Miking Against COVID in Bangladesh"

Monzur Patwary of the Task Force for Global Health presents an array of tailored cultural responses to COVID-19 developed in his native Bangladesh. Underfunded centralized health services collaborate with NGOs in the creation of lively public service announcements in local dialects, video endorsements by faith leaders, and works of popular theater, art, and visual culture.

극예술연구회 <춘향전>의 선택 배경과 공연사적 위상에 관한 연구

Geukyesul yeonguhoe (lit. theater art research society) performed Chunhyangjeon (The Story of Chunhyang ) on September 29-30, 1936. This performance was the 12th regular performance of the Geukyesul yeonguhoe, in which Hamlet was initially scheduled to perform as the 5th anniversary project. After experiencing the quitting of its members in June 1936, However, the Geukyesul yeonguhoe was in a crisis, and the performance of Hamlet was canceled. It did not give an official reason for the cancellation of the Hamlet performance, but the traces of suffering from the pressure to select a masterpiece to replace Hamlet were confirmed. As a result, it worked on performing Chunhyangjeon , which was unexpected at the time, and this performance made the position of the Geukyesul yeonguhoe as the leader in the modern theater field changed greatly. Through the performance of Chunhyangjeon, the Geukyesul yeonguhoe accepted the performance pattern that popular theater companies used as a commercial repertoire, and publicly announced their will not to reject this trend. The performance of Chunhyangjeon made the Geukyesul yeonguhoe officially acknowledge that they gained audiences and saw the possibility of profitable management but lost one of its distinguishing points from existing popular theater companies and ultimately began to focus on the operation of an audience-friendly theater company and the selection of works that were highly popular with the public. Therefore, Chunhyangjeon can be considered a representative play that illustrates the change and career change of the Geukyesul yeonguhoe in 1936.

Music Hall, Revue and Modernity in Victor Saville'sEvergreen

Victor Saville's Evergreen (1934) has long been regarded as an innovative British film musical in its aspirations to the idioms and production values of American cinema of the period and in its integration of continental European artistic design. Complementing these features, this article argues, is a less noted but unusually specific engagement with popular British performance practices and their historical contexts. An examination of the film's representation of music hall and revue, both in its narrative and in its diegetic dance and song sequences, suggests their importance for Gaumont-British's attempt to establish Jessie Matthews as a distinctively novel performer in changing contexts of both British and American film production. More broadly, it also complicates the dominant model of the alleged decline of popular theatre in the period as a result of its competitive engagement with cinema, presenting instead a nuanced sense of their interaction in the 1930s that prefigures the importance of domestic performance traditions for a later period of British national cinema.

The agentive power of play in theatre for young people: a Zimbabwean case study

Popular arts are not only accessible to most people, but their stylistic features are also a crucial scholarly site of attention. Liz Gunner [1990. “Introduction: Forms of Popular Culture and the Struggle for Space.” Journal of Southern African Studies 16 (2): 199–206] regards African popular art as an empowering agency that can give people a new sense of control over their own lives. Through processes of improvisation, enactment and dialogue, such popular arts create spaces for participants to not only express themselves, but also to exercise power and authority over forces of oppression and repression. In African storytelling the trickster narrative is one of the aesthetic categories and is indeed the trope from which popular theatre in Africa has derived most of its inspiration. Using the illustrative paradigm of a popular theatre performance entitled, Vana Vana (Children are children), this article seeks to demonstrate how symbolic inversion was used to address topical issues associated with child abuse in Zimbabwe. The performance focuses on the violation of children’s rights through child labour, domestic violence, sexual abuse, child soldiers and ‘street children.’ The article examines these forms of child abuse to see how Vana Vana operates as a performative discourse that deploys trickster narrative to critique actual violations of children’s rights. The article also examines the agentive power of the young theatre facilitators and performers who were at the centre of devising the popular theatre performance through symbolic inversion. What the paper demonstrates, then, is a classic example of the performative power of popular youth theatre and its agency to critique and hold accountable a dominant culture that endangers the lives and futures of young people.

Maroons, buccaneers, and the legend of Trou Forban

ABSTRACT Throughout Atlantic modernity, maroon and buccaneer encounters have generated long-lasting legacies that remain largely unexplored. In this essay I trace how these encounters included various forms of mutual recognition among Saint-Domingue’s black and white clandestine people. This history of mutual recognition sheds fresh light on the cultural and ideological context informing the role maroon societies were playing in fomenting slave insurrection in the events leading up to the Haitian Revolution. I also argue that it contributed to the development of Haiti’s postcolonial identity, folklore, politics, and popular theater. My main sources are colonial records, place names, Vodou mythology, and Haitian intellectual and literary history. I focus on the emergence of zombie and pirate lore as it became one of the most enduring legacies of mutual maroon and buccaneer recognition in Haiti and the Atlantic world.

Senegalese Stagecraft: Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa by Brian Valente-Quinn

Senegalese Stagecraft: Decolonizing Theater-Making in Francophone Africa by Brian Valente-Quinn

Volksschauspiele: Genese einer kulturgeschichtlichen Formation by Toni Bernhart

Reviewed by: Volksschauspiele: Genese einer kulturgeschichtlichen Formation by Toni Bernhart Katherine Arens Toni Bernhart, Volksschauspiele: Genese einer kulturgeschichtlichen Formation. Deutsche Literatur Studien und Quellen 31. Edited by Beate Kellner and Claudia Stockinger. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2019. 399 pp. This volume originated in a 2017 Habilitationsschrift from Stuttgart (available in open access through de Gruyter's website), now expanded into a magisterial presentation of the Volksschauspiel, the Germanophone popular theater, as it has been created and studied in the scholarship, here offered by a scholar who is himself also a practicing playwright. The corpus of the Volksschauspiel includes popular theater of all genres, starting from the eighteenth century: the Viennese and southern Germanophone Volksstück, passion plays, the ritual plays of the Steiner Goetheanum, children's drama, and others. Toni Bernhart's Volksschauspiele focuses not only on these genres but also on how ideologies in aesthetics and literary studies have isolated them as somehow separate from serious art. The terms Volksschauspiel, Volksstück, and Volkstheater (9) are all in common use but need to be specified (as referring to theater history, the nineteenth-century Viennese stage, and a form of theater institution, respectively). Bernhart does so by reconstructing "die Genese der gattungstheoretischen Vorstellung des Volksschauspiels auf breiter Quellenbasis" (4)—what scholars have done to this corpus. The volume's first part (Part A, one of three) ties the terminology of Herder's idea of Volkspoesie, a discussion engaged by Gottfried August Bürger, Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, and a handful of less familiar voices. The corpus of what then became "people's theater" comprised translations of Shakespeare's comedies, "Tyroler Bauernkomödien," religious and mystery plays, and even Dr. Faustus, Hans Sachs, and Nicolai's Herder and Bürger [End Page 77] parodies (16). That contemporaneous usage is confirmed by late eighteenth-century references from travel literature and other popular publications (Volksschauspiel even referred to cock fights). Bernhart finds two competing spheres of usage: "Volksschauspiel als (prä-)romantische Alternative zu gelehrter Literatur (Herder) und Volksschauspiel als didaktisches und kulturpatriotisches Institut mit oder ohne Betonung deutscher Spezifizität" (103). Part B takes up the academic study of the Volksschauspiel to critique the discipline's ideologies. The nineteenth century sought to "establish and professionalize" the then-new philology (207). Scholars took up the "Bauernspiel," "Bauernkomödie," "Bauerntheater," and more to collect and establish a canon of main authors and texts. Bernhart again adds citations from contemporaneous sources about how the texts were performed and then how scholars dealt with them (with biographical reference). A huge plus for today's researchers is Bernhart's list of important nineteenth-century collections (167), with notes about each editor's motivations and biases. Bernhart also draws on lexica, starting with Johann Christoph Adelung's dictionary, moving through the Aesthetisches Lexikon (1839) by Ignaz Jeitteles; the Allgemeines Theater-Lexikon (1842) by Robert Blum, Karl Herloßsohn, and Hermann Marggraff; and Johann Georg Krünitz's Ökonomisch-technologische Encyklopädie (1855). Each is carefully distinguished: Jeitteles focuses on Vienna, relying on August Wilhelm von Schlegel's poetics; Blum stresses how Volksschauspiel emerged as a derogatory term for "Zauberpossen, Spektakelstücke und Lokalsachen" aimed at local publics that created fertile soil for "Gemeinheit, Unsittlichkeit und Gesinnungslosigkeit" (147). Krünitz's Ökonomisch-technologische Encyklopädie devotes 336 pages to articles on "Volk," including "Volkstheater." Part C starts with twentieth-century scholars who wanted to institutionalize "Volksschauspielforschung etwa nach dem Vorbild des 1914 gegründeten Deutschen Volksliedarchivs in Freiburg im Breisgau" (213). At the start, Josef Nadler's Literaturgeschichte der deutschen Stämme und Landschaften (1912 und 1918) differentiated "bairisch" and "tirolisch" Volksschauspielen (later informing National Socialist ethnology, 214). Several gems stand out. Bernhart's explanation of how and why Hofmannsthal used Nadler clarifies differences in the Nazi ideologies (expanded in a further section on Nadler's "geistesgeschichtliche Rassenkunde," 243, and how it stressed "Germanness"). Section 11.3 amplifies the ties between Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy and National Socialism (233), with a particular emphasis on [End Page 78] Marie Steiner as a trained actress (239) and as an editor of the older texts being revised for pageants. Bernhart also reclaims an essay by Hans Moser, Das Volksschauspiel (1935), as an excellent...

Towards a Definition of Performance During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Study of Ramlila in India

This article demonstrates how Covid-19 transformed the performance aesthetics of ancient theatre traditions in India. I draw primarily on the October 17, 2020 performance of the Ramlila, the folk staging of Ramayana, produced by the Shri Ram Dharmik Leela Committee, Tri Nagar, one of the most popular theatre troupes in North Delhi. In the first part of the article, I explore the metatheatricality of the production by analyzing its camera-centric aesthetic while demonstrating how the performance divested gods of their power. In the second part, I investigate how the performance’s paratextual thematic bestowed power on humans. Broadly, I show that the Covid-era performance of Ramlila marks a break from some of the traditional conventions of performance aesthetics in India.

Andantes con Cervantes

Andantes con Cervantes

Martyr plot and the national founding myth: staging Croatian national identity through amateur performances of a medieval genre

ABSTRACT The staging of the Play of the Life and Death of Saint Lawrence, the Martyr, by an amateur theatre group the Hvar Popular Theatre, holds a special place in Croatian theatre history for its longevity, and the position on the margins of the mainstream culture, appearing mostly in low-scale theatrical events. However, its marginal position began to change in the 2010s, with performances at high-profile events, and followed by increased media coverage. This paper examines the curious trajectory in the reception and status of this performance in the social and political context. Through my analysis I demonstrate that the genre of saints' plays gained a potential to stand in for the nation already in time of Croatian pre-independence history. However, it was thanks to the broader social and political shifts initiated by the neoconservative turn which began to shape Croatian political field since 2010, that this particular amateur production achieved the status of the national performance.

Companhias de Arlequins: o resgate de uma tradição popular esquecida nas feiras de Lisboa

ABSTRACT In Lisbon, the fairs and their amusements were one of the most popular manifestations of popular culture during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Among the entertainment on offer, theater was one of the most appreciated, but history has only kept the memory of the shacks that, in the fairs, began to feature a recited repertoire (comedies, parodies, magic and revues). The tents of harlequins and saltimbancos, itinerant troupes that went from place-toplace performing acrobatics, pantomimes, and comic sketches, were forgotten. This article aims to highlight popular theater practices that were once ‘forgotten’, such as the troupes of harlequins and their shows, redefining their importance in the context of the time and the history of theater in Portugal.

Reflexões sobre o Popular no Contexto do Grupo Mamulengo de Cheiroso de Teatro de Bonecos

ABSTRACT Reflections on the Popular in the Context of the Grupo Mamulengo de Cheiroso de Teatro de Bonecos – This article presents and discusses the notion of popular culture and theater based on the experience of the Grupo Mamulengo de Cheiroso de Teatro de Bonecos (Aracaju/SE), a popular nucleus with a specific relationship with the academic space. The study is a partial result of a master’s research and makes extensive use of literature review, primary sources, and interviews. Through these discussions, a critical view of popular theater is obtained, which can manifest itself in different places, modes, and contexts, deviating from a stereotyped and largely homogeneous view of these phenomena, resulting from literary production that approaches history from the perspective of lettered culture.

Popular Poesis: Language and the Pleasures of Everyday Creation

AbstractPleasure in language arises from the creativity of everyday life. Africa’s historical and ethnographic record is full of striking examples of linguistic play. Three scenes of Yorùbá linguistic creativity illustrate this: praise poetry in a small town, a traveling popular theater, and early Yorùbá newspapers. Each yields distinctive pleasures, but central to all of these is the act of mutual recognition of forms of words and attunement to the linguistic production of others. Barber suggests that verbal arts bring to consciousness the fundamental processes by which sociality is constituted and may thus provide a potential starting point for social theory from “within.”