Dramatic Theory Research Articles

An Unforeseen Alliance: The Experience of Mental Health Professionals when Testifying in Sexual Assault Criminal Proceedings

Introduction: Court testimonies of mental health expert witnesses (MHEWs) received scholarly attention regarding paradigmatic differences, and ethical issues, neglecting the testimony experience. The study examines MHEWs’ testimony experience in sexual assault proceedings in Israel. Methods:16 interviews. MHEW were recruited using chain referral sampling. Interviews were analyzed based on the constructive dialectical model. Results: Three main themes were conceptualized: MHEWs’ initial image of the court, their perception of mental health and legal languages, and their perception of court conduct as a theatrical play. The themes address the experience of tension between law and mental health along with an unprecedented experience of congruence that emerges when: 1. MHEWs based their testimonies on evidence-based tests and therapeutic interventions which value objectivity, as opposed to focusing primarily on the subjective experience, accommodating the evidence-based legal debate; 2. When MHEWs and legal practitioners formed an interpersonal connection, in accordance with key relational therapeutic elements.

The tour-enlightening activities of the Ukrainian musical and drama groups in the development of ethnocultural relations

The purpose of the article is devoted to the study of the tour-enlightening activities of the Ukrainian musical and drama groups in the development the ethnocultural relations in the multicultural conditions of the Russian empires in the late XIX – beginning of the XX centuries. The research methodology of the study consists in the application of historical-cultural, analytical, systematic, and art-scientific methods, which allows you to analyze the artistic-enlightening, creative aspects of national theatre groups. The scientific novelty of the work is the analysis of the specific features of the tour-enlightening activities of the Ukrainian musical and drama groups in the context development of ethnocultural relations. Conclusions. During the imperial colonization of culture, the activities of prominent Ukrainian theater artists were aimed at promoting the national culture, and traditions of the Ukrainian nation among a wide range of polyethnic audiences. Dedicated to outstanding masters of the Ukrainian scene, numerous reviews in the columns of periodicals show that viewers and reviewers perceived their work as deeply national and culture-forming. The tour-enlightening activity of Ukrainian musical and drama groups was directed the development of ethnocultural relations, contributed to that Ukrainian music and drama theatre became an aesthetic source of national spirit and an important factor in ethnocultural identification.
 Ключові слова: Ukrainian music and drama theatre, nation-building, traditions, tour-enlightening activities, ethnocultural relations, repertoire

Performing a ‘Returnee’ in Benin City, Nigeria

Over recent years, with the support of international NGOs, many thousands of irregular migrants were ‘returned’ to West Africa from Libyan detention centres. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork with different groups of returnees in Benin City, Nigeria, I studied the establishment and evolution of the ‘returnee’ identity. Making use of labelling, social identity and performativity theories, I found that the performance of the returnee identity for Western donors, researchers and the media creates opportunities for the returnees to regain respect in their communities. Emphasising the role of performativity in identity formation, I use the metaphor of a theatrical play. Initially scripted by the EU border-externalisation policies, the return-migration play has evolved to fit in local political realities. On the frontstage, returnees were adjusting to the EU counter-migration agenda, testifying about the risks of irregular migration. Backstage, however, they kept pursuing their migration aspirations, also using the returnee identity to establish themselves in the city and gain some level of political recognition.

Folklore in Mykhailo Starytsky’s plays as a ground for the formation of Ukrainian music and drama theater

Statement of the problem. The study and preservation of folk traditions played an important role for the Ukrainian society in the process of forming national consciousness in the second half of the XIX century. It was from that time that the theater movement, whose soul M. Starytsky was, became active, and ethnography significantly influenced both the artist’s theatrical activity and the development of the Ukrainian music and drama theater in general. The article examines ethnographic elements in M. Starytsky’s plays with the purpose to find out the role of folklore in his work as a factor that influenced the formation of the Ukrainian music and drama theater. The scientific and practical novelty of the paper are conditioned by a lack of the separate comprehensive study devoted to ethnographic component as a part of M. Starytsky’s drama legacy and a basic factor of establishing of the Ukrainian musical and drama theater. The general scientific methods of researching, such as analysis, synthesis, generalization, allowed to process a significant amount of material, to draw theoretical conclusions. The principles of objectivity, historicism and systematization made it possible to analyze historical processes in all their contradictions and diversity. The interdisciplinary approach permitted to attract the results of scientific research from the areas of music, theater, and art history. Main attention is paid to the analysis of the playwright’s use of descriptions of rituals, customs, traditions, folk morals of Ukrainians, as well as the examples brining into play the small folk genres, phraseology. The results of the study. The origins, features and functions of ethnography in M. Starytsky’s works are determined, in particular, it is proved that the playwright’s use of the descriptions of Christian and pre-Christian rites was primarily aimed at a true image of traditional Ukrainian society, where the ancient rituals, games, musical and dramatic actions were an important component. It is shown how the rites of the winter and summer cycles of the folk calendar, which are most saturated with various bright rituals and customs, are reflected in various ways in the writer’s plays. It is confirmed that ethnography in M. Starytsky’s work had a positive effect on the formation of the Ukrainian professional theater as musical and dramatic. Conclusions. The folklore-ethnography, in particular calendar-ritual, component is one of the important expressive means, which gives M. Starytsky’s works picturesqueness, deepens the drama, strengthens the characters, makes their stage embodiment more vivid and at the same time emphasizes the peculiarities of the social age: traditions are still quite strong, however, something new is gradually entering the life of Ukrainian society. Customs and rituals embodied on drama scene become the basis for the progress of Ukrainian theater as a musical-dramatic: reflecting the characteristic features of the people’s soul, the folklore elements play an extremely important role, both in terms of reproducing the features of social lives, and from the viewpoint of preserving the national identity.

Jonah in 20th Century Literature

The biblical book of Jonah has been the subject of multiple literary retellings, ranging from individual poems to whole novels and theatrical dramas. This article focuses on interaction with the book of Jonah in 20th-century world literature, where Jonah becomes our alter ego; he embodies our own struggles with God. I shall highlight three common tropes in the retellings: (1) Several retellings use the character of Jonah to express a person’s failure to escape God’s calling. Others use him to explore the Jewish experience of never being able to run away from being chosen by God. (2) Other retellings turn the trope of “the fleeing Jonah” into “Jonah the refugee”: Jonah is a man whom God abandoned. These retellings stem from Jonah 2:5 (Eng. 2:4] where Jonah expresses how he is cast out from God’s presence. They gain further inspiration from the affinity between the dialogue between God and Jonah in Jonah 4 and that between Cain and God in Gen 4. This intertextuality fashions Jonah as a type for the “wandering Jew.” (3) Yet another set of retellings employs the figure of Jonah to discuss God’s justice and his perceived failure to be unmerciful.

An Operational Semantics for Situated Ideological Systems, with a Case Study Concerning a Paradigmatic Religious Conflict


 
 
 
 This paper introduces an operational semantics for what, in previous work, we have called situated
 ideological systems: sets of ways to envisage concrete social situations (normatively, valuationally etc.) that individuals and social groups may use to direct their choices and actions in such situations. The agent-based social model that we call Agent Society is used to computationally construe possible social situations where individual agents and groups of agents may find themselves, and to formally represent ideological systems in ways they can collectively share. As a case study of the proposed semantics, the paper formally presents the ideological dynamics underlying the temporal evolution of a paradigmatic situation of religious conflict (between catholics and devotees of African-Brazilian cults), as pictured in the classical Brazilian theatrical play The Keeper of Promises (O Pagador de Promessas). The ideology modeling language TinyIML is used for the computational presentation of the various stages of that ideological dynamics. The syntax and semantics of TinyIML is summarized in an appendix.
 
 
 

Stage speech as a important component of professional skills in mastering the profession of actor

The purpose of the study. To analyze essential characteristics of stage speech in actor’s profession and to distinguish the aspects relevant in forming of future actors’ professional skills. An additional purpose of the research lies in exploration of significance of all stage speech skills acquired in the course of training and practical activities in young actor’s professional career.
 The methodology. The methodology of the paper is determined by the specifics of the article’s subject and purpose. The basis of the research is determined by historical-chronological, typological, analytical and complex methods along with the use of own methodological materials and generally accepted theatrical literature, archival materials and periodicals on the subject. To solve the set tasks, analytical-synthetic methods of source processing and art analysis (particularly in the part of practical review of using the exercises for breathing posture, development and correction of diction and pronunciation) have also been used, as well as the comparative-historical approach (to outline the state of stage speech development in Ukraine and across the world).
 Conclusions. We revealed the pedagogical conditions for formation of performing skills and professional speech potential in those who master the art of acting through professional training at higher educational institutions. It is appropriate to introduce special courses in practical areas of “Verbal interaction training” and “Training of actor’s acting skills”. Such conditions are fully justified theoretically and proven experimentally in the course of educational process in higher educational institutions and by practical experience in theatrical realities of state and private creative teams. The semantic component of working with words and speech practice in students’ training in the acting field has been defined, structural components, criteria and indicators have been outlined, with performing skills’ levels having also been described to further assess the mastery of acting in the course of professional training. Having analyzed various sources on the subject of the article, we can summarize that perfect mastery of stage speech is one of the future actor’s most significant indicators emphasizing his/her skills. 
 The scientific novelty. In the framework of analytical research, the mechanisms for development of basic professional skills of stage speech in students of higher educational institutions applying for the first (bachelor’s) level of “dramatic theater and cinema” acting art educational curriculum were analyzed.
 The practical significance of results obtained. The research results may be used to improve educational curricula that need to be implemented for the purposes of developing better and more productive skills of professional stage speech. They may also be used in preparation for individual practical lessons, lecture courses on “Stage speech” subject to train future professional actors of theater and cinema.

KARELIAN STUDIO: THE REASONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ACTOR’s CLASS CREATION

The article examines the history of creation of the Karelian studio of the Central Theater School - Leningrad Theater Institute in 1938-1943. The author focuses on the reasons for the formation of actors' studio in connection with the transformation of the Finnish Drama Theater KASSR into Karelian one. The article discusses the specifics of the work of theater schools in the 1930s which prepare the national personnel. Attention is focused on the stages of the formation of the Karelian studio and its composition. The work is based on a complex of methods with the dominance of the historical and biographical method. Variety of sources, mainly archival documents, have been used in the study, most of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. As a result of the work done, the personnel of the Karelian workshop was restored. It is concluded that the emergence of the national studio was caused by a complex of circumstances, the dominant role among which was played by the vector of national-state policy in the USSR.

From atoms to stars: an interactive theatre play based on ‘The Little Prince’ novella to describe spatial thinking

The implementation of theatre as a didactic tool for teaching science provides a new perspective on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in the construction of meaningful learning experiences. Gamification and collaborative work are functional strategies to teach scientific concepts in a creative way. However, there are still conceptual issues about spatial thinking that are difficult for students to understand owing to the lack of visualization of objects and their development through a characteristic chronicle. Here we show an innovative way to unifying science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) careers through the development of an interactive theatrical play inspired by The Little Prince novella, to promote a culture of integration of science, theatre and literature. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that the didactic strategies used are key ingredients in order to design an unique theatre play based on a link between history of atomic models and literature towards full understanding of spatial macroscales and microscales thinking. Due to the successful in the qualitative assessment results, we are devising to continue exploring the use of these didactic strategies to achieve an integrated and greater impact on students’ learning processes.

The Drama of Farm Hall: A Historian Ventures into Play Writing.

In this paper, the author, a historian, describes the challenges he encountered as he sought to turn the Farm Hall event and its surviving transcripts into a theatrical play. The play, Farm Hall, was produced in New York in 2014 and published in Cassidy 2017. This paper further discusses what the author learned about the nature and elements of a play, how he applied those lessons to his play, and the advantages and disadvantages of this genre for bringing historical events to the general public.

Smith and Smitherson’s Theatre of the Absurd

Smith and Smitherson’s Theatre of the Absurd

ТРЕНІНГ-ГРА ЯК ЗАСІБ ФОРМУВАННЯ ХОРЕОГРАФІЧНИХ УМІНЬ ТА НАВИЧОК В ДІТЕЙ МОЛОДШОГО ШКІЛЬНОГО ВІКУ

In the article the author considers game technologies in the process of choreographic training of children of primary school age. Implementation of these technologies is a training game that allows to reveal and develop the creative abilities of children who are engaged in choreography and to form in them choreographic skills and abilities. The significance and components of the training game, its goals and possible results in the pedagogical process are determined. Implementation of theatrical training-play for children of primary school age during choreography promotes the development of cognitive processes; release from muscle clamps, which will allow children to learn about their body, its capabilities and freely control it; liberation from psychological clamps, compression, fear of expressing their creativity in motion; formation of a cohesive creative team, where joy for the success of others, mutual assistance, understanding, mutual support and collective creativity prevails; development of emotionality and expressiveness of movements; development of facial expressions. The development of acting skills during staging is easier and more productive, because the child, having acquired the necessary knowledge, practicing the basic acting skills in exercises and sketches, can realize their acquired acting potential in a particular choreographic number. In our opinion, it is expedient to organize the development of acting skills of young children in choreography classes with the help of a special training-game that combines pedagogical, theatrical and game techniques. For children of primary school age, play activities are quite relevant, so theatrical play training will be a natural form of its existence and development. Training helps children discover their potential and not lose themselves in the process of growing up, maintain openness and sincerity, purity and perfection of the child, understanding this world through love. The game method is dominant, as the game process facilitates the process of memorizing and mastering exercises by younger students, as well as arouses interest in classes. The components of theatrical training-game are considered, which reveal to some extent the acting abilities of young choreographers: 1. Games for the formation of a cohesive team and dance pairs are mainly represented by group games or games in pairs, which form in children collectivism, elbow feelings and responsibility for partners. 2. Games for the development of creativity and expressiveness. Games promote the development of a child's memory, develop the stability of voluntary attention, improve creative activity. 3. Games to remove psychological clamps. Exercises and games to relax different muscle groups – «Sausages», «Bird Trap», «Disco» – should be included in classes to remove muscle and psychological clamps in children. 4. Games to build confidence on stage. Аll this in a set of special techniques and elements of theatrical training-play, gives the young choreographer the opportunity to realize his acting skills on stage and, accordingly, the manifestation of a higher level of choreographic performance.

Bringing disability experiences front stage: Research-based theatre as a teaching approach to promote inclusive health education

BackgroundDespite efforts to promote inclusion of people living with disabilities in health and human service education and professions, students and clinicians living with disabilities continue to face powerful barriers, arising most notably from the stigma and negative attitudes of their peers. Increased awareness of these lived experiences are needed to affect attitudinal changes and reduce barriers to participation in those professions. To achieve this, information (stories) must be presented to learners in a way that promotes emotional engagement and highlights these issues from multiple perspectives. The following study measures the impact of a Research based Theatre play, based on the collected experiences of people living with disabilities in health and human service professions, as a teaching approach for knowledge and attitudinal change among audiences. MethodThis mixed-methods study (pre and post surveys, groups and individual interviews) aimed at measuring the impact (knowledge and attitudinal change) incurred among audience members. In total, a 174 students, faculty, staff, and clinicians in health and human service professions across two major Canadian cities completed the surveys before and after witnessing the play. Of these, 20 participants also participated in follow-up interviews. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare the pre and post surveys while thematic content analysis was used for the interviews. ResultsTwo main themes emerged from combined analysis of both the quantitative and qualitative data. First, quantitative data revealed a significant change in participants' attitudes towards people living with disabilities which was corroborated by interview participants who expressed more comfort in their interactions with students and clinicians living with disabilities. Second, learners also reported meaningful and statistically significant change in their knowledge about the experiences of health and human service professionals living with disabilities. ConclusionsThe results of this study support applying Research-based Theatre as a teaching approach that can promote knowledge and attitudinal change among audiences and increase the inclusion and equity of people living with disabilities in health and human service education. Future research in this area might investigate Research-based Theatre's pedagogical impact using a randomized control design and measuring longer term impact.

А. Blok’s comprehension of the principles of Romanticism during his work at the Bolshoi Drama Theater (1919–1921)

The article raises the issue of Alexander Blok’s participation in the creation of the repertoire for Petrograd's Bolshoi Drama Theatre in the period from 1919 to 1921, the theoretical basis of which includes the idea of reviving the classics and returning to romanticism. In the process of work, the poet came to expand the category of romanticism, asserting the idea of its timelessness. As a result, the entire repertoire of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre acquired a single system, the purpose of which was to provide the viewer with the opportunity to look at the classics with new eyes in the light of the 1917 Revolution; then values were being breaking down and new principles of art, laid. Alexander Blok wanted to contribute to the updated system of priorities, highlighting his romantic hero – a revolutionary, a human with a pure, kind soul eager to create a just society built on the principles of goodness, which would be based on eternal values in the form of classics.

The dramaturgy of Ola Rotimi

This study examines the evolutional phases of Ola Rotimi as a dramatist and his contribution to Nigerian, African and world drama. In this study, some of Ola Rotimi’s plays are analysed, to investigate and document how his Yoruba and Ijaw cultural background became an important tool in the craftsmanship of his plays, especially those that comment on social issues. In addition, the study discusses the influence of Western drama on the drama of Ola Rotimi. Rotimi studied at Yale School of Drama and Boston University, in the United States of America. Consequently, his exposure to western dramatic theories, dramatic concepts, epochs in world drama and theatre shows, clearly, in many of his works. Furthermore, this study asserts that Rotimi was also influenced by the cultures of Yoruba Traditional Travelling Theatre, storytelling, rituals and festivals among the Yoruba people. The study relied primarily on secondary literature; and related Rotimi’s drama and theatre to Cremona’s (2007) concept of ‘Theatre as Poly-System’ and Sauter’s (2007) theory of ‘Theatrical Events’. Rotimi, in his dramaturgy, embraced ‘socio commitment’ by dramatizing issues that concern the Nigerian populace, in connection to socio-political and economic mishap, in his plays, such as Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again (1977), If … (1983), Hopes of the Living Dead (1988), the three-act plays: Who is a Patriot? When Criminals Turn Judges, Man Talk, Woman Talk, and Tororo, Torororo-ro-ro (2006).

Masters of Their Fates: Byron’s Marino Faliero and Brecht’s Epic Theater

ABSTRACT Byron has more than once been described as a “Brechtian” or “proto-Brechtian” dramatist, meaning that he anticipates the politicized, Marx-influenced dramatic theory and practice developed by Bertolt Brecht in the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing mainly on Byron’s historical tragedy Marino Faliero, this essay explores hitherto neglected implications of reading Byron in this way, by comparing Byron’s and Brecht’s approaches to tragedy, and to the closely related idea of fate. The essay first reads Faliero with Brecht’s Life of Galileo, surveying critical perspectives on the politics of Byron’s historical tragedy in the process. It then employs two key Marxist concepts—Marx’s Bestimmung (determination) and Jameson’s concept of “Necessity”—and uses two Renaissance intertexts—Machiavelli’s The Prince and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar—to further illustrate connections between Byron’s and Brecht’s writings about fate, tragedy, history, and politics. In so doing, the essay contends that the politics of Byron’s tragic drama is best understood using a “Brechtian” method of reading, derived in part from Brecht’s own comments on Galileo. It thus argues that reading Byron with Brecht remains highly productive, with potential well beyond the fascinating but fleeting moments of conjunction both writers have enjoyed in previous Byron criticism.

Between Fight and Theatrical Performance: Conceptual Metaphors of Positionality in Communication about Cooperative Religious Education in Germany

Whereas previous research has focused on religious education (RE), teachers’ religious attitudes, and personal religiosity, no studies to date have examined their experiences or discussion of positionality in a RE setting. The denominational-cooperative model of RE serves as a specific opportunity for such research since common denominational RE is a setting where denominational positionality seems to be an obvious factor beyond debate. Based on the analysis of RE teachers’ conversations on cooperative RE in Germany, the paper presents results of qualitative research into the conceptual metaphors of positionality and taking a position. In the analysis we found a consistent framing of experiences of positionality under three major conceptual metaphors with their source domains allocated to the semantic fields of motion, physical combat, and theatrical play. Since conceptual metaphors are assumed to stem from embodied experiences, to structure human thought, and can be found in language, the discussion of the data deals with the impression that these conceptual metaphors shape the RE teachers’ agency, i.e., the way they teach in the denominational-cooperative religious education classroom.

Little cinemas: Eugene O’Neill as screenwriter

In November of 1926, Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) wrote photoplays of two of his most successful and ambitious dramas of the 1920s, The Hairy Ape (1922) and Desire under the Elms (1924). O’Neill was motivated in part by the journalist and screenwriter Ralph Block’s promotion of the ‘little cinema’ movement, the prestige model of authorship that accompanied it as well as the movement’s actual momentum in New York in the late 1920s. Thus, optimism about the growth of an increasingly sophisticated audience as well as accounts of the innovative possibilities for film form promoted by the likes of Block and Victor O. Freeburg seem to have encouraged O’Neill to imagine a potential cinema in harmony with his own commitments to experimentalism and aesthetic autonomy. Although neither photoplay was ever produced, both bear the traces of O’Neill’s attentiveness to contemporary, intermedial theories of film and drama as well as the playwright’s own history of film viewing.

THE LEVEL OF TOURISM POTENTIAL OF THE TURKESTAN REGION

"Turkestan has been a trade center since ancient times, Ordo yntymak. Therefore, the transformation of Turkestan into a regional center is certainly one of the most mobile solutions of the Elbasy. Since this year, the value of the city on the Great Silk Road has been increasing. Turkestan region has a high tourism potential. A particularly priority area of the tourism cluster is a favorable transport infrastructure. The center of the region is the city of Turkestan – the golden nest of historical tourism. At the very beginning of the city, entertainment centers, modern hotels, cultural and historical centers, a drama theater, restaurants, celebration houses, a water park, spot recreation facilities, markets and supermarkets have been completely built for guests and residents of the city. There are places where tourists can provide a full range of quality services. The novelty of the article is that the city of Turkestan, which has long been considered spiritual Astana, is developing in a tourist cluster and receives millions of tourists a year. Tourism is one of the most dynamic sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy. Each region of Kazakhstan is a hotbed of a tourism cluster. The region located in the center of Eurasia, which became the Darkhan steppe of the Great Silk Road, a city was built from ancient times, cultural centers were built. Majestic rivers-lakes and massifs of rocks, forests and deserts testified to historical epochs. "

The process of word formation as the main problem of stage language

In the scientific article, the authors considered one of the main problems of stage speech - the features of the process of word formation and ways to develop it. In general, it is known that the language of the stage has a special place in the art of acting. This is because the five sections, which are the basis of the stage language, have a great role to play. Speaking on stage is one thing, word formation is another. While it is not easy to speak, the task of creating words is even more difficult and responsible for an actor. He was taught the language of the scene. Stage language, along with actors, is a subject that develops the speaking skills of directors, TV and radio presenters, lecturers, team leaders and public figures, as well as lawyers and judges. The authors of the scientific article analyzed the topic with many examples. For example, he analyzes the peculiarities of its pronunciation on the stage, quoting from the literary works of classical writers. Speaking on stage on a piece of paper, that is, the process of birth of the word, is widely discussed. In addition, it is clearly stated that the main parts of the stage language - diction, breathing, voice, orthoepy, work with the text are very useful in the process of word formation on stage. The method and method of learning the word is very similar and common for drama theater actors, musical theater actors, chamber or pop artists, opera artists, masters of rhetoric. Creating words on stage begins with controlling your inner feelings and mental agility. Avoiding the search for phonetics in speech, on the contrary, will only succeed if you try to reveal the psychology of the character. After all, through the word comes the image of the character. Speech skills and speech activity are mainly developed through the sense organs that influence the process of word formation. In particular, the process of word formation on stage begins with the development of speech techniques, recognition of the speech apparatus, mastering the breath and voice. Similarly, the authors of the article professionally analyze the internal and external words, which are important in the process of word formation, and provide evidence.