The article explores the theatricality of Russian folk dance and the principles of its formation within the choreographic culture of Russia. The aim of the research is to identify the fundamental principles underlying the theatricality of Russian folk dance. The article examines the development of Russian folk choreographic culture from its origins to the present day as a professional theatrical art form. The scientific novelty of the study lies in examining the historical evolutionary path of Russian folk dance, from its inception to its establishment on the theatrical stage, identifying specific stages in the development of national folk choreography as a professional art. The findings, based on the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships, indicate that Russian folk dance – inherently theatrical in nature – gradually absorbed the characteristics of performing arts throughout its long developmental history. This process led to a shift in the focus of the dramaturgy, vocabulary, choreographic patterns, and formations of folk dance; consequently, Russian dance as a whole began to be structured within the stage space based on theatrical principles.

To examine contemporary social issues, Girish Karnad's dramaturgy draws heavily on myth, folklore, and ritual theatre. An ecocritical reading sheds light on Karnad's mythic revisionism, gender politics, and postcolonial interventions, but the plays' intimate relationships between humans and nonhuman entities (snakes, forests, bodies, seasons) shed light on interdependence ethics, vegetal/animal agency, and the ecological effects of power and desire. This paper examines Naga-Mandala (1988) and Yayati (1961) through ecofeminist and ecocritical lenses. It combines contemporary Karnad readings, Indian environmental theory, and classical ecocriticism to argue that both plays imagine moral economies in which human arrogance and gendered violence are inseparable from ruptures in the world beyond human beings. The analysis demonstrates how Karnad's folklore and myths, theatrical staging, and symbolic metamorphosis produce an ethics of relationality that is still relevant to current discussions regarding sustainability, the commons, and the place that humans play in nature. Keywords: Girish Karnad, Indian theatre, ecocriticism, ecofeminism, myth, folklore, ritual, Naga-Mandala, Yayati, ecological ethics, human-nonhuman relations, metamorphosis.

The article examines a new direction in contemporary choreographic art—conceptual dance—which foregrounds the research-oriented mission of dance, its creators, and its performers. In this framework, dance functions as a means of exploring and interpreting the world. This approach is particularly relevant today, as Ukrainian dance art has taken on functions not previously characteristic of it: educational, cognitive, and reflective. It is also increasingly involved in art-therapy initiatives. The article analyzes performances included in the longlist of the GRA (Great Real Art) Festival and Award. The study finds that contemporary theater practice in Ukraine is marked by a growing number of dance productions and by choreographers moving beyond long-standing canonical forms. It also highlights that several dance works on the GRA longlist were created by directors on the stages of repertory drama theaters, where the performers were drama actors rather than professional dancers. This development has contributed to a new trend in contemporary Ukrainian choreography, namely the emergence of conceptual dance performances whose creators draw on elements traditionally associated with dramatic theater, bringing their personal artistic and human potential to the forefront. The article also notes that directors and choreographers increasingly devote special attention to stage design and lighting, which in each case help create emotional tension and an expressive artistic environment. To underscore the central aims of their productions, they often select distinctive musical materials—typically works by contemporary Ukrainian composers or elements of the folk heritage. Overall, the dance performances included in the GRA Festival longlist, diverse in choreographic vocabulary and professional level, demonstrate that Ukrainian dance practice is gradually but steadily taking on a research function, offering audiences a distinctive mode of exploring the self and the world through movement and the body.

Panic! (How to Be Happy!), Foreman’s 2003 theatrical “piece,” written, directed and designed by the playwright himself, tests the conventional limits imposed by both the characters’ bodies and the very structure of the theatrical stage. The present article proposes to re-appraise this composition as a new form of a theatrical work, that is, not a purely avant-garde or neo-surreal play, but a (Neo)Baroque dramatic phenomenon only seemingly restricted to and framed by the principles of spatial geometry. By celebrating the idea of fragmentation through the construction of the play and its short dialogues, and by accentuating and cherishing the creative potential of linguistic and set-design “rubbish,” Foreman encompasses in his work both the (Neo)Baroque and surreal art, and transforms them into an altogether new category. I shall call that new type of a dramatic creation a (Neo)Baroque play.

In the context of contemporary Lithuanian theatre, the most notable manifestations of the evolving dynamics between performer and role may be observed in the emergence of experience-based performances and embodied life stories. In recent years, a number of performances focusing on first-person narratives, often represented by non-actors, have emerged on the Lithuanian theatre stage. Performances based on first-person narratives and embodied life stories prompt spectators to engage with a particular mode of experiencing reality. The presence on stage of the very subjects of the narrated life stories intensifies the demand for authentic presence. Furthermore, it inevitably gives rise to questions concerning the nature of the relationship between reality and acting in the context of contemporary theatre. Using examples from recent Lithuanian theatre productions, this article analyses the emerging new ways of acting or embodying meanings, their underlying principles, historical development, and broader cultural implications.

Theatre has long served as a medium through which religious ideas are expressed, often by staging traditional myths and doctrines tied to institutional belief systems. This connection between theatre and religion has been well-documented in multiple scholarly discourses. More recently, scholars have also explored how certain performances evoke spiritual experiences through theatrical staging. However, contemporary research on aesthetic-religious experiences in performance tends to avoid the term «religious theatre» unless the work is explicitly connected to organized religion and communal belief. This article challenges that limitation by examining The Disorder of Desire (2022) and Einkvan (2024), two Norwegian performances that operate outside conventional religious frameworks. Drawing on a broader definition of religion as engagement with narrative worlds involving superhuman forces, and using the concept of immanent transcendence, the analysis explores how these works construct religious meaning and offer audiences experiences that may be understood as religious in nature. The aim is to propose a more inclusive understanding of «religious theatre»—one that reflects contemporary shifts in the study of religion and aesthetics.

This essay critically examines Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, a semi-autobiographical play that was published in 1956 after his death. Long Day’s Journey into Night is considered to be O’Neill’s masterpiece, and his attempt at coming to terms with a traumatic past. The play offers not only an examination of O’Neill’s life, but is also one of the earliest works to explore the important themes and dangers of substance abuse, addiction, and alcoholism when these matters were generally shunned from the public theater stage for fear of glamorizing them. O’Neill wanted the text to be published twenty-five years after his death; however, his widow decided to publish it just three years after he died. In this essay Mary Tyrone, a character based on O’Neill’s mother, will be analyzed from the perspective of Medical Humanism and Geopathology. Medical Humanism is an approach that seeks to develop a humanist understanding of characters in literature, and examine how illness affects them, while Geopathology (coined by Una Chaudhuri) is a term that stands for the analysis of locations and how they affect their residents in modern drama. Medical Humanism and Geopathology will be used in tandem to explore how the Tyrone summer house (Mary’s residence) impacts Mary’s addiction and illness in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the character.

Introduction. Theatre, as a phenomenon, as a world, and as a subtle instrument of artistic and social cognition and change of reality, provides rich opportunities for the formation of primary school children’s personality and for the development of creative abilities through theatrical activities. The analysis of scientific research has shown that the children’s theatre influences the development of cognitive abilities, empathy, and communication skills, and contributes to the intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual development of children. The aim of the article was to undertake an experimental survey to test the effectiveness of theatrical activities in a children’s theatre as a means of developing the creative abilities of primary school pupils. Materials and methods. The sample comprised 30 pupils from the Raduga Children’s Theatre under Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, and of the 4th-year learners’ stream from High School No. 5 (Russian Federation). The first group consisted of schoolchildren covering an additional general education programme “Creative and Acting Development of Schoolchildren” at the Raduga Children’s Theatre under Kazan Federal University (15 learners). The second group involved 15 pupils from the 4th-year stream at Municipal Budget-Funded General Education Institution High School No. 5 of Zelenodolsk Municipal District of the Republic of Tatarstan. Yu.S. Lyubimova’s test assignments were processed according to the level of development of theatrical abilities in six areas: “Fundamentals of Theatre Culture”, “Speech Culture”, “Emotional and Imaginative Development”, “Musical Development”, “Fundamentals of Visual Arts and Design”, and “Fundamentals of Group Activities”. KEYWORDS children’s theatre, creative abilities, primary school pupils Results. Being trained under the authorial programme “Development of Creative Abilities of Primary School Children in Children’s Theatre”, the pupils of the first (experimental) group demonstrated a higher level of knowledge and competence in theatrical activities than the pupils of the second (control) group. The performance indicators of the first group proved to be much higher compared to the results of the second group. Their knowledge outpaced the second-group learners’ result by 60% in the block “Fundamentals of Theatre Culture”, in the block “Speech Culture” – by 63%, in the block “Emotional and Imaginative Development” – by 60%, in the block “Musical Development” – by 48%, in the block “Fundamentals of Visual Arts and Design” – by 59%, and in the block “Fundamentals of Group Activities” – by 58%. The second-group learners mostly demonstrated an average level of knowledge and competence in theatrical activities in all six blocks. Moreover, one-fifth of the second group pupils demonstrated a low level of knowledge and competencies. In particular, in the block “Fundamentals of Theatre Culture” – 21%, in the block “Speech Culture” – 26%, in the block “Emotional and Imaginative Development” – 21%, in the block “Musical Development “ – 22%, in the block “Fundamentals of Visual Arts and Design” – 20%, and in the block “Fundamentals of Group Activities” – 22%. Conclusion. The proposed methodology for developing the creative abilities of primary school children based on theatrical activities under the authorial programme “Development of Creative Abilities of Primary School Children in Children’s Theatre” is unique. The research on the performance under this programme proves the need to organise special developmental and educational work with children in theatrical activities. The children’s theatre creates a special educational environment which develops primary school children’s cognitive abilities, emotional sphere, creative and intellectual abilities, and communication skills. The significance of the research results lies in the systemic approach to teaching and developing learners through participating in the children’s theatre. The system of developmental classes is aimed at the gradual formation of creative and acting abilities in primary school children. In the learning process, children not only become familiar with the basics of the theatre world, speech culture, declamatory speech and stage movement, as well as the rules of collective creative interaction, but also learn to write scripts for performances, produce theatre programmes and posters, and make stage costumes. Children’s theatre becomes a huge creative workshop for primary school pupils, enabling children to enter the wider world as creators and innovators.

This study explores how Shi Lifeng’s painting The Puppet Player constructs and communicates political narratives through visual symbolism. Despite the frequent use of Mao Zedong’s imagery in Chinese contemporary art, limited research examines how Lifeng’s visual language functions as a political statement. Using Roland Barthes’ semiotic framework—denotation, connotation, and myth—this qualitative study analyzes color, spatial composition, object symbolism, and figure gestures in the artwork. The analysis reveals that dominant red hues, hierarchical composition, and theatrical staging signify ideological control and social struggle. These visual strategies expose how authority and manipulation are normalized through aesthetic codes. The findings highlight Lifeng’s critical stance toward power structures and his use of design principles to challenge political memory. This research contributes to the discourse of visual communication by demonstrating how semiotic analysis can decode layered meanings in politically charged imagery, offering insights for designers and researchers in understanding symbolism and narrative construction within visual art.

The essay highlights how Luigi Pirandello’s work, actualized in its various reinterpretations over the course of the 2000s, of which only a few are given as examples, is a reflection of the contradictions of the world and humanity, embodied mostly in the characters: unhappy individuals without ideals, placed in a precise era and social context, the petty and middle bourgeoisie of the early 20th century, though endowed with a universal character, capable of transcending time and historical fact. All of Pirandello’s dramatic art responds to the desire to bring to the page and the theatrical stage such an insight: the conception of existence as an enduring disagreement between face and mask, thus between reality and fiction. And the first of all feelings to fall into the grip of appearances is love, which, like the dream, in the mechanisms of bourgeois social life loses its naturalness and becomes illusion and condemnation. The appearance of love, therefore, provides the possibility of reading the world in the terms of a perennial conflict between ideal and real, and it is noted how the dreamlike universe concretely affects reality, with traumatic consequences that lack a rational explanation: not coincidentally, madness for Pirandello is a long dream and the real mystery of the world is the visible.

ABSTRACT Theatrical traditions are deeply rooted in a society’s history, geography, religion, and cultural values. This study explores the aesthetic evolution of Yoruba theatre, tracing its development from the ritualistic Alarinjo performances through Hubert Ogunde’s professional theatre, the literary and television stages, to the digital filmmaking era. It examines aesthetic elements such as language, costume, music, dance, setting, scripting, themes, cinematic techniques, and mise-en-scène, highlighting how these reflect both cultural continuity and transformation. Using a qualitative methodology grounded in performance theory and aesthetics, the study analyzes selected films to assess how these elements convey meaning in shifting socio-cultural contexts. Findings show that while certain aesthetic values endure, others have been reshaped by socio-political change, technological innovation, and global media influences. By blending indigenous traditions with modern platforms, Yoruba theatre has maintained its cultural essence while evolving to meet new aesthetic and technological demands. This paper contributes to African performance studies by offering a theoretically informed account of how Yoruba theatre negotiates the complex interplay between tradition and modernity.

The Colectivo Teatral de Bojayá has chosen to bring a collective pain into the public sphere and to narrate the conflict from the perspective of the victims. Here, we address the artistic work of this group to understand how staging updates and re-signifies the links between territory, body, and memory. We emphasize the meaning of constructing with the body a poetic that claims its relation to a place. Drawing on theatrical productions, stagings, dramaturgies, and actors’ experiences, we analyze the role of theater in commemorative practices carried out in the ruins of the old town. We argue that theatrical language has been a poetic and political device enabling the reconnection between body and territory through a critical artistic proposal oriented to the construction of memory.

The article situates Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice within his thematic exploration of ‘women on the verge of a nervous breakdown’ and examines how it queers female rage. Inspired by Jean Cocteau’s play, Almodóvar’s adaptation includes a different ending and a distinctive combination of theatrical staging and cinematic naturalism. Through analyses of the narrative, production design and characterization, the article interprets female rage as a legitimate emotion in human relationships, intimately bound to neo-liberal self-management and affective injustice. Almodóvar’s protagonist’s emotional trajectory – from helplessness to rage – can be seen as a political gesture that challenges traditional feminine ideals. Furthermore, the protagonist’s gender-neutral appearance blurs her absent partner’s sexuality, thereby destabilizing heteronormative desire and expanding the emotional register of female subjectivity.

This article explores how contemporary British theatre stages the emergence of a ‘geo-social class’ – a concept proposed by Bruno Latour and Nikolaj Schultz to describe solidarities formed around ecological vulnerability rather than traditional economic structures. Through readings of Zinnie Harris’s Further than the Furthest Thing , Kae Tempest’s Paradise and Stef Smith’s The Outrun , the article examines how remote island settings articulate new class identities shaped by climate crisis, extractivism and colonial legacies. These plays reimagine class through territoriality, multispecies kinship and shared precarity. Islands become sites where ecological collapse intersects with migration, gender and survival, enabling new forms of resistance and care. Engaging feminist, ecological and materialist frameworks, the article argues that these dramaturgies not only critique dominant systems but also offer performative blueprints for solidarities ‘down to earth’ – rooted in land, place and the conditions of habitability.

This article examines the formation and mainstreaming of creative labour in Soviet society. Because the Soviet cultural revolution did not completely destroy the old foundations of society, but rather transformed them into a new form, Soviet culture was not rebuilt anew; it preserved the past while adding new, original features. One of the elements of this innovation was the development of a different attitude toward labour than the traditional one. From the very first years of Soviet power, efforts were made to liberate society from all forms of alienation, including alienation from labour. Characteristic features were the cultivation of enthusiasm, camaraderie, and the development of social labour. As a result, labour (physical or artistic) began to be perceived as a creative process. A striking example of this, in our opinion, is the activities of theatre groups during the Great Patriotic War. During the Soviet era, theatre is viewed, on the one hand, as a sociocultural institution, one of the primary transmitters of the cultural and social values of the multiethnic Soviet society, whether traditional Russian ones or newly emerging. On the other hand, it is viewed as a collective action, where artists inspired others with their personal example of labour and the fight against invaders. During the war, theatre repertoires primarily included military themes, but productions not only demonstrated the tragedy of those years but also the significance of labour exploits. Frontline theaters and brigades were established, and theatrical companies actively toured not only to remote settlements but also to the front lines. This article demonstrates that theatre art embodied the propaganda of the just nature of the war, strengthening friendship between peoples, and loyalty to socialist ideas. It illustrates the unifying significance and role of regional theatre figures in calling for labour exploits, fostering patriotic sentiments, and consolidating multiethnic Soviet society. The author concludes that during the Soviet years, an attitude toward labour as a creative process developed, regardless of whether it was physical or intellectual, in an artist's studio or on a theatre stage. The importance of this perception of labour was clearly demonstrated during the Great Patriotic War. Using the work of theatre companies as an example, it was revealed that both the theatre workers themselves and the products of their work demonstrated the need for labour exploits, social and military service.

The article reveals the creative activity of the only state Jewish theater group that existed in the 1980s in the RSFSR, the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater (CJMT) in Birobidzhan. The author briefly dwells on the peculiarities of the appearance and creativity of this troupe, which has its own unique style, which allowed it to earn success not only in the USSR, but also abroad. The object of the research was the performances of the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater dedicated to the tragic events of the Great Patriotic War, the genocide of the Jewish people carried out by the fascist invaders. The author emphasizes that attempts to address this topic were made by the first Jewish collective of the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), the Birobidzhan State Jewish Theater named after L. Kaganovich during the Great Patriotic War, for propaganda purposes, as for the performances of the new Jewish theater, which appeared in the RSFSR in 1976, they were noticeably different from the productions undertaken by the first Jewish collective of the JAR. It should be noted that the article for the first time reveals the content of individual plays based on performances – “Tango of Life”, “Higher than Life, Higher than Death”, staged on the stage of the Jewish theater in Birobidzhan during the jubilee years of Victory Day celebrations. At the same time, the theme of the performances analyzed by the author of the article was not devoted to the heroic struggle, not to the exploits of people committed on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, but to the tragic fate of the Jewish people who were subjected to total genocide, ordinary people who found themselves in the territories occupied by the Nazis. As the author notes, this topic was raised for the fi rst time and with good reason. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the article for the fi rst time indicates the names and surnames of actors who played on the stage of the Jewish theater. Using a comprehensive method that combined a source-based analysis of articles from periodicals, archival documents and memoirs, it was possible to state that the performances discussed in the article played an important role in the creative activity of the young cast, revealed its capabilities as a drama troupe. In conclusion, the author states the relevance of this topic in modern conditions, due to the observed growth of nationalism in some countries of the world.

Abstract This article defines “Spirit Dance” and its practices; it furthers an understanding of the powerful impact of dance in religious rituals across the American African diaspora for the past three centuries. The article focuses on the relevance of Spirit Dance on theatrical and educational stages and compares Spirit Dance in several cultures before concentrating on those African-rooted religious dances found in Caribbean, Latin American, and US sites. The article also documents the profound injection of West and Central African dances into the US during the 1950s and 1960s. It relies pointedly on the experience over time of researching and teaching African dance in the Americas, reveling in the individual and group affect that Spirit Dance produces. In sum, the article encourages Spirit Dance on stages and in concert spaces so that more people will profit from its affect and uplift.

The purpose of the study is to explore the evolution of artistic interpretation and stage adaptation of Mykola Gogol’s works in Ukrainian theatrical art. The research methodology includes historical-cultural, comparative, and art analysis, which allows for identifying the evolution of directorial approaches in the staging of Gogol’s motifs. The study is based on the analysis of scholarly works, memoirs, reviews, and theatrical productions, which made it possible to trace the development of directorial decisions regarding Mykola Gogol’s works. Scientific novelty lies in identifying changes in the interpretation of Gogol’s themes within the context of Ukrainian theatre, as well as in characterising the creative experiments of theatre directors. Conclusions. The literary legacy of Mykola Gogol is an essential part of the Ukrainian theatrical process. Timeless in nature, it is capable of reflecting both tradition and innovation, proving that it is not an archaic inheritance, but a living and flexible medium that can enrich contemporary theatre with new meanings and forms. The representation of Mykola Gogol’s creative heritage on the Ukrainian theatre stage has undergone noticeable transformations over nearly a century. These changes were significantly influenced by political events, ideological dominants, and the cultural background of each historical period. Today, the theatrical portrayal of Gogol not only includes romanticized ethnography but also reflects a postcolonial perception of the reality depicted in his works. Currently, Ukrainian cultural space presents Gogol’s legacy as part of the national cultural heritage, cleansing it from Russian ideological interpretations. Today, the artist’s works are staged in various forms – from classical performances to experimental theatre, where modern technologies allow the audience to immerse themselves in Gogol’s world of imagery in entirely new ways.

The article explores the post-exilic experience of Andrei Șerban following the fall of Ceaușescu’s communist dictatorship in late 1989, when he returned from the USA and was appointed general director of the ‘I.L. Caragiale’ National Theatre of Bucharest. His tenure between 1990 and 1993 was the most productive in the history of the National Theatre up to that point, and was seen as a revolutionary period, when Șerban recreated the legendary performance An Antique Trilogy, initially played at La MaMa Theatre in New York in the 70s under the title Fragments of a Greek Trilogy. By examining issues of nationalism, exile, and patriotic sentiments connecting the theatrical stage with the social stage of that moment, this article examines the contributions of the artist to the renewal of the national stage and of the national cultural identity in post-communist Romania between 1990 and 1993. The theoretical framework draws from studies on exile and research in nationalism.

Book Review: Staging Germanness in Contemporary British Theatre Staging Germanness in Contemporary British Theatre. By PrestwichJoseph. Cambridge: Legenda, 2025. Pp. 155 (hardback), £95, $120, €120 (also available through open access: doi10.59860/t.c6ad131)