Theatrical Form Research Articles

Sublimul trădării

In his volume, "The Sublime of Betrayal", Sorin Crișan meditates on the role of theater as a living mirror of life. The book discusses the concept of working through an artistic context, in contrast to a psychoanalytic one, and discusses the concept of Brechtian distancing and mimesis, inspired by Roland Barthes, emphasizing the interplay between thought and perception in contemporary theatre. The themes of the sacred and the profane are discussed in relation to Mircea Eliade's theories and Husserl's phenomenology, to highlight how theater transcends everyday reality and opens new perspectives on human existence. The volume thus becomes a thorough analysis of the theater as a space of imagination and reflection, combining aesthetics and philosophical discourse finally, exploring the diversity of theatrical forms, from ritual to performance. Sorin Crișan significantly contributes to the understanding of theater not only as a performing art, but also as an intellectual and spiritual process, inaugurating specific ways of cognition for both the actor and the spectator.

‘Repeat Play’: Repetition and Truth-telling in Play, Faith Healer, and Irish Monologic Theatre

This essay argues that the critical consensus concerning Brian Friel’s Faith Healer (1979) as the origin play for an Irish tradition of monologue theatre overlooks the indebtedness of Friel’s first monologue drama to Samuel Beckett’s Play (1963) and, in so doing, obfuscates Beckett’s influence in the evolution of Irish monologic theatre. Tracing the reliance of Play and Faith Healer on musical structures of variation and recurrence, the essay discerns the reach of their interrogation of dramatic storytelling and argues that the subversion of truth-telling in these key plays has exercised a profound influence on the approach to the monologue form in contemporary Irish theatre. The essay examines how Play operates a comprehensive critique of the aesthetic and epistemological traditions upon which western theatre has developed and how through its compulsion to repeat itself reduces theatre to a visceral demand for judgment. The complex forms of duplication in Faith Healer are similarly read in relation to an audience’s desire for narrative coherence and, reading the play against its Beckettian precursor, the essay demonstrates how these dramas not only problematise dramatic narrative but, more fundamentally, disrupt an audience’s relationship with theatrical presence. The essay concludes with a consideration of Play and Faith Healer as predecessors to the monologic turn in Irish theatre, arguing that the Irish monologue not only speaks back to socio-political narratives but contests theatre’s claim to truth-tell.

„Комедията без смях“ на Пиер Корней и нейната роля за развитието на класицистичната комедия във Франция

The emerging neoclassical dramaturgy in France (1720s and 1730s) explicitly sought its aesthetic foundations in ancient poetics and practices. Inspired by a rather radical interpretative development of these by Heinsius, the French playwright Pierre Corneille pursued the ambitious goal of creating an entirely new classical comedy that would not need any laughter. This article contextualizes and analyses his conception, elucidates its aesthetic underpinnings, and traces its practical realizations in order to situate this seemingly quirky aesthetic experiment in the development of comedy through the century and beyond and to affirm its value to that development. It concludes by outlining the aesthetic and dramaturgical stakes of the concept of “comedy without laughter”, designed primarily to differentiate the emerging neoclassical comedy from any old comic theatrical forms, but also to seek out and experiment with new and diverse techniques for creating comedy and generating laughter within it. The hybrid methodology of the work combines global analyses of dramatic and theoretical texts by Pierre Corneille and Heinsius, respectively, with some general statements and analytical reflections and conclusions on the establishment of the neoclassical aesthetics of comedy and the assertion and development of laughter strategies in it. The conclusion establishes the “comedy without laughter” as a non-negligible stage in the development of comedy and comic laughter in the century, which has culminated later in the works of Molière. Recognizing, understanding, and enlightening its role is important and necessary for a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of modern comedy, which have been developed since the seventeenth century and underlie contemporary comic theatrical forms as well.

Amma La: Reflective Account of a Participatory Mixed Theatre Method in Migration Research in India

This article presents the methodological process of interpreting the ethnographic data of my research about the question of Indian citizenship for Tibetan refugees in India as a theater play titled “Amma la” (meaning “mother” in Tibetan). I present the enacting of the theater play “Amma la” with young Tibetans in India (2019) at three different institutions. I argue that performing the theater play “Amma la” with Tibetan participants in 2019 is a method of enacting the research findings in a participatory, collaborative, creative, and novel way that opens up possibilities for shared meanings and transformative re-interpretation of the data within an embodied, artistic, and performative dimension. I argue that the performance of the theater play “Amma la” sits theoretically at the intersection of verbatim theater, political theater, and participatory drama as well as forum theater and physical theater. It could also be argued that the theater play “Amma la” constitutes a form of experimental theater that is not complete and foreclosing, but processual and prospective. And finally, performing “Amma la” is a form of process drama, focusing on improvisation, and the process of creating and acting a scene for the benefit of the participants-actors, and not on the polished and rehearsed performances for a specific audience. For these reasons, I argue that “Amma la” is constructed on and theoretically supported by what I will simply call participatory mixed theater methods.

Ecclesiastical Content of Byzantine Theatre (Antiphon, Trop)

This article precedes a number of publications devoted to the study of cultural and historical interaction of such different, fundamentally not coinciding, not reducible to each other, but not separate from each other phenomena of social life as art and religion, in particular, the church and theatre. This paper uses the material of Byzantine theatre to examine the validity of the hypothesis of the origin of European drama and theatre from liturgical drama through the church antiphon and literary trope. The tendentious categoricity of the erroneous statement, accepted in science as a heuristic hypothesis, about the influence of residual-rudimentary forms of ancient theatre on the formation of the Christian church rite (antiphonal singing) is considered. It is shown that the Christian antiphon cannot be connected with the ancient theatre because of the centuries-old absence of the chorus in the dramatic action. It is argued that church ritual develops from an “inner form” proceeding from the immanent properties and qualities of the divine liturgy. Since this formulation of the question is carried out for the first time, it represents the relevance and scientific novelty of the present study.The version of the origin of Western European theatre from the literary trope, proceeding from the laws of drama as a literary genre, is established by philological tradition without taking into account the specifics of the dramatic event proper. The conclusion is made that the genesis of theatre does not come from the laws of literary processes, but is connected with them through internal interactions. Historically, Byzantine theatre, an integral and autonomous phenomenon of theatrical culture, ceased to exist in the middle of the 15th century, having failed to realize its dynamic potential of dramatic art. Nevertheless, the relevance of the prospective study confirms the facts of the Byzantine theatre’s indirect influence on the substantive aspects, as well as its direct impact on the formation of a new type of dramatic conflict — “internal”, in the development of Western European and, to a greater extent, Russian theatre.

Musical Contacts Between the Polish and Jewish Communities and the Image of Jewish Culture in Nineteenth-Century Polish Popular Music

Enduring contacts between Polish and Jewish communities on Polish soil began to take shape around the turn of the thirteenth century, initiating a period of many centuries of mutual cultural and musical influence. Extant sources, although few and far between (normative documents, chronicles, journalistic accounts, commentaries from observers and scholars, iconography, sheet music, recorded music and films), enable us to follow the development of the mutual musical relations between the two national groups over time. Yet this article concentrates primarily on the state of those relations during the nineteenth century, limited to popular culture. Taking the works of Oskar Kolberg as an example, we will discuss the repertoire of the Jewish community at that time, as perceived and received by the Polish community. This will be followed by a presentation of Jewish music groups that played for Poles as well, and also of particularly popular Jewish musicians who were singled out by journalists at that time. The article also presents the way in which Jews and their musical culture were depicted by Polish journalists and portrayed in the musical expression of representatives of rural and urban communities.The article shows that the image of Jews and their musical culture among different strata of Polish society during the nineteenth century varied a great deal. The virtuosity of Jewish musicians aroused interest and admiration among the Polish intelligentsia and acquired a mythologised personification in the literary figure of Jankiel. Lower social strata, when taking up Jewish strands in their musical expression, were often reacting to conflicts of interest experienced in their contacts with Jews representing a pre-capitalist economy. Jews in ritual and everyday situations constituted important ritual symbols bringing in wealth, and their very presence in theatrical forms was perceived partly as evidence of the veracity of biblical events. References to Jewish culture in the musical expression of the Polish community were confined to the most common stereotypes, which attests to the superficiality of the contacts between the two communities. Against that background, the actual idiom of Jewish music was far better understood, imitated and copied.

СЦЕНАТА КАТО МЯСТО ЗА СЪТРУДНИЧЕСТВО И УСВОЯВАНЕ НА УМЕНИЯ ЗА ЖИВОТА

The report examines an experimental experience of cooperation between the ‘Bratya Grimm’ kindergarten and students from NBU, Theater Department during the ‘Bratya Grimm’ International Fairy Tale Festival in Shumen in April 2024. Literary sources show the importance of theater for children of preschool age, the possibilities for emotional, mental and physical development. The role of art as a means and method of learning is also described. Aspects of cooperation and interaction that develop the skills of both participating parties – students and children – are presented, as well as factors infl uencing this cooperation. The benefits and questions left after the experiment from the perspective of teachers, students and children are listed. opportunities for development in this direction of interaction in theatrical forms between adults and children on stage have been identified.

Examining the Recent Drama of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus: A Review Article

Abstract: A theatrical boom in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus over the past two decades has introduced highly political content on stage, along with fresh and innovative new theatrical forms. New Drama, the leading movement within this theatrical boom, captures authentic speech using the verbatim technique and confronts the weighty socio-political situations that all three countries attempt to silence on the national level. Two new volumes of Ukrainian plays since the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia demonstrate the breadth and excellence of contemporary Ukrainian playwrighting.

Opera by Telephone in the Pacific Northwest, circa 1895

This article traces the phenomenon of opera by telephone in late nineteenth-century British Columbia, with a focus on a local 1895 production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (1879). Examining the scrapbooks of prominent New Westminster figure, William Andrew DeWolf-Smith, this research centres on an “ingenious telephone arrangement” that allowed remote audience members to listen to live theatrical performances via telephone (or “theatre phone”). This study considers the historical, technological, and theoretical aspects of the theatre phone, including its impact on theatre reception. With reference to sound studies scholar Adrian Curtin’s work, this study investigates how the theatre phone created a novel listening experience, enabling a new form of private audio theatre among a network of synchronous “shadow audiences.” The theatre phone represents a significant turning point in local media history, which is linked to broader developments in communications technologies during the period. In addition to examining its role as an emerging business venture, the author also explores its significance as an accessibility tool that enabled remote audiences to access theatrical performances from a distance.

Huellas creativas de la obra <i>Los otros hombres en Eva</i>

This article shares the methodological guidelines carried out by the actors/researchers of the IPROCAE research group (Investigation of Creative Processes in performing Arts) belonging to the Facultad de Arte of the UNCPBA, and its main objetive is to study their own performing practice simultaneously with their realization in the work Los otros hombres en Eva. The análisis of the creative process is developed base don the study of the genesis, on the figure of Eva Duarte de Peron and the different artistic approaches related to her mummification; examining the relationship between Theater and politics, in the form of militant theater of the 70s in Argentina; and reflexionating about the role of chance, or the existing random processes in the production of the contemporary Theater field, where it is used as a creative procedure and scenic construction tool.

THE CURRENT TREND OF MODERN THEATRICAL CULTURE: AN INDEPENDENT THEATRICAL FORMAT

The presented study reflects an attempt to make an excursion into the essential world of modern theatrical art, appealing to the notion of the present time as a «realm of visualization» and the complication of forms to the opposition of conflicting aspirations, which, from the author's point of view, appears to be the main impulse of the theatrical experiment. The essential and content features of independent theatrical format are analyzed. It is emphasized that since its inception, the theater has been an artistic way of explaining life, understanding the world and man's place in it, a detailed projection of the socio-historical context of the era. As a procedural phenomenon, but practically not amenable to fixation – fixation and preservation in physical evidence – this is a phenomenon that arises here and now in empathy, coexistence, which is why it is so relevantly effective and focused on continuous searches and experiments. Speaking about the pressing global trends in the field of culture, it is important to note that the reassessment of values on a global scale is invariably updated: the world passionately clings to the past, but cannot stand still, entering a new era, which is characterized by new general cultural values. Their conductor is the modern theater – the viewer receives something that causes him ambiguous emotions and reactions, which predetermines the motivation of internal intellectual activity. It is summarized that the experimental theater under consideration is a multifaceted construction, basically correlated with the realities of everyday life, but asserting its own artistic laws that dominate life, focused on finding an adequate language for the actual dialogue between theater and modern society. This is a form of: artistic and figurative comprehension of today's reality, ascending to an intuitive understanding of what lies on the other side of the visible and tangible; experiencing creative power as a way to improve the «world of man»; coding of aesthetic experience and comprehended truth; modeling the knowable and meaningful as the avant-garde of artistic resistance.

How Much Land Does a Man Need?: Indian theatre as inspiration and Kathakali in performing Lev Tolstoy

Indian theatre is currently studied at a theoretical level in Romanian academic theatre institutes, including both state and private universities. Particularly, one of the Indian theatre forms, Kathakali, is studied with an emphasis on the actor’s physicality in the play; however, the use of specific acting techniques from Kathakali is highly encouraged in the construction of new performances that the students create. Even if it is a highly coded form of theatre and difficult to understand if one does not have the required training, there are students who opt to use several performative elements of the theatre form in their productions to create a valuable intercultural dialogue with diverse cultural and artistic references. Throughout this article, I propose a concise analysis of how I elected to use some elements of the theatre form in the composition of a role within the university. The understanding of these cultural choices and how studying even theoretical forms of theatre or dance-theatre, even if they are conceptually distanced from us, can help us expand our creative area – an important matter for many European creators.

Ryan Claycomb. In the Lurch: Verbatim Theatre and the Crisis of Democratic Deliberation

This book examines the political potential of the new forms of verbatim theatre that emerged in the early 1990s, exploring how the rise of populism and the political lurch to the right evident in the United States, the United Kingdom, and across Europe has shaped the political potential of this work.

On Uncomfortable Theatre and Cozy Revolution

This article examines the contemporary trend of participatory performance pieces that seek to arouse discomfort in spectators and contemplates the radical potential of pieces that instead solicit coziness. Through it, Lynch highlights and deconstructs common assumptions about affect and politics in participatory theatre. The author begins by delineating the terms of the discussion, defining participatory performance broadly: as works that directly or indirectly invite the physical and/or intellectual participation of their audiences. In doing so, she connects more conventional forms of participatory theatre (which ask for spectators’ physical involvement), with modes of performance like direct audience address that more subtly call for participation and are often left out of discussions of participation and performance. Noting that “cozy” modes of affect associated with warmth and care may more often be scrutinized for their political potential, Lynch argues that performances that employ discomfort as part of their political strategies, which might be similarly limited, are often not subject to the same scrutiny. Using Adam Lazarus’s bouffon piece Daughter as a grounding example, she then explores some of the limits of discomfort as an approach to political engagement. Lynch discusses how discomfort can be deployed in reductive ways that may in some cases undermine the political points these pieces strive to make by centring the status quo and disproportionately distributing discomfort across heterogeneous audiences. Finally, as a counterpoint to the way uncomfortable theatre is often conceptualized, she offers some brief thoughts on what revolutionary theatre that engages with coziness might look like or be.

Voicing with Code in Public

Voice Your Celebration was a public computing installation at Canada’s National Music Center, which offered a re-staging of computer code as a heterotopic form of participatory theatre. In the same way that the stage and the script can stand in between the audience on one hand, and actors and creators of a play on the other, in performances involving live digital art, pre-written code can also separate the coder and creators from the interacting audience. In this paper, we illustrate how Voice Your Celebration sought to address this divide by creating opportunities for the audience to become participants in the code itself by incorporating their voices and stories as integral parts of a widely used computational algorithm (Reynolds’s algorithm) for simulating flocking behaviour.

Augmented total theatre: shaping the future of immersive augmented reality representations

Abstract This work introduces Augmented Total Theatre (ATT), a new theatrical form that combines Total Theatre with Augmented Reality (AR) to transform theatrical experiences. We first explore ATT features, highlighting its capabilities in creating theatrical representations that surpass traditional theatre. We also examine current technological limitations that hinder the deployment of ATT potential. We venture then into a journey into the future, particularly focusing on the next decade. We try to envisage the evolution of AR and assess whether future advancements will yield a form of AR capable of creating digital worlds that can deceive human senses. Additionally, we explore the role of Generative AI systems in addressing the problems that hold back the current ATT. Specifically, we probe the feasibility of a cost-effective, autonomous, and highly efficient generative AI system to reshape and empower ATT, making it capable of real-time production of (theatrical and non-theatrical) representations of many events in the world. Finally, we try to imagine the ATT of the future: a sophisticated device that integrates cutting-edge AR technology with a super-performing generative AI system. This ATT, transcending its theatrical origins, emerges as a powerful tool for augmenting our sensory experiences and enriching our perception of reality.

New horizon in improving ageing with improvisational theatre.

Cognitive decline, mental health and mindset factors can all affect the autonomy and well-being of older adults. As the number of older adults across the globe increases, interventions to improve well-being are urgently needed. Improvisational theatre (improv) and improv-based interventions are well-suited to address this need. Studies have shown that participation in improv-based interventions has a positive impact on mental health indicators, including depressive symptoms, well-being and social connectedness, as well as cognitive skills such as attention and memory. In addition, improv-based interventions have been beneficial for people with dementia, improving positive affect, self-esteem and communication. In this article, we describe improvisational theatre, or improv, and the reasons it has emerged from a form of spontaneous theatre that involves playfulness and creativity to an important tool to effect behavioural change in individuals and groups. We then review the literature on the effects of improv in ageing populations, with a focus on social, emotional and cognitive functioning. Finally, we make recommendations on designing improv-based interventions so that future research, using rigorous quantitative methods, larger sample sizes and randomised controlled trials, can expand the use of improv in addressing important factors related to autonomy and well-being in older adults.

Playback Theatre applications: A systematic review of literature

Playback Theatre (PT) was created as an improvised form of theatre based on the sharing of personal narratives by members of an audience that, in turn, are reciprocated by playback actresses and actors (“playbackers”) in the form of theatre-like artistic performances. From the beginning, its characteristics as a group process and therapeutic potential have been discussed. As this increasingly more common approach to storytelling most often seeks to stimulate individual and/or communal emotional growth/healing, the literature on it is also increasing. However, a significant portion of said literature has been focused on anecdotal type of reporting. Given the latter, we put together a systematic review of the literature on PT, geared towards identifying the literature sources that report evaluations, either qualitative or quantitative, of PT applications. Hence, our aim was to produce a comprehensive summary of the effects that have been reported in evaluation-centered studies of PT applications of all scopes. We searched four major electronic databases (PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus) for PT interventions between 1990 and June 2023. The quality of the studies gathered was evaluated by considering both the existence or absence of a control group and the reliability of the evaluation strategies employed, thus controlling for the risk of bias, consistent with the PRISMA protocol (Liberati et al. (2009)). The database search successfully identified 79 peer-reviewed articles on the subject of PT. Of these, 18 were English-written articles that reported on the use of evaluative measures concerning PT programs. The populations that benefited from these programs included children, adults, and older adults. Additionally, these articles included the application of PT in different contexts, from improving language skills to the promotion of mental health among individuals and/or communities. The results gathered lend support to the successful use of PT in enhancing cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Recommendations to increase and improve the reporting of PT effects are discussed.

The Talent Problem of the Southern Glove Puppetry

In recent years, with the state's emphasis on intangible cultural heritage, the Southern Glove Puppetry（a form of Chinese folk theater）has also been included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent rescue, and the problem of talent is the key to its development. Its mode of operation can be divided into two categories: state-controlled and folk organizations, and the talent problem involves the professional talents in the state-owned arts and cultural institutions controlled by the state, as well as the inheritors, private troupes, and autonomous practitioners included in the folk self-initiated organizations. From here, the article will discuss the current challenges faced by talents and seek solutions, with a view to further promoting the inheritance and development of the Southern Glove Puppetry.

Everting the Theatrical Sphere Like Terayama

<p>This essay attempts to understand humanistic performances through STEM fields, specifically engaging with Terayama Shūji’s 1970s avant-garde theatre and film through the study of topology. The mathematical transformation called eversion is posited as frame for Terayama’s multiple radical reversals, moving toward residual effects, a process that holds the potential for radically other performance to alter the experience of time and space. Performances of bodily intervention evert the form of theatre and elicit frustration and other affective states that generate a “transformation of theatricalized space.” The essay studies Terayama Shūji’s interest in mathematical models of eversion, or turning the inside out, and how these have influenced his work in avant-garde theatre and film, positioning the audience beyond the mere notion of “revolution” into something more complex and evocative, in which the highly scripted expectation of normative everyday life comes into question. Bodily and spatial interventions bring together viewers and performers with the purpose of transforming social life through the affects—the everting—of the particular feelings generated by the experience of the artwork.</p>