Theatre History Research Articles

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.

The Sea Lady

The Sea Lady

In Interview: Key Features of Contemporary British Drama

In this interview on 22 March 2022 in London, Mesut Gunenc talks to theatre critic and historian Aleks Sierz about how his work has influenced contemporary British drama, why he chose the name ‘in-yer-face theatre’ for 1990s avant-garde plays, and why some writers have rejected the label. They also discuss the differences between experiential and experimental theatre, especially focusing on the work of Anthony Neilson, and finish by considering the key themes that characterize 1990s new writing in Britain.Aleks Sierz is author of the seminal In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), as well as of other work about new writing and post-war British theatre history. His more recent books include Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011), Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama, 2012), and Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre Since the Second World War (Methuen Drama, 2021). He has co-authored, with Lia Ghilardi, The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years (Oberon, 2015). Mesut Gunenc is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Adnan Menderes University in Turkey. He is the author of Postdramatic Theatrical Signs in Contemporary British Playwrights (Lambert, 2017) and co-editor, with Enes Kavak, of New Readings in British Drama: From the Post-War Period to the Contemporary Era (Peter Lang, 2021). He is currently a visiting postdoctoral scholar at Loughborough University in the UK.

Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - An History of Italian Movie Theatres. National Policies and Local Modes of Exhibition in the Province of Brescia

Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - An History of Italian Movie Theatres. National Policies and Local Modes of Exhibition in the Province of Brescia

Inimitable Rarities?: Feather Costumes, Indigenous Artistic Labour and Early Modern English Theatre History

ABSTRACT In the seventeenth century, English audiences were dazzled by the display of indigenous artwork in London’s theatres. Red and white feather costumes, constructed by indigenous craftsmen out of scarlet ibis feathers, shone on white actors playing ‘Indian’ priests; audiences marvelled at the novel display of an indigenous-made hammock displayed onstage; and actors playing conquistadors lazed in a grotto littered with other ‘Indian rarities’. This essay attends to one subset of these objects: feather costumes directly made by indigenous artisans or inspired by indigenous designs.

Можно ли станцевать журналистику? Из истории британского балета XIX века

In 1898 the ballet titled The Press was staged at the Empire Theatre in London. Choreographer and producer Katti Lanner, composer Leopold Wenzel and costume designer C. Wilhelm made a nontrivial attempt to transfer the sphere of journalism into the space of dance. Austrian dancer, pedagogue and choreographer Katti Lanner went down in the history of ballet theatre not only as the first woman who made a career as a choreographer but as the inventor of a new genre — the ‘entertaining revue’. The choreographer’s productions were often based on modern plots. Besides the ballet The Press, Lanner’s artistic output included such ballets as The Sports of England, The Paris Exhibition and others. The music director of the Empire Theatre, Italian composer Leopold Wenzel was Lanner’s collaborator in a number of her productions. Wenzel was the composer of art songs, orchestral works, operas and music for ballet. Scenographer C. Wilhelm, who supplements this triumvirate, was one of the most successful and prolific theatre designers of that time. At the same time, most information about the creators and the production of the ballet The Press is almost absent in academic scholarly literature. This article examines the features of scenography and music of the ballet, its place and role in the history of the ballet theatre of Great Britain in the 19th century. The attempt is made to reconstruct some of the elements of the ballet. Of no small importance is the inverse response – critical materials of the main “protagonists” of the ballet on the pages of British newspapers from 1898 from archival sources, as well as rare pictures. The question of whether or not it is possible to recount about journalism in the language of dance is one of the most crucial questions raised in the article.

Chekhov’s Gull

Chekhov’s Gull

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.

“Fond and Frivolous Gestures”: A Blocking Workshop on Marlowe’s Tamburlaine

Since 2012, second-year English and Drama undergraduates at the University of Exeter have had the opportunity to take a course called “Theatrical Cultures”. This option introduces students to plays and entertainments that were popular between the 1580s and the 1640s, with a view to opening an understanding of the period that is deeply informed by theatre history. In this essay, we share and reflect on our teaching of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts One and Two, which examines the plays as productions by the Lord Admiral’s Men in the Rose playhouse. We start by explaining the learning context for the blocking workshop we use as a practical teaching method. We then share instructions for setting up the workshop and outline our “learning-by-doing” methodology, which involves placing the bodies of our students and the properties necessary to perform a scene within the dimensions of the first Rose stage. The intended learning outcomes of the workshop include a practical understanding of the affordances of the early modern playhouse and the ability to translate this understanding into a critical interpretation of Marlowe’s drama. As students deliver lines, wield swords and crowns, and try to imagine how a chariot navigates the stage space available, they recognise moments of potential bathos and physical comedy in the plays, hinting at those “fond and frivolous gestures” that Marlowe’s publisher, Richard Jones, sought to remove from the 1590 play-text. In the third section of the essay, we evaluate these insights and the workshop’s pedagogical value by sharing reflections by tutors and students who have participated in the blocking workshop.

«Все мы летим в пропасть». Переписка Ф. Д. Батюшкова, Л. В. Собинова и А. И. Сумбатова-Южина в ноябре – декабре 1917 г.

In the fonds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art and in the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences there is stored correspondence of F. D. Batyushkov (who on the days of the revolution held the position of the chief commissioner for state theaters) with commissioners for the Moscow Bolshoi and Maly Theaters L. V. Sobinov and A. I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin over November and December 1917. These letters, most of which haven’t been published previously or introduced into scientific use, show the attitude of the leaders of the Department of Theatres to the Bolsheviks coming to power and to the prospect of cooperation with them. All three correspondents assessed the October Revolution negatively and spoke of their possible resignation (Batyushkov most definitely, Sobinov and Yuzhin with some reservations), but later serious discrepancies emerged in their personal strategies. Batyushkov was an implacable opponent of the Soviet government, rejecting all cooperation with the “terrorists” Bolsheviks and their representative, People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky. On these grounds, he wanted to rally the Department of Theatres, at the head of which he stood. Positions of Yuzhin and Sobinov were more complicated. Yuzhin, who headed the Maly Theatre, shared Batyushkov's critical view of the “dominant party,” moreover, he was outraged and shocked by the pogrom of the Maly Theater by the Red Guards during street fighting in Moscow. However, his whole life was dedicated to the Maly Theater and he doubted whether he had the moral right to leave his position at such a crucial moment. Sobinov, on the other hand, was never able to overcome his personal dislike for Batyushkov (formed long before the October Revolution in disputes over the “autonomous” rights of Moscow theaters and their heads). In the emergency of November – December 1917, when the Bolsheviks established their control over banks and money transfers were extremely difficult, Sobinov did not want to put himself in the chief commissioner’s shoes and blamed him for the lack of money for the Bolshoi Theater. In December 1917, when A. V. Lunacharsky began a direct attack on Batyushkov's position in the Department of Theatres, the Petrograd state theaters expressed their support to Batyushkov. In Moscow, the situation was different: because of Sobinov's grievance with the chief commissioner and Yuzhin's attempts to coordinate his position with Sobinov, the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters did not unequivocally declare their confidence in Batyushkov, weakening the latter’s position in his conflict with Lunacharsky. The correspondence of Batyushkov, Sobinov, and Yuzhin over November – December 1917 is an important source on history of the Russian theater, as well as for studying the period of the so-called “sabotage” of civil servants after the October Revolution.

Theodore Géricault’s Living Picture “Raft of the Medusa” in Scenography: Visual Experience of the Romantic Era

This article demonstrates the connections between visual and the theatrical mise en scène, raises the question of the inclusion of a live painting in the theatrical narrative as a form of interpretation of original painting, and finally presents the diversity of visual experience of the era in which static images coexisted with the moving ones. For the first time Géricault’s painting was animated on stage in 1820, a year after it was exhibited at the Salon (W. T. Moncrieff ’s melodrama “The Wreck of the Medusa, or the Fatal Raft”, London). Then in 1839 audiences saw it in Paris in a drama by Ch. Denoyer at the Théâtre Ambigue Comique and in an opera by F. Flottov to a libretto by the Cognard brothers at the Théâtre Renaissance. Denoisier’s drama proved to be the most suitable for transfer to other stages, and from 1847 to 1876 Géricault’s picture came to life at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and on other Russian stages until 1914. As far as we know, none of the Russian art and theatre historians have paid attention to the stage embodiment of the famous picture. In the works on the history of Russian theater, Ch. Denoyer’s play is mentioned, but no more than that. On the contrary, foreign researchers of the 19th century art treat with great interest the interaction of painting, theater, and new optical spectacles in a single field of visual experience, including such classics of visual studies as P. Virillo and J. Creri. But neither they nor others have touched the Russian material. The article fills the gap in Russian art history and presents an analysis of the contexts in which the story of the Géricault’s living picture aroused interest; it traces the history of the transfer of Géricault’s painting to the Russian stage basing on archiveal sources.

«Считаю Вас очень близким мне человеком…»: Е.К. Малиновская, В.И. Немирович-Данченко и другие в 1935–1942 годах

Elena Konstantinovna Malinovskaya (1875–1942) left a noticeable mark in the history of the Russian theatre of the late 1910s — 1930s. After managing Moscow academic theatres after the revolution, in 1924 she was forced to resign, and in 1930 she returned to the theatrical world, by leading the Bolshoi Theatre. After her final resignation in 1935, the figure of Malinovskaya drops out of view for theatre scholars. Meanwhile, after having outlived the repression of her children and having lost all administrative positions, she had by no means lost touch with the world of performing arts. In this article, which is written using the material of several archives (Malinovskaya's extensive personal fonds in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Malinovsky Family Fonds in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Foundation in the Moscow Art Theatre Museum, and the E. P. Peshkova Foundation in the Gorky Archive, as well as investigative files from the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia), the last seven years of the life of an outstanding activist for the Russian theatre have been carefully examined. The author pays particular attention to Malinovskaya’s correspondence with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who tried to support his former boss. The article reveals that even in the difficult conditions of evacuation from Moscow to Kuybyshev (Samara) in 1941, up to the last days of her life, Malinovskaya tried to take an active part in the fate of the Bolshoi Theatre.

From Plinth to Stage: Protest Theater as Historiographic Activism in The Fall

AbstractThis essay examines theater's role in recording public history, positing a performance-sensitive approach to historiography against the singularity of both monuments and canons. The recent removal of monuments has drawn renewed attention to the problem of singular public histories. I argue for a polyvocal, repertory model of public history as theorized through the collectively written 2016 play The Fall, which records the events of the 2015–16 student protests in South Africa. The essay begins by contextualizing the play in the longer history of workshop theater and educational inequality in South Africa before specifically examining its approach to public history. Such performance-sensitive historiography enacts anticolonial epistemologies by replacing the singular representation of monumentalism with copresence amid contested histories.

«Назад к Островскому»: деконструкция постановки классики в режиссерском театре 1920-х годов

Ostrovsky’s centenary in 1923 gave impetus for a major leap in the history of directing. Ostrovsky turned out to be the first author whose plays were staged almost simultaneously (within 3 years) in all styles of Russian directing. Alexander Tairov staged “The Storm” at the Moscow Kamerny Theatre, in 1924, by mythologizing Ostrovsky’s tragedy. The myth of the Russian soul outside the boundaries of time turned out to be in the center of his performance. The psychological portrayal of the 19th-century drama’s character was mastered by the mythological approach. Such components as mythological thinking, constructivism, and the concept of Ostrovsky’s secret mysticism of the Russian soul were combined for the first time. Actress Alisa Koonen delved into the archetype of the heroine. The avant-garde production of Sergey Eisenstein’s “Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man” at the First Workers’ Theatre of Proletkult (1923) was connected with the ancient tradition of the fairground booth show. For the first time in the history of the Russian theatre, a director used the principles of open actualization of the classic play, the connections between drama and the circus, cinematic methods in the theatre, and a “montage of attractions”. “A Profitable Position” staged by Vsevolod Meyerhold (Theatre of the Revolution, 1923) was associated with Russian romanticism. The production revealed the two worlds — the spiritual reality in the opposition to the material everyday life. The metaphorical performance was built according to the principle of a thematic development similar to music. In “The Forest” at the Meyerhold Theatre (1924), the director contrasted three genres and semantic layers: a farcical level, a love line, as in Russian romanticism of the 19th century, and a layer that united the structure — acting and theatricality (the leitmotif of actors and acting). The visual dynamic of the dialogue with hyperbolic expression became the director’s principle approach. In his work on the production “An Ardent Heart” (Moscow Art Theatre, 1926), Stanislavsky created the phenomenon of the psychological grotesque. The performance was perceived by most critics as satirical and accusatory. Stanislavsky did not lose interest in the motives of human behavior, especially of a theatrical nature, and revealed a certain way of human thinking. The progress in the new discoveries in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy in the first half of the 1920s shaped the main courses in which the Russian theatre was developing in the 20th century.

THE STAGE EMBODIMENT OF THE IMAGES OF NATIONAL DRAMA IN THE ACTING PRACTICE OF OLEKSANDR KOROLCHUK ON THE STAGE OF MYKOLA SADOVSKY’S KYIV THEATER (1907–1919)

The article examines the peculiarities of Oleksandr Korolchuk’s acting Style based on the works of national drama on the Stage of the Kyiv Theater named after Mykola Sadovsky. Therefore, based on the extensive material of the Kyiv press, memories of contemporaries, materials of the Museum of Theater, Music and Film Arts of Ukraine (Vasyl Vasylko Foundation), the actor’s range of roles was considered, the means of Stage expressiveness of Oleksandr Korolchuk were characterized based on the material of national drama. Also, for the firSt time, we introduce the term into scientific circulation and argue the concept of the “transitional generation” of Ukrainian artiSts in the history of national Stage art. The dramatic material, the specifics of its embodiment, on which the “transitional generation” of Ukrainian actors was formed, the significance of this phenomenon in the hiStory of Ukrainian theater, using the example of Oleksandr Korolchuk’s creative work, are analyzed.

Prilozi Đorđa Maletića estetici glume

The paper examines the contribution of Đorđe Maletić to the aesthetics of acting. Maletić was a prominent figure in Serbian theater life in the second half of the 19th century, but recently he has been unjustifiably relegated to the margins of domestic theater historiography and theatrology. First, his general aesthetic views are presented, in which he relied eclectically on various sources, mainly on Lessing, Schiller, and Hegel. Subsequently, his thoughts on acting and acting creativity, present in various writings published in the period from 1847 to 1884, are presented and interpreted. Considering these findings, it emerges that Maletić was not only a transmitter of European theatrical achievements into the cultural environment of Serbia but also that he showed a high level of independence in thinking about theater and dramatic art, especially in thinking about the phenomenon of acting. His characterization of the actor as "incarnated beauty, the idea of the beautiful, assumed physicality", who manifests the idea of beauty "on himself, so that he is both a thought and a material for the expression of thoughts, he both acts and is acted upon" - represents the most complete aesthetic interpretation of acting and acting creativity that we can find in the history of Serbian theater thought of the 19th century.

PLAY ‟LADIES AND HUSSARS” ON THE STAGE OF KHARKIV THEATRE OF MUSICAL COMEDY (1968) AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE TENDENCY TO ‟DRAMATIZE” THE REPERTOIRE

The article is devoted to the only stage reading of the comedy ‟Ladies and Hussars” (Damy i Huzary) by Aleksander Fredro in the history of the Ukrainian theatre of musical comedy and operetta. Put on at Kharkiv Theatre of Musical Comedy (KhTMK) by directors Yurii Fridman, Les’ Syniavskyi and Valentyn Ivchenko as well as conductor Borys Cheboksarov, the performance reflected the trend of diversity in the repertoire of the Thaw period. From a musical point of view, the production with music by Lev Solin, composed with the expectation of performance in a drama theatre, was not noticeable. However, this work reflected the tendency of the musical comedy theatre to search for a new nature of acting expressiveness in a small-form performance (only solo vocalists, without choir and ballet dancers). The production is characterized by a high ensemble culture. The leaders in the play ‟Ladies and Hussars” were not ‟heroes” and ‟heroines”, but bright character actors of the older generation (Mykola Havrylenko as Captain, Romuald Korytek as Orgonova). Significantly increased in relation to operetta or musical comedy, the dialogue part of the personages simply required from the actors a meaningful dramatic action, built together with the director and partners. Artists Mykhailo Ushats and Olha Imberovych created a vivid visual image of the performance. Assistant director Borys Yanshevsky, a former leading actor of Kharkiv Russian Drama Theatre, and Pavlo Kulisich, theatre accompanist, polyglot and art critic, worked with the actors to polish the special style of playing roles in classical Polish comedy, as well as the characteristic phrasing of vocal parts. The actors involved in the production of ‟Ladies and Hussars” remembered their work as a feast of the game, with unpredictable results thanks to skillful partner improvisation. The layout and sketches of costumes by Taras Shyhymaga, the main artist of KhTMK, prepared for production of ‟Ladies and Hussars” on the stage of T. H. Shevchenko Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre, Kharkiv (director Mykola Yaremkiv, 2002) also analyzed in the article.

Сент-Бёв против Эккермана, или Как создавался первый русский перевод «Разговоров» Гёте

The article discusses a curious case of the reception of Goethe in Russia in the late 19th century — the first translation of “Conversations with Goethe” (1891), authored by D.V. Averkiev and commissioned by A.S. Suvorin. Taking the expectations of the implicit reader into account had made his newspaper and publishing house one of most successful Russian enterprises by the turn of the century. It also aligned with Averkiev’s Kulturträger attitude, both as a writer who introduced the public to the culture and everyday life of old Russia and as a translator who familiarized it with the achievements of Western European literature and science. In his translation Averkiev utilized an intermediate text, namely É. Delerot’s translation of the “Conversations” into French. He transferred not only its structural features, but also the skeptical opinion of Eckermann’s personality expressed by C.A. Sainte-Beuve in his letter to G. Charpentier. By reducing the original text, extending his translation with materials from Goethe’s correspondence and recollections about him, Delerot corrected the “wrong” genre of the source text — with the ideal seen in J. Boswell’s book on S. Johnson. Averkiev retained the essential features of the intermediate text, but complemented it with his own article as well as footnotes bringing the text closer to Russian understanding. He expanded some footnotes into detailed comments on the history of literature and theatre, which he specialized in. Having emerged in the depths of a fading culture, Averkiev’s translation anticipated the future explorations of Russian modernism, whose representatives studied the personality of Goethe via his translation and quoted the German writer’s conversations in his interpretation.

ТЕАТРИ НАДАЗОВ’Я В РОКИ ДРУГОЇ СВІТОВОЇ ВІЙНИ

The article highlights the peculiarities of the theaters of Nadazov during the Second World War. The path of actors who became direct participants in military operations is outlined. The influence of the Mariupol Society «Prosvita» on the development of theatrical art in the region is analyzed. The repertoire, creative searches of the director and the cast during the Nazi occupation are covered. In particular, the activity of the Mariupol Music and Drama Theater named after T. Shevchenko. The repertoire of theaters, which consisted mainly of Ukrainian plays, the activities of the children's puppet theater and the holding of evenings in memory of Ukrainian writers, poets, and composers served to relieve the psychological stress of the residents of the region. If for the occupation regime the theater had a propaganda value, then for the residents of the region it served as a widespread practice of survival, was able to revive Ukrainian culture, and satisfied the basic needs of the population for information and artistic impressions. The dramatic section of the Mariupol «Prosvita» had a considerable influence on the development of theatrical art in the region. Director of the Mariupol Theater named after T. Shevchenko and Sofya Zavyalova, head of the drama section "Prosvity", actively worked on the issue of training professional drama personnel. It is emphasized that theatrical life in the liberated Northern Azov region in 1943–1945 had its own peculiarities. After the liberation of the region from the German invaders, the Mariupol Drama Theater resumed its activities, successfully holding concerts and performances for wounded soldiers, workers of the rebuilt city, and officers who went to the front. Despite the difficult conditions in which the Mariupol Drama Theater worked, the actors, thanks to their rich repertoire, contributed to the preservation of the spiritual and moral values of the audience and carried out active charitable activities for wounded soldiers and officers. The place of the theater in the cultural life of the residents of the region is defined. The scientific novelty of the article is due to the inclusion of new factual material from the history of Ukrainian theater into the scientific circulation. Key words: theater, Nadazovya, German occupation, audience, repertoire, Ukrainian culture, "Enlightenment".

Остров тоталитаризма: «Макбет» Орсона Уэллса

By the time of the eventual success of the premiere of Macbeth (1936) directed by Orson Welles as part of the Harlem Negro project by FTP, the African American theater already had its own small but remarkable history. However, this production received a tremendous response and is still the subject of controversy among scholars: evidence of this resonance is the appearance of the feature film Voodoo Macbeth (2021). All roles were performed by black actors, and the action was transferred to Haiti during the reign of Henry Christophe. Critics were disturbed by the disrespectful attitude to the Shakespearean text, modern researchers — by the exoticization of the African American cultural code. The reason for the discussion was (and still is) the director's radical interpretation, which shifted the semantic accents from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the witches. By increasing their role quantitatively and qualitatively, Orson Welles, a contemporary of the growing totalitarian regimes, created a piece about the all-pervading evil leveling the human personality. Having changed the chronotope of Shakespeare's tragedy and rethinking the principle of working with Shakespeare's heritage, Welles, for the first time in the history of American theatre, invited black actors to perform universal characters, to work with classical dramaturgy. Article is based on vast amount of archival materials, critical reviews and researches on Orson Welles and the Federal Theatre Project. Article examines the steps of the formation of the director's and set designer’s concepts, a reconstruction of the production is executed among other purposes.