Professional Theatre Research Articles

Our Last Shows: The Inheritance and Engaged Pedagogy on the Eve of the Pandemic

Our Last Shows: The Inheritance and Engaged Pedagogy on the Eve of the Pandemic Dan Venning (bio) My doctoral mentor, Marvin Carlson, is a prodigious theatregoer; numerous authors in the Festschrift Changing the Subject highlight this fact, and Carlson’s memoir, 10,000 Nights, is structured around fifty years of theatregoing. I frequently ran into him at shows in New York, whether on Broadway or at small downtown theatres, and we would always be overjoyed to talk about what we had just seen or what we were seeing next. One of the lessons Carlson has sought to impress on his students is that critical spectatorship is a key part of scholarship in the field of theatre studies. By engaging with the current repertoire, from commercial theatres on Broadway or the West End to avant-garde incubators of new work, regional theatres, and international venues, we are able to identify current trends in the professional theatre and drama, draw connections to historical texts and practices, direct scholarly attention to the new and noteworthy, and more effectively mentor our own students who may enter the field of professional theatre. Although I will likely never reach Carlson’s level of dedication, I have tried to attend shows as often as I can. I estimate that during a normal year, I see about fifty productions and write on average three performance reviews or review essays for scholarly journals. But since March 12, 2020, nothing has been “normal.” A question that has recurred—at conferences, in Zoom calls, and whenever I have spoken to another theatre scholar—is “what was the last live show you saw before the theatres closed? Have you gotten to see anything live since then?” These conversations reflect not only our personal disappointments in being unable to see theatre and our recollections of where we left the field or the traumatic loss of work and livelihoods faced by many professionals, but an acknowledgment that the field of theatre studies has itself been put on pause for nearly a year and a half. My answer to these recurring questions shows my privilege and luck. Two days before the closure of theatres, on March 10, 2020, I saw Second Stage Theater’s revival of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die at the Tony Kiser Theater, directed by Raja Feather Kelly. During the pandemic, I was able to see Berkshire Theatre Group’s summer 2020 production of Godspell, the first fully staged live musical in the United States to be approved by Actors’ Equity Association during the pandemic. But the experience that comes to mind when I am asked that question is always seeing Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance on Broadway on February 29, 2020 with a group of students from Union College, less than two weeks before theatres shut down. Just as a public health crisis was descending on our country and on the eve of the closing of theatres worldwide, I took my students to see a show about the generational aftermath of a public health crisis. My recollection of the show is colored by the context in which I saw it, highlighting the ways that our narratives of the shows we have seen is a form of personal historiography. I had first seen The Inheritance over a year earlier, in London in December 2018. I was floored by the play. It is a deeply intertextual work, a loose adaptation of E. M. Forster’s Howards End set in New York around the time of the 2016 election. Forster, whom the text calls “Morgan,” appears onstage as a literary ghost; other adaptations of Howards End, like Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, are also acknowledged in the play1 (fig. 1). Lopez’s play focuses on the lives of gay men in their twenties and thirties, men who came of age and into their sexuality after the AIDS crisis was largely over. The [End Page 19] play deals with what they have inherited from an absent generation of father figures, mentors, and lovers, who either died or somehow survived the plague and saw so many of their friends and lovers pass away. Even more than it engages with Forster’s work...

Theatre Like an Oak in the Town Square

Theatre Like an Oak in the Town Square Courtney Elkin Mohler (bio) In the summer of 2021, the National New Play Network asked me to moderate a plenary panel titled "Decolonizing Theater's Relationship with Audiences" for their annual conference, "Growing Forward: Transcending the Transactional." The panel featured luminary artists, each working tirelessly to transform how theatre engages with community and fights for restorative justice.1 As I planned my questions, I found myself reflecting on the mighty task implied by the conference's theme and plenary's title. My thoughts drifted to several panels I have listened to or participated in over the past few years that similarly were seeking to explore theatre's relationship with "decolonization," always broadly defined. This uptick in opportunities to discuss decolonization indicates that folks are decolonization-curious, even if there is no consensus on what decolonization means in academic or artistic institutional spaces. Theatre in the United States is built on stolen lands, extracts resources, and engages with corporate capitalism. A "successful" company is touted for developing the economy of its neighborhood, which may lead to gentrification and further displacement for marginalized communities. I wanted the final beat of the plenary to wrestle with the contradictions inherent in the event's themes: Does focusing on decolonization inadvertently re-center settler colonialism? If we aren't talking about returning land to Indigenous people, what are we talking about? Due to technical difficulties and time constraints, my last question was aimed at the disembodied virtual audience, presumably theatre professionals. Into the Zoom ether, I asked, "What are you doing to Indigenize your theatrical space or practice? How does your work center the global majority Black, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander peoples and communities' histories, needs, and [End Page 34] stories?" What follows in the next few pages is an extension of this question, an open-ended charge to my greater family of artists, teachers, thinkers, creators. This is not a manifesto, not a guide, not even an article.I tread lightly,with a basket woven with skills not my own,full of more questions than answers. Indigenous Peoples the world over connect through space, place, and seasons by sharing a continuous appreciation for rivers of wisdom, ever-changing and always providing sustenance. Creativity is the result of neither human endeavor nor mastery but rather the simultaneous cause and effect of cooperative interaction with the cosmos, the great mystery, all our relations. More often than not, creation forms with human and animal assistance: spirit launched in beauty. Lakota visionary Paula Gunn Allen describes the impulse to create, to tell stories, to make art as holy and transformative—but not for the purpose of the individual. She writes: The tribes seek—through song, ceremony, legend, sacred stories (myths), and tales—to embody, articulate, and share reality, to bring the isolated, private self into harmony and balance with this reality, to verbalize the sense of majesty and reverent mystery of all things, and to articulate, in language, those truths that give to humanity its greatest significance and dignity.2 To writeTo create To embodyThrough songThrough ceremony The TribesThrough legend With sacred storiesTo Share To Share To Share! To bring the isolated self Into Harmony And Balance [End Page 35] How do we, as art-makers,writers, privileged RECORDERS,negotiate these two worldviews? Where do our neoliberalprofessional practices demandwe cement our knowledge intothe annals of time/make a mark/leave a Legacy? And when does such endeavorimplicitly or explicitly pillage thewisdom, resources, and spirited Beautypassed down by elders? (Here lies the hypocrisy of meritocracy:should this article remain anonymous?By: Anonymous. Or would such agesture render this work unverifiable,nonacademic, suspect?) Let us imagine, as Gunn Allen claims, that the grand purpose of art-making is transformation, bringing a community into balance through creative praxis. How would theatre embody this idea fully? Can we imagine a season, or a multiseason initiative, or a widespread multicompany, ongoing effort to develop a theatre that transforms our present community into a state of balance? How would an academic program in theatre—that held holistic communal healing as central—operate? What if...

“FROM UKRAINE I COME HERE...”: UKRAINIAN CHARACTERS ON THE POLISH STAGE IN LVIV (1842–1900)

The article comprehensively presents information about theatrical representations of Ukrainians on the Polish stage in Lviv from 1842 to 1900. It is noted that throughout the 19th century, Ukrainian characters predominated in various genres of performances on the Polish stage in Lviv, with Romanticism serving as the backdrop for the portrayal of Cossacks, hetmans, insurgents, peasants, and villagers. The study meticulously analyzes the corpus of Polish plays in Lviv featuring Ukrainian characters and categorizes them into four groups based on representational strategies: Arcadian, infernal (Haidamak), historical-heroic (Cossack), and domestic-folkloric (peasant). The contribution of the Polish stage in Lviv to the development of Ukrainian discourse in national culture is outlined. A list of the acting ensemble of the Polish theater in Lviv at that time is provided. Emphasis is placed on the significance of the Count Skarbek Theater in shaping the stage representations of Ukrainian characters from 1842 to 1900. The reaction of the Polish audience, which sought to see them as “brothers on the border”, romantic free-spirited heroes, warriors, exotic ethnic neighbors, faithful, clever servants, and the Ukrainian audience when there was no Ukrainian professional theater in Galicia yet, is traced. Attention is focused on the dramaturgy based on events from the shared Polish-Ukrainian past. It is demonstrated that the represented images of Ukrainians were characterized by enthusiasm, love, a sense of danger, and hope for a shared future. The influence of the Polish theater on the formation of Ukrainian professional theater in 19th-century Galicia is highlighted.

Виклики для українського театрального мистецтва 2020–2022 років

The purpose pf the article is to monitor the challenges faced by Ukrainian theater during the global coronavirus crisis and the war in Ukraine in 2020-2022. During its long history, the Ukrainian theater has experienced various difficulties: bans (the Ems Act and the Valuev Circular in the 19th century), strict censorship (in the late 19th century and almost all of the 20th century), and two World Wars. General socio-cultural factors, political crises and, finally, war were also added to the background of the great theatrical crisis, which was present even before 2020. Responding to the challenges of the times, the theater searches for and develops new models of broadcasting and communication with its audience. But Ukrainian theaters, unlike their Western counterparts, were able to open in mid-2020 and more or less work in 2021. The XXI century was marked by difficult pandemics in 2020 and 2021 and the war in Ukraine (which lasted from 2014 in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the occupation of Crimea and the spread of war throughout our country in 2022). In addition to objective geopolitical problems, there are problems of new political reforms, underfunding, and lack of professional staff (because the theater is not only actors and directors, but also educators, playwrights, and cultural audience, and various workers, whose audience not to see). All these factors have called into question the existence of even large professional theaters, not to mention smaller and unprofitable theaters. The theater is now in a particularly difficult situation, almost on the verge of extinction. Theatrical workers are trying to find new ways to express themselves and attract spectators, sponsors and funds in order to survive. They are looking for new genres, new drama, new themes for their performances. At the moment, almost all theater groups are trying to find non-standard forms of work: online screenings, immersion performances, open-air performances and more. The problems became bigger when the full-scale war started in February 24. However, Ukrainian theaters reopened their doors for spectators in April, after the month of total silence and non-action. And this fact gives us the hope for living.

Staging Arthur

In 2019, the author of this essay directed a rehearsed, script-in-hand performance of Thomas Hughes’s The Misfortunes of Arthur in Gray's Inn Chapel. This essay records the rehearsal process, staging, and design. It explains the choice of this play for revival and how text-cutting shaped the way the story was to be told. The author also discusses the play’s language, including echoes of it in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and asks what staging this play tells us about the relationship between Inns of Court drama and the wider world of English professional theatre and, more generally, European theatre of the time.

Shining a spotlight on issues of mental health in musical theater and ways psychologists can help: Perspectives of theater professionals.

Shining a spotlight on issues of mental health in musical theater and ways psychologists can help: Perspectives of theater professionals.

Theater without Borders: To Raise the Question of Blurring the Line between Professional and Amateur Creativity

Recently, the amateur theater movement, which seemed to have lost its significance three decades ago, is reviving and, moreover, transforming, now qualitatively different from the socio-cultural phenomenon that it was in the past. This paper examines the development of amateur creativity at the present stage. We will talk about private commercial theaters, amateur studios and laboratories, which over the past decade have not only gained wide popularity, but also, in the context of postmodern transformations, have become direct competitors to professional art, thereby blurring the boundaries between professional and amateur creativity. The functions of professional theaters, the tasks and problems that arise before them, have also affected the amateur art to the same extent. The author comes to the conclusion that the boundaries between professional and amateur theater are gradually blurring, which, in the near future, may lead to new global transformations in the field of theater culture.

Gondomar and the Stage: Diego Sarmiento de Acuña and the Lost Theatrical Connection

Abstract Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, first Count of Gondomar (1567–1626), was twice appointed by the King of Spain to the delicate embassy in the court of James I in London, where he played a decisive role in Anglo-Spanish relations in the aftermath of the treaty of peace between the two monarchies signed in London in 1604. Beyond his uncontested political significance, Gondomar was also Spain’s premier bibliophile. His famous library comprised over 6000 volumes in nine languages, including a surprisingly large collection of plays. His interests in drama as an art form and in the theatre as a profession are well attested in his vast correspondence and the sizeable body of documents that have survived. While these interests have been noted, this is the first study that has attempted to analyse this body of evidence in a systematic way to suggest a closer connection to drama and the professional theatre of England and Spain. In particular, this study aims to shed some light on the untraced connections between Gondomar and the English playwrights and actors active in London during his time as ambassador. Gondomar’s library in London contained a number of recent and relatively rare works whose presence in the English metropolis at the right time might help to explain some cases of early adaptation of Spanish contemporary literature to the English drama of the period.

Historical aspects of monologue stage speech

The purpose of the article is to explore the historical aspects of monologue stage speech as the most difficult type of psychophysical action of the actor. The research methodology involves the use of an integrated approach with the use of analytical, systematic methods, comparative, which allows to distinguish the features of monologue stage speech in the work of the actor. The scientific novelty of the work is to deepen the study of individual acting in the context of the development of monologue speech and analysis of historical aspects of its formation and development in acting. Conclusions. It is emphasized that the masterful performance of monologues from a classical or modern play is a manifestation of the professional creative growth of the actor. Historical digression and research of methods of work on the monologue is an extremely important and useful source of obtaining the right techniques, principles, skills, a way to acquire professional knowledge of monologue stage speech. Text notes of extended monologue speech (if such are sometimes permissible) should be made carefully, carefully, together with the director-producer. It is noted that to master verbal action, its expressive possibilities is the main task, which is always faced by actors and directors of professional and amateur theaters.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

“What's the Brief?”

“What's the Brief?”

50 Years of Drama from Bosnia & Herzegovina in Theater Festival of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Jajce: A Short History of Bosnian Theater Plays Through an Overview of Participation in the B&H Theater Festival in Jajce

The text reviews the presence of Bosnian drama and prose literature on professional theater stages in BiH through performances that participated in the Theater Festival of BiH in Jajce in the last 50 years. Through an overview of the participation of performances at one of the most important state festivals, the presence of BiH plays in professional theaters in Bosnia is analyzed in the mentioned period - the treatment of BiH dramas by theaters as well as perceptions of them by the professional audience.

The problems of fulfilling the culture formation potential of modern russian theater

The article focuses on the essential components of the contemporary theatrical process. The problems of drama and its recessionary trends are identified. Special attention is paid to the issue of values and ideals in dramaturgical work and significance for the further activity conducted by theaters. One of the pivotal aspects in the improvement of theaters’ work identified in the article is the task of optimization of the interaction between these institutions with the audience. The authors also examine the problems of modern theater directing that matter in terms of fulfilling the cultural and creative potential of modern Russian theaters. The authors associate the prospects of further improvement of the system of establishing theaters as cultural institutions with taking advantage of the opportunities for creating a more effective interaction between theater professionals and specialists working in the sphere of education.

«Sei troppo effemminato. / Di femmina son nato». Infrazione di codici e fluidità di genere in alcuni libretti d’opera del Seicento veneziano

The fear that man, subjected to practices considered emasculating, could “regress” to the female state was culturally central in the early modern definition of the man-woman polarity. In this context, effeminacy was used as a stigma against practices to be banned or controlled and was among the main accusations raised by the religious controversy against the emerging professional theatre. Through the close reading of some librettos produced in Venice between 1641 and 1668, the essay aims to show how the authors appropriated some tòpoi of the antitheatrical controversy, building an artistic acrobatics in which love was seen as a “disease” capable of removing the hero’s virility and was observed within a practice (theatre, and especially opera) which was itself considered effeminate and emasculating. The essay revolves around a progressive intensification of ambiguities, transvestitisms and allusions, showing how the librettists of Venetian opera also attempted an investigation of gender codes at the textual level and pushed themselves to the limit beyond which the mechanism of censorship inevitably triggered.

THE COVERAGE OF THE THEATRICAL LIFE OF ARTSAKH IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY ON THE PAGES OF THE NEWSPAPER “KARABAKH” (1911-1912)

Thus, summarizing our scientific research, we can clearly emphasize that theatrical art flourished in Artsakh in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It should be noted that until the second half of the 19th century, the Armenians of Artsakh had their theatrical traditions for centuries. There was theater in dance art, at parties and events. But there was no professional theater yet, preconditions were created for that only when in 1865 famous figures of the Armenian theater Gevorg Chmshkyan, Mihrdat Americyan and Sedrak Mandinyan came to Shushi. And the Mkrtich Khandamiryan Theater was built in Shushi in 1891. It had a 350-seat hall. 
 Separate issues related to the socio-economic, political and cultural events in Artsakh were covered in almost all issues of the three-day literary-social newspaper "Karabakh". Covering the theatrical art of Artsakh in 19111912, the newspaper emphasized that the theater continued to flourish in that period. Theatrical performances took place in different parts of Artsakh. A number of interesting and multi-genre theatrical performances took place at the Diocesan school of Shusha, at the Mariamyan girls 'school, at the Hripsimyan girls' school, at the school of the Saint Astvatsatsin church of Aguletsots, at the school of boys of the Saint Astvatsatsin church of Megretsots, at the Mariam-Ghukasyan school, at the school of Realakan. A number of interesting and multi-genre theatrical performances also took place at the Diocesan School of Shushi, at the Girls' School of Mariamyan, at the Girls' School of Hripsimyan, at the school of Aguletsots St. Astvatsatsin Church, at the Boys' School of Meghretsots St. Astvatsatsin Church, at the school of Mariam-Ghukasyan, at the school of Realakan, at kindergartens, in private homes of wealthy people and at other places at that time. 
 Numerous multi-genre performances also took place in 1911-1912: "Adam and Eve" Vardanank, " The savage", "The Charlatan", "Heart is a mystery", "Naughty", "The Valley of Tears", "The Engaged" drama, "Modern Heroes" comedy, famous playwright Gordin's drama "The devil", the drama "Christine", Nardos' drama "The Killed Dove", Measnitsky's drama "I died" and other performances.

REPERTOIRE TRADITION OF THE UKRAINIAN DRAMA THEATRE: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECT

The purpose of the article is to find out the repertoire traditions of Ukrainian theatre from the first professional theatre to the present day. The research methodology applies an interdisciplinary approach. In particular, the principle of historicism is an opportunity to trace the change in the repertoire policy of theatres under the influence of sociopolitical circumstances. Structural-functional and macrodynamic methods to study the theatre at different stages of development are methods of analysis and synthesis used to identify the main artistic phenomena and trends in theatrical activities. Scientific novelty. Based on the analysis of the repertoire plays of five Ukrainian theatres: the Theatre of Coryphaei, Taras Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre, Taras Shevchenko Dnipro National Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre, Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre, Maria Zankovetska Theatre — trends in the development of the repertoire policy of the Ukrainian theatre are identified, the influence of traditions and society on the work of leading Ukrainian theatre figures is justified; the boundaries of the concept of “repertoire traditions” are expanded. Conclusions. The article examines the peculiarities of the development of Ukrainian theatre from the creation of the first professional theatre in Ukraine to the present day, highlights the impact of repertoire censorship. Five stages of the formation of the repertoire traditions of Ukrainian drama theatres are described: the period of the birth of Ukrainian drama (I. Kotliarevsky); further repertoire traditions in Tsarist Russia era; the formation of modern Ukrainian theatre (Les Kurbas); the period of World War II and post-war times, when there were attempts to transform the Ukrainian theatre into a Soviet one. It was found out that a unique feature of modern Ukrainian theatre is performances on second stages, one-person production, and the use of advanced technology.

Stay at home, engage at home: extended performance engagement in the time of COVID-19

ABSTRACT This article examines how Theatre for Young Audiences practitioners innovate in terms of deepening young people’s experiences of recorded performances in the digital space. It defines extended performance engagement, mapping the current context of pre- and post-performance interventions connected to professional theatre in the USA and Europe. The article questions the potential for growth and expansion of awareness of extended performance engagement in a world affected by COVID-19, and how this field values the overall experience of engaging with live performance, even when streamed at home. The investigation questions how we measure the successes of this engagement and its afterlife following on from the live, and now digital, space.

Comparative characteristics of future theater art specialists’ professional training in Ukraine and the USA

The article provides a comparative analysis of the training of future theater professionals at universities in Ukraine and the United States. The author reviews modern scientific works on the problem of professional training in general and optimal approaches to the selection of criteria for comparative research. On the basis of a comparative comparison, common and different aspects of professional training of future theater professionals at universities in Ukraine and the United States were clarified.
 The author determined that the peculiarities of the methodological principles are that in the United States they are presented more widely and more thoroughly in legislative documents; the concept of professional training of future specialists in theater art, approaches and principles in general determine the vector of further development of the system of professional training in the research area; standards in the United States are also comprehensive and specific, which provides better control over the quality of higher education in the theater; qualification requirements in the United States and Ukraine largely coincide (qualifications, features of vocational education - terms and institutions where it is possible to get a profession); content structure and list of disciplines is characterized by flexibility, diversity and differentiation in the US, which provides a wider range of individual trajectory of vocational education, while in Ukraine the list of disciplines and their content is much narrower); forms, methods and tools that are also component components of organizational and methodological principles in the system of university education in the United States and Ukraine are characterized by variability and generally provide quality training for future theater professionals in both countries

Interactional means of teaming up: enacting the features of contemporary working life in a theater performance

Abstract The article examines how the aspects of the social world are enacted in a theater play. The data come from a videotaped performance of a professional theater, portraying a story about a workplace organization going through a personnel training program. The aim of the study is to show how the core theme of the play – the teaming up of the personnel – is constructed in the live performance through a range of interactional means. By focusing on four core episodes of the play, the study on the one hand points out to the multiple changes taking place both within and between the different episodes of the play. On the other hand, the episodes of collective action involving the semiotic resources of singing and dancing are shown to represent the ideals of teamwork in distinct ways. The study contributes to the understanding of socially and politically oriented theater as a distinct, pre-rehearsed social setting and the means and practices that it deploys when enacting the aspects of the contemporary societal issues.

Digital culture: Analyzing the status and assessing the development

Subject. We analyze and evaluate the possibility of developing the ‘smart city’ concept, in particular, its ‘smart culture’ aspect. The relevance of the study increases in conditions of the quarantine, which causes restrictions on movement and visit to cultural institutions, like theaters, museums, libraries, etc. Objectives. The purpose is to identify the potential to improve the quality of life in the ‘smart culture’ direction, by assessing the capabilities of theaters in the Novosibirsk Oblast; to develop new indicators from the perspective of the digital economy. Methods. We use the statistical analysis of indicators that reflect the activities of cultural institutions. The study also employs the comparative analysis of indicators of Russia and the Novosibirsk Oblast in this sphere. Results. The paper analyzes trends in the number of professional theaters, spectators, and the share of theaters, having their websites in the Novosibirsk Oblast and Russia. We obtained the results of processed questionnaires and surveys of the population. On this basis, we formulated new indicators of the quality of life of the population for the ‘smart culture’ direction, and assessed the potential for its development under quarantine. Conclusions. The analysis shows that the ‘smart city’ concept has been developing, despite the introduction of quarantine measures to protect the population. Such measures as the development of websites and information portals that increase the accessibility of events (performances, exhibitions, etc.) for the population are in demand.