Young Spectators Research Articles

Learning Islam through the Senses

Abstract This article discusses how the visual and embodied storytelling methods of the theater may be used in the formation of Islamic knowledge. Examining productions staged by young women in Oslo in the tradition of the Twelver Shia theater, taʿziyeh/shabih, during commemorative rituals, I ask: How did producers and actors perceive theater to generate knowledge? How were visual and embodied storytelling methods used in conveying religious knowledge? What kind of knowledge was generated? Inspired by theater theory and post-structuralist semiotics, the analysis shows that the theater had transformative qualities that could contribute to cultural transmission, education, and moral and spiritual development. Knowledge was produced through sensorial communication, thinking, and understanding, and was held to emerge from the spectators’ and actors’ aesthetic and affective experiences, in addition to their abilities to create emotional relations with holy protagonists and the divine. The learning outcome was therefore presented as open-ended and invited young spectators and actors to take responsibility and reflect on how to act and respond in our time.

Rethinking Didactic Theatre for a Young Audience

Didactic theatre for a young audience (TYA) is perceived as a widespread obstacle to the artistic quality and value of TYA. This article rethinks and deconstructs the assumptions that didactic TYA is low-quality, conservative, and unwilling to break taboos, considering changes over the last fifty years. I argue that didactic theatre exploits the medium to deliver a clear message in order to create habitus for young spectators yet may display professional quality as well as break taboos. Discourse opposing didactic theatre does not reflect its prevalence but rather, the desire of artists and scholars to accumulate symbolic capital and prestige for the field and themselves.

There's No Place Like Home(land) in American and Soviet Fantasy Cinema of 1939: The Wizard of Oz and Vasilisa the Beautiful

There's No Place Like Home(land) in American and Soviet Fantasy Cinema of 1939: <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> and <i>Vasilisa the Beautiful</i>

Exploring the Bedouin Syndrome in the Football Fan Culture: Addressing the Hooliganism Phenomena through Networks of Violent Behavior

The Bedouin syndrome represents social interactions based on four premises: a friend of my friend is my friend, a friend of my enemy is my enemy, an enemy of my friend is my enemy, and an enemy of my enemy is my friend. These extensive associations exist in many social and economic relationships, such as market competition, neighborhood relations, political behavior, student gangs, organized crime, and the violent behavior of sports spectators (hooliganism) worldwide. This work tests the Bedouin syndrome hypothesis considering the violent behavior in the football fan culture. We construct relational networks of social affinities to represent the social interactions of organized fan bases (Torcidas organizadas) involved in hooligan violence in Pernambuco, Brazil. Contrary to prior expectations, the results evidence no statistical support for the Bedouin syndrome in 13 of the 15 analyzed clubs. There is weak statistical support in two interactions and strong statistical support in one interaction to state that a friend of my enemy is my friend (instead of an enemy). The only support for the Bedouin syndrome is circumstantial based on a prior assumption of an alliance. We propose a network development that can be more suitable to represent football fans’ violent behavior. The results contribute to understanding the hooliganism social phenomenon in football-rooted cultures and their impact on public health, identifying potential determinants for organized violence by young spectators’ and supporting police strategies by defining relevance scores for the most potential clashes and coalitions of gangs.

ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИДЕИ А. А. БРЯНЦЕВА В ПЕРИОД РЕФОРМИРОВАНИЯ СОВЕТСКОЙ ШКОЛЫ (1920-Е ГОДЫ)

Introduction. The paper deals with the main pedagogical ideas of A.A. Bryantsev, the founder of the first Theater for Young Spectators (TYS), which were spread during the period of reforms in the education system in the 1920s. The paper aims to reveal the pedagogical ideas of the first artistic director of the theatre. Materials and Methods. The methodology of the study is based on the sociocultural approach using the biographical method. Materials from the archive and museum of St. Petersburg Theatre for Young Spectators named after A.A. Bryantsev, the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg; autobiography and articles by A.A.Bryantsev; a biography dedicated to the artistic director of the Theatre for Young Spectators, S.D. Zeltser; research works on the history of the Soviet school in the 1920s by Elena Kolosova and Natalia Fedorova were reviewed and analyzed. Results of the study. The main normative documents, and the events, which strengthened the significance of the ties between the theatre and schools of the city, are listed. The description of the consequences of the reforms allows identifying the specifics and possibilities of the activity of A.A. Bryantsev and teachers of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) TYS during the period under study. As conceived by the founders, Leningrad Theatre for Young Spectators was created as an educationally oriented theater. The study has considered pedagogical principles of the Leningrad Theatre for Young Spectators and traced the main landmarks of the Theatre’s development in the 1920s, namely, the first performance “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” the organization of its pedagogical activity, and the establishment of the Assembly of Delegates. The main objectives to be accomplished by the pedagogical activity of the theatre and the delegates of the Theatre have been presented as the basic links between the theatre and school. The role and significance of theatrical performance in the educational work of the theatre and the performance requirements imposed by the artistic director of the TYS are outlined. The evidence that the spectator is the pivot of the creation, selection, and delivery of performances is examined. Conclusions. The ideas of A.A. Bryantsev are reflected in the organization of pedagogical work and Assembly of Delegates at the Theatre for Young Spectators, in the implementation of the concept of “theatre-home” for children, in the involvement of different social groups in the discussion of educational issues, and in the dissemination of positive experience of Leningrad Theatre for Young Spectators all over the world.

Psychometric evaluation of recall and recognition tasks for the measurement of young spectators’ theatrical memory

The purpose of this research is the construction and psychometric evaluation of seven categories of recall and recognition tasks for the measurement of young spectators’ theatrical memory, based on the respective theatre codes of a specific performance for young spectators. The aim of those tasks is the evaluation of the young spectators’ mnemonic recordings on a level a) the actors’ representation of the characters on stage (acting), b) the visual frame of the performance, c) the audio code d) the lights, e) the dramatic text, f) the plot/action and g) the Shadow Theatre technique.&#x0D; The recall and recognition tasks were constructed according to the Classical Test Theory of Question Analysis on a sample of 5th Grade Primary School pupils (i.e. ten-year-old pupils), who had seen this specific performance addressed to young spectators and were evaluated with the Factor Analysis method. For the evaluation of the quality of the questions, we took into consideration the difficulty coefficient of each question, the discriminant coefficient and the evaluation of the correlation level of expert judges. For the psychometric control of the tests we examined the validity of their conceptual construct via inquiry factor analysis and the internal validity coefficient.&#x0D; The result of the above tasks was the creation of seven reliable and valid measurement tools, in which no gender effect is inferred.

DESIGN RESULTS OF CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL, THEATRICAL AND ENTERTAINMENT BUILDINGS

theatrical and entertainment buildings, designed by teachers and students of the Department of architectural environmental design, Institute of Architecture, National University of Lviv Polytechnic. Nowadays, the theater architectural industry in Ukraine that specializes in youth audiences and students has no clear answer to the question of what the architecture of contemporary theater for children and young people should be and what functional colors and scenographic palette it should include. The theatrical architecture of buildings for children and youth in modern Ukraine continues to be a copy of the building since the Soviet Union. At the beginning of the 21st century nothing new appeared except analogs of the Theater of Young Spectators and the Puppet Theater of the former era. The analysis of more than 25 projects of all ranks has shown that most of them are based not only on the ideas of architects of the second half of the twentieth century but also those that made up a network of cultural and educational, theatrical and spectacular buildings in the former USSR. However, in recent years the projects of the Lviv School of Architecture, and especially after the creation of the Department of Architectural Environmental Design, have changed direction towards finding solutions for the architecture of the future. Evidence of the results of both educational, competitive design and the creation of special courses that reanimate the ideas of the architecture of futurists of the twentieth century - F. Kiesler, I. Leonidov and other architects of futurists in the applied sphere A. Quarmby, K. Tange, B. Fuller and those engaged in the search for architecture, which is at least partially called the architecture of the future - G. Holmin, Wolf D. Prix, G. Krieger. The materials of the article highlight the main principles of designing cultural and educational, theatrical, and entertainment centers in the 21st century. The author outlines the factors that continue to harm the future development of cultural and educational, theatrical, and entertainment centers in Ukraine. Highlighted experience of designing search, educational and competition projects on the example of the activity of the Department of architectural environmental design proves that it can find application in the applied architectural and construction industry of the country as a whole.

Effects of eco-animations on nine and twelve year old children’s environmental conceptions: How WALL-E changed young spectators’ views of earth and environmental protection

This study investigates changes in children’s environmental conceptions through their experience with the eco-animation WALL-E. The study uses an analytical framework informed by Social Representations Theory, accompanied with a word association approach to collect data. A total of 84 children (35 nine-year olds and 49 twelve-year olds) participated in the study. The animation reinforced both the idea of a polluted planet and the idea of the planet as an agent of life. The 9-year old participants expressed a more relational view of humans and nature than the 12-year olds. The process of anchoring new information to preexisting conceptual frameworks and the environmental views promoted through education are discussed as possible explanations of the ways participants interpret and assimilate environmental messages communicated by eco-animations.

Impoliteness Strategies and Gender Differences among Disney Modern Protagonists

Disney Animation industry has grown, over the years, as a powerful producer of youth media and generator of visual culture. Its animation films break into the world’s living-room screens and mesmerize young spectators with a fantasy world full of life, magic and colors, where love and happiness are everlasting. The genre of anime, through a series of images, creates a link between the child and characters; a desirable image of self-seeing oneself reflected and experienced by the story characters, mediates how the spectator wants to be seen by others. Hence, these fe/male protagonists cross from being plain characters to become “Role Models” promoting impolite social norms and gender performances through their discursive practices. This research is concerned with the study of how modern fe/male highest grossing Disney characters use language to shape social identities through their impolite discourse and gender behaviors; By drawing on Culpeper’s (2010) ‘Model of Impoliteness Formulae’. The results of the model will be further examined with language and gender theories in order to uncover how both genders (females and males) use impoliteness strategies to re/produce and maintain their power relations. Keywords: Disney, role models, impoliteness, gender, power

“Gangnam Style” in Dhaka and inter-Asian refraction

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the political implications of the flash mob dance in Dhaka, Bangladesh performed in response to the 2012 global viral sensation of South Korean rapper PSY’s “Gangnam Style” music video. The global fame of “Gangnam Style” has much to do with its success online and in the U.S. popular music industry. It, however, also solicited suspicion from popular culture critics that the images of comical PSY worked successfully thanks to unchecked consumption of the racial stereotypes of Asian men. While recognizing these problems as more than valid, this essay simultaneously calls for a more transnational and inter-Asian understanding of the material to argue for a productive quality of PSY’s performance. Using “refraction” as a mode of thinking about inter-Asian circulation of pop culture, this essay considers the flash mob performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh as an important yet underexplored case study that shows different performative practices associated with “Gangnam Style” deeply rooted in historicity of colonialism and nationalism. The case study shows that the circulation of “Gangnam Style” materialized through a performance in Dhaka enlarged contemporary discourse among young urban Bangladeshi spectators around Bangladeshiness and its cultural identity. This complicated an easy assumption about “Gangnam Style” and its success in the U.S. mainstream pop culture, while simultaneously displacing the Bangladeshi cultural subjects from the immobile position of “the Other.”

On the wings of imagination: The 8th Biennial of puppetry artists of Slovenia

Abstract The article covers the events at the 8th Biennial of Puppetry Artists of Slovenia, which took place in 2015 in Maribor. It points out the productions that attracted young spectators with fresh minimalism (Turlututu) and an inventive participatory principle (In the Land of Finger Puppets and Heart and Bellybutton). Freaks, a puppet musical for grownups by Rok Vilčnik and Bojan Labović and A Little Lamp, Pea and Feather, a performance for the youngest audiences directed by Katja Povše, are characterized as especially original works. Also, The Grand Prix went to Timescope by Matija Solce, who also received the award for best directing for his work on it.

“Let the Little Children Come to Me”: (Anti-)Religious Films for Young Spectators of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Period

The article is a comparative analysis of three films focusing on anti-religious and religious propaganda (targeting both Orthodoxy and sectarianism) and featuring children among the main characters: The Miracle Worker (1960), Armageddon (1962) and Serafima’s Extraordinary Journey (2015). The three films feature a similar set of characters and artifacts which serve as the springboard for the unfolding of the individual plots. However, the techniques used in the characters’ portrayal are very different in each of the films, leading to contrasting outcomes. This article explores the way the characters are portrayed, including the use of discursive strategies and intertextual mechanisms, with special emphasis given to the propaganda characteristic of the different periods in the country’s history. It highlights the reversal of values between Soviet and post-Soviet societies, resulting in a drastic change in the didactic messages conveyed by cinema over these 50+ years.

Postfeminist (Dis)Entanglements: Transgression and Conformism in Contemporary Italian Teen Movies

According to film historian Giampiero Brunetta, the success of Luca Lucini’s Tre metri sopra il cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven, 2004) and Fabio Brizzi’s Notte prima degli esami (Night Before the Exams, 2006) is emblematic of the current “crisis” of Italian cinema. The premise of Brunetta’s negative comments are primarily aesthetics (bad script, bad direction), while other reviewers have blamed the same films for unrealistic portrayals of Italian teenagers, and expressed their concerns about the moral and social influence that such mis-representations might have on the young spectators. My essay begins from these negative accounts to suggest an alternative reading of contemporary Italian teen movies, by which I mean popular fictions that both represent teenagers and market teenage audiences. These movies constitute a “filone” (cycle) on the basis of similarities in plots and characters, narratives formulas, choice of actors and actresses, and commercial strategies. At the core of the successful cycle of teen films, I argue, there are the tropes of freedom and choice, and the concepts of agency and individualization. These ideas are fundamental to the construction of the neo-liberal subject, rather than some deviant example of social and moral behaviors, and thus worth of our attention. Furthermore, sexuality and the sexualization of both the male and the female bodies are central discourses to the film narratives and visual strategies, which inform a configuration of gender/sex system whose features have been widely discussed by scholars in British and American cultural and film studies, under the label of “postfeminism.” In this essay, films such as Federico Moccia’s Amore 14 (2009) will be taken as examples to suggest a taxonomy of postfeminist female characters, in their various declinations. I will contextualize contemporary Italian productions in relation to critical texts on postfeminism such as Angela McRobbie’s The Aftermath of Feminism, and studies on female-oriented cycles such as Hilary Radner on American girly films. My intention is to shed light on both the specificities of the Italian context and the continuities across national borders, in a globalized and transnational film industry.

TV and Minors: the Reasons for Violence

Thousands of different questions are centered on the topic of TV violence, especially those concerning young spectators. In everyday life, children, youth and adolescents watch particularly brutal and heightened scenes on TV, which, however, it is not always legitimate to condemn. In fact, if we assume that apocalyptic positions (together with integrated stances) bring nowhere, perhaps it will be possible to give life to a minors friendly television, taking advantage of the numerous existing family mediation and self-regulation strategies. The code teaches it.

Wayang Hip Hop: Java’s Oldest Performance Tradition Meets Global Youth Culture

Wayang Hip Hop is a group led by dalang Ki Catur “Benyek” Kuncoro that combines Javanese wayang kulit conventions and hip hop music. This article traces the history of the group in relation to key developments in wayang kontemporer , while exploring controversies in its reception. Wayang Hip Hop is analyzed as an important new version of wayang that has garnered substantial attention from young spectators. Five reasons for the appeal of the performance are identified: (1) its complex musical intersections, (2) the radical adaptation of classical wayang stories to address contemporary problems, (3) the extension of the conventions of the gara-gara comic interlude into a full performance, (4) the adaption of Javanese wisdom to new settings, and (5) the adaptability of the production, which can has been presented in very diverse contexts.

Indonesia. Maskulinitas: Culture, gender and politics in Indonesia. By Marshall Clark. Monash papers on Southeast Asia no. 71. Caulfield: Monash University Press, 2010. Pp. 182. Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Maskulinitas: culture, gender and politics in Indonesia. Monash papers on Southeast Asia no. 71 Caulfield: Monash University Press, 2010. Pp. 182. Notes, Bibliography, Index. In this wide-ranging and intriguing study of Indonesian arts, especially those that appeared during the first 10 years following Suharto's fall, Marshall Clark looks at diverse genres: the novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Ayu Utami; films--some art house, some more popular--by a number of important new directors; and works by a controversial poet, Binhad Nurrohmat. In each case, he asks how men are represented and what we can learn in light of those representations about contemporary Indonesian attitudes toward masculinity. In particular, he wishes to learn whether conventional expectations of the idealised male are undergoing re-evaluation. Has there been any loosening of the screws that keep Indonesian males fastened to a New Order take on gender, wherein men are in control of themselves and everyone else, and women are subservient, supportive and focused on the family? Or to say the same in a different idiom, has the radical questioning that the end of the New Order occasioned reduced the power of Javanist patriarchy and heteronormativity? Clark frequently invokes Bakhtin as he examines materials that deal much more frankly and provocatively with sexuality and 'lower bodily strata' than has been customary in recent Indonesian culture. Like Bakhtin, he celebrates the anti-authoritarian tenor of what comes from the 'marketplace': the way that exchange of all sorts challenges the order and stasis of institutionalised power. Yet there is a risk here, one that Clark does not completely avoid, of taking representations of the lowly or nonnormative as critiques of the high and mighty or the normative, when the point may simply be to emphasise their differences. Pramoedya, certainly, challenged hierarchical assumptions at their foundations. Yet many of Clark's other examples, particularly those from film, are equivocal. As Clark admits, many popular films reflect men's sense of being under threat from assertive feminism. But they do so by reaffirming stereotypes of women's baleful power and retelling tales of men's violent responses. Directors who fall back on these standard tropes may simply, and cynically, exploit young male spectators' taste for such violence. But their films' popularity suggests no rethinking of conventional (and destructive) masculinist attitudes. Clark's claims are modest. …

Artist Intention and Audience Reception in Theatre for Young Audiences

This article discusses the relationship between the intentions of adult artists who create works of theatre for young audiences and the responses of young people who view those performances. It reviews the results of a mixed-methods case study conducted with middle school students who viewed a production of Y. York's Getting Near to Baby. The young spectators sometimes responded to themes in the play the way that the artists envisioned they would; at other times, they did not; and in some instances, they responded to themes the artists did not envision at all. The data suggest little correlation between artists' investment in conveying particular ideas and young audience members' responses to those ideas. Rather, the nature of the ideas and the ways in which they are presented seem more likely to influence audience response.

The Performance of Disappearance: Mike Parr's Amerika

Claudia Orenstein reconsiders the notion of “entertainment for the whole family” via a puppetry-centered program that, by drawing on the power of performing objects, delves into the uncanny and fantastical to appeal to young minds, inventive artists, and adventurous adult spectators alike. Edward Scheer considers the aesthetics of disappearance within Australian performance artist Mike Parr's most recent series of actions, Amerika, which involve extreme physical demands even as they posit the body as subject simultaneously to its own presence and absence.

The New Victory Danish Festival: A New Perspective on Puppetry and Family Entertainment

Claudia Orenstein reconsiders the notion of “entertainment for the whole family” via a puppetry-centered program that, by drawing on the power of performing objects, delves into the uncanny and fantastical to appeal to young minds, inventive artists, and adventurous adult spectators alike. Edward Scheer considers the aesthetics of disappearance within Australian performance artist Mike Parr's most recent series of actions, Amerika, which involve extreme physical demands even as they posit the body as subject simultaneously to its own presence and absence.

Legitimizing public authorities as sponsors: An inquiry into the factors related to the perception and memorization of their sponsorship

This study investigates the effectiveness of sponsorship for public authorities. In the specific context of a European region (the Departement Moselle in the East of France) supporting a professional tennis event, it is shown that public authorities are most likely to be recognized as sponsors by young spectators interested in the activity sponsored and residents of the region concerned