Abstract Theatrical art: its types and specifics. Theater as an art form. Main Features

THEATER AS AN ART FORM

Like any other form of art (music, painting, literature), theater has its own special characteristics. This art is synthetic: a theatrical work (performance) consists of the text of the play, the work of the director, actor, artist and composer. In opera and ballet, music plays a decisive role.

In the last quarter of the 19th century. throughout Europe, but primarily in France, began to be created cabaret theaters , which combined the forms of theater, stage, and restaurant singing. The most famous and popular were " Black cat"in Paris, "Eleven Executioners" in Munich, "All to Lost" in Berlin, "Curve Mirror" in St. Petersburg.

People of art gathered in the café, and this created a special atmosphere. The space for such performances could be the most unusual, but most often the basement was chosen - as something ordinary, but at the same time mysterious, a little forbidden, underground. Cabaret performances (short skits, parodies or songs) were associated with a special experience for both the public and the performers - a feeling of unfettered freedom. The sense of mystery was usually enhanced by the fact that such performances were given late, sometimes at night. To this day in different cities There are real cabarets in the world.

A special type of theatrical performance - puppet theater It appeared in Europe in the era of antiquity. In ancient Greece and Rome, home performances were performed. Since that time, the theater has, of course, changed, but the main thing remains - only dolls participate in such performances. However, in recent years, dolls have often “shared” the stage with actors.

Each nation has its own puppet heroes, in some ways similar and in some ways different. But they all have one thing in common: on stage they joke, play mischief, and make fun of people’s shortcomings. The dolls differ from each other, both in “appearance” and in design. The most common dolls are those controlled by threads, hand dolls and cane dolls. Submissions puppet theater require special equipment and a special stage. At first it was just a box with holes made at the bottom (or top). In the Middle Ages, performances were held in the square - then a curtain was stretched between two pillars, behind which the puppeteers were hiding. In the 19th century performances began to take place in specially built rooms.

A special form of puppet theater is the theater of puppets, wooden puppets. Special scripts were written for the puppet theater. The history of world puppet theater knows many famous names. The performances were a huge success. New solutions are proposed in his fantasies by Revaz Levanovich Gabriadze (born 1936), a Georgian puppeteer and playwright.

ORIGIN OF THE THEATER.

Theater is a “disappearing” art, difficult to describe. The performance leaves a trace in the memory of the audience and very few material, material traces. That is why the science of theater - theater studies - arose late, at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, two theories of the origin of theater appeared. According to the first, the art of Siena (both Western and Eastern) developed from rites and magical rituals. In such actions there was always a game, participants often used masks and special costumes. A person “played” (portrayed, for example, a deity) in order to influence the world around him - people, nature, gods. Over time, some rituals turned into secular games and began to serve for entertainment; Later, the participants in such games separated from the spectators.

Another theory connects the origin of European theater with the growth of individual self-awareness. Man has a need to express himself through spectacular art, which has a powerful emotional impact.

"PLAY LIKE AN ADULT, JUST BETTER"

The idea that special theaters need to be created for children arose a long time ago. One of the first "children's" productions was the work of the Moscow Art Theater. In 1908 he staged the play fairy tale by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. blue bird", and ever since famous performance does not leave the scene of the Moscow Art Theater named after M. Gorky. This production determined the path of development of performing arts for children - such theater must be understandable to a child, but in no case primitive or one-dimensional.

In Russia, children's theaters began to appear after October 1917. Already in 1918, the First children's theater Moscow Council. She became the organizer and manager, the performances were designed by wonderful artists, and a famous choreographer worked here. Natalya Ilyinichna Sats () all her creative life dedicated to theater for children. In she was artistic director Moscow Theater for Children (now the Central Children's Theater). Her latest brainchild is Moscow Children's musical theater(bears a name). In February 1922, the first spectators were received by the Theater of Young Spectators in Leningrad. One of its founders and permanent leader was director Alexander Alexandrovich Bryaniev (). He believed that in the theater it was necessary to unite artists who could think like teachers, and teachers who could perceive life like artists.

New, purely technical problems have appeared. The room needed special light; it was necessary to provide a “picture” of the background that would be before the eyes of the audience for several hours of action. Frames with canvases were inserted into the real architectural composition - other buildings or interiors were depicted on them, and thus the illusion of a different space was created on the playground. Sometimes they painted a landscape on canvas, as if “breaking through” the wall and breaking out into the world blocked by the architect.

In the Middle Ages, performances began to be played again to open air. The forms of medieval folk and street theater were preserved in the Renaissance - in the design of the Shakespearean stage. The name of the great English playwright is given to the type of construction of theatrical space that existed during the reign of Queen Elizaveta I Tudor.

A feature of the Elizabethan stage was its division into three playing areas. Such a stage (strongly protruding into the auditorium) was ready to accept everything that would be born of the playwright’s imagination. It made it possible to easily transfer the action of the play from one country to another, to freely move events in time. Sometimes the details of the situation were explained in the text heard from the stage. In the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, you can not only find detailed stage directions, but also learn from the characters themselves what a particular landscape looks like. The heroes of the play “The Tempest” who miraculously escaped after a shipwreck, emerging from the water, say with surprise: “Our clothes, soaked in the sea, nevertheless have not lost either freshness or color” or: “In my opinion, our dress looks brand new... "etc.

The theater itself established the conventions and rules that connected the two parts of a single theatrical whole - the playing and the spectator parts. Everything that came into the playing space, onto the stage, was transformed: a tree in a tub became a forest, a chair became a royal throne, ordinary clothes became a theatrical costume. In the 16th century in the city of Vicenza in northeastern Italy, the outstanding Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (real name di Pietro di Padova) built the Olimpico Theater (15). This building was completed by Palladio's follower, Vincenzo Scamozzi (). The Teatro Olimpico had a ceiling above both the playing area and auditorium. It was as if the theater space had slammed shut. Behind the actors, at the back of the stage, voluminous architectural decorations were placed. The actor could not enter there, into the depths - otherwise he would destroy the illusory space. But on the inclined floor of the original “streets” it was possible to place flat painted figures of characters, cut out to the required scale, and before the eyes of the audience, as in ancient times, an endlessly lasting world appeared. And on the ceiling of the hall, the painter depicted the sky, trying to maintain the same connection with the world around the theater.

Much of what theater architects and artists came up with during the Renaissance has been preserved in the theater to this day. The ramp line (fr. rampe), the boundary between the spectator and playing space, is still often marked with small lamps. Equipped with special reflectors, they are placed to brighten the stage and the faces of the actors. Cables (ropes) were pulled on console mounts extended from the wall, and with the help of a special device the characters flew over the stage. Despite the latest achievements of modern stage technology, the principle of this device is still considered the most reliable. By the end of the 17th century. In theatrical architecture, the stage-box finally took shape - the same one that can be found in the theater now. Artists paid special attention until the end of the 19th century. paid attention to how to preserve the viewer's feeling that this box contains a huge space. This so-called Italian stage became the most widespread in European theater.

Within the Italian box stage, the artist, following the playwright’s instructions, built the scenery according to plans: from the foreground (the ramp line), he gradually “stretched” the image and reduced it to the background - a flat, picturesque backdrop. On the wings, lined on both sides of the stage, on the planes of the arches there is an image, for example, of a forest. Tree trunks painted on the wings, branches intertwined above the stage in the painting of holly, form a semblance of arches that descend from plan to plan in depth and merge with the forest landscape of the backdrop. This system of decorations, which developed in the Baroque theater (late 16th - mid-18th centuries), was called backstage art. Painters and decorators created on theater stage true miracles. Theatrical technology, which became more complex over time, made it possible to stage fires, floods, volcanic eruptions on stage... One of the greatest theater artists of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Pietro di Gottardo Gonzago (17 called theatrical scenery “music for the eyes.”

As an independent art form, theatrical decoration develops only to mid-19th century V. Dramaturgy began to pose new tasks for the theater - not only to designate the place of action or historical era. It is difficult to imagine the events taking place in Gogol's "The Inspector General", or in Griboedov's "Woe from Wit", or in Pushkin's "Boris Godunov", without specific signs of the time, without characteristic details of everyday life and costume. The drama theater was rapidly moving towards creating a life-like environment on stage.

In the first production of the play " Late love"in 1873, the artist of the Maly Theater P. Isakov placed a Dutch stove with smoked tiles near the firebox door in the room on the stage, as always happens in real life. This detail almost caused the indignation of the audience, accustomed to the “beautiful and sublime.” The actors thanked the artist for the fact that in his interior “you can’t play, but you can live.” "Truthfulness Stop" helped them penetrate the specific atmosphere of the action.

The birth of director's theater at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries gave rise to new theatrical experiments, and the scenography of the early 20th century. experienced a period of discovery in its history. Little things and individual props helped solve the same basic theatrical problem of interaction between the playing and spectator spaces. Separated by a ramp line, the performance and the audience influence each other, the overall mood is born thanks to the efforts of the director, artist, actors - and of course the viewer.

During the first half of the 20th century. directors and stage designers consistently analyzed all the possibilities of the box scene and experimented with the arena stage. They mastered the volume vertically and diagonally, making its three-dimensionality more and more tangible, extracting maximum figurative expressiveness from the stage space.

Around the directors different schools and directions, like-minded artists united and brought new plastic ideas to the theater. An example is the creative union of Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov (), the chief director of the Moscow Chamber Theater, with the painter Alexandra Alexandrovna Ekster () and the architect Alexander Alexandrovich Vesnin ().

Alexandra Exter came to Chamber theater from easel painting. In search of new rhythms, she turned the stage plan into staircases of different heights, building unusual plastic compositions in Tairov’s performances. created for the play "Phaedra" (1922; Racine's play) an installation of inclined platforms, onto which came characters in colorful costumes and buskins, which came from the ancient theater to the performance of the 20th century.

The actors wore large headdresses that resembled the architectural completion of a temple. In such an outfit it is impossible to move quickly along an inclined plane, to gesticulate energetically, to turn your head - in a word, the artist excluded the usual everyday plasticity. The need to physically overcome scenographic difficulties gave the actors unexpected strength for extreme emotional and plastic expressiveness.

In the early 20s. XX century at the State Higher Theater Workshops Vs. Actors, directors and stage designers studied and worked together with Meyerhold. This was fundamental for his theater. In Meyerhold's performances, the stage designer built a machine-set for the worker-actor. All the details of the machine, the actor’s “instrument” (his body, his voice) had to work in impeccable harmony.

Theatrical traditions of the past are studied and used by modern directing. Nowadays, stage designers constantly work with the director, whose role in the preparation of performances continues to increase.

When a viewer comes to the theater today, he is clearly aware of the conventionality of theatrical action and does not demand an absolute resemblance to life. The public is waiting for impressions that will awaken feelings and evoke associations with what everyone has experienced in their own lives.

There are performances where seats for spectators are placed directly on the stage. In this way, the director and set designer manage to force the audience to reconsider the usual ideas that “the theater shows, and the viewer watches.” (Similar techniques can be found in the past.) In the 1998 play by director Valery Vladimirovich Fokin (born in 1946) and artist Sergei Mikhailovich Barkhin (born in 1938) "Tatyana Repina" (based on a little-known parody play), the action takes place in church, during a wedding. Spectators can sit on stage, finding themselves in the role of guests on wedding ceremony or birthday. The audience's perception is heightened by the fact that they are in a space intended for acting.

Theatrical space these days can mean both the Universe and a room in an ordinary apartment. It depends on what tasks the creators of the play set and solve.

SHAKESPEARE THEATER

Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies and chronicles were performed in the Globe Theater (built in 1599). The name is explained by the external similarity: the auditorium covered the stage area with three sides and the globe was remembered. However, there is another, symbolic meaning of the name: theater is the world, and all the main plots are presented in the plays human life. There was a canopy over the Globe's sienna, and open sky above the heads of the spectators.

Other English theaters were arranged in a similar way. The building was a covered courtyard where the public who had bought cheap tickets walked, stood or sat on boxes and baskets. Seats in the galleries surrounding the courtyard were more expensive - there the spectators were comfortably seated on benches and were sheltered from the weather. Above the simple plank stage, covered from the rain by a canopy, stood a tower on which a flag was hung on the day of the performance. Theaters in London were built outside the city center, on the other side of the Thames, and if city residents saw a flag in the morning, they knew that there would be a performance that day. Having boarded boats, taking with them baskets of provisions and warm capes, people swam across the river and went to the theater, where performances lasted for several hours in a row until it got dark.

The audience gathered was very diverse - artisans and apprentices and students, soldiers and tramps, detectives in disguise tracking down thieves and swindlers, sedate merchants with their wives. In the boxes in the galleries one could see noble ladies and gentlemen wearing masks that covered their faces - it was not appropriate for them to be among ordinary citizens at a performance of a “public” theater. In those days, a mask was as common an item in everyday life as gloves or a hat. It was worn to protect the face from cold and wind, dust and heat, and to hide from immodest glances. In a word, the mask on the face did not surprise anyone.

THEATER COSTUME

The actor always wore a dress, which could not be as traditional as casual wear. It’s not just “comfortable”, “warm”, “beautiful” - on the stage it is also “visible”, “expressive”, “figurative”.

Throughout its history, the theater has used the magic of costume, which, however, also exists in real life. The rags of a poor man, the rich attire of a courtier, military armor often determine a lot in advance of our close acquaintance with a person in our attitude towards him. A costume composition, made up of familiar details of clothing, but in a special, “talking” way, can emphasize certain traits in a character’s character, reveal the essence of the events taking place in the play, tell about historical time, etc. A theatrical costume evokes the viewer’s own associations, enriches and deepens the impression of both the performance and the hero. The costume incorporates symbolism traditional culture. To put on someone else's clothes means to use the appearance of another person. In the plays of Shakespeare or Goldoni, the heroine dresses up in a man's dress - and becomes unrecognizable even to close people, although, apart from the costume, she has not changed anything in her appearance. Aphelia in the fourth act of Hamlet appears in a long shirt, with fluffy hair (in contrast to the court dress and hairstyle) - and the viewer does not need words, the heroine’s madness is obvious to him. After all, the idea that the destruction of external harmony is a sign of the destruction of internal harmony exists in the culture of any nation.

The symbolism of color (red - love, black - sadness, green - hope) also plays a certain role in everyday clothing. But the theater made color in costume one of the ways to express the emotional state of a character. Thus, Hamlet is always dressed in black on the stages of various theaters. In design, cut, and texture, a theatrical costume, as a rule, differs from a household costume. In life, natural conditions (warm - cold), a person’s social affiliation (peasant, city dweller), and fashion play a big role. In the theater, much is also determined by the genre of the performance and the artistic style of the performance. In ballet, for example, in traditional choreography there cannot be a heavy dress. And in a dramatic performance full of movement, the costume should not prevent the actor from feeling free in the stage space.

Often theater artists, when drawing costume sketches, distort and exaggerate the shapes of the human body. Costume in the play modern theme, oddly enough, one of the most difficult problems. It is impossible to bring an actor on stage dressed in a nearby store. Only an accurate selection of details, a thoughtful color scheme, matches or contrasts in the appearance of the characters will help the birth of an artistic image.

IN AND AROUND THE HOUSE

In the first production of the play " Cherry Orchard"in 1904, together with theater artist Viktor Andreevich Simov (), he composed on paper a plan of almost the entire manor house, although in the play only two rooms were shown to the viewer. But if the actors imagine the whole house, they know where they entered the room from on the sienna , where each door leads, where there was a “children’s, my dear, beautiful room,” their sounds are inevitably transmitted to the audience. The viewer has a feeling of the reality of the space in which the life of the characters passes before his eyes. When the curtain opens, according to Chekhov’s play, on the sienna. there is no one. Then Dunyasha and Lopakhin enter - and the action begins at the Moscow Art Theater: dawn, the first rays of the sun color the white frosty space outside the windows of the room, after darkness and silence, broken only by flashes of fire and the crackling of logs behind the slightly open door. stoves, sienna floods sunlight, and she is bombarded, as it happens at dawn in spring, with birdsong.

ARTIST IN THE THEATER

The concept of an artist’s individual creative style in scenography takes on a special meaning. The theater artist collaborates with different theaters and different directors, and in each work he is like an actor on a sienna - he doesn’t look like himself, but he is definitely recognizable. The director, in turn, chooses as a co-author a master close to him in style.

In the Russian theater of the second half of the 20th century. One of the most interesting was the creative union of director and set designer David Lvovich Borovsky-Brodsky (born in 1934). Borovsky's best performances at the Taganka Theater are "Hamlet" (W. Shakespeare's tragedy), "The House on the Embankment" (based on the story) and "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" (based on the story). The artist's imagination gives rise to complex metaphorical images using authentic textures and things. Earth, wood, iron “collide” on the sienna, and this conflict interaction turns into a symbol. The forged blades in Hamlet pierce the planks of the sienna tablet, almost splitting them. The gravediggers throw real soil onto the sienna. A huge knitted curtain moves horizontally, rotates around its axis - it becomes an almost animated partner of the characters in the play. In the play “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” the body of the military truck in which the girls are riding at the beginning of the action is later “shattered” into planks, becoming either trees in the forest, or the walls of a house in the heroines’ memories, or logs thrown across a swamp.

The unique thinking of this artist was manifested in the performances of the Moscow Art Theater - in the productions of the plays "Echelon" and "Ivanov". Borovsky's solutions are akin to a mathematical formula: hidden in two brackets, it can be expanded over several pages - and again folded into a small line. His images, composed of precisely selected details, give extraordinary scope to the viewer’s imagination.

“Echelon” tells how during the Great Patriotic War women, children, and old people go to the rear. On the sienna there is a structure assembled from railway rails, telegraph poles, and doors of a heated truck. The sound of wheels at the joints of rails, poles flashing outside the window, the clanging of a carriage door, the monotonous rhythm of road stories give rise to a complex and expressive image of the performance, despite its external simplicity and unpretentiousness.

Leventhal (born 1938) works a lot in musical theater, and not only in Russia. Pictorial thinking, absolute ear for music, a subtle sense of style allows this set designer to be very different in performances - and always recognizable.

Leventhal staged operas with the director. “Music for the eyes” sounds from the sienna in painting, textures, and plastic stage forms. To convey the complex images of Prokofiev’s works, the artist uses all means available to the theater. In the opera "The Player" the painting literally hangs over the sienna on tulle pads. Stage light fills the air and makes this painting “sound.” IN modern theater techniques and methods of different types of art interact. The experience of the remarkable Czech artist Josef Svoboda can be called innovative. At the turn of the 50-60s, using film and television projection (i.e., the technology of other arts), he created the famous Laterna Magica - a show in which an actor interacted with a moving projection. But all kinds of stunts on the stage are nothing new. Svoboda brought to the theater the understanding that it is necessary to artistically comprehend any technique that the set designer uses. The seemingly simple stage settings of this master conceal the possibility of unexpected transformations, each of which reveals more deeply the figurative solution of the performance.

Svoboda’s desire for a variety of scenographic language pushes the theatrical technique itself to improve. Light and technical effects in his performances, without becoming an end in themselves, make the artist’s “vocabulary” richer and more expressive. Scenographic techniques and working methods of a modern theater artist are varied. Painting, light, authentic textures and objects, new audio, video, computer technologies - everything can be used to create an artistic image of the performance.

MAGICAL BACKSTAGE.

The third bell rang. The hall slowly plunges into darkness, the curtain silently opens, and a picture gradually emerges from the darkness before the eyes of the audience: a sunny autumn morning, an old overgrown park, on the left is a small wooden gazebo, in the center is a bench; in the distance, on a hill, a path goes away, and behind the tree trunks, through their thinning crowns, a forest and clear blue sky. The hall falls silent. The performance begins.

This almost real world was invented by the director and artist. Using the means of theater, they were able to truthfully and poetically convey the beauty of autumn nature and set the viewer in the right mood. And they were helped by people whom the viewer does not see, but to whom, along with the actors, the director and the artist, he addresses applause. Theatrical backstage is a wonderful world. The spirit of collective creativity always reigns here. Many people of various, sometimes unusual and rare specialties take part in the creation of the performance.

First, the production designer, who has worked for a long time with the director on the artistic design of the play, brings scenery sketches to the theater. But sketches are a flat, two-dimensional image, and the stage is a three-dimensional space. Therefore, the results of your labor theater artist can only evaluate correctly by completing a mock-up of the scenery. On this necessary and extremely important stage A layout designer comes to the artist’s aid. The uniqueness of the profession of a theatrical model designer is that he is at the same time an artist, a carpenter, a mechanic, and a draper. The master works on a certain scale - 1:20. Each theater has a dummy - an image of the stage reduced twenty times. It is in this “box” that the modeler “conjures” his magic. First, he usually does the so-called cutting - he “figures out” the decorations from ordinary paper. This is like a rough draft, from which you can then make a model from wood, cardboard, fabric and other materials, without errors.

The layout, as well as sketches of scenery, costumes, furniture and props are presented to the theater’s artistic council. Leading actors, directors and other authoritative employees discuss and approve the proposed solution to the play. The head of the post is always among those present at the meeting of the artistic council. This is what the theater abbreviates as the head of the artistic production department, i.e., a group of artistic and technical workers who are involved in the design of the performance. Head post is a responsible position. He manages the process of making decorations and monitors their further use.

At a technical meeting held by the post manager, an assembly inventory is drawn up - a detailed description of each detail of the decoration and the technology for its production.

Several types of decorations are used. Rigid, or structured, are made of wood (boards, bars, plywood) and metal. They must be both durable and lightweight, and quickly installed on stage. Rigid decorations are made collapsible - so that it is convenient to store and transport during tours. Soft decorations are a rug that covers the stage plank (floor), wings that cover the sides of the stage, arches that cover the top of the stage, and backdrops that create the background. Furniture, lighting fixtures (chandeliers, table lamps, wall and other lamps) and props are also carefully described. The same detailed inventory is compiled for costumes.

Before starting work on any production, be it a factory or a construction site, you need to determine how much money you need to spend, i.e. calculate the estimate. It's the same in the theater. This document is drawn up by the head of the workshops. He takes into account all upcoming costs and orders materials for scenery and costumes from the supply department.

The post manager coordinates with the director the schedule for bringing the scenery to the stage. The director indicates which design details he needs first, and the post manager calculates the work time. The scenery drawings are made by the designer. Often the designer, and sometimes the artist himself, has to make templates - drawings or precise life-size drawings. And finally, the production of scenery begins in the theater’s artistic production workshops. The carpentry shop is equipped with machines that can be used to saw and process boards, and cut out parts with complex contours from plywood. Here they make decorative walls (frames made of bars covered with fabric), stairs, machines (collapsible platforms of different heights on the stage), columns, cornices, doors, windows, reliefs, etc.

Among the workers in this workshop there are cabinetmakers - this is the name given to furniture making craftsmen. They are helped by a turner and a carver. If mainly coniferous wood is used for decoration, then furniture is better made from birch, oak or beech, and soft linden is good for carved parts. Theater tables, chairs, and sofas differ from ordinary home ones. The design is lightweight, but the parts are connected very tightly - after all, in a theater, furniture is moved from place to place much more often than at home.

If you need particularly durable decorations, frames are prepared from them in a metalworking shop. They also make mounting metal fittings - “hardware”: loops for connecting parts of decorations, eyes for hanging, brackets, hooks and much more. In addition to mechanics, the workshop includes a welder, a tinsmith, and a metal turner. Here they can solder a complex-shaped lampshade from wire, make a chandelier, an antique goblet or fake swords.

Backdrops, curtains, curtains, tablecloths, and furniture covers are sewn in the soft decorations workshop. The workers of this workshop make appliqué decorations on tulle and curtain netting. Here, on long, wide frames, a special mesh of special weave called “bug” is woven from thick thread. It holds its shape well and also serves as a basis for appliqués. In the soft decorations workshop, a master of a very ancient specialty is working - an upholsterer and draper. He knows how to upholster and trim an armchair in the old style with braid, tighten it with silk fabric and trim a lampshade with fringe. He knows how to cut and sew lush draperies with festoons, lambrequins and tassels “for royal chambers.”

It is not always possible to purchase fabrics of the required color, so it is good when workshops have their own equipment for dyeing fabrics - large boilers in which fabrics are dyed, a rinsing bath, squeezing rollers and a drying machine. By the way, simultaneously with painting, the material for decoration is treated with a special composition - fire-retardant impregnation.

For final processing, the design details are sent to the picturesque decoration workshop. The most important stage of the work is painting soft decorations according to the artist’s sketches. The workshop premises are spacious, bright, with high ceilings and galleries. It is most convenient to transfer the image from the sketch to the backdrop in a simple way - “by cells”. To do this, the backdrop is first drawn with thin lines on the grid, and in the sketch, so as not to spoil the author’s work, lines in accordance with the scale are drawn with stretched threads. In the arsenal of the artist about the performers - brushes different sizes. All brushes have long handles: after all, masters paint while standing. In their work, artists use aniline paints (water-based), glue paints (such as gouache), etc. To paint, for example, clouds with airy, blurry edges, the artist uses an electric paint sprayer. From a close distance, theatrical painting is a continuous jumble of color strokes, dots, and lines. You can see the work from afar only by going up to the gallery, which is what the masters do from time to time.

Fabric painting artists work wonders. They turn cheap burlap into brocade: the pile of cotton velvet is smoothed with starch adhesive according to a patterned stencil, painted with “golden” paint - and in front of the viewer is an ancient precious fabric. Such artificially created textures look much more impressive from the stage than natural ones. The work of the prop shop is also important. Props are products depicting real objects that, for one reason or another, are difficult or impossible to use on stage. A prop artist is a jack of all trades. He uses various materials for his work: wood, plywood, wire, tin, foam plastic, foam rubber, fabric, paper, etc. He can sculpt from clay and sculptural plasticine, saw and plan, work with wire and tin, solder and sew. The goal of the work is to make such a thing that it would be difficult to distinguish it from the real thing even at close range. The favorite prop material is called papier-mâché. This is a mass that is obtained from a mixture of paper or cardboard with glue, starch, gypsum, etc.

In some theater workshops, the ancient craft of making artificial flowers is still preserved. Of course, you can take flowers made in a factory. What if you need to decorate a hat? Then the store won't help. A small elegant bouquet will be made in the theater itself. The sewing shop produces theatrical costumes. The work of tailors in this workshop is outwardly similar to work in a regular studio: the same sewing machines, mannequins, ironing boards, heavy irons, large tables. But on the mannequins, instead of fashionable modern suits, there is an ancient camisole with gold buttons, a luxurious long dress with fluffy petticoats, or an unusual outfit of a fairy-tale character.

The workshop also has a workshop for making hats. Milliners and hatmakers choose feathers, silk ribbons, braid, lace, jewelry, artificial flowers, etc. to decorate their products. In a shoe workshop, wooden blocks are carefully placed on shelves along the walls, on which boots, shoes and shoes are sewn. There is a special machine for processing heels and soles. But most of The shoemaker does the work by hand, sitting in front of a low table - a workbench - on a low stool.

The largest workshop is the machine and decoration department, which is headed by the chief machinist. The stage is equipped with a variety of complex mechanisms (in the old days they were called “machinery”), and the workshop manager must know how they operate. Subordinate to him are stagehands, or assemblers. The post manager, together with the artist, prepares the layout (a drawing showing the placement of the scenery), and the workers install the design. First of all, they stuff the rug onto the stage board. Then the necessary boom lifts are lowered and soft decorations are tied to them. After this, the hard decorations are taken out and attached to the tablet. The electric lighting shop “manages” the equipment with which the stage is illuminated. A variety of spotlights are placed on the ramp, on soffit rises, on portal towers, in lighting boxes; use portable equipment on tripods and projection installations. Also in charge of this workshop are electrical props - chandeliers, table lamps, candlesticks and candelabra (the flame of a candle is imitated by the light of a small light bulb). Before the performance, the lighting crew places the spotlights in place, checks the light filters (special heat-resistant films of different colors), and connects the electrical props. For each performance, a layout diagram is drawn up that records the location of the equipment. In addition, each performance has its own lighting score, which records how the light changes in the paintings. The lighting operator conducts the performance at the control panel.

No less important than light is sound design. In a special workshop, under the direction of the director, the soundtrack of the performance is created. In the theater's music library (collection of recordings) you can find anything you want: the sound of the sea surf, the whistle of a blizzard, and the barking of a dog. The finished recordings are edited.

The sound engineer's console is usually located in the box in front of the stage. The sound score (a recording similar to the light score) tells the operator those moments during the performance when to turn on and when to turn off the soundtrack. To make the sound voluminous, the speakers are placed on both sides of the stage, and in the back, and in the auditorium. There is a workshop in the theater where nothing is made - furniture, carpets, large window and door draperies, and cornices for them are stored here. Before the performance, a worker places all this on stage in its place. To avoid mistakes, small marks are made on the rug - stamps.

The props department is in charge of small details of the setting and those objects with which the actor works. They are stored in convenient, spacious cabinets, on the doors of which there are labels with the names of the performances. Often there is a need to purchase real, not fake things - after all, in every performance there are “outgoing” props: food, matches, cigarettes and much more, which are “destroyed” during the course of the action. By the way, “live props” - a dog, a cat or a parrot in a cage - are also the concern of the prop master. Immediately before the performance, costumes are brought from storage. For this purpose, there are special metal carts with a frame: shoes are folded underneath, and suits are hung on hangers. Master dressers help the actors get dressed.

Before the start of the performance, the actors are nervous behind the scenes. There's only one person on stage right now. He quickly but carefully examines the scenery. We need to check everything one last time. This man is an assistant director. He directs the course of the performance: he rings the bell for the beginning, opens and closes the curtain, calls the actors to go on stage, and notifies the stage service workers about the upcoming change of scenery. This is how the art of theater is created and lived in the workshops and behind the scenes through the joint creative work of professionals and enthusiasts of their craft.

WHY DO YOU NEED A DIRECTOR

The audience does not see the director on stage during the action; he can appear only after the performance - to bow with the actors and greet the audience. The theater lived for centuries without even trying to ask a question. why do you need a director? And in our time, going to look new performance, people often ask who staged the play.

There was always a person in the theater who worked with actors, artists, and solved a variety of problems - creative and technical. But for a long time this “character” remained in the shadows; even a definition for him was not immediately found. Only to early XIX century, in the theatrical environment, someone began to be mentioned as the main figure in the preparation of a performance - the creator of the stage world. At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. A new concept appeared on the pages of German theater publications - “directing”. However, in different countries the new figure in the theatrical process was called differently, and both the tasks and the forms of work initially depend on the name.

The concept of “directing” came to the Russian language from German: regieren - “to manage”. Therefore, the director is the one who manages and directs. In French the name has a professional connotation: the director is called a “master of mise-en-scene” (French: metteur enscene). Mise-en-scene (from the French mise enscene - “staging on stage”) is the location of the actors on the stage at every moment of the performance. The alternation of mise-en-scenes in the order prescribed by the play gives rise to stage action.

In England, the director was the one who “produces” the performance - performs the organizational work that precedes the creative work. With the advent of cinema, the creators of theatrical performances began to be called director - that is, the one who directs the action and is responsible for everything. Sometimes another term is used - director. The origin of this name also has an explanation. The process of working on a performance involves translation and transposition of a literary text into a special language of the stage. The director reproduces, that is, stages, the play on stage with the help of actors, a set designer, a composer, etc.

The director has many tasks: he must be an organizer, a teacher, and an interpreter of the text of the play - a kind of leader, the “master” of the performance. Both theater people and the public realized the main role of the director not immediately, but gradually. Throughout the 19th century. the very existence of the new profession was questioned - both the authors and sometimes the actors did not want to obey the director. The creators of the performances often distributed responsibilities. One worked with the actors, the second decided how the stage would be set up, the third explained the playwright’s plan to the troupe, etc. It is no coincidence that in the 19th century such concepts as visual directing arose (directors dealt with the design of the stage space) and verbal directing (transforming the written word into into a spoken word).

Some historians believe that the director existed from the moment the theater arose, and they are partly right: someone was always involved in preparing the performance. There is another opinion: directing arose only with the advent of a special type of dramaturgy, which required complex construction stage action, working with an ensemble (French ensemble - literally “together”) of actors, creating a stage atmosphere. This kind of drama appeared in the last quarter of the XIX c., it was called that: a new drama. It was then that interpreters of this dramaturgy - directors - came to the theater; they sought to create a special art world. The performance was now understood as something integral; it was supposed to confirm the unity of the director’s plan and the acting. The very concept of “design” was also born at the end of the 19th century.

However, the idea of ​​directing appeared almost a century earlier: the German romantics of the late 18th - first half of the 19th century centuries have been talked about theater performance how about independent world, created by a creative artist. Russian writer and playwright Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol () believed that in the theater someone should “be in charge” of both tragedy and comedy. He called such an “artist actor” “we are waiting for the choir” (an obvious analogy with the director!). “Only one true actor, an artist, can hear the life contained in the play, and make sure that this life becomes visible and alive for all the actors; he alone can hear the legitimate measure of rehearsals - how to carry them out, when to stop and how many of them are enough to so that the play could appear in its full perfection before the public,” Gogol asserted, very accurately and comprehensively defining the meaning of the director’s and staging work. But in the Russian theater then, in the 40s. XIX century, these statements of the writer seemed only pipe dreams, a utopia. They came to the very idea of ​​the need for directing in Russia later than others European countries- only at the very end of the 19th century.

The director creates a performance - a special theatrical work: this idea took root in the minds of theater theorists and practitioners at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Although the choreographer (or choreographer) appeared in the musical theater much earlier. Creators of ballets of the 18th century. and especially the 19th century, when romantic ballet conquered the stage, are clear predecessors of modern directors. The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. - the time of the appearance of major directors. Now the success of the performance begins to depend on the director’s intention and understanding of the play. The actors eventually accept their subordinate role. However, the paradox (more precisely, even a rule that does not provide for exceptions) is that a successful performance, a true work of art, can only be created if the actor and the director are equal in the degree of talent, in the ability to understand the text of the play. And a good actor ultimately submits to the will of the director, because the performance is their common creation.

Since the beginning of the 20th century. everywhere, with the exception of Italy and the United States of America, where the formation of theater differed from the general European one, directors began to determine the path of development of stage art. Very quickly, debates about the need for directing almost ceased, but another debate arose: about the tasks of directing art. No one doubted that this was art. One of the founders of the Moscow Art Theater, Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich Danchenko (), believed: the director must die in the actor, that is, the director must put his idea into the consciousness of the actor, and it is through him that he must express everything that he intends to say. For each play, the director must find special form life on stage, penetrate deeply into the author’s plans and understand the forms of his thinking. The famous experimenter in the field of theatrical art, Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold, argued with this approach. He believed that the director is the “author of the play” and therefore should feel free. The author's text, according to Meyerhold, imposes certain limits on the freedom of the director's plan, but the director cannot and should not be a slave to the text under any circumstances.

Similar debates continue to this day, since with the appearance of the director’s figure in theatrical process Interpretation, i.e., the director’s understanding and explanation of the play, began to play a major role. How free is the director to interpret the literary text? What interests the director of a play in the first place: the play or the opportunity to express his ideas by rethinking or even distorting the playwright’s plan? Of course, everything depends on the director’s individuality, his will, his understanding of the essential problems of existence - therefore, on his worldview. The limits of freedom of interpretation in director's art, of course, exist, but everyone decides this question for themselves. When directing established itself as a stage profession and a special form of theatrical thinking, the question of directing style inevitably arose. What role do the principles of life-likeness play in the work of a particular director when a scene becomes a “cut-out of life”? How often and widely does the director use metaphors? How does he relate to the theatrical tradition? The concept of metaphor in performing arts is quite complex and somewhat confusing. However, the language of the stage is the language of art; therefore, the director must master the forms of artistic thinking and create his own image of the world.

Directing art, like any other, is primarily imaginative thinking. In a performance, the images are made up of acting, rhythm, tempo, and depend on the construction of the stage space. History of performing arts of the 20th century. knows the impressive director's images of the world, reflecting the peculiarities of the artistic worldview of various masters. Recognized creators of stage metaphors were Henry Edward Gordon Craig (), Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold, George Strehler (1, Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (born in 1917), choreographers Maurice Bejart (real name Berger, born in 1927) and Mate Egk , as well as Robert Wilson and Luke Bondy, who successfully work on opera stages. A stage metaphor, composed by the director, helps to comprehend the essence of any phenomenon or event. On stage, metaphors, unlike literary ones, are most often spatial; they are created by the director of the performance together with the set designer. Sometimes it is difficult to determine who owns this or that spatial solution: the director or the set designer. However, this does not matter much - the impact on the audience, the most vivid expression of the essence of the director's intention.

Thus, the golden robe pyramid entered the history of theatrical art, which turned the king’s retinue into a dangerous monster. It was specially invented for Gordon Craig's play "Hamlet", staged at the Moscow Art Theater (1911). The heavy knitted curtain in the same “Hamlet” staged by Yuri Lyubimov in 1971 symbolized fate.

As soon as the director acquired a dominant position in the theater, the problem of mutual understanding between the participants in the performance became important. They may collide on the stage various styles, different creative passions. The director is called upon to combine all the elements into one whole, taking into account the characteristics of the characters of the actors and the tastes of the artist, understanding the duality of their role in preparing the performance. The actors and set designer are at the same time independent and subordinate to the will of the stage director. In his work, he must remember the double, or rather, even triple subordination of the actor. The participant in the stage action must be guided by the text of the play (in any case, pronounce the words written by the playwright), follow the director's instructions and master the space built by the set designer.

History of the theater of the 20th century. showed that, at the request of the director and with the help of actors who embody his plan on the stage, even the genre of the play on which the performance is based can be changed. The comedy text, at the will of the director, acquires the features of tragedy, the tragic plot is interpreted as satirical, and the dramatic character looks funny. A true work of theatrical art is born only in the creative collaboration of all participants in the stage action, but the leading role of the director must certainly be preserved.

LIGHTING EFFECTS ON THE STAGE

Lighting effects are created not only with the help of electrical devices in the theater. It is interesting to use some fabrics in combination with light. Tulle and black velvet give especially unusual effects. Tulle has a remarkable property: it becomes invisible if the space is illuminated from behind, and turns into an opaque “wall” when illuminated from the front. Look at regular home tulle curtains. We can clearly see what is happening on the street if we look through them out the window when the room is dark. But as soon as you turn on the light, the curtains lose their transparency. True, you need to keep in mind that home tulle is usually white, and theatrical tulle is black (white is tinted gray or painted). If several tulle backdrops are placed at a certain distance from each other in front of a picturesque backdrop and illuminated, the viewer will have an increased sense of spatial depth: a light haze will appear, which is especially important in landscape settings. Black velvet absorbs light rays and thereby creates the effect of invisibility. For example, a character can easily “disappear” against a background of black velvet, covered with the same fabric. This technique is especially good in a fairy-tale performance.

NOISE BACKSTAGE

And today in some theaters they use devices for simulating sounds, invented many years ago - when people did not have sound recording and sound reproducing devices. Whistles of various designs depict the singing of birds, blows on a sheet of iron suspended on a frame - the rumble of thunder, friction against the stretched fabric of a ribbed wooden drum - the sound of the wind... It’s impossible to list everything. Now such devices are not used very often. And working with them is a special art. But the live sound created by these simple devices is incomparable in authenticity to the sound coming from the speakers.

MAKE-UP ROOM CEX

An important detail of an actor’s stage appearance is makeup. It allows the performer to change his appearance and helps create an image. The actor looks for a makeup design together with the makeup artist. The so-called portrait makeups are especially difficult, when the artist must look like famous person. But makeup can be light, simply emphasizing facial features and making them more expressive.

The responsibilities of the makeup shop workers also include post-production work - making wigs and extensions (mustaches, beards, sideburns). The pads are glued to the face with special glue, and each actor has his own beard and mustache. To make it convenient to work, the postiger fastens a “cap” on a wooden block, sewn from tulle to the shape of the head and stitched with narrow cotton braid for strength and maintaining shape.

FROM PLAY SELECTION TO PREMIERE

In different eras, performances were prepared in different ways. Gradually, the practice of a rehearsal process developed, common to theaters in all countries. It all starts with choosing a play. The director reads the text to the actors, then distributes the roles, and then reads the roles. The next stage is “table” rehearsals (from the Latin repetitio - “repetition”). At the same time, the director works with the production designer: they discuss the construction of the stage space in which the action of the play will unfold. The final word always belongs to the director - the actors follow his instructions.

When the scenery and costumes are prepared, rehearsals are transferred from a special (rehearsal) room to the stage. The participants of the performance, already in makeup and costume, inhabit the space of Sienna. Usually a performance takes two, three, and sometimes five months to prepare. It is necessary to coordinate the performance of the actors with the extras, with the noisemakers, and think through the lighting. Editing rehearsals are conducted without actors: they install the scenery, practice closing and opening the curtain. Finally, the day of the dress rehearsal arrives (sometimes called the “mom and dad” show). Now the performance can be shown to the public - the premiere day is ahead.

IN THE MUSICAL THEATER

When staging an opera performance, there is also a stage of stage rehearsals. First - in the classroom, under the piano, in enclosures (screens, steps, ramps - inclined platforms, machines - platforms raised above the floor) with furniture (tables, benches, sofas, armchairs, chairs, etc.), with props, props (samovar, bouquets of flowers, inkwell, paper, bowl for making jam, fans, etc.). Props means "necessary" in Latin. Now, after long stage rehearsals with the piano, a new stage of rehearsals with the orchestra will begin. All disputes, clarifications, searches for convenience for singing, audibility of the text, reliability of behavior culminate in the main rehearsals, which are called “run-throughs”, “dress rehearsals”. Now they bring costumes from the costume department and “fit them in.” Before the dress rehearsal there is a “lighting” and “editing” stage.

In a musical theater, all switching on of lighting devices (spotlights, spotlights) occurs exactly according to musical phrases, and the lighting specialists do this. All lighting preparation can take place on sets with or without people. The change of design from one picture to another is carried out at the command of the assistant director under the guidance of the Sienna driver. A change of scene occurs either with the curtain closed during the “seated intermission”, when the audience sits on. place (this is called “clean recess”), or during a long intermission. If you look behind the closed curtain, you can see how quickly all those involved in the rearrangement run out - prop makers, prop men, lighting technicians, sienna workers. So that they don’t collide and everyone does their job without interfering with each other, and there are assembly rehearsals. In addition to the actors, the opera necessarily involves a choir, which consists of several groups of voices: women - sopranos and altos, men - tenors, baritones, basses. They can perform simultaneously and in voices, i.e., as intended by the composer. The choirmaster prepares the choir for the performance and practices the parts with them. As a result of joint efforts, an opera performance is born in which the audible is combined with the visible.

THEATER ARTS (Greek theatron - a place for spectacles) - an art form based on artistic reflection life, carried out through a dramatic action performed by actors in front of the audience. The art of theater is secondary. The basis of stage art is drama, which in its theatrical embodiment acquires a new quality - stage presence, theatrical image. The development of theater is closely related to the development of drama and dramatic, expressive means drama monologue, dialogue. The main work of theatrical art is a performance, an artistically organized, spectacular and playful action. The performance is the result of efforts creative team. At the same time, the performance is distinguished by figurative unity. The figurative structure of the performance is created by the unity of all elements of the play action, subordinated to a single artistic task - the “super task”, and a single stage goal that organizes the stage action in time and space, the “end-to-end action”.

The playful essence of theater has changed historically. Having arisen from ritual, the system of spectacular influence as a whole is preserved at all stages of the development of the theater; the transformation of the actor, using his psychophysical data to create the image of another person - the character, words and plasticity are the main conditions for involving the viewer in the action. Modern theater knows various forms of organizing play action. In a realistic, psychological theater of experience, the principle of reflecting life in the forms of life itself presupposes the principle of the “fourth wall,” as if separating the viewer from the stage and creating the illusion of reality. In the performance theater - the “epic theater” the gaming principle may not coincide with the truth life circumstances and assumes a poetically generalized, metaphorical, figurative solution.

Theater is a collective art (see). In the process of historical evolution, the principle of the ensemble was established. In modern theater, the role of organizer of stage action and the creative efforts of the group belongs to the director, who is responsible for the stage interpretation of the dramatic basis. With the help of such visual and expressive means as mise-en-scène, tempo-rhythm, composition, the director creates artistic image performance.

By its nature, the art of theater is synthetic (see). The nature of synthesis in the history of theatrical art changed, ballet emerged, and musical theater became independent. Modern theater tends to combine the most diverse forms of art. The organization of spectacular synthesis depends to a large extent on the participation of the composer, costume designer, lighting designer and, above all, the set designer. The material environment created by the means of a set designer can have various functions, but always, corresponding to the context of the whole, the bearer of psychological truth to the performer, it organizes the viewer’s attention.

The art of theater is designed for collective perception. The viewer, his reaction, is a component of the action. Theater does not exist without immediate reaction auditorium. A performance that is rehearsed but not shown to the audience is not a work of art. It is the viewer who is given the right to differentiate between the meaning of the expressive device chosen by the performer and its use. The viewer of modern theater experiences the influence of many spectacular forms that expand his associations and change his preferences. The theater cannot ignore these changes in its development, increasing the role and significance theatrical forms, strengthening the connection between the stage action and the audience.

Theater art form public consciousness, a means of artistic knowledge and education. The specificity of the theater is in the reflection of significant conflicts and characters affecting interests and needs modern viewer. The identity of theater as an art form lies in this modernity, which makes it important factor education.

Theater as an art form. Specifics of theatrical creativity.

Theater as an art form.

Theater arts- this is one of the most complex, most effective and most ancient arts. Moreover, it is heterogeneous, synthetic. The components of theatrical art include architecture, painting and sculpture (scenery), and music (it sounds not only in musical, but also often in dramatic performances), and choreography (again, not only in ballet, but also in drama ), and literature (the text on which dramatic performance is based), and art acting etc. Among all of the above, the art of acting is the main thing that determines the theater.

The art of theater, unlike other arts, is a living art. It arises only at the hour of meeting with the viewer. It is based on an indispensable emotional, spiritual contact between the stage and the audience. If this contact does not exist, it means that there is no performance that lives according to its own aesthetic laws.

Theater is a doubly collective art. The viewer perceives a theatrical production and stage action not alone, but collectively, “feeling the elbow of a neighbor,” which greatly enhances the impression and artistic infectiousness of what is happening on stage. At the same time, the impression itself comes not from one individual actor, but from a group of actors. Both on the stage and in the auditorium, on both sides of the ramp, they live, feel and act - not individual individuals, but people, a society of people connected with each other for a time by common attention, purpose, common action.

To a large extent, this is what determines the enormous social and educational role of the theater. Art that is created and perceived together becomes a school in the true sense of the word. “The theater,” wrote the famous Spanish poet García Lorca, “is a school of tears and laughter, a free platform from which people can denounce outdated or false morality and explain, using living examples, the eternal laws of the human heart and human feeling.”

A person turns to the theater as a reflection of his conscience, his soul - he recognizes himself, his time and his life in the theater. The theater opens up amazing opportunities for spiritual and moral self-knowledge.

^ Specifics of theatrical creativity.

Each art, having special means of influence, can and should make its contribution to the general system of aesthetic education.

Theater, like no other art form, has the greatest “capacity”. It absorbs the ability of literature to recreate life in words in its external and internal manifestations, but this word is not narrative, but living-sounding, directly effective. Moreover, unlike literature, theater recreates reality not in the mind of the reader, but as objectively existing pictures of life (performance) located in space. And in this respect, theater comes closer to painting. But theatrical performance is in continuous movement, it develops over time - and in this way it is close to music. Immersion in the world of the viewer’s experiences is akin to the state experienced by a music listener, immersed in his own world of subjective perception of sounds.

Of course, theater in no way replaces other forms of art. The specificity of theater is that it carries the “properties” of literature, painting and music through the image of a living, acting person. This direct human material for other types of art is only the starting point of creativity. For the theater, “nature” serves not only as material, but is also preserved in its immediate liveliness. As the philosopher G. G. Shpet noted: “An actor creates from himself in a double sense: 1) like any artist, from his creative imagination; and 2) specifically having in one’s own person the material from which the artistic image is created.”

The art of theater has an amazing ability to merge with life. Although the stage performance takes place on the other side of the stage, in moments of highest tension it blurs the line between art and life and is perceived by the audience as reality itself. The attractive power of theater lies in the fact that “life on stage” freely asserts itself in the imagination of the viewer.

This psychological turn occurs because theater is not simply endowed with the features of reality, but in itself reveals an artistically created reality. Theatrical reality, creating the impression of reality, has its own special laws. The truth of the theater cannot be measured by the criteria of real-life verisimilitude. A person cannot bear the psychological load that the hero of a drama takes upon himself in life, because in the theater there is an extreme condensation of entire cycles of events. The hero of the play often experiences his inner life as a clot of passions and a high concentration of thoughts. And all this is taken for granted by the audience. “Incredible” according to the standards of objective reality is not at all a sign of unreliability in art. In the theater, “truth” and “untruth” have different criteria and are determined by the law of imaginative thinking. “Art is experienced as reality in the fullness of our mental “mechanisms,” but at the same time it is assessed in its specific quality of a hand-made playful “not real,” as children say, an illusory doubling of reality.”

A theater visitor becomes a theater spectator when he perceives this double aspect of the stage action, not only seeing a vitally concrete act in front of him, but also understanding the inner meaning of this act. What is happening on stage is felt both as the truth of life and as its figurative recreation. At the same time, it is important to note that the viewer, without losing his sense of the real, begins to live in the world of the theater. The relationship between real and theatrical reality is quite complex. There are three phases in this process:

1. The reality of objectively shown reality, transformed by the playwright’s imagination into a dramatic work.

2. A dramatic work brought to life by the theater (director, actors) - a performance.

3. Stage life, perceived by the audience and becoming part of their experiences, merging with the life of the audience and, thus, returning to reality again.

But this “return” is not analogous to the original source; now it is enriched spiritually and aesthetically. " artwork created so that it lives - lives almost literally

This word, i.e. entered, like the experienced events of real life,

Into the spiritual experience of every person and all humanity."

The crossing of two types of active imagination - actor's and spectator's - gives rise to what is called “the magic of the theater.” The advantage of theatrical art is that it clearly and concretely embodies the imaginary into a live action unfolding on stage. In other arts, the imaginary world either appears in human imagination, as in literature and music, or is captured in stone or on canvas, as in sculpture or painting. In the theater, the viewer sees the imaginary. “Every performance contains certain physical and objective elements that are accessible to any viewer.”

Performing art by its nature presupposes not passive, but active engagement of the audience, for in no other art is there such a dependence of the creative process on its perception as in the theater. G.D. Gachev’s audience is “like celestial beings, like the thousand-eyed Argus<...>light up the action on stage<...>for the world of the stage arises in itself, appears, but to the same extent it is the work of the viewer.”

The basic law of the theater - the internal participation of the audience in the events taking place on stage - presupposes the stimulation of imagination, independent, internal creativity in each of the spectators. This captivity in the action distinguishes the viewer from the indifferent observer who is also found in theater halls. The spectator, unlike the actor, the active artist, is a contemplative artist.

The active imagination of spectators is not at all some special spiritual property of selected art lovers. Of course, the developed artistic taste has great value, but this is a question of the development of those emotional principles that are inherent in every person. “Artistic taste opens up the path for the reader, listener, and viewer from the external form to the internal and from it to the content of the work. In order for this path to be successfully completed, the participation of imagination and memory, emotional and intellectual forces of the psyche, will and attention, and finally, faith and love is necessary, that is, the same holistic mental complex of mental forces that carry out the creative act.”

The consciousness of artistic reality in the process of perception is deeper, the more fully the viewer is immersed in the sphere of experience, the more multi-layered art enters the human soul. It is at this junction of two spheres - unconscious experience and conscious perception of art that imagination exists. It is inherent in the human psyche initially, organically, accessible to every person and can be significantly developed during the accumulation of aesthetic experience.

Aesthetic perception is the creativity of the viewer, and it can reach great intensity. The richer the nature of the viewer himself, the more developed his aesthetic sense, the more complete his artistic experience, the more active his imagination and the richer his theatrical impressions.

The aesthetics of perception is largely focused on the ideal viewer. In reality, the conscious process of cultivating a theatrical culture will probably advance the viewer towards acquiring knowledge about art and mastering certain perceptual skills. An educated viewer may well:

Know the theater in its own laws;

Know the theater in its modern processes;

Know the theater in its historical development.

At the same time, one should be aware that knowledge mechanically stored in the viewer’s head is not a guarantee of full perception. The process of forming spectator culture, to a certain extent, has the properties of a “black box”, in which quantitative aspects do not always add up directly to certain qualitative phenomena.

Theater is an amazing art. If only because over the last century his inevitable death was predicted several times. He was threatened by the Great Silent, who had acquired speech - it seemed that sound cinema would take away all the spectators from the theater. Then the threat came from television, when the spectacle came directly into the house, and later they began to fear the powerful spread of video and the Internet.

However, if we focus on the general trends in the existence of theatrical art in the world, then it is not surprising that in beginning of XXI century, the theater not only preserved itself, but began to clearly emphasize its non-mass character and in a certain sense"elitism" of his art. But in the same sense we can talk about elitism fine arts or classical music, if we compare the multimillion-dollar audiences that popular performers gather with the limited number of audiences at the conservatory.

In the synthetic theater of modern times, the traditional relationship between the dominant principles - truth and fiction - appears in a kind of indissoluble unity. This synthesis occurs both as an act of experience (perception of the truth of life) and as an act of aesthetic pleasure (perception of the poetry of the theater). Then the viewer becomes not only a psychological participant in the action, that is, a person who “absorbs” the fate of the hero and enriches himself spiritually, but also a creator who performs a creative action in his imagination, simultaneously with what is happening on stage. This last point is extremely important, and it occupies a central place in the aesthetic education of the audience.

Of course, each viewer may have his own idea of ​​the ideal performance. But in all cases it is based on a certain “program” of requirements for art. This kind of “knowledge” presupposes a certain maturity of spectator culture.

Spectator culture largely depends on the nature of the art that is offered to the viewer. The more complex the task assigned to him - aesthetic, ethical, philosophical - the more intense the thought, the sharper the emotions, the more subtle the manifestation of the viewer’s taste. For what we call the culture of the reader, listener, viewer is directly related to the development of a person’s personality itself, depends on his spiritual growth and affects his further spiritual growth.

The significance of the task that the theater poses to the viewer in psychologically, lies in the fact that the artistic image, given in all its complexity and inconsistency, is first perceived by the viewer as a real, objectively existing character, and then, as one gets used to the image and reflects on its actions, it reveals (as if independently) its inner essence , its general meaning.

In terms of aesthetics, the complexity of the task lies in the fact that the viewer perceives stage imagery not only according to the criteria of truth, but also knows how (learns) to decipher its poetic metaphorical meaning.

So, the specificity of theatrical art is a living person, as a directly experiencing hero and as a directly creating artist, and the most important law of theater is the direct impact on the viewer.

The “effect of the theater”, its clarity, are determined not only by the dignity of the creativity itself, but also by the dignity and aesthetic culture of the auditorium. Theater practitioners themselves (directors and actors) most often write and speak about the viewer as an obligatory co-creator of the performance: “There is no theatrical performance without the participation of the audience, and the play has a chance of success only if the viewer himself “loses” the game, i.e. . accepts its rules and plays the role of an empathetic or self-eliminating person.”

However, the awakening of the artist in the viewer occurs only if the viewer is able to perceive in its entirety the content inherent in the performance, if he is able to expand his aesthetic range and learn to see something new in art, if, while remaining true to his favorite artistic style, he is not deaf to other creative directions if he is able to see a new interpretation classic work and will be able to separate the director's plan from its implementation by the actors... There are many more such “ifs” that could be named. Consequently, in order for the viewer to become involved in creativity, so that the artist awakens in him, at the current stage of development of our theater there is a need for a general increase in the artistic culture of the viewer.

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TheaterHowviewart,Andhisindigenousdifferencefromothersspeciesarts

theater art suite

Like any other form of art (music, painting, literature), theater has its own special characteristics. This art is synthetic: a theatrical work (performance) consists of the text of the play, the work of the director, actor, artist and composer. In opera and ballet, music plays a decisive role.

Theater is a collective art. A performance is the result of the activities of many people, not only those who appear on stage, but also those who sew costumes, make props, set up lighting, and greet the audience. It is not for nothing that there is a definition of “theater workshop workers”: a performance is both creativity and production.

The theater offers its own way of understanding the world around us and, accordingly, its own set of artistic means. A performance is both a special action played out in the space of the stage, and a special imaginative thinking, different from, say, music.

Theater, like no other art form, has the greatest “capacity”. It absorbs the ability of literature to recreate life in words in its external and internal manifestations, but this word is not narrative, but living-sounding, directly effective. Moreover, unlike literature, theater recreates reality not in the mind of the reader, but as objectively existing pictures of life (performance) located in space. And in this respect, theater comes closer to painting. But theatrical performance is in continuous movement, it develops over time - and in this way it is close to music. Immersion in the world of the viewer’s experiences is akin to the state experienced by a music listener, immersed in his own world of subjective perception of sounds.

Of course, theater in no way replaces other forms of art. The specificity of theater is that it carries the “properties” of literature, painting and music through the image of a living, acting person. This direct human material for other types of art is only the starting point of creativity. For the theater, “nature” serves not only as material, but is also preserved in its immediate liveliness.

The art of theater has an amazing ability to merge with life. Although the stage performance takes place on the other side of the stage, in moments of highest tension it blurs the line between art and life and is perceived by the audience as reality itself. The attractive power of theater lies in the fact that “life on stage” freely asserts itself in the imagination of the viewer.

This psychological turn occurs because theater is not simply endowed with the features of reality, but in itself reveals an artistically created reality. Theatrical reality, creating the impression of reality, has its own special laws. The truth of the theater cannot be measured by the criteria of real-life verisimilitude. A person cannot bear the psychological load that the hero of a drama takes upon himself in life, because in the theater there is an extreme condensation of entire cycles of events. The hero of the play often experiences his inner life as a clot of passions and a high concentration of thoughts. And all this is taken for granted by the audience. “Incredible” according to the standards of objective reality is not at all a sign of unreliability in art. In the theater, “truth” and “untruth” have different criteria and are determined by the law of imaginative thinking. “Art is experienced as reality in the fullness of our mental “mechanisms,” but at the same time it is assessed in its specific quality of a hand-made playful “not real,” as children say, an illusory doubling of reality.”

A theater visitor becomes a theater spectator when he perceives this double aspect of the stage action, not only seeing a vitally concrete act in front of him, but also understanding the inner meaning of this act. What is happening on stage is felt both as the truth of life and as its figurative recreation. At the same time, it is important to note that the viewer, without losing his sense of the real, begins to live in the world of the theater. The relationship between real and theatrical reality is quite complex. There are three phases in this process:

1. The reality of objectively shown reality, transformed by the playwright’s imagination into a dramatic work.

2. A dramatic work brought to life by the theater (director, actors) - a performance.

3. Stage life, perceived by the audience and becoming part of their experiences, merging with the life of the audience and, thus, returning to reality again.

The basic law of the theater - the internal participation of the audience in the events taking place on stage - presupposes the stimulation of imagination, independent, internal creativity in each of the spectators. This captivity in the action distinguishes the viewer from the indifferent observer who is also found in theater halls. The spectator, unlike the actor, the active artist, is a contemplative artist.

The active imagination of spectators is not at all some special spiritual property of selected art lovers. Of course, the developed artistic taste is of great importance, but this is a question of the development of those emotional principles that are inherent in every person.

The consciousness of artistic reality in the process of perception is deeper, the more fully the viewer is immersed in the sphere of experience, the more multi-layered art enters the human soul. It is at this junction of two spheres - unconscious experience and conscious perception of art that imagination exists. It is inherent in the human psyche initially, organically, accessible to every person and can be significantly developed during the accumulation of aesthetic experience.

Aesthetic perception is the creativity of the viewer, and it can reach great intensity. The richer the nature of the viewer himself, the more developed his aesthetic sense, the more complete his artistic experience, the more active his imagination and the richer his theatrical impressions.

The aesthetics of perception is largely focused on the ideal viewer. In reality, the conscious process of cultivating a theatrical culture will probably advance the viewer towards acquiring knowledge about art and mastering certain perceptual skills.

In the synthetic theater of modern times, the traditional relationship between the dominant principles - truth and fiction - appears in a kind of indissoluble unity. This synthesis occurs both as an act of experience (perception of the truth of life) and as an act of aesthetic pleasure (perception of the poetry of the theater). Then the viewer becomes not only a psychological participant in the action, that is, a person who “absorbs” the fate of the hero and enriches himself spiritually, but also a creator who performs a creative action in his imagination, simultaneously with what is happening on stage. This last point is extremely important, and it occupies a central place in the aesthetic education of the audience.

Of course, each viewer may have his own idea of ​​the ideal performance. But in all cases it is based on a certain “program” of requirements for art. This kind of “knowledge” presupposes a certain maturity of spectator culture.

Spectator culture largely depends on the nature of the art that is offered to the viewer. The more complex the task assigned to him - aesthetic, ethical, philosophical - the more intense the thought, the sharper the emotions, the more subtle the manifestation of the viewer's taste. For what we call the culture of the reader, listener, viewer is directly related to the development of a person’s personality itself, depends on his spiritual growth and affects his further spiritual growth.

The significance of the task that the theater poses to the viewer in psychological terms lies in the fact that the artistic image, given in all its complexity and inconsistency, is perceived by the viewer first as a real, objectively existing character, and then, as he gets used to the image and reflects on it actions, reveals (as if independently) its inner essence, its general meaning.

In terms of aesthetics, the complexity of the task lies in the fact that the viewer perceives stage imagery not only according to the criteria of truth, but also knows how (learns) to decipher its poetic metaphorical meaning.

So, the specificity of theatrical art is a living person, as a directly experiencing hero and as a directly creating artist, and the most important law of theater is the direct impact on the viewer.

The “effect of the theater”, its clarity, are determined not only by the dignity of the creativity itself, but also by the dignity and aesthetic culture of the auditorium. However, the awakening of the artist in the viewer occurs only if the viewer is able to perceive in its entirety the content inherent in the performance, if he is able to expand his aesthetic range and learn to see something new in art, if, while remaining true to his favorite artistic style, he does not turn out to be deaf and to other creative directions, if he is able to see a new interpretation of a classic work and is able to separate the director’s plan from its implementation by the actors... There are many more such “ifs” that could be named. Consequently, in order for the viewer to become involved in creativity, so that the artist awakens in him, at the current stage of development of our theater there is a need for a general increase in the artistic culture of the viewer.

A theatrical performance is based on a text, such as a play for a dramatic performance. Even in those stage productions where there is no word as such, text is sometimes necessary; in particular, ballet, and sometimes pantomime, has a script - a libretto. The process of working on a performance consists of transferring the dramatic text onto the stage - this is a kind of “translation” from one language to another. As a result, the literary word becomes a stage word.

The first thing the audience sees after the curtain opens (or rises) is the stage space in which the scenery is placed. They indicate the place of action, historical time, reflect national color. With the help of spatial constructions, you can even convey the mood of the characters (for example, in an episode of the hero’s suffering, plunge the scene into darkness or cover its backdrop with black). During the action, with the help of a special technique, the scenery is changed: day is turned into night, winter into summer, the street into a room. This technique developed along with the scientific thought of mankind. Lifting mechanisms, shields and hatches, which in ancient times were operated manually, are now raised and lowered electronically. Candles and gas lamps have been replaced by electric lamps; Lasers are also often used.

Even in antiquity, two types of stage and auditorium were formed: a box stage and an amphitheater stage. The box stage provides tiers and stalls, and the amphitheater stage is surrounded by spectators on three sides. Now both types are used in the world. Modern technology makes it possible to change the theatrical space - to arrange a platform in the middle of the auditorium, seat the viewer on the stage, and perform the performance in the hall. Great importance has always been attached to the theater building. Theaters were usually built on central square cities; architects wanted the buildings to be beautiful and attract attention. Coming to the theater, the viewer detaches himself from everyday life, as if rising above reality. Therefore, it is no coincidence that a staircase decorated with mirrors often leads into the hall.

Music helps enhance the emotional impact of a dramatic performance. Sometimes it sounds not only during the action, but also during the intermission - to maintain the interest of the public. The main person in the play is the actor. The viewer sees in front of him a person who has mysteriously turned into an artistic image - a unique work of art. Of course, the work of art is not the performer himself, but his role. She is the creation of an actor, created by voice, nerves and something intangible - spirit, soul. In order for the action on stage to be perceived as integral, it is necessary to organize it thoughtfully and consistently. These duties in modern theater are performed by the director. Of course, a lot depends on the talent of the actors in the play, but nevertheless they are subordinate to the will of the leader - the director. People, like many centuries ago, come to the theater. The text of the plays sounds from the stage, transformed by the forces and feelings of the performers. The artists conduct their own dialogue - and not only verbal. This is a conversation of gestures, postures, glances and facial expressions. The imagination of the decorative artist, with the help of color, light, and architectural structures on the stage, makes the stage space “speak.” And everything together is enclosed within the strict framework of the director’s plan, which gives dissimilar elements completeness and wholeness.

The viewer consciously (and sometimes unconsciously, as if against his will) evaluates the acting and direction, the compliance of the solution of the theatrical space with the general design. But the main thing is that he, the viewer, becomes familiar with art, unlike others, created here and now. By comprehending the meaning of the performance, he comprehends the meaning of life.

Conceptchoreographicworks(sceneorsuite)

Suite (from French Suite - “row”, “sequence”) - cyclic musical form, consisting of several independent contrasting parts, united by a common design.

It is a multi-part cycle consisting of independent, contrasting plays, united by a common artistic idea. Sometimes, instead of the name “suite,” composers used another, also common, “partita.”

The suite is distinguished from the sonata and symphony by the greater independence of the parts, less strictness, and the regularity of their relationships. The term “suite” was introduced in the second half of the 17th century by French composers. The suites of the 17th-18th centuries were dance; orchestral non-dance suites appeared in the 19th century (the most famous are “Scheherazade” by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, “Pictures at an Exhibition” by M. P. Mussorgsky).

In Germany, at the end of the 17th century, the exact sequence of parts was formed:

The suite is characterized by pictorial representation and a close connection with song and dance. Suites are often composed of music written for ballets, operas, and theatrical productions. There are also two special types of suite - vocal and choral.

The predecessor of the suite can be considered a paired combination of dances common at the end of the Renaissance - slow, important (for example, pavane) and more lively (for example, galliard). Later this cycle became four-part. The German composer Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) created a model of an instrumental dance suite: an allemande at a moderate tempo and bipartite size - an exquisite chime - a gigue - a measured sarabande.

Historically, the first was the ancient dance suite, which was written for one instrument or orchestra. Originally there were two dances: the stately pavane and the fast galliard. They were played one after another - this is how the first examples of the ancient instrumental suite arose, which became most widespread in the 2nd half of the 17th century. - 1st half of the 18th century. In its classical form, it was established in the work of the Austrian composer I. Ya. Froberger. It was based on four different dances: allemande, chime, sarabande, and gigue. Gradually, composers began to include other dances in the suite, and their choice varied freely. These could be: minuet, passacaglia, polonaise, chaconne, rigaudon, etc. Sometimes non-dance pieces were also included in the suite - arias, preludes, overtures, toccatas. Thus, the total number of rooms in the suite was not regulated. The more important were the means that united individual plays into a single cycle, for example, contrasts of tempo, meter, and rhythm.

The suite as a genre developed under the influence of opera and ballet. It featured new dances and song parts in the spirit of the aria; suites appeared, consisting of orchestral fragments of musical and theatrical works. An important element of the suite was the French overture - an introductory movement consisting of a slow, solemn beginning and a fast fugue conclusion. In some cases, the term "overture" replaced the term "suite" in the titles of works; other synonyms were the terms “ordr” (“order”) by F. Couperin and “partita” by J. S. Bach.

The true pinnacle of development of the genre was achieved in the work of J. S. Bach. The composer fills the music of his numerous suites (keyboard, violin, cello, orchestral) with such a soulful feeling, makes these pieces so diverse and deep in mood, organizes them into such a harmonious whole that he rethinks the genre and opens up new ones. expressive possibilities, contained in simple dance forms, as well as in the very basis of the suite cycle (“Chaconne” from the partita in D minor).

In the mid-1700s, the suite merged with the sonata, and the term itself ceased to be used, although the structure of the suite continued to live in such genres as serenade, divertissement and others. The designation “suite” began to appear again at the end of the 19th century, often implying, as before, a collection of instrumental fragments from an opera (suite from Carmen by J. Bizet), from a ballet (suite from The Nutcracker by P.I. Tchaikovsky), from music to dramatic play(Peer Gynt suite from E. Grieg's music to Ibsen's drama). Some composers composed independent program suites - among them, for example, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade based on oriental fairy tales.

Composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, while preserving the main features of the genre - cyclical construction, contrast of parts, etc., give them a different figurative interpretation. Danceability is no longer a mandatory feature. The suite uses a variety of musical material, often its content is determined by the program. At the same time, dance music is not expelled from the suite; on the contrary, new, modern dance, for example, “Doll Cake Walk” in C. Debussy’s suite “Children’s Corner”. Suites appeared, composed of music to theatrical productions(“Peer Gynt” by E. Grieg), ballets (“The Nutcracker” and “The Sleeping Beauty” by P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Romeo and Juliet” by S. S. Prokofiev), operas (“The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov). In the middle of the 20th century. suites are also composed of music for films (Hamlet by D. D. Shostakovich).

In the vocal-symphonic suites, along with music, the word also sounds (Prokofiev's Winter Fire). Sometimes composers call some vocal cycles vocal suites (“Six Poems by M. Tsvetaeva” by Shostakovich).

Listusedsources

1. Gachev G. D. Content of artistic forms. Epic. Lyrics. Theater. M., 2008

2. Kagan. M.S. Aesthetics as a philosophical science. University course of lectures. St. Petersburg, 2007.

3. Sosnova M.L. The art of the actor. M. Academic Avenue; Trixta, 2007..

4. Shpet G. G. Theater as an art//Questions of Philosophy, 1989, No. 11.

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The history of the theater goes back to Ancient Greece more than two thousand years ago. The most ancient art originated as spectacular entertainment for the public, festive scenes of costumed actors. The performances were originally timed to coincide with the Great Dionysius - a major religious holiday.

Now the theater is undoubtedly more than a procession of singing men in goatskins through the city. He became high art, a way of relaxation for high society, a place of cultural enlightenment. The history of the theater is a fascinating process of development that continues to this day. We will tell the reader this in our article. You will also find many interesting facts in the presented material. So let's begin.

Start

In Athens of the 5th century BC. e. theatrical performances were an integral part of religious holidays. Processions with the statue of Dionysus were accompanied by cheerful chants and dramatic games. We can say that the history of the Athenian theater began as an amateur performance for a small number of onlookers. Initially, only tragedies were staged; comedies were shown later. It is noteworthy that plays, as a rule, were shown only once. This stimulated authors to create relevant, interesting works. The playwright not only wrote the play, he was a full-fledged participant in the performance, playing the roles of director, composer, choreographer and even actor. Naturally, these were extremely talented people.

But to become a choreg (choir director), great talent was not required. All they needed was money and connections with government officials. The main responsibility of the choregas was to pay bills, provide full material support and support the theater. In those days it was a place of competition; the winners were the choregas, the poet and the protagonist. The winners were crowned with ivy and awarded prizes. Victory was given to them by decision of the jury.

An interesting fact is that the ancient Romans were real fans of realism. A production in which the actor played the role 100% was considered ideal - if necessary, he had to be ready to even die.

The Greek theater had no roof; spectators and actors were, in fact, on the street. The size of ancient theaters was enormous, they accommodated from 17 to 44 thousand people. At first, wooden platforms were used to seat spectators, then natural stone slopes were adapted for the theater. And only then, in the 4th century BC. e., a stone theater was built.

You will probably be interested to know that the government, starting with Pericles, has given the opportunity to visit the theater and experience beauty even to financially disadvantaged citizens. To achieve this, everyone was given a subsidy for one visit to the theater, and subsequently for three visits.

The history of the ancient theater has one characteristic feature: the actors played their roles without the help of their own facial expressions. It was replaced by all kinds of masks, often very grotesque. The actor paid great attention to body movements and clothing. The actors were men, even in female roles. They occupied a privileged position in society and were exempt from taxes.

An interesting fact is that Livius Andronicus, an ancient Roman playwright, became the father of the world's first "phonogram". He was left without a voice, but got out of the situation by finding a boy who spoke for him.

Some terms of ancient theater

Many definitions used in ancient theaters have survived to this day. A small dictionary of terms from ancient times is presented below:

• The orchestra is a round-shaped part of the theater with two entrances, intended for the performance of dramatic and lyrical choirs. In the Athens theater its diameter was 24 meters.
• Skena is a place for changing clothes. Originally a simple tent, it was then combined with pieces of stage decoration, such as a backdrop.
• Proskenium - a colonnade in front of the skene.
• Paraskenium – side stone extensions.
• The stage is a raised area above the orchestra, where actors began to play in late antiquity.
• Ekkiclema is a mobile platform made of wood that allows you to transform the scene of action and move actors around the stage.
• Koturny - shoes with high soles, reminiscent of stilts. With the help of such shoes, actors became taller, more impressive and similar to mythical creatures.

A remarkable fact is that it was in Rome that the phrase “Finita la comedia” was first uttered.

Puppets in the theatrical world

The history of puppet theater originates in Egypt, where priests used a doll of the god Osiris to perform ritual actions. In the beginning, puppet theater was purely ritualistic, but now the religious connotation has faded away. Famous ritual puppet theaters exist in many countries: Japan (“Bunraku”), Indonesia (“Wayang”), Catalonia (“El Pastores”), Belarus (“Batleyka”) and others.

In the history of puppet theater in America, a theater created in 1962 called “Bread and Puppet” stands out. It features giant papier-mâché dolls, an obvious political overtone, and a treat of delicious bread at the entrance. This interaction between actors and spectators is symbolic: theatrical art should be as close to the people as possible.

Dolls come in different sizes and appearances. There are finger and glove puppets, cane and tablet puppets, puppets and giant dolls. Being a puppet theater actor is not so easy, because you need to be able to animate inanimate object, give it character and voice.

A characteristic feature of any puppet theater is the ridicule of something, the presence of morality, an educational element in the skits. No matter what age the viewer of the puppet theater is, he will find there not only something to laugh at, but also something to think about. Often the heroes in the puppet theater are unattractive, even ugly characters, for example, the French Polichinelle with a hooked nose.

You will probably be interested to know that actors are not always rich people. In the history of American puppet theater, there are facts that theatergoers could watch the production in exchange for food.

Drama

Story drama theater dates back to ancient times. This is one of the art forms, along with puppet theater, pantomime, opera and ballet. The main distinguishing feature of dramatic theater is that the actor’s actions are combined with the words he speaks. Particular attention is paid to stage speech in this type of genre. The basis of a dramatic performance is the play. In the process of acting, improvisation is possible; the action may include dancing and singing. The performance is based on a literary work. The main interpreter of a play or script is the director.

It is quite remarkable that theater workers believe that dropping a script is not good. If this trouble occurs, you must definitely sit on it.

The emergence of domestic theatrical traditions

The history of theater in Russia is divided into stages:

• Initial (“playful”)
• Average.
• Mature.

Playful stage

As in Ancient Rome, the history of theater in Russia began as a not entirely serious activity. Theater performances were called “fun”, and performances were called “games”. The first chronicle mention of buffoons dates back to 1068. In fact, anyone could become such an actor entertaining the public. From a religious point of view, the activities of buffoons were shameful. In the chronicles they are called servants of the devil, and mockery, satire and mummery are called sins. Sharp satire was not welcomed by the church, however, this did not really stop anyone.

Buffoonery was also not considered an art pleasing to the authorities; on the contrary, the acute social themes of the skits and the ridicule of modern shortcomings made the actors dangerous and harmful. But the people loved to watch and laugh at the performances of the buffoons. However, it should be understood that the classical theater as we know it now did not grow out of these buffoonish skits, but independently of them, even, rather, in spite of them.

Middle stage

The next stage in the history of Russian theater is intermediate between playful and mature. At this phase, court and school theaters emerge. At that time, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ruled, the actors in the court theater were foreigners, and the actors in the school theater were students. After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, the activity of the court theater was suspended until Peter I came to power. He had a positive attitude towards “spectacles”, but, in addition to entertainment, it also became endowed with a propaganda function. In 1702, a public theater for the masses appeared. Its building was called the “Comedy Temple”; performances were given there by a German troupe. The people did not accept this theater. Although Peter I did not achieve his goal, he did not make the theater a favorite place for people, accessible and popular, but he laid all the necessary prerequisites for this.

A mature stage in the history of theatrical art

This period in the history of the creation of theater in Russia is the most important. At this stage, the theater began to acquire those features that are familiar to modern people and formed into a serious professional community. On August 30, 1756, the start was given, namely, the Imperial Theater opened. The same date is the founding day Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. This happened under Elizaveta Petrovna.

A feature of the theater of that time was the simultaneous participation of both Russian and foreign artists in productions. It was at this stage that the performance of roles was first entrusted not only to men, but also to women. Catherine II attached great importance to the theater; under her, there were three troupes in St. Petersburg, and a fantastic amount of money was spent on the development of this industry.

In addition to the development of state ones, Catherine also paid attention to the private theaters of the nobles; for example, there was the theater of Sheremetyev, Volkonsky, and Rumyantsev. Even in the provinces their own landowner troupes were created. The Russian theater, namely the productions themselves, was built according to the models of their French colleagues. The head of the French school of acting was I. A. Dmitrevsky, who trained more than one generation of wonderful actors.

Did you know?

We present to the reader some more interesting facts from the history of theatrical art.

At the time when Pushkin was alive, theaters in Russia were not completely seated. The back rows were filled with people standing on their feet throughout the entire performance.

A landmark play in the history of Russian theatrical art is “The Minor” by D. I. Fonvizin, which became the first attempt to make fun of officials, nobles, and typical characters of the 18th century. Starodum (a positive character) was first played by the above-mentioned Dmitrevsky.

In 1803, the imperial theaters were divided. Dramatic and musical troupes, opera and ballet, appeared as parts of the musical troupe. The dominance of the French school of playing on the Russian stage lasted until the 19th century. It was then that the Russian theater finally stood up and went its own way. The experience adopted became a good base, and the discovery of new talented Russian composers, actors, and dancers raised the theater to a high level.

P. N. Arapov was the first to describe the entire history of Russian theater in one encyclopedia - “Chronicles of the Russian Theater”. Theater magazines and professional critics appeared. Thus, the development of the theater gave impetus to Russian literature, among other things.

The most famous theater in Moscow

The history of the Bolshoi Theater begins on March 28, 1776. It was on this day in Moscow that Empress Catherine II signed a “privilege” for Prince Peter Urusov, allowing him to maintain the theater for ten years. It was first called the Petrovsky Theater (in honor of the street on which the entrance faced). In 1805, the building completely burned down, and the architect Osip Bove created new project. In 1820, construction began, lasting 5 years.

The theater that was built became larger, which is why it got its name. This beautiful, harmonious, rich building brought joy to the residents of Moscow until 1853, when the second fire occurred. This time the reconstruction was entrusted to the architect Albert Kavos. The theater was restored in 1856. The Imperial Bolshoi Theater became famous not only in Russia, but also in the world: it had excellent acoustics. In 1917 after the Revolution, the name was changed to the State Bolshoi Theater. The decoration was supplemented with Soviet symbols.

He was seriously injured during the Great Patriotic War, taking on a bomb. The building was reconstructed again. Until 1987, the building underwent only minor cosmetic repairs. Now the Bolshoi Theater is a building with a new stage where you can use modern effects. At the same time, it preserved the spirit classical architecture, its “signature” acoustics, which gives it the right to be considered one of the best theaters in the world. This is the history of the Bolshoi Theater.

And finally, one more, no less interesting fact. Films set wholly or partly in a theater: Birdman, The Disaster Artist, La La Land, The Phantom of the Opera, Burlesque Tales, Knockout, Stumbling on Broadway, Black-ish Swan”, “The Puppeteer”, “A Terribly Big Adventure”, “Shakespeare in Love”, “Murder in a Small Town”, “Quai Orfevre”.

The history of theater (drama and other genres of this art) will continue to develop, since interest in it has remained unchanged for more than two thousand years.