Інтермедіальні коди у творах болгарських фантастів ХХ–ХХІ ст

The article is dedicated to the study of the intermedial codes in the fantastic works written by the Bulgarian writers of the 20th-21st centuries. Intermediality as a form of interconnectedness of different types of art is challenging for literature research. The aim of the article is to study the interaction of verbal and audio (music), verbal and visual (pictorial art, architectural models), verbal and performing/synthetic (cinema, theatre) arts. The object of the research is the Bulgarian fantastic literature of the 20th-21st centuries, where the subject is codes of intermediality. The method of intermedial studies proves to be fruitful for this type of research work. As a result, it is stated that the variants of ekphrasis (picture-ekphrasis, urboekphrasis, oikoekphrasis, musical ekphrasis), “ekphrastic transition” and the interaction of verbal and audio, verbal and visual, verbal and synthetic arts are implemented in the Bulgarian fantastic literature of the 20th-21st centuries.

Genre poetics of R. Wagner’s “Parsifal” in the context of Gesamtkunstwerk idea

Background. Over the course of the last decades, musicology was marked by a revival of interest in the phenomenon of artistic synthesis. This paper considers it in view of “general unity” as one of techniques of understanding the 19th century culture. Such a mindset can be defined by various terms, including Gesamtkunstwerk. The scholars today do not narrow this term down to a mere synthesis of arts, but add immersion into cultural history to it. This allows us to view Gesamtkunstwerk as a way of cultural memory existence, and genre poetics of R. Wagner’s musical drama as a bearer of this memory. In this context, special place belongs to “Parsifal”, which in this article is presented as an absolute embodiment of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk. The aim of the article is to reveal compositional devices, through which references of “Parsifal” poetics and other genres of different arts create “general unity” under the sign of “Gesamtkunstwerk”. A genre method, a systematic method based on interdisciplinary approach, and a comparative one are chosen as methods of research. Research materials used in the paper relate to different branches of Humanitarian knowledge, including theatre arts (S. Mokulsky), literature (M. Bakhtin), medievistics (A. Gurevich), musicology (M. Veremiova, N. Vieru, E. Makhrova, K. Richter, A. Philippov etc.). It is noted that the definition of “Bühnenweihfestspiel” indicated in the score speaks of the relatedness of this work to the genre of medieval mystery. We have detected some common features of “Parsifal” like slow-paced events, their rather low concentration in time and meticulous development of verbally-acoustic matter. In the musical drama under consideration both a word and a system of leitmotifs function as an instrument for the above-mentioned scrupulosity; thus, poetics of a mystery is transformed into poetics of musical drama. The references of “Parsifal” to medieval epics are noted. Its plot contains only essential for the main storyline events. Cumulative method is chosen as the basic one which defines the algorithm of compositional movement, making it somewhat discrete. At the same time, the continuous flow of leitmotif development contributes to endless disclosure of the sense and its symbolization. Duality of time contributes to appearance of spatiality in genre poetics of “Parsifal”, which also corresponds to the epic poetics. There are some references between genre poetics of “Parsifal” and such types of novel as “Erziehungsroman” and “adventure novel”. The features of “Erziehungsroman”, based on a choice of constantly evolving protagonist as a plot-creating device are embodied to the fullest extent in a presentation of the main hero of “Parsifal”. In the work he passes the way from a naïve youth to the saviour of The Holy Grail, doing the deed of all-embracing love, thus the portrayal of his image is done according to the principle of development. At the same time, there have been revealed differences between the last work of the composer and “Lohengrin”. Unlike Elsa, with her gradual transformation, Parsifal undergoes this process almost instantly. But R. Wagner, using leitmotiv system, reveals subconscious psychological development, thus using it as a nonverbal explanation of one of the essential plot events in the work. The links between “adventure novel” and “Parsifal” lie in the type of intrigue, localization of space-time, due to which it is differentiated into adventurous, legendary, psychological etc. The hero, shifting into another spacetime dimension, transforms his image. This paper shows it on example of Kundry. This heroine in her cyclic “death – resurrection” transformations completely belongs to poetics of the myth, although the composer here does not use it as an example, as he fills musical characteristics of Kundry with all the traits of opera character. The article explores references of “Parsifal” to Passions by J. S. Bach. It is pointed out that in this case R. Wagner does not follow their specific traits, as he chooses the most essential features of poetics of this genre. A сonclusion is made that genre poetics of “Parsifal”, reflecting the features of poetics of another genres, incorporates their essential traits, which are then intertwined into general texture of musical drama, creating inseparable fusion, according to the Gesamtkunstwerk idea.

THEATRE MANAGEMENT INVESTIGATION OF FEMALE PROMISCUITY: PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IMPACT ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL THEATRES IN NIGERIA

This study investigates promiscuity impacts, pregnancy impacts and abortion impacts of female undergraduates on management of the University of Benin educational theatre program, with implications on general theatre practice including Muson and Nollywood, in Nigeria. There are widespread speculations that female undergraduate theatre students are promiscuous and therefore highly prone to pregnancies and abortions for reasons or factors not confirmed by research. At least no such specific extensive study has been carried out in the University of Benin Theatre on this topic. Yet many female students are branded and treated merely as ‘debased females and prospective prostitutes’, and do not enjoy the goodwill, support, respect and honor their counterparts in the social, basic and environmental sciences as well as other fields of academic studies enjoy. This would be tantamount to a great disservice and injustice that need to be urgently addressed if a rigorous academic inquiry proves otherwise. Not to mention the undiscovered negative impacts the problem may have had, or currently be having on the training and practice of theatre arts in Nigeria: hence this investigation. The methodology, the subjects of study and study sample were carefully and systematically determined. The findings are mostly positive regarding the negative behavior investigated. Hence the recommendations point to measures aimed at checking and restricting these vices as well as their impact to a minimum as well as towards improving the moral, academic and managerial framework of educational theatre programs in Nigeria.

THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING THEATER PERSONNEL FOR CHUVASHIA IN THE 20–30s OF THE XX CENTURY

In the 1920s Chuvashia was developing rapidly, and the growth in the number of cultural institutions was observed. The cadres of the creative intelligentsia were in demand, but there were no field-oriented specialized educational institutions in the republic. The issue of training specialists began to be dealt with at the level of state and party bodies. One of the first to open was the theater studio, which gave the opportunity to strengthen the staff of two republican theaters. Moderate funding allocated to support the theater arts, and the entire culture as a whole, of course affected its quality. But the enthusiasm of I.S. Maksimov-Koshkinsky, I.A. Slobodsky and other people of art allowed to continue the work of personnel training. In the 1920s and 1930s, training of creative intelligentsia cadres reached a new qualitative level. Financing of cultural institutions, provision with qualified teaching staff, regulation of admission, training, and graduation in educational institutions yielded positive results. In 1935, a theater vocational school was opened in Cheboksary. In 1934, a special collective farm-state farm department was opened at the extramural department of the State Institute of Theater Arts, and a little later, in 1940, a specialized Chuvash theater studio was opened. The activity of the theater school was curtailed, but specialists training was successfully conducted by the studio under GITIS (the Russian University of Theatre Arts). In the pre-war years, 6 new theaters were opened in the republic. The national creative intelligentsia was formed.

Shanghai

From the opening of treaty ports in 1843, the modern history of performing arts in Shanghai traces more than 170 years of development. This history not only summarizes the modern development of Chinese performing arts; it is also representative of the historical development of Chinese urban space and city culture. Theatre arts, culture, and urban development intertwine, as they are refracted through the rise and fall of theatre buildings, yielding a fascinating legacy of cosmopolitan Shanghai.

THE DILEMMA AND REFLECTION OF CHINESE THEATRE ARTS EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES

At present, the education of Traditional Chinese theatre arts in universities is lacking in both “software” and “hardware”, which is in the dilemma of being marginalized by teaching. There are many common problems in the bottleneck and causes of many kinds of theatre arts in the development of universities education, such as the shortage of teachers, the lack of interest of students, the weakness of scientific research, the poor environment of Traditional Chinese Theatre arts and so on. In view of the above problems, it is suggested to adopt multi-channel strategies to cultivate students' interest, improve the supporting Traditional Chinese Theatre arts curriculum, and optimize the traditional Chinese Theatre arts environment, so as to change the current dilemma of Traditional Chinese Theatre arts in universities.

Covid Conversations 1: Peter Sellars

In this profoundly dialogical exchange, Peter Sellars, theatre director, researcher, and teacher, and Maria Shevtsova open out a whole array of questions on the integral relation between politics and the theatre in its multiple manifestations. These questions not only concern the damages inflicted by the present Covid-19 pandemic but also those developed by the neoliberal economics and politics of the past forty years and more. In Sellars’s view, neoliberalism has been the hotbed of social injustices, inequities, market and other forms of current enslavement, migrations, refugee and related precarities, and the havoc of the world climate in which the plight of humanity and that of the planet are indelibly interconnected. His and Shevtsova’s discussion links such vital concerns with his theatre practice, which ranges from his engagement with local communities and indigenous peoples – he details some of his work with the collective, community organization of two Los Angeles Festivals of the early 1990s – to the various forms of his music theatre in which he collaborates, in institutional structures, with highly proficient musicians, singers and dancers. The focus chosen here from his music theatre is The Indian Queen (2013), which Sellars dramaturgically invents using pieces by Henry Purcell combined with prose fragments by Nicaraguan novelist Rosario Aguilar. Peter Sellars is an internationally renowned theatre director among whose more recent productions is Mozart’s Idomeneo, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2019. Maria Shevtsova, Professor of Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, is editor of New Theatre Quarterly. This conversation took place on 16 August 2020, was transcribed from the recording by Kunsang Kelden, and was edited by Maria Shevtsova.