Naujų raiškos priemonių ieškojimo kryptys šiuolaikiniame Lietuvos teatre (aplinkos teatro trupė „Miraklis“)

Abstract

You can often find in the articles, interviews etc. concerning contemporary Lithuanian theatre, ideas of some “crisis” in it. Often you can hear even incites “to save” theatre. But the opinions concerning the object and the means of “saving” are very different. In my work I wanted to question such opinions. Theatre, as a mean of human artistic expression, was in the past, it is at present and it is going to be itself in future. It doesn’t need to be “saved”. But you need to reconsider (“to rescue”) your own understanding of theatre activity. I suggest one of the possible ways of understanding theatre anew: concentrating attention to new forms of expression in contemporary theatre performances; rethinking and reconsidering what are these forms, what are their possibilities, how much those possibilities are used and where do they lead. To my opinion the most interesting and new ideas come to life when theatre itself is somehow “digressed from normal”, where something “that you cannot understand till the end” is happening, something not “absolutely professional” or “not absolutely like theatre” appears. In such “cross-roads” traditional, stable means of expression get new meanings, forms and functions, and that is why in this area it is easier and more useful to look for new directions of development. Comparing to traditional, “main-stream” theatre Environment theatre troop “Miraklis” is on these “cross-roads” of tradition. I am explaining and justifying my choice of the object of research using the scheme of theatre activities. I have created it according to my own and theatrologer Mark Fortier’s theatre theory. I have also used Peter Brook, Hans Thies Lehman, Michael Kirby points of view concerning theatre and theatre semiotics (Patrice Pavis, Elaine Aston and George Savona) methods of analysis. There can be noted, that semiotics wasn’t the basic method of my work, but just a useful mean of extending the horizon. I have used a lot of material for this work: articles, interviews, video, etc. I have really got a lot of information from dialogues with Stanislovas Rubinovas and Vega Vaiciunaite, who are the artistic directors of the two theatres. I am writing most of all about those performances which I saw myself, so the title of “contemporary theatre” in my work means also the one I saw myself. I have paid most attention to such objects in my work: space, actor, text and time. Those four parts of the theatre performance dictate new and interesting possibilities of using the means of expression in contemporary Lithuanian theatre. The main features of such possibilities are: 1) The understanding of the theatrical space becomes much wider, and it gives much more possibilities for artistic expression. 2) The means of actors’ expressions become much wider, and the attitude towards the necessity of actor’s professional education is changing a lot: the actor doesn’t need always to be “the professional” while taking part in the performance. 3) Text looses its dominance and becomes an equal part of the performance among the other means of expression. There appear much more ways of presenting the text in performance. 4) Time (season of the year, date of performance, etc.) becomes a mean of expression itself and helps to create the atmosphere of the performance. Such conclusions make me to think, that theatre has a very rich spectre of the means of artistic expression. Much more than we can imagine. So when someone says “bad theatre” maybe it means that this theatre “doesn’t know its own possibilities.