“SUICIDE” ON THE KHARKIV STAGE: MUSIC AND STAGE READING BY S. PASICHNYK – H. FROLOV

Statement of the problem. The article examines the theatrical heritage of Les Kurbas, the founder of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre (originally called «Berezil»). Les Kurbas is the reformer of the Ukrainian theater; his theatrical ideas demonstrate a new understanding of the synthesis of the arts. He concentrated his creative aspirations not only on acting, but also on all components of the performance, in particular on music. The paper examines methodically the application of the basic principles of Les Kurbas Theatre – the co-authorship of the director and composer – in Kharkiv theatre. The article also studies the works by H. Frolov – talented Kharkiv composer. The critical legacy dedicated to the works of Les Kurbas does not fully illuminate the uniqueness of his views regarding directing and the originality of the musical language in the genre of dramatic performance (CherkashynaHubarenko, 2002; Hordieiev, 2003; Yermakova, 2012; Labinska, 2012). There are a number of works devoted to the issues of music in theater (Kurysheva, 1984; Kozyurenko, 1986; Tarshis, 2010; Matsepura, 2013; Lesakova, 2017; Oseeva, 2019; Kovalchuk, 2017; Nurtazin, 2013; Spagnolo, 2017). The novelty of our research. The paper investigates musical component in the current practice of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre and creative method of its leading composer H. Frolov. The aim of the article is to reveal the interconnection of music with the stage elements of the performance. The study of the stage play “Suicide” in Kharkiv Drama Theater required the implementation a number of scientific approaches: historical and genetic, studying the modern function of music in the analyzed dramatic performance in Kharkiv Drama Theater, the origins of which go back to Kurbas “Berezil”; a comparative analysis, revealing the ways of preserving old traditions in modern performance; genre analysis, investigating the embodiment of the comedy dell arte in the musical scenes; stylistic analysis, revealing the composer’s thinking in making the director’s decision regarding stagecraft. The presentation of the main material. The article analyzes a musical component in the stage performance “Suicide” based on the play by Nikolay Erdman (1928), reinterpreted by our contemporaries – the stage director Stepan Pasichnyk and the composer Henadii Frolov. The work reviews the production itself and the acting troupe. The article outlines the inheritance and development of the traditions in Les Kurbas Theatre regarding the mutual work of the composer and director, aimed at the organic fusion of the stage action and musical accompaniment of the performance. Conclusions. Dramaturgical and genre-compositional analyzes of the performance detected such distinctive features of the individual style of H. Frolov as: musical organization of the stage with one intonation, which, depending on the drama, can be flexible and transformative, acquiring new meanings and qualities and thus making the musical development monothematic; unity of the figurative and semantic layers of music with the director’s concept of the performance; transformation of genre features of tragic farce and commedia dell’arte.

Echoes and Whispers: Becoming Modern with Elizabeth Polack

Elizabeth Polack (fl. 1834–1843) is the earliest known Jewish woman playwright in Britain. In this essay, I detail the historiographical difficulties in researching Polack's lost play The Echo of Westminster Bridge (1835), which lived vibrantly in cultural memory for a century even though the play itself disappeared and its author receded into obscurity. One problem with becoming modern is confronting the increasing inaccessibility of the past. I demonstrate that, notwithstanding some confusion about authorship, Echo is by Polack and that her melodrama made a long-standing impact. I delineate the special problems associated with using a twenty-page Skelt's toy theatre condensation of the full-length stage play to reconstruct some of its main features. Then I speculate that – like Polack's best-known play, Esther, The Royal Jewess (1835) – Polack's The Echo of Westminster Bridge also potentially nudges forward the cause of Jewish emancipation. But how can one study a play that was popular and influential but has ceased to exist? That metacritical problem – the ephemerality of theatre and its compounding challenges for research – is part of the condition of the modern.

MALĒCIYA TAMIḺ EḺUTTĀḶARKAḶ MATTIYIL, MIṈṈAL PAṆPALAI VĀṈOLI ILAKKIYA NĀṬAKAṄKAḶ EḺUTUVATIL TŌYVU: ŌR ĀYVU [A LACK OF TAMIL LITERARY DRAMA ON RADIO MINNALFM AMONG MALAYSIAN TAMIL WRITERS: A STUDY]

The Tamil language is primarily comprised of three elements, namely poetry, music and drama. Dubbed the mother of art, the drama element has been through so much of developments over the years. Initially, it was in a street theatre form, which then found its way to stage play and eventually becoming an integral part in the Tamil literature, widely knows as drama in literature. Drama in literature is said to be very significant as it bears the identity of the Tamil community. However, the fate and future of radio drama (or also known as audio theatre) seem to be a question mark. Apparently, there seems to be only a handful who could pen scripts for this art form. Having that said, most writers these days choose only to write about the society, mainly focusing on love, friendship and domestic life. 85% of today’s works are based on social dramas and unfortunately, only 15% consists of radio drama. The lack of knowledge and understanding in epics or ancient literature amongst young writers as well as the scarcity ot such art works are being said to be the two main reasons for this upsetting scenario. In addition, audio theatre requires a special diction which sadly not known to many and as a matter or fact, there aren’t enough writers who could provide guidance on writing this genre. These are findings from a data analytic, which also concluded that Malaysian Tamil writers, not only lack interest and guidance, but also hesitate to come up with such scripts as they feel that it is outdated.

The Development of Active Learning Based Stage Play Learning Media of Indonesia Language Theme 7 for Fourth Grade Primary School

The success of learning Bahasa needs to be supported by learning media that can condition students to be actively involved in learning. This study aims to develop active learning-based stage play learning media for Indonesian language lesson of Four grade which can be used to support the learning process to assist teachers in delivering the lesson. The research design of this study is research and development included steps of potential and problem analysis, data collection, product design, design validation, design revision, product trial, product revision, trial use and product revision, these steps of R&D were carried out in fourgrade state primary school 1 of Muntok, Bangka Regency. The data was collected through the observation then conducting the assessment by the expert and the questionnaire of student and teacher assessment. A qualitative and quantitative data were used to analyze the collected data. The research result showed that active learning-based stage play learning media for Bahasa lesson of theme 7 of fourth-grade primary school is feasibly used as learning media. Based on the expert assessment, the overall result of media, material, and learning expert is 75,3 with a feasible category. Assessment of learning practitioners was assisted by teachers of class 4 with 89 of very feasible category, and student assessment obtained 95 with very feasible category.

Devising in the Pandemic: Trauma and a Dramatic Redesign of a Youth Theatre Tour

Z402 Youth Theatre Tour was designed from a critical performative pedagogical positioning (Weltsek, 2019). Here learning emerges from how individuals and communities perform their emergent identities as they cross literal and metaphorical socio-cultural borders. Z402 resulted in a 100% student created new play, parallel workshop, and study guide. This new play was based solely upon the students’ perspectives, voices, and ways of being. The design used devised theatre, the use of improvisation and games, to create a new play versus a solely written approach. The new play dealt with healing in the face of suicidal thoughts. The course addressed four Indiana educational licensing requirements; student technical, artistic, educational, and class practicum experiences. In March 2020, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the University instituted obligatory Online instruction. Students redesigned their stage play into a virtual experience using Zoom and integrated their emotional struggles due to pandemic isolation. The live play, slated for three schools, is now accessible to a large virtual audience

Bridging the gap between novel and stage play : Interview with Simmer Chinodya on Harvest of Thorns

This interview is based on Shimmer Chinodya's internationally acclaimed novel of 1989, Harvest of Thorns, which was adapted by the author himself for stage and presented during 2013 the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa) as a stage drama. It was staged to a capacity crowd on April 30, 2013 at 7 Arts Theatre in Harare, Zimbabwe. I caught up with Shimmer Chinodya on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 and interviewed him about the goings on behind the scenes because he had adapted his own novel to a stage play and was producing it himself. I wanted Shimmer Chinodya to tackle directly the general issues and problematic of the subject of adaptation; what do you choose to pick (and why?) from events in a huge novel such as Harvest of Thorns? This means that I wanted him to think about what guided his gaze. I was also keen on having him reflect why he went solo; to the extent of writing, adapting, directing and producing -all by himself. The interview brings a novel approach to critiquing the gap that exists in researches on bridging gaps across literary genres of the novel and the stage play and their criticism.

Exploring the Development of Contemporary Chinese Flute Art Through Heavenly Tune of Chinese Flute and The Ancient Call

In the 21st century, the development of the flute follows the steps of modernization closely, and a batch of outstanding works with novel genre and innovative theme appear. This paper will focus on two new national art funded projects in China. One is the large humanity art epic The Ancient Call by Chinese Flute music college professor Zhang Weiliang from China Conservatory of Music, and the other is Tang Junqiao’s Chinese Flute stage play Heavenly Tune of Chinese Flute. This paper aims to explore the motivation that China’s performance composers create and promote the innovation of the traditional music, innovate the artistic features of Chinese Flute works, and analyze the improvement of the Chinese Flute performance art as well as the possibility of future development.

Muriel Spark's Early Fiction

This book presents a detailed critical analysis of a period of significant formal and thematic innovation in Muriel Spark’s literary career. Spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, it identifies formative instances of literary experimentation in texts including The Comforters, The Driver’s Seat and The Public Image, with an emphasis on metafiction and the influence of the nouveau roman. As the first critical study to draw extensively on Spark’s vast archives of correspondence, manuscripts and research, it provides a unique insight into the social contexts and personal concerns that dictated her fiction. Offering a distinctive reappraisal of Spark’s fiction, the book challenges the rigid critical framework that has long been applied to her writing. In doing so, it interrogates how Spark’s literary innovations work to facilitate moments of subversive satire and gendered social critique. As well as presenting nuanced re-readings major works like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, it draws unprecedented attention to lesser-discussed texts such as her only stage play, Doctors of Philosophy, and early short stories.

‘The role in which you’ve cast me’: Reassessing the Myth of Spark

This chapter examines how the self-reflexive techniques employed in her writing work to facilitate instances of gendered social critique, while also interrogating the wider functioning of power and personal identity in the increasingly mediatised postmodern consumer culture in which they were written. The chapter focuses predominantly on three of Spark’s most formally and thematically experimental works: 1962’s seldom-discussed stage play, Doctors of Philosophy, 1968’s slight and sparsely detailed The Public Image, and the elaborately metafictional satire of celebrity and press sensationalism, Not to Disturb, published in 1971. Also discussed here is ‘A Dangerous Situation on the Stairs’ (c.1960), an unpublished short story that encountered in the author’s archive in the McFarlin Library in Tulsa. In each case, Spark’s literary innovations are read alongside her longstanding preoccupation with the tensions that exist between private selves and public performances – with bodies nearly inscribed within oppressive cultural narratives (and those deemed to be deviant for daring to exist outside of them), and with the sinister, violent negation of female subjectivity.