Romeo Castellucci – an apologist for postdramatic theater

The purpose of the article. To analyze the early performances directed by R. Castellucci, to explore the main features of his directing method, and on the basis of the analysis to identify the characteristics of post-dramatic theater in his work. The methodology applies a textual method for the elaboration of the conceptual apparatus of post-dramatic theater. The apply a hermeneutic method and the method of stylistic analysis allow to study the performances that represent the main artistic trends in the directing of R. Castellucci of the late ХХ century. The scientific novelty lies in understanding the creative pursuits of R. Castellucci, in the aesthetics of post-dramatic theater. For the first time, his performances are analyzed and their affiliation to the post-dramatic theater is classified based on the conceptual and categorical apparatus formed by scientists. Conclusions. R. Castellucci's early directorial works are characterized by performativity, imagery, visuality, distancing from text-centrism, which dominates in dramatic theater and rethinking the meaning of the word as a vestige of dramatic performance. These features of the director's method give the right to define him as an exponent of ideas of post-dramatic theater. Keywords: Romeo Castellucci, post-dramatic theater, performance, visuality.

Gaismu dramaturģija 21. gadsimta teātrī. Latvijas Nacionālā teātra izrādes „Asins kāzas” piemērs

The article is devoted to contemporary theatre’s aesthetic strategies, specifically researching the increase of the principle of visuality in the message of the performance. Both the theory of postdramatic theater introduced by the German theatre scholar Hans Thies Lehmann and the researches of various leading theatre semioticians emphasise the growing importance of visual elements (scenography, costume, actor’s body, etc.) in the structure of the production. The theatrical lighting score is relatively one of the least studied components of 21st-century theatre. In the semiotic sign system of the performance, the stage light can be perceived as an integral part of the space, introducing the dramaturgy of light as an important element of the performance message. The aim of the research is to define the meaning of light dramaturgy in 21st-century Latvian theatre. The object of the research is the new generation outstanding lighting artist Oskars Pauliņš (b. 1989) and his light score for Vladislav Nastavšev’s production “The Blood Wedding” (2016) at the Latvian National Theatre. The article tackles the main principles of light dramaturgy in the performance, based on the four parameters of stage lighting (intensity, colour, mode of distribution, movement/dynamics) as defined by the light artist and theorist Richard Pillbrow. The analysis of the light score proves that the stage light created by Pauliņš becomes an artistically sufficient element of the stage production that participates in the formation of the performance message.

Theater as a Socio-Cultural Institution: Overcoming Basic Conventions

The paper is devoted to exploring the process of reinventing institutional conventions of theatrical art. After describing a series of contemporary performance phenomena, the author uses the “institution” concept from the theory of social construction of reality and methods of deconstruction to identify the distinguishing features of the new theater and/or “postdramatic theater” / or “post-performance turn” theater. The change, as demonstrated in the paper, is primarily connected with the theater’s abandoning its basic mimetic aim, the aim of simulating / depicting reality, i.e. referencing something other than itself, while the performance accordingly ceases to be a text, a carrier of a certain narration, plot and, eventually, an intrinsic sense, a message to the viewer. This abandonment is made necessary by the universal emergence of the media prevalence era that turns everything into a “theater”, so the theater, in its contemporary manifestations, is striving more and more to become “non-theater”. Its trives to be based primarily on what only the theater has: a vital energy of interaction; first of all, interaction between the actor and the viewer, or action participants (who turn out to be both actors and viewers) organized in a certain way, or the energy of the performance space itself, or the energy of its participants’ motion. In conclusion, the author argues that contemporary theater – in fact, just like any institution reinventing its basic concepts – presents a certain anthropological challenge: firstly, it appeals to a different paradigm of perception; secondly, it requires a higher level of agency of the individual perceiving the art.