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Taking as examples a few foreign contemporary performances that use audio technologies and various kinds of headphone systems, the author delves into the concept of “audio theater.” She proves that using audio technologies (dictaphones, microphones, analogue recordings) in performances enhances the involvement of the participant's senses and his/her reception of the performance. The author also points out the theatrical relationship between what is visible and what is audible. Recording equipment is described as a memory machine, and audio technology is called a medium to mobilize the viewers' imaginations. She shows that active listening occupies a central place in the plays she mentions, which engage an auditorium, not a spectator.
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Top Russian politicians cry foul after Ukrainian singer takes home top prize at Eurovision.
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In contrast to the key role and importance attributed to the institution of godparenthood in Bulgarian customary law, Bulgarian epic songs reveal the godfather in a rather negative, derogatory and parodied way. In the folklore epics he is regularly shown as a coward, a treacherous evil-doer, and a cunning competitor to the bridegroom in the wedding procession. The article proposed here attempts to analyse this paradoxical incoincidence between the high status, ascribed to the godfather in the customary law, and the representations, which his figure receives in the folk epics. The various inversions of the godfather's status are viewed as predetermined by the specific mediating role he holds in the system of kinship relationships, and by the epic context, which encodes and interprets this role according to an internal epic logic.
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Symbolic concert honors victims of terrorism, as Russian and Syrian dignitaries look on.
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The Pristina-based group Gipsy Groove is more than just about music.
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All stories are told, now it’s important, how do we tell it – that’s what contemporary writers believe, experimenting with form and style of writing. In 1986 written play “Me, Feuerbach” by T. Dorst and U. Ehler-Dorst tells a biographic story of one actor, but writers have chosen an interesting non-linear storytelling, using various tools for expressing the narrative. That’s why the aim of paper ‘Narrative Travelling Through Time at Play‘me, Feuerbach’’ is to examine and create theoretical approaches towards analysing the time of drama. According to G. Genette, three layers of time collide in every storytelling: story (the events that are recounted), narration itself (either written or oral discourse through which the events are presented), narrative action, or narratives (the creation of the discourse being narrated wherein the storytelling is presented). Narratologists analysing prose state that not in every narration can one record the act of tell-ability (it is most often implied); therefore, in conducting the time analysis, based on G. Genette’s narratology, it is proposed to investigate the relationship between two layers – story (the events that are narrated) and narration (allocation of events in a text). Suspending certain information that is closely entwined with the reader’s / the audience’s attitude towards a character, actor Feuerbach manipulates not so much the character (he is also of the narrators), but the perceiver – certain items of information are concealed from and revealed to him which help to maintain and enhance the intrigue. One refers to the shifting of time in a play's narrative so as to the character’s state of mind. That’s why a deeper methodological glimpse will be used to analyse the play “Me, Feuerbach” through the glasses of narratology, applying theory of analepsis, prolepsisand elipsis.
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The article outlines and comments on the dramaturgical style and theatrical aesthetics of one of the most topical, radical and prolific playwrights and directors in Germany. It highlights the grounds and the manner of problematizing and the critical use of the form of drama in his theatrical texts. The latter is defined as a keynote anti-dramatic theatre, ceaselessly questioning drama conventions and functioning beyond the principles of the objective-mimetic theatricality. The article dwells on the definition of the aesthetics of the dramaturgy and the stagings by René Pollesch (almost exclusively of his own works) such as ‘pop’ or ‘discursive theatre’. An important particularity of his theatrical texts lies in that they are subject to a specific scenic concept, reaching their final version in close cooperation with the actors, with a view to whom they have often been composed. At times their own names are used or fictionalised roles are assigned to them. They are unalterably acting as ‘speaking heads, extreme talking machines’, who, lingering over philosophical theses, theoretical articulations, are hysterically attempting to reflect on the conditions of their existence; the mechanism of building a subject in the context they are thematising, the theatrical situation they are producing. The assumption that René Pollesch’s theatre is a kind of a gesture of desperation at the complexity of the contemporary world and at the ignorance of coping with the problems faced by each individual, is treated in such a context. Using the dramaturgical analysis of René Pollesch’s Cappuccetto Rosso, the article explores the underlying idea of drama and of strategies of transforming the form of drama.
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The study seeks to analyse the criteria applied by theatre reviewers regarding set design in the period from the end of World War Two until 1968. It was a time when a number of specialised articles was published searching to both rehabilitate the innovative movements that have established themselves in the pre-war period and to familiarize readers with the specifics of stage design. The author refers to a number of thematically grouped works of the day; reviews on certain productions, where the reviewers give their opinions about the set design; reviews commenting on productions through the stenographic solutions alone; overviews of exhibitions and/or fairs of set design; works, both Bulgarian and foreign, on scenic techniques and their historical development and of course, keynote articles evaluating the development of Bulgarian set design. The study deals also with some of the most intriguing productions of the National Theatre such as The Young Guard (1947), Toward the Abyss (1958), The Living Corpse (1962), etc. It was about these scenic solutions that reviewers saw themselves forced to abandon their traditional succinct notes on stage design and focus their analyses on the visual aspects of the productions.
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This article outlines different approaches applied during ethnomusicological fieldwork on local folk musical traditions and cultures. It illustrates the transition from the accumulation of separate samples (songs and instrumental tunes) towards the reconstruction of the regional model and the musical-anthropological interpretation of music in a cultural context. The variety of fieldwork techniques and methodological tools allows the researcher to reveal territorial relatedness and the interdependence of musical elements and performance styles, to highlight local specificities in the functioning of folk music, and to note manifestations of local cultural inheritance in the living musical practices of today. In a reflexive perspective, the author discusses her own experience while participating in several projects of regional field research.
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The paper is part of a study by the same author dealing with the earliest Bulgarian musical films produced by the authorities under communism. Made in 1970, Rangel Vulchanov’s musical based on a romantic-adventurous plot and abounding in songs and dances (music by Ivan Staykov, choreography by Bogdan Kovachev) was promoted by the media as the first Bulgarian musical feature film. Indeed, the impulse to flee the conventional everyday grind can be traced at all levels of the production: from the building of the storyline and the active plot to the cinematic rationalisation of individual episodes and scenes including songs, actor’s gesture and plasticity, various ensemble dances with a stylish choreographic solution. In a general sense though, the keyword flight predetermines entirely the behaviour of a couple of romantic characters in the context of the comically covert conflict between the individual and the society: their attempt at ‘purification’ through another kind of communication in the non-urban scenery on the banks of the Ropotamo. Ivan Staykov’s music was composed mainly in the vein of the festival Bulgarian pop songs of the 1960s and the 1970s, applying the principle of improvisational variations (especially in the parts of purely orchestral episodes or offscreen reminiscences, related to various situations. Furthermore, variation is the general compositional approach adopted in the cinematic rationalisation of the songs, where each further repetition relies not only on typical emotional nuances in the arrangement but also on respective changes in the meaning of the lyrics, rendering them the necessary association with certain screen representation. The most memorable in this respect are the variations of the leit- theme ‘Moments come unexpectedly...’ (lyrics by Rangel Vulchanov and Ivan Staykov), performing also the function of a musical envelope. The same is true of the love ballad/duet The Two Banks (lyrics by Marko Ganchev), which at the time topped the charts.
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The article analyses the meanings of the name national, which the National Theatre embodied as a nationally representative institution through the course of its development in the 20th century. The article aims at pointing out the historical characteristics of Bulgarian national theatre in the context of its sibling European institutions: The definition “popular” outlived many changes and collisions in the fate of the theatre and represents a surviving consensus realization that the “national” is based out- side any institutions in a community immanence “travelling through time” and being a symbol of the Bulgarian “spirit”. The performance of that “spirit” is always collective, not civil; it is “popular”. The National Theatre also embodied the realization of “cultural institution” (rendered in the beginning of its existence by Pencho Slaveykov). This cultural institution presented the works of the greatest artistic figures of the nation and thus the national culture became a step towards the universal world of artistic culture. From the very beginning of its existence and later in its being in Bulgarian culture throughout the whole 20th century the National Theatre represented the painful duality of these two approaches to the “national”. This strainful and contradictory mixture of the two approaches to the “nationally Bulgarian” constituted the very name of the theatre as “national”. The need of choosing between the two meanings of the national – the collective mythical meaning (traditional) or the individual historic meaning (the modern) – has always been summoned in situations of crisis. What is the present realization of the nation- al and what are the expectations for the National Theatre to represent? What is the place of the National Theatre in the present national state? Are we ready for the questions globalization as a process poses to the development of culture? The article outlines the crisis of the national state and the place of the nationally representative institutions as, for example, nation- al theatres like Deutches Theatre, Bourgtheatre, the Royal National Theatre, Comedie Francaise, Theatre Dramaticni in Warsaw among others. The article renders the opinion that national theatres are typical of the universal “high modernism” (Fr. Jameson) which, as a type of expression is representative of the culture of the respective national theatres. The article also outlines the global crisis of the “national” and its implications in the Bulgarian cultural stratum, along with the adding of other new local problems. It traces the shrinking of Bulgarian theatre after the political changes in 1989 and the lessening of interest on behalf of the national state towards investing into the theatre’s future development. As a result from this process, as well as a result from the features of the historical genesis of the meaning of “national” in representation of the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov”, the theatre formed after the fall of communism in 1989 rather a unique centre of diverse artistic experiments in Bulgarian theatre than remaining merely a representative of a type of expression of “high modernism” similar to this in its sibling national theatres. What is the choice of Bulgarian culture – strengthening of the positions of the National Theatre and a special statute for its development in the light of the weakening Bulgarian theatre or marginalization of the National Theatre as a nationally representative institution resulting from the local effects of the process of globalization and the political changes after 1989?
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The article aims at throwing some light on the birth of the figure of the National Theatre in Bulgarian cultural stratum. Even in the first governmental reports justifying the decisions of the state for aiding theatre activity in Bulgaria, even in the first critical articles in the first dailies, one can explicitly find the insertion that this is a “popular” theatre. Bulgarian state authorities borrow exactly this image of the theatre to enter it in its state projects and exactly this is the reason why it is legally stipulated, subsidized and institutionalized. For the period 1903 – 1907 professor Ivan Shishmanov in his capacity of a Minister of People’s Enlightenment directly initializes, ideologically justifies and fulfils his project for a national theatre as a state (national) institution of culture. A bit later, in the face of Pencho Slaveykov in his capacity of a Director of the National Theatre (1908 – 1909) this positivist project launched by Shishmanov of the state-builder and benefactor–guardian of the theatre is implicitly put under critical reconsideration through valuable juxtaposition of the concepts “popular” and “national”. Slaveykov’s project for a state autonomous “national theatre”, combining the individualism of Nische with the spirit of Enlightenment is the only alternative to the established theatre pattern in the country for the period after the Liberation up to the I World War of this hybrid figure, namely a state national theatre that is realized as popular. His project remains equally misunderstood both by the romantic-sentimentalist cleavage of actors aiming to achieve a state-protected status and the paternalist state (government) striving to implement the idea of modernized “construction” in Bulgaria. In conclusion, the article tries to follow the development of the so established model in Bulgaria through different historic periods.
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The main problems discussed in the paper pertain to the following questions: How many actors’ generations there are in the Bulgarian National theatre during its whole history of about 100 years? Which are the factors that influence the change of one actors’ generation with another? What are the specific features of each generation that makes it different from the other? There is an accent put on the fact that both the number and the specific features of the different generations in the National theatre are connected with the factors, which have influenced the change of one generation with another. It is interesting that usually this change is made by the administration where part of the old actors are retired or fired and on their place new actors are appointed. The paper argues that although these acts often are associated with the name of a certain administrative or artistic director they are not based on complete subjectivity but are a result of objective circumstances. Moreover as a rule the leading motive of the directors pertains to their desire the theatre system, which with the years has become outworn and outdated, to be reformed and renewed. An attempt is made to find out the specific features of each generation. Here the main criteria were the following: 1. Age (date of birth). 2. Education, acting school. 3. Working period in the National theatre. 4. Repertoire and circle of roles. 5. Directing. Acting approaches and methods. A hypothesis is made that it is possible to outline several professional actors’ generations in the National theatre. Rather conventionally six generations are pointed out. There is one zero generation of amateur actors, who gave performances before the foundation of the National theatre as institution. That makes the generations of Bulgarian theatre seven, where six of them are especially connected with the name of the National theatre. The logic of such division follows the whole historical develop- ment of our theatre, its professionalization, institutionalization and modernization from the beginning until the end of 20th century.
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The article examines the National Theatre “Ivan Vazov” as an existence of the norm that develops through its deviations. The approach of the article is to start by analyzing the city plans position of the theatre and the symbolism of the adjacent buildings. From the very beginning of its existence, the National Theatre was supposed to introduce both the European traditional norms in drama and to leave a door to its stage ajar for modern aesthetics and even some elements of the avant-garde. Norm and deviation remain equally respected and active forces during the 20s and 30s and thus the very opposition between them is gradually reconciled. After 1944, the theatre falls into a deep aesthetic anomie and, though not articulated, loses its statute of an aesthetic legislator. Nevertheless, during the recent decade it again rejected the space that carries the major part of aesthetic innovation in Bulgarian theatre. Apparently this is the future of the theatre – to present the possibly best performance for the possibly largest audiences in their possibly greatest variety. All that in a time when norm no longer exists and thus deviations cannot be evaluated.
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The proposed text is an attempt to examine the company of the National Theatre as behaviour in the initial years of its formation. Its behaviour reflected or even developed certain attitudes and experience of values in the context of social development and in seeking a Bulgarian cultural identity. Such behaviour refers to the comprehension of culture as a collective phenomenon, as a system of shared meanings, symbols, ethical and moral principles, and is in a state of a continual dialectical development, interpreted and realized through everyday human experience. Socially, Bulgaria belongs to family, lineal culture and thus informing the National Theatre company, lineal attitudes are strongly represented in it. In order to be able to exist at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the company follows behaviour that is characteristic of the Bulgarian traditional society. In it, the family is a structural element; marriage is taken for a personal fulfilment and a change of the individual social status. The seclusion of the company as a family is a process that can be clearly defined in the activity of the theatre “Osnova”. A similar process is visible in the theatre “Salza I Smiah” as well, only developing the relationships and the structure of management, aiming to enhance the effectiveness of the family activity and the ways of communication with the state, which is thought of as the father-guardian figure. But the basic, initial value that upholds and binds the family in its behaviour is survival. Theatre as art is the profound goal of the forefathers of Bulgarian theatre, but the theatre that results from their activities is not yet the true art. The perseverance for achieving the idea of the theatre, the sustainable efforts of the company to fulfil it in practice in the years of its formation, grant the company the part of a primitive unit in the chain of history of the National Theatre. Moving into a new building, the company as a family achieves the idea of home. Later, in the face of N. O. Massalitinov, the company realizes its spiritual father – a concept sought for such a long time. During Massalitinov’s time, and with him, the family experiences a peak of achieving theatre as an art. This period of the company’s life reinserts and turns some behavioral features into a tradition that marks the company as a conservative closed society tightly bound to its linear nature.
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What is the contemporary meaning of an effort to reconstruct the history of the Bulgarian National Theatre? – This is the question that serves as a starting point of the text. The answer proposed is that in the context of contemporary situation of culture, the meaning is contained in the attempt to once archive the National Theatre as an exponent for the museums of national (regional) and world (global) cultures where it can be contemplated and examined, and, on the other hand, to be rendered as a material for recycling, that is, as something to be perpetually re-worked, and experienced again and again. The strategy chosen for reconstructing the image of the National Theatre set in the process of its century-long existence is that the theatre is realized through the light of its connection with key ideologies in the course of its development up to the end of the 80s of the 20th century. Three major ideologies have been traced as such, being consecutively dominant in the period from the beginning of the 20th century up to the end of the I World War, the period of the 20s and 30s of the 20th century and the period of the socialist epoch. The ideology of the first period is that of establishing the state (that recently gained its independence); for the second period it is the ideology of the loss of national ideals after the failure in the wars and the need for overall renewal of the state after them; for the third period – this is the ideology of constructing the socialist state. A considerable part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of the particular determinative influences of each of the above-mentioned ideologies on the institutional and aesthetic status of the National Theatre, then summarizing and defining its reconstructed historical image. The National Theatre bears two major characteristics – 1. Under the given historical circumstances, the National Theatre is established and subsequently continues to be re-established as/in the place of the whole Bulgarian theatre and; - 2.It is the focal point under whose model is formed the rest of the theatre periphery in Bulgaria, or under whose model the periphery is negatively rejecting it. In conclusion the author claims that after defining the basic status of the National Theatre, it is now comparatively easier to read and spell out the complex developments in it during the 90s of the 20th century (after the political changes in Eastern Europe) and to look for an answer to the inevitably posed question in any such historical – political recapitulations, namely: What would be one of the most adequate and useful forms of its existence in the present day? Sensing clearly that both of the problems need a separate, detailed and thorough examination, the text gives only two short comments on them. According to the first comment, the National Theatre reflection and the permanently established attitudes towards it to be considered the center in which to a certain extent is initialized or made the organization or reorganization of the theatre in Bulgaria as a whole, explains the mixing of traditional, avant-garde, popular and other types of performances on its stage during the 90s, this being an attempt to introduce to the country the variety of theatre ideas, practices and receptive strategies typical of the theatre network of the developed democratic countries. The second comment refers to the question what the National Theatre should be today, on the basis of its heritage and in the context of the contemporary cultural situation. And the answer is: As far as the Bulgarian National theatre is part of the network of European (and world) national theatres, it should be recognized by “the humanity observing all theatre productions of its own play” (Liothar) as exactly national. This would mean that the National Theatre should pre- serve and display the archive of its own and the global theatrical heritage (plays, staging and acting styles, basic value predispositions) and continually to archive the theatric existence, that is the achievements and the interesting findings of the up-to-date stage practice in the country.
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