Theatricality

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Theatricality

(1) A specific artistic quality that is inherent to a work of the theatrical arts and that distinguishes it from other genres of art by a special aesthetic nature and unique means of expression.

(2) The Russian form of the word, teatral’nost’, may be used to mean the distinctive stage language of any given playwright, which determines the entire artistic structure of the play and the manner in which it is performed. For example, one may speak of the teatral’nost’ of Shakespeare, Ostrovskii, or Chekhov.

(3) The undisguised use of theatrical devices; a conscious emphasis on the means of stage expression. Theatricality, typical of all forms of folk theater, became an organic trait of the professional stage. It was used by directors in the early 20th century in their struggle against the philistine bourgeois theater and was a means of bringing the contemporary stage closer to the sources of folk culture. Improvisation, pantomime, the grotesque, masks, and other devices have also been used in the realistic theater of the second half of the 20th century.

REFERENCES

Stanislavsky, K. S. Sobr. soch., vol. 1. Moscow, 1954.
Meyerhold, V. E. Stat’i, pis’ma, rechi, besedy, parts 1–2. Moscow, 1968.
Vstrechis Meierkhol’dom: Sb. vospominanii. Moscow, 1967.
Evg. Vakhtangov: Materialy i stat’i. Moscow, 1959.
Tairov, A. Ia. Zapiski rezhissera: Stat’i, besedy, rechi, pis’ma. Moscow, 1970.
Boiadzhiev, G. N. Teatral’nost’ i pravda. Moscow-Leningrad, 1945.
Berkovskii, N. Ia. “Stanislavsky i estetika teatra.” In his Literatura i teatr. Moscow, 1969.

References in periodicals archive ?

For optimistic readings of Hal's theatricality see Tillyard, 271-72; Toliver, 68-69; and Webber, 534.

Shakespeare's Dionysian prince: drama, politics, and the "Athenian" history play

While a majority of the work in the biennial was camera-based, two painters and one digital artist offered quirkier, quieter versions of theatricality: Glen Rubsamen presented coolly lit, eerily artificial-looking landscapes; Naofumi Maruyama showed color-drenched images of his own, perhaps misremembered, childhood memories; and, using computer programmed LEDs to simulate, simply with red dots going on and off, a wounded-seeming figure "walking,,, Jim Campbell exposed the core of cinematic perception while simultaneously resisting cinema's aura.

Third Taipei Biennial: Taipei Fine Arts Museum. (Reviews: Taipei)

Works that constitute a theatrical liberal worldview celebrate theatricality and the donning of disguises as external acts that can effect internal change; more significantly, they describe a tension between what Most calls the "liberal rhetoric of rights and the Judaic rhetoric of obligation." In the majority of cases, it is the latter, transformed into duty toward the theatrical community--"the show must go on"--that prevails.

Theatrical Liberalism: Jews and Popular Entertainment in America

Lead vocalist Dellacoma Rio has a voice that sounds pulled from some old vinyl recording, with his Ozzy Osbourne -style theatricality and resonance, and the rest of the band feels as if they could be playing with Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden at some point in the distant past.

Classic metal

illustrates in a vigorous way the idea that theatricality is always

Cleopatra's theatrical discourse in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

Les mysteres; studies in genre, text and theatricality.

Les mysteres; studies in genre, text and theatricality

Les Mysteres: Studies in Genre, Text and Theatricality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2012.

Peter Happe and Wim Husken, eds.: Les Mysteres: Studies in Genre, Text and Theatricality

The play is considered by many to be a seminal work of Canadian theatre for its bold theatricality and daring post-modern structure.

Highly acclaimed production comes to Edmonton

He attempts to isolate what he calls the "theatricality" of Lepage's work, a term which seems to mean "style" or "aesthetic" as tied to his creative process developed from the Repere cycles.

Aleksandar Sasa Dundjerovic: The Theatricality of Robert Lepage'

"Particularly in Harlem Song where we conducted a series of interviews with people in the community we had to find a way to tell a story that combined theatricality and history." For CCHR Wolfe explains "I've been hired to bring theatricality inside of history."

Wolfe and history: a combustible combo

This young artist's work is certainly marked out by its physicality, its daring and its theatricality. Little wonder that critics have been left reaching for the superlatives.