11 facts about the theater that you can flash in conversation
Miscellaneous / / April 28, 2022
Theater has come a long way from wild shows with public executions to a tool for therapy and health promotion. We talk about interesting facts that few people know.
1. Dropping a play is bad luck, especially if it's Macbeth.
Avoiding black cats, not spilling salt, hide-and-seek for brides - this is for the masses, but the theater has its own superstitions. One of the most significant is not to drop the sheets of the play during the rehearsal. Such carelessness can turn into a failure of the performance - at least they believe in it. theater-goersIf the text falls during a rehearsal, you need to sit on it. Sunday interview with Oleg Amirbekov / Media. Az. Fortunately, the situation can be corrected: it is enough to sit on the fallen text.
Another danger to the stage and its inhabitants is Macbeth. The play is surrounded by rumors of a curse. They sayTHE CURSE OF THE SCOTTISH PLAY / Royal Shakespeare Company, during the first production, the boy who was supposed to play the wife of the protagonist died backstage. Then the role of Lady Macbeth had to be played by Shakespeare himself. After this incident, a whole train of tragedies followed the unfortunate play. Various times during shows
happenedThe Tragedy of Macbeth at Almeida Theater review — a sparkler, not a rocket / The Times riots and collapses of the scenery, real daggers and swords accidentally appeared on the stage instead of fake ones, the actors fell into the auditorium. "Damn" is in the news even today - a recent Broadway version of "Macbeth" canceledWhat is the curse of ‘Macbeth’ and did Chris Rock get slapped after uttering it? / The National News a couple of minutes before the curtain goes up. And the cause of the main scandal at the last Oscars with Chris Rock and Will Smith especially impressionable theatergoers also name Shakespeare's work: the comedian said the name of the damned play shortly before famous slap.2. The English theater "Dominion" is located on the site of the beer flood
While superstitious actors and directors are sitting on the sheets, the London theater "Dominion" fearlessly stands on the site of a catastrophe - a beer flood. Tottenham Court Road, where the Dominion is located today, used to be an ordinary street in the slums. People lived in cellars and hardly tasted good beer, although they were next to a brewery. It was possible to sip plenty of foam on October 17, 1814 of the yearDisaster!: A Compendium of Terrorist, Natural, and Man-Made Catastrophes / Door Michael I. Greenbergwhen the tanks of the enterprise burst and filled everything around with intoxicating drink. It seems that the case is more funny than catastrophic, but in reality everything turned into a tragedy. perishedThe Book Of Lists London / Nick Rennison 9 people. People did not have time to get out of the basements and drowned, and some died as a result of alcohol poisoning.
The incident was attributed to force majeure, and in 1922 the plant was demolished. Dominion did not suffer from the failure of the previous venture: despite several closures, the theater is a success and regularly shows performances.
3. In Japan, the theater was not paused even during intermissions.
No, this is not another round-the-clock performance. We are talking about kegyong - immersive folk performances in the breaks of the play. Classical Japanese theater - but - meant heavy dramatic plots in several acts. To distract the audience from gloomy reflections on the nature of good and evil, actors without traditional costumes, makeup and props entertainedSTAGE: NOMURA KYOGEN THEATER OF JAPAN / The New York Times viewers with comic sketches. The combination of these two performances is called "nokagu" and is included in the list of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind. UNESCONogaku theater / UNESCO.
4. The theater was a place of public executions
The theater, unlike the Russian rebellion, has never been meaningless, but in ruthlessness these actions can compete. In the ancient Roman theatre, for example, public executions often took place. Some researchers allocateThe Theater in Ancient Rome: A Theatrical Spectacle / History is now Magazine them into an independent kind of representations. Sometimes criminals sentenced to death were forced to act out well-known myths with an inevitable non-happy ending. In other productions, the script was worked out less and those sentenced to death were trusted to improvise in the company of hungry wild animals.
5. Jester pea - theatergoer
Peas are not respected by the people: they were thrown against the wall to call the stupid and stubborn names, and children's knees were tested. Also, the jester in the language turned out to be pea. According to one of versionsWhere did the ancient Russian expressions come from, which are still used today / Culturology. RF, this expression owes its appearance to the Russian court theater. The jesters stuffed bull bladders with dry peas and used them as beaters for their stage colleagues. And these devices also made a characteristic sound, by which the audience understood who was about to appear on the stage.
6. London has a theater with seats for ghosts
Even sold out did not forceUK–London–Palace Theatre/Theatrecrafts.com London's Palace Theater to sell the audience two seats on the balcony. This extravagant superstition can be easily explained - the seats are occupied by theatrical ghosts. One of them, according to legendsPalace Theatre/London Theater, is the spirit of an unknown ballerina, the second is the ghost of Ivor Novello, a famous Welsh actor, singer and composer of the beginning of the last century.
7. It was possible to make noise in the theater and even eat
Now in the theater it is customary to sit quietly and applaud strictly at the end of the stage, but former etiquetteA brief history of opera etiquette / Opera Vivra was not so ascetic. The theater was a meeting place for secular society, a hotbed of gossip and a tool for displaying attire. The performances themselves often faded into the background - people came to talk and discuss their neighbors in high society. And also a delicious meal. Therefore, in the middle of the 18th century, opera composers gave the first aria of the second act, the “sorbet aria”, to less talented singers. The fact is that it was at this moment of the performance that it was customary to serve dessert to the audience. Nobody wanted to wait for intermission, and the sound of spoons drowned out the music.
8. In Vietnam, there was a water theater in the 11th century.
Special effects were not born yesterday - the Vietnamese theater demonstrated the wonders of the underwater theater for another ten centuries backWater Puppet Theater / GuideVietnam. Then the rice fields, on which the people worked en masse, were often flooded with rains, and the villagers had fun, arranging puppet shows over the water surface. Toy "actors" were mounted on long sticks and poles, and, standing waist-deep in water, the workers acted out scenes from their lives. Sometimes it was enough to sit down to make it look like the dolls were walking on water. In modern showThang Long Water Puppet the plots remained the same, but now the actors control bright puppets in a special pool.
9. Shadow theater was born out of tragic love
Shadow theater according to legendChinese Shadow Puppetry / A comprehensive informational website, began with a light love story. The Chinese emperor Han Wudi lost his beloved concubine, and with it all the desire to live. In order to somehow amuse the ruler, the court adviser decided to “resurrect” the image of the girl. The children helped him in this: on a sunny day, the kids played with the shadows from the umbrellas. The beauty of the moment impressed the adviser: the master drew the figure of the emperor's concubine on paper, cut it out and placed it behind a translucent fabric. And so the shadow theater was born - the mechanics have not changed through the centuries, as well as the love of the audience for these semi-mystical performances.
10. The theater literally died with laughter
One of the victims of a murderous comedy in 1782 became10 People Who Laughed Themselves to Death / History Collection the priest's widow, Mrs. Fitzherbert. A woman was watching John Gay's The Beggar when she had a fit of hysterical laughter. The cause of the killer gag was the actor Charles Bannister in the form of a flirty girl Paulie. The ballad opera itself tells about the everyday life of thieves, swindlers and inhabitants of poor areas - a strange choice for the widow of a priest.
11. Theater is good
If you laugh carefully, then going to the theater is really useful. This is confirmed by many studies. For example, potential benefitThe theatre: an effective tool for health promotion / NIH showed forum theaters in Africa and North America. The audience in such performances looks at the situation-sketch, and then offers their options for continuing through interaction with the actors and the presenter. In 1989, midwives from Mali, who adhered to the traditions of traditional medicine, received up-to-date knowledge about menopause in an interactive form of such a theater. Then the experience was repeated in Quebec for people with mental disorders. The play "Not as crazy as all this", which was created during this forum, was recorded on video and used as a teaching aid on the norms of communicating with people with mental disabilities.
Research also reveals the potential benefits of theater for children with disabilities autism spectrumBrief report: theater as therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder / NIH, old peoplePsychological benefits of attending the theater associated with positive affect and well‑being for subscribers over age 60 / NIH and for those who are faced with the disease Parkinson'sActive theater as a complementary therapy for Parkinson's disease rehabilitation: a pilot study / NIH and other mental disordersThe use of theater in the psychosocial readaptation of patients with mental disorders: participants’ perspectives / NIH.
For some, theater is a tool to deal with stress and loneliness, someone just loves attention and performs for its rays. It is important for others to be heard and to consolidate their ideas in the words and thoughts of the audience. Schoolchildren and students, whatever the reasons for their sympathy for the stage, can participate in the competition-festival "Knowledge. Theatre"from the Russian society" Knowledge ". Already, more than 12,000 school theaters are operating throughout the country, and the festival will help to introduce even more young talents to the arts. Have time to apply application deadline May 15: original plays and synopses of future works in Russian are accepted. You can choose one of the thematic areas - history, sociology and psychology, science, ecology, culture and art - or create a work based on any idea relevant to a young audience. The performance of the winning play will open the festival in September. The program also includes readings of the best plays, master classes, lectures and a round table with famous theatrical figures of the country.