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folk drama. folklore theater

folk drama. folklore theater

21.03.2019

folklore theater- the traditional dramatic art of the people. The types of folk entertainment and play culture are diverse: rituals, round dances, dressing up, clowning, etc.

In the history of folklore theater, it is customary to consider the pre-theatrical and theatrical stages of folk dramatic creativity.

Pre-theatrical forms include theatrical elements in calendar and family rituals.

IN calendar rites — symbolic figures Shrovetide, Mermaids, Kupala, Yarila, Kostroma, etc., playing scenes with them, dressing up. A prominent role was played by agricultural magic, magical actions and songs designed to promote the well-being of the family. For example, on winter Christmas time, a plow was pulled through the village, "sowed" in the hut with grain, etc. With the loss magical meaning the ceremony turned into a fun.

The wedding ceremony was also a theatrical game: the distribution of "roles", the sequence of "scenes", the transformation of the performers of songs and lamentations into the protagonist of the ceremony (the bride, her mother). complex psychological game there was a change internal state the bride, who in the house of her parents had to cry and lament, and in the house of her husband to portray happiness and contentment. However wedding ceremony was not perceived by the people as a theatrical performance.

In calendar and family rituals, mummers were the participants in many scenes. They dressed up as an old man, an old woman, a man dressed in women's clothing, and the woman - in the male, dressed up in animals, especially often in a bear and a goat. The costume of the mummers, their masks, make-up, as well as the scenes they played were passed down from generation to generation. At Christmas time, Shrovetide, Easter, mummers performed humorous and satirical skits. Some of them later merged into folk dramas.

In addition to rituals, theatrical elements accompanied the performance of many folklore genres: fairy tales, round dances and comic songs, etc. An important role was played here by facial expressions, gesture, and movement, which were close to theatrical gesture and movement. For example, the storyteller did not just tell a fairy tale, but to some extent acted it out: he changed his voice, gesticulated, changed his facial expression, showed how the hero of the fairy tale walked, carried a bucket or bag, etc. In fact, it was a game of one actor.

Actually theatrical forms of folk dramatic creativity - stage by stage more late period, the beginning of which researchers attribute to the 17th century.

However, long before that time in Rus' there were comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, trainers. These are buffoons. They united in wandering groups and until the middle of the 17th century. took part in folk ceremonies and festivals. There are proverbs about the art of buffoons (Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon), songs and epics ("Vavilo and buffoons", "Guest Terentyshe"). Their work was reflected in fairy tales, epics, in different forms folk theatre. In the 17th century buffoonery was prohibited by special decrees. For some time, buffoons hid on the outskirts of Rus'.

Specific features folklore theater - the absence of a stage, the separation of performers and audience, the action as a form of reflection of reality, the transformation of the performer into a different objectified image, the aesthetic orientation of the performance. Plays were often distributed in written form, pre-rehearsed, which did not exclude improvisation.

In the origin, functioning and distribution of all forms and types of folklore theater important role cities played. In cities, fairs were a favorite time and place for folk spectacular performances, which were attended by many people, including villagers. They not only traded, but also had fun.

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002

FOLKLORE THEATER. FOLK DRAMA

Folklore theater is the traditional dramatic art of the people. The types of folk entertainment and play culture are diverse: rituals, round dances, dressing up, clowning, etc.

In the history of folklore theater, it is customary to consider the pre-theatrical and theatrical stages of folk dramatic creativity.

Pre-theatrical forms include theatrical elements in calendar and family rituals.

In the calendar rituals - the symbolic figures of Maslenitsa, Mermaid, Kupala, Yarila, Kostroma, etc., playing scenes with them, dressing up. A prominent role was played by agricultural magic, magical actions and songs designed to promote the well-being of the family. For example, at winter Christmas time, a plow was pulled through the village, "sowed" in the hut with grain, etc. With the loss of magical significance, the rite turned into fun.

The wedding ceremony was also a theatrical game: the distribution of "roles", the sequence of "scenes", the transformation of the performers of songs and lamentations into the protagonist of the ceremony (the bride, her mother). A complex psychological game was a change in the internal state of the bride, who in the house of her parents had to cry and lament, and in the house of her husband to portray happiness and contentment. However, the wedding ceremony was not perceived by the people as a theatrical performance.

In calendar and family rituals, mummers were the participants in many scenes. They dressed up as an old man, an old woman, a man dressed in women's clothes, and a woman in men's clothes, dressed up in animals, especially often in a bear and a goat. The costume of the mummers, their masks, make-up, as well as the scenes they played were passed down from generation to generation. At Christmas time, Shrovetide, Easter, mummers performed humorous and satirical skits. Some of them later merged into folk dramas.

In addition to rituals, theatrical elements accompanied the performance of many folklore genres: fairy tales, round dance and comic songs, etc. An important role was played here by facial expressions, gesture, movement - close to theatrical gesture and movement. For example, the storyteller did not just tell a fairy tale, but to some extent acted it out: he changed his voice, gesticulated, changed his facial expression, showed how the hero of the fairy tale walked, carried a bucket or bag, etc. In fact, it was a game of one actor.

Actually, theatrical forms of folk dramatic creativity are a stage-by-stage later period, the beginning of which researchers attribute to the 17th century.

However, long before that time in Rus' there were comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, trainers. These are buffoons. They united in wandering groups and until the middle of the 17th century. took part in folk ceremonies and festivals. Proverbs are composed about the art of buffoons (Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon), songs and epics ("Vavilo and buffoons", "Guest Terentyshe"). Their work was reflected in fairy tales, epics, in various forms of folk theater. In the 17th century buffoonery was prohibited by special decrees. For some time, buffoons hid on the outskirts of Russia.

The specific features of the folklore theater are the absence of a stage, the separation of performers and the audience, the action as a form of reflection of reality, the transformation of the performer into a different objectified image, the aesthetic orientation of the performance. Plays were often distributed in written form, pre-rehearsed, which did not exclude improvisation.

Cities played an important role in the origin, functioning and spread of all forms and types of folklore theater. In cities, fairs were a favorite time and place for folk spectacular performances, which were attended by many people, including villagers. They not only traded, but also had fun.

BALAGAN

Booths were built during fairs. Booths are temporary structures for theatrical, variety or circus performances. In Russia they are known from mid-eighteenth V. Balagans were usually located in market squares, near places of city festivities. Magicians, strongmen, dancers, gymnasts, puppeteers, folk choirs; small plays were staged. A balcony (raus) was built in front of the booth, from which the artists (usually two) or the grandfather-raeshnik invited the audience to the performance. Grandfathers barkers developed their own way of dressing and addressing the audience.

Performances in 1881 by one of the talented fairground actors of the Volga region, the owner of a booth called "The Theater of Spiritualism and Magic", Ya-I. Mamonov (1851-1907), were described by F. I. Chaliapin.

“I got my first theatrical burns in severe Christmas frosts, when I was eight years old. In the Christmas booth, for the first time, I saw the then fair actor Yakov Ivanovich Mamonov - known at that time on the Volga under the name Yashki as a fair coupletist and clown.

Yashka had a wonderful appearance, perfectly in harmony with his role. Although he was not old, he was baggy and fat in an old man's way. it was this that made him imposing. A thick black mustache as hard as steel and ridiculously angry eyes completed the image, created in order to instill superstitious horror in the little ones. But the fear of Yashka was special - sweet. Yashka frightened, but also attracted irresistibly. Everything about him was wonderful: his thunderous, rough, hoarse voice, his dashing gesture, and the cheerful swagger of his mockery and mockery of the gaping public.

Hey you, sisters, collect rags, and you, empty heads, come here! - he shouted to the crowd from the wooden balcony of his own wooden and canvas-covered booth.

The audience really liked these clowning, tomfoolery and heavy jokes. Each lunge of Yashka caused a loud, rolling laughter. Yashkin's impromptu and bold seemed.

Pushing forward towards the audience, for show, his actors - his wife, son and comrades, Yashka raised a funny scarecrow into the air and yelled: - Hey, stay away, on the ground - We are taking the Governor ...

For hours on end, tirelessly in the cold, Yashka made the undemanding crowd laugh and enlivened the square with bursts of laughter. As if spellbound, I followed Yashkin's acting. I stood idle for hours in front of the booth, shivering to the bone from the cold, but I could not tear myself away from the intoxicating spectacle. In the cold, steam sometimes poured from Yashka, and then he seemed to me a completely miraculous creature, a magician and a sorcerer.

With what impatience and thirst I waited every morning for the opening of the booth! With what adoration I looked at my idol. But how surprised I was when, after all his intricate tricks, I saw him in the Palermo tavern serious, very serious and even sad over a couple of beers and salted black bread rusks. It was strange to see this inexhaustible merry fellow and joker sad. I didn’t know even then what sometimes hides behind stage fun ...

Yashka was the first in my life to strike me with his amazing presence of mind. He did not hesitate to make faces in front of the crowd, to break the fool, dressing up in a cap. I thought: "How is it possible, without any difficulty, without stammering, to speak so smoothly, as if in verse?" I was also sure that everyone was very afraid of Yashka - even the police! After all, the governor himself is pulling through.

And I was freezing with him in the square, and I felt sad when the day was drawing to a close and the performance was over.

2. THEATER OF MOVING PICTURES (RAYOK)

Rayok is a type of performance at fairs, distributed mainly in Russia in the 18th-19th centuries. It got its name from the content of pictures on biblical and gospel themes (Adam and Eve in Paradise, etc.).

D. A. Rovinsky, famous collector and researcher of Russians folk pictures(lubok), described the rayek: "The rayek is a small, arshin in all directions, a box with two magnifying glasses in front. Inside it, a long strip with home-grown images of different cities, great people and events is rewound from one rink to another. Spectators," for a penny from the snout," they look into the glass, - the raeshnik moves the pictures and tells the sayings for each new number, often very intricate.<...>At the end, there are shows and an ultra-modest kind<...>which are no longer suitable for printing.

During festivities The raeshnik with its box was usually located on the square next to booths and carousels. The “grandfather-raeshnik” himself is “a retired soldier in terms of tricks, experienced, dexterous and quick-witted. He wears a gray caftan trimmed with red or yellow braid with bunches of colored rags on his shoulders, a hat-kolomenka, also decorated with bright rags. He has bast shoes on his feet , a flaxen beard is tied to the chin.

The explanations and jokes of the natives were divided into lines, with a rhyme (usually a pair) at the end of the lines. There was no regularity in the number and arrangement of syllables. For example: “But the undermanir pieces is a different view, the city of Palerma is standing, the lord’s family walks through the streets and endows the poor Talyan with money. But, if you please, the undermanir pieces is a different look. give"(see in the Reader). This folk verse was called "paradise". It was also used in jokes of farce grandfathers, in folk dramas, and so on.

folklore theater

1. Russian folk theater

Russian folk drama and folk theatrical art in general, a most interesting and significant phenomenon national culture. Dramatic games and performances at the beginning of the 20th century constituted an organic part of the festive folk life, be it village gatherings, religious schools, soldiers' and factory barracks or fair booths.

Folk drama is a natural product folklore tradition. It compressed the creative experience accumulated by dozens of generations of the widest sections of the people. In later times, this experience was enriched by borrowings from professional and popular literature and democratic theater.

Folk actors for the most part were not professionals, they were a special kind of amateurs, connoisseurs folk tradition, which was inherited from father to son, from grandfather to grandson, from generation to generation of rural youth of pre-conscription age. A peasant would come from the service or from the trades and bring to his native village his favorite play, learned by heart or written off in a notebook. Let him be in it at first just an extra - a warrior or a robber, but he knew everything by heart. And now a group of young people is gathering and in secluded place adopts the "trick", teaches the role. And at Christmas time - "premiere".

The geography of the distribution of folk drama is extensive. Collectors of our days have found peculiar theatrical "centers" in the Yaroslavl and Gorky regions, Russian villages of Tataria, on Vyatka and Kama, in Siberia and the Urals.

Formation of the famous folk plays happened in the era of social and cultural transformations in Russia late XVIII century. Since that time, there have been and widely distributed popular prints and pictures that were for the people both topical "newspaper" information (reports about military events, their heroes), and a source of knowledge on history, geography, and an entertaining "theater" with comic heroes - Petrukha Farnos, a broken pancake, Shrovetide.

Many popular prints were published on religious themes - about the torments of sinners and the exploits of saints, about Anika the warrior and Death. Later extreme popularity in popular prints and books received fairy tales, borrowed from translated novels and stories about robbers - the Black Crow, Fadeya Woodpecker, Churkin. Huge editions were published cheap songbooks, including works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Tsyganov, Koltsov.

At urban, and later rural fairs, carousels and booths were arranged, on the stage of which performances were played for fabulous and national historical themes, gradually replacing the early translated plays. For decades, performances dating back to dramaturgy have not left the mass stage. early XIX century, - "Ermak, the conqueror of Siberia" by P. A. Plavilshchikov, "Natalya, the boyar daughter" by S. N. Glinka, "Dmitry Donskoy" by A. A. Ozerov, "Two-wife" by A. A. Shakhovsky, later - plays about Stepan Razin by S. Lubitsky and A. Navrotsky.

First of all, the confinement was traditional folk performances. Everywhere they arranged for Christmas and carnival. These two short theatrical "seasons" contained a very rich program. Ancient ritual activities late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, already perceived as entertainment and, moreover, mischief, were committed by mummers.

The ancient meaning of disguise is the magical effect of word and behavior on the preservation, restoration and increase of the vital fruitful forces of people and animals, nature. This is connected with the appearance of naked or half-dressed people at gatherings, the “pecking” of girls by a crane, blows with a tourniquet, spatula, bast shoes or a stick when “selling” kvass, cloth, prints, etc.

Small satirical plays "Barin", "Imaginary Master", "Mavruh", "Pakhomushka" adjoin the Christmas and Shrovetide games of the mummers. They became a "bridge" from small dramatic forms to large ones. The popularity of the comic dialogues of the master and the headman, the master and the servant was so great that they were invariably included in many dramas.

The style of folk drama is characterized by the presence in it different layers or style series, each of which in its own way relates to the plot and the system of characters.

So, the main characters express themselves in a solemn ceremonial speech, introduce themselves, give orders and orders. In moments of emotional upheaval, the characters of the drama utter heartfelt lyrical monologues (they are sometimes replaced by the performance of a song). in dialogues and crowd scenes everyday event speech sounds, in which relationships are clarified and conflicts are determined. Comic characters are characterized by playful, parodic speech. Actors playing the roles of an old man, a servant, a doctor-healer often resorted to improvisation based on traditional folklore methods of playing deafness, synonyms and homonyms.

A special role in the folk drama is played by songs performed by the heroes at critical moments for them or by the choir - a commentator on ongoing events. Songs at the beginning and end of the performance were obligatory. The song repertoire of folk dramas consists mainly of author's songs of the 18th-19th centuries popular in all sectors of society. These are the soldiers' songs "The White Russian Tsar Went", "Malbrook went on a campaign", "Praise, praise to you, hero", and the romances "I walked in the meadows in the evening", "I'm leaving for the desert", "What is clouded, the dawn is clear " and many others.

2. Types of folklore theaters

2.1 Buffoons as the founders of the Russian folk theater

They are in the bazaars, at princely feasts,

At the games they set the tone,

Playing the harp, bagpipes, horns,

People were entertained at the fairs.

But who among mortals does not know

As a song gives strength to a tired one,

How uplifting music is!

Careless tribe of merry vagrants

The formation of the Russian folk theater has long been and rightly associated with the activities of buffoons.

The word "buffoon" came to Rus' in the 11th century, along with the first translations of Greek texts into Old Slavonic, made in Bulgaria. It should be noted that by this time we already had quite a few words that were approximately equivalent to the new one. This is a "gamer", "slacker", "laugher".

All these words were used later, when the word "buffoon" came into full force.

A brisk little man in an intricate cap, in a caftan and morocco boots sings and dances, playing along on the harp. So in the XIV century, the Novgorod monk-scribe of the buffoon depicted - folk musician, singer, dancer. And he wrote: "Buzz much" - "play better." They danced, sang funny amusing songs, played the harp and domra, wooden spoons and tambourines, pipes, bagpipes and a violin-like whistle. The people loved buffoons, called them "merry fellows", told about them in fairy tales, put together proverbs, sayings: "A buffoon is glad about his domras", "Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon", "A buffoon is not a comrade to the priest."

The clergy, princes and boyars did not favor buffoons. The buffoons amused the people. In addition, " merry fellows"more than once there was a funny, sharp word about priests, monks and boyars. Already in those days, buffoons began to be persecuted. Free life was only in Novgorod the Great and in Novgorod land. In this free city they were loved and respected.

Over time, the art of buffoons became more complex and varied. In addition to the buffoons who played, sang and danced, buffoons appeared, actors, acrobats, jugglers, buffoons with trained animals, appeared puppet show.

The more fun it was, the art of buffoons, the more they ridiculed the princes, clerks, boyars and priests, the stronger the persecution of the "merry fellows" became. Decrees were sent to towns, villages and villages - to drive buffoons, to beat them with batogs, not to allow the people to look at the "demonic games". folk art buffoons live in a modified form full life today: puppet theaters, the circus with its acrobats, jugglers and trained animals, variety concerts with their well-aimed ditties and songs, Russian orchestras and ensembles folk instruments developed into separate large areas from the diverse cheerful art of buffoons.

Buffoons differed little from other residents. Among them were small landowners, artisans and even merchants. But the bulk of the settled buffoons belonged to the poorest segments of the population.

Knowing the traditions well holiday games and rituals, saddle buffoons were indispensable participants in every ritual and holiday. It was the buffoon who was the person around whom the main events unfolded at the game. He organized various festive events, including those that gradually turned into skits and then into folk theater performances.

If in the 11th-16th centuries it was mainly the church that fought against buffoons, then in the 17th century the state also actively joined the fight against them. In 1648, a formidable decree of the tsar appeared, prohibiting buffoon games throughout the country and ordering to beat the disobedient with batogs and exile them to "Ukrainian cities for disgrace." But such measures did not eradicate buffoonery.

From the end of the 17th century, Russia entered into new period its history. In all areas of life there are significant changes. They touched and folk culture. Professional buffoons become obsolete, their art begins to change, takes on new forms. At the same time, the word "buffoon" disappears from the documents. The place of buffoon games is now occupied by performances of the folk theater - a new and higher form of folk theater compared to buffoonery. dramatic art.

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Folklore theater is the traditional dramatic art of the people. The types of folk entertainment and play culture are diverse: rituals, round dances, dressing up, clowning, etc.

In the history of folklore theater, it is customary to consider the pre-theatrical and theatrical stages of folk dramatic creativity.

Pre-theatrical forms include theatrical elements in calendar and family rituals.

The wedding ceremony was also a theatrical game: the distribution of "roles", the sequence of "scenes", the transformation of the performers of songs and lamentations into the protagonist of the ceremony (the bride, her mother). A complex psychological game was a change in the internal state of the bride, who in the house of her parents had to cry and lament, and in the house of her husband to portray happiness and contentment. However, the wedding ceremony was not perceived by the people as a theatrical performance.

BALAGAN

Booths were built during fairs. Booths - temporary structures for theatrical, variety or circus performances. In Russia, they have been known since the middle of the 18th century. Balagans were usually located in market squares, near places of city festivities. Magicians, strongmen, dancers, gymnasts, puppeteers, folk choirs performed in them; small plays were staged. A balcony (raus) was built in front of the booth, from which the artists (usually two) or the grandfather-raeshnik invited the audience to the performance. Grandfathers barkers developed their own way of dressing and addressing the audience.

THEATER OF MOVING PICTURES (RAYOK)

During festivities, the raeshnik with its box was usually located on the square next to booths and carousels. The “grandfather-raeshnik” himself is “a retired soldier in terms of tricks, experienced, dexterous and quick-witted. He wears a gray caftan trimmed with red or yellow braid with bunches of colored rags on his shoulders, a hat-kolomenka, also decorated with bright rags. He has bast shoes on his feet , a flaxen beard is tied to the chin"

Petrushka Theater

Petrushka Theater - Russian folk puppet comedy. His main character was Petrushka, after whom the theater is named. This hero was also called Petr Ivanovich Uksusov, Petr Petrovich Samovarov, in the south - Vanya, Vanka, Vanka Retatuy, Ratatuy, Rutyutyu (a tradition of the northern regions of Ukraine). The Petrushka Theater arose under the influence of the Italian Pulcinella puppet theater, with which the Italians often performed in St. Petersburg and other cities.

The puppeteer, accompanied by a musician, usually an organ grinder, went from court to court and gave traditional performances about Petrushka. It could always be seen during festivities, at fairs.

About the structure of the Petrushka Theater, D. A. Rovinsky wrote: “The doll has no body, but only a simple skirt is forged, to which an empty cardboard head is sewn on top, and hands are also empty on the sides. The puppeteer sticks the dolls in the head forefinger, and in the hands - the first and third fingers; he usually puts a doll on each hand and acts in this way with two dolls at once.

Character traits appearance Parsley - big hooked nose, laughing mouth, protruding chin, hump or two humps (on the back and on the chest). The clothes consisted of a red shirt, a cap with a tassel, smart boots on his feet; or from a clownish two-tone clown outfit, collar and cap with bells. The puppeteer spoke for Petrushka with the help of a squeaker - a device due to which the voice became sharp, shrill, rattling. (Pishchik was made of two curved bone or silver plates, inside of which a narrow strip of linen ribbon was strengthened). For the rest actors comedy, the puppeteer spoke in his natural voice, pushing the squeaker behind his cheek.

The presentation of the Petrushka Theater consisted of a set of sketches that had a satirical orientation. M. Gorky spoke of Petrushka as an invincible hero of a puppet comedy who defeats everyone and everything: the police, priests, even the devil and death, while he himself remains immortal.

The image of Petrushka is the personification of festive freedom, emancipation, a joyful feeling of life. The actions and words of Petrushka were opposed to the accepted norms of behavior and morality. The improvisations of the parsley were topical: they contained sharp attacks against local merchants, landowners, and authorities. The performance was accompanied by musical inserts, sometimes parodic: for example, the image of the funeral under "Kamarinskaya" (see "Petrushka, aka Vanka Ratatouille" in the Reader).

nativity scene

The nativity puppet theater got its name from its purpose: to present a drama in which it was reproduced gospel story about the birth of Jesus Christ in the cave, where Mary and Joseph found refuge (old and old Russian "vertep" - a cave). Initially, the representations of the nativity scene were only during Christmas time, which was also emphasized in its definitions.

The nativity scene was a portable rectangular box made of thin boards or cardboard. Outwardly, it resembled a house, which could consist of one or two floors. Most often there were two-storey nativity scenes. In the upper part, dramas of religious content were played, in the lower part - ordinary interludes, comic everyday scenes. This also determined the design of the parts of the nativity scene.

The upper part (the sky) was usually covered with dove paper from the inside, and Nativity scenes were painted on its back wall; or on the side, a model of a cave or a barn with a manger and motionless figures of Mary and Joseph, the baby Christ and domestic animals were arranged. The lower part (land or palace) was pasted over with bright colored paper, foil, etc., in the middle, on a small elevation, a throne was set up, on which there was a doll depicting King Herod.

In the bottom of the box and in the shelf that divided the box into two parts, there were slits through which the puppeteer moved the rods with puppets fixed to them - drama characters. It was possible to move the rods with dolls along the box, the dolls could turn in all directions. Doors were cut to the right and left of each part: they appeared from one doll, disappeared from another.

Puppets were carved from wood (sometimes they were molded from clay), painted and dressed up in cloth or paper clothes and fixed on metal or wooden rods.

The text of the drama was spoken by one puppeteer, changing the timbre of the voice and intonation of speech, which created the illusion of presentation by several actors.

The performance in the den consisted of the mystery drama "King Herod" and everyday scenes.