The concept of "composition" refers to all kinds, types and genres of art. For drama, this concept is especially important in connection with its very aesthetic nature.

The real life model, as a rule, serves only as an initial outline of the plan of any work of art, while its final design depends on the artist.

Term composition came to the theory of drama from the theory of painting in the 19th century. What is now meant by the term composition, Diderot was designated by the concept of "plan". And Diderot stated that there are far more plays with good dialogue than well-constructed plays. "Talent for the arrangement of scenes" he considered the rarest quality of a playwright. Even Moliere from this point of view, in his opinion, is far from perfect.

“First of all, I must praise the composition and liveliness of the action, and this is more than can be said about any modern German drama,” K. Marx wrote to Lassalle about his play “Franz von Sickingen”.

Arguing that the drama is a single whole, Aristotle was the first to single out three main points in its construction:

"Start- that which itself does not necessarily follow another, but, on the contrary, something else exists or occurs after it according to the law of nature; vice versa, end- that which, of necessity or custom, necessarily follows another, and after it there is nothing else; A middle- that which itself follows another, and after it another.

Explaining this statement of Aristotle, Hegel in his "Aesthetics" says that dramatic action is essentially based on a certain collision. The appropriate starting point lies in the situation from which this contradiction must subsequently develop, although it has not yet emerged. “The end will be reached when in all respects the discord and its vicissitudes have been resolved. In the middle between the outcome and the end will fit the struggle of goals and the dispute of clashing characters. These different links, being moments of action in the drama, are themselves the essence of action...

Therefore, one can understand drama as a system of actions that, in their unity, form the process of becoming. Within this complex system, one action follows from another and leads to a third, different action. But at the same time, it must be remembered that the sequence in the development of action in a drama may not correspond to the temporal sequence and other features of a really developing life phenomenon.

Thus, both Aristotle and Hegel determined the possibility of approaching the problem of drama composition through the feature

dramatic action.

There can be no recipes by which a "flawless" play is built. But the laws governing the construction of drama do exist, and world aesthetic thought, beginning with Aristotle, has worked hard and fruitfully to elucidate them.

Exposure and connection. Since a dramatic action is a reflection of only a certain, artificially limited part of a real life action, one of the primary tasks of the playwright is the task of correctly defining the initial situation - as the fundamental basis of the collision, from which the dramatic conflict should unfold. In this situation, the conflict "has not yet erupted, but is planned in the future" as

collision.

By reproducing the initial situation, the playwright exhibits(literally - exposes, shows) the beginning

The first part of the Aristotelian definition of the plot: "...usually embraces events that are outside [the drama], and some of those that lie in itself" - refers, in essence, to the exposition.

The very title of the play serves to a certain extent as an exposing moment. The genre definition given by the author also exposes the play, being a kind of emotional tuning fork for the viewer. Modern playwrights often expand the meaning of the genre subtitle - it rises from pure information to a generalization of the figurative structure. In some cases, the genre subtitle even becomes, as it were, an ideological manifesto. Thus, in the subtitle of Schiller's "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa" - "Republican Tragedy" - a political meaning that does not require commentary is reflected.

An important expositional function is performed by the so-called poster (list of characters), because the name itself is often in general view characterizes the character.

According to Diderot, the first act of a drama is its most difficult part: it must open the action, develop, sometimes expound, and always connect. The playwright has much to say and relate. He must exhibit not only the life circumstances that are the fundamental basis of the conflict and serve as a further breeding ground for him, but also the characters of the characters and their complex relationships.

The playwright can merge the exposition of circumstances, characters and relationships together or dissect it. He is free to give, first, a detailed picture of historical, social, everyday circumstances, and then expose the character of the protagonist (as Gogol did in The Inspector General), or first clarify the character of the hero for the audience, and then acquaint them with the details of the situation in which the hero you have to act (as in Ibsen's drama "Nora, or a Doll's House").

There are many ways to display. But ultimately they can all be subdivided into two main types - direct And indirect exposure.

In the first case, the task of introducing the viewer into the course of previously occurring events, of introducing the characters to the characters, is expressed with complete frankness and is solved straightforwardly.

By resorting to indirect exposition, the playwright introduces the necessary expositional data in the course of the action, including them in the conversations of the characters. The exposition is made up of a set of gradually accumulating information. The viewer receives them in a veiled form, they are given as if by accident, unintentionally - in the course of an exchange of remarks between characters.

For the dramaturgy of great social sounding, the role of the exposition is not limited to revealing the fundamental principle of the plot. It is intended to give a picture of the social milieu in which the dramatic struggle unfolds and, in close connection with the milieu, an analysis of the characters entering into this struggle. That is why Ostrovsky, Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky and their great predecessors, including Shakespeare, the unsurpassed master of dramatic dynamics, never skimped on the space devoted to exposition.

The exposition effectively prepares eyeball. The plot realizes the conflict possibilities laid down and more or less tangibly developed in the exposition.

Consequently, the exposition and the plot are inextricably merged elements of a single initial stage drama, form the source of dramatic action.

In the normative theory of drama, the exposition is seen as a stage that necessarily precedes the plot. Meanwhile, the ancient Greeks already knew another principle of the beginning of a drama. In Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex, for example, the opening precedes the exposition.

In bourgeois art criticism, normativity was especially persistently manifested precisely in matters relating to the initial stage of dramatic action. In this sense, theory followed practice, unjustifiably absolutizing the stereotyped techniques with which exposition and plot were constructed in many plays. Here it is necessary to proceed from the fact that the initial stage has its own, special aesthetic tasks. The very specific form of articulation of the play gives rise to a constant need for exposing information, which is presented in one way or another in each scene. And it depends on the author's intention, on the vital material reflected in the play, on the style of the work, and so on.

Action development, climax, denouement. The development of action is the most difficult stage in the construction of drama. It covers the main action array. One battle leads another, the scales tilt first to one side, then to the other, new forces are introduced into the battle, insurmountable obstacles arise.

The dynamics of the drama is generated by the variability of success, the uncertainty of the result of a particular dramatic collision. But each of these "cycles of action", which can be singled out with varying degrees of distinctness in the works of any playwright, must mark a higher stage in the development of the conflict in comparison with the previous stage, sharpen the contradictions up to last stage- junctions-. That is, the action in the drama develops in ascending order, the tension intensifies as the action develops. This pattern is noted by the vast majority of art theorists.

Consequently, a constructively single action in a drama is built from a set of "action cycles" that have all the features of a dramatic composition: each of them has an exposition, an outset, a climax, a denouement.

In the development of the unified action of each play there is a milestone that marks a decisive turn, after which the nature of the struggle changes and the denouement is irresistibly approaching. This border is called climax

Aristotle attached great importance to the climax, calling it "the limit from which the transition to happiness begins.<от несчастья или от счастья к несчастью>».

Despite the seeming archaism, this definition most deeply and accurately expresses the essence of the climax. Only by understanding the internal conditioning of the ideological and compositional structure drama, you can unmistakably find the climax, the turning point in the development of the action.

The architectonics of the climax can be quite complex, the climax can consist of several scenes. Attempts to theoretically establish its place in the dramatic composition, as a rule, are fruitless. Both the length of the climax and its place in each individual case are determined by the style and genre of the play, but above all by the semantic task. Only one thing is invariable - the aesthetic essence of the climax, which marks fracture during the dramatic struggle.

The construction of action in ascending order (“increase in action”), according to theorists, is a general pattern that knows no exceptions. It manifests itself equally in plays of all genres, in works of any compositional structure, up to plays that reverse the action. Departure from this immutable regularity, which is rooted in the very essence of the drama and in the structure of the action, means the introduction of a lyrical or epic element into the drama.

But even after the climax, the tension does not subside at all, the action does not move downward.

The problem of the compositional completion of the drama, the problem interchanges closely related to the moral effect required of it. This was first noticed by Aristotle, who put forward the concept catharsis- tragic cleansing. But since Aristotle did not give a detailed definition of this concept, disputes over the interpretation of the latter have centuries-old traditions and have not stopped to this day. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: catharsis, according to Aristotle, indicates the connection between aesthetic and ethical principles, recognizing a certain moral effect as the highest goal of tragedy. This effect is prepared by the entire deployment tragic conflict, is finally realized by the denouement, the resolution of the conflict. It is in the denouement that the focus of the moral and emotional pathos of the drama lies.

The denouement takes us to a new moral height, from which we re-examine the entire course of the dramatic battle, overestimating the ideas and principles that moved the heroes, or rather, discovering the measure of their true value.

The more diverse the vital connections that form the dramatic conflict, the wider the possibilities of its various resolutions. The widespread opinion that the consistent development of a collision automatically leads to a certain denouement is theoretically unjustified, but in practice it is rejected by the experience of dramaturgy.

The choice of denouement is dictated not only (and sometimes not so much) by the objective logic of characters and circumstances, but also by a subjective factor - the will of the author, directed by his worldview, the essence of the moral task. Yes, Sun. Vishnevsky "cost nothing" to save the Commissar. But the Commissar dies - dies, by his very death affirming the greatness of his work, the unbroken spirit of the Bolsheviks. The great, tragic time, in the opinion of the playwright, required such a denouement.

The difficulties that the playwright faces when isolating the initial dramatic situation, the plot, from "empirical reality" (Hegel's expression) arise again when it is necessary to find a resolution to the conflict. The point is not only to understand, based on one’s view of the world, how the collision discovered in reality will end, one has yet to find the stage that will complete it with most likely, and the specific form in which the decoupling will take place.

Consequently, the denouement restores the balance that was disturbed in the plot: the conflict is settled, the opposition of one of the contending parties is broken, and victory is won. For a given dramatic action, the significance of this victory is absolute, although in its real life content it can be transient, temporary.

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A. I. Chechetin
Fundamentals of Dramaturgy Theater

Among the peoples of Western Europe and in Russia
The Great October Socialist Revolution was a turning point in the entire history of the world. In the year of the accomplishment of the revolution and in the terrible years civil war when all the people, all working

Rites and festivities in the primitive communal system
Various kinds of festivities and theatrical performances in their origins among all the peoples of the world are somehow connected with rituals. Rites are an integral part of the spiritual culture of

Mass festivities, theatrical performances in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome
Already in III millennium BC e. on one of the islands of the Greek archipelago - on the island of Crete - a high culture was created. It was there that archaeologists discovered the first in human history

Theatrical performances of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
The revolutionary movement of slaves and the invasion of the barbarians put an end to the Roman state. The destroyed slave-owning society was replaced by feudalism. Development of Western Europe

And mass festivities in Russia of the XII-XVII centuries
Representations and festivities among the Slavic tribes that inhabited the territory of Eastern Europe and our country, as well as among all the peoples of the world, are associated with ancient rituals. And here is the beginning

Balagannye and other performances of the 19th century
Social life Russia end XVII-beginning The XVIII century is marked by the strengthening of the role of the court aristocracy and the nobility. Exactly these social groups create and organize unique

Mass festivities and performances during the revolution and civil war
In the year of the accomplishment of the Great October Socialist Revolution and in the terrible years of the civil war, mass theatrical performances and festivities are held in many cities

Festivities, festivals, mass celebrations, amateur theatrical movements of the 20-30s
At the end of the 1920s, the Soviet country moved from the recovery period to the reconstruction of the national economy. The years of the first five-year plans began, the years of the extensive construction of social

Mass festivities, festivals, theatrical performances of the 50-60s
The treacherous attack of the Nazi invaders, Velikaya Patriotic War and the difficult years of the post-war restoration period interrupted the active development of the masses for a long time

Amateur theatrical movements of the 60-70s. National Anniversary Celebrations and Celebrations
In the 1960s and 1970s, nationwide mass festivities revealed their educational, mobilizing and organizing influence with particular force. It was during this period that the most

The concept of drama
Drama - kind literary work in a dialogical form, intended for theatrical incarnation" - this is what the Theatrical Encyclopedia says. In the latest edition

action in drama
Having defined action as the main of the essential features of drama, as its most important aesthetic category, let us consider the structure of action in general and dramatic action in particular.

dramatic conflict
As we have seen, dramatic action reflects the movement of reality in its contradictions. But we cannot identify this movement with dramatic action - reflection here with

Genre as an aesthetic category
In the syncretic art of ancient peoples, future births as ways of depicting, reflecting reality existed only in an unfolded form, in an embryonic state.

The General and the Special in Drama and Theatrical Script
Theatrical performances and mass festivities in honor of significant dates for the whole country and the most important events in the life of teams are taking an increasing place in our

Theme, idea, concept of the theatrical performance script
It is well known that the creation of an artistic image of any work of art depends primarily on the theme and idea of ​​the work, on the main idea of ​​the artist. According to the theorists

Composition as montage in theatrical performance script
Considering the features of the compositional structure of the drama, we were convinced of the relative completeness, the internal integrity of each link in the drama. We understood the construction of drama as

Editing techniques in the scenario of theatrical performance
S. Eisenstein said that montage is based on the juxtaposition of two or more pieces and is more like a work rather than a sum of them; the result of the comparison here is qualitatively everything

Number in theatrical performance scenario
Also in late XVIII century, the Russian actor and playwright P. A. Plavilshchikov noted that German and English actors"link their representations from many nodes, bringing the weight to one chapter

Types and genres of rooms
Any classification in art is incomplete, and here we distinguish species and genre groups, focusing only on the numbers that are often found in theatrical scenarios.

Documentary and socially active nature of the dramaturgy of theatrical performances
With documentation like specific feature dramaturgy of theatrical performances is directly connected and another significant side follows from it - active, agitation

Types of theatrical performance and features of its dramaturgy
In the preface to the textbook, in connection with the clarification of the terminology of our subject, it was already mentioned clearly distinguishable generic and specific features of theatrical performances.

Agitational and artistic performance as a type of theatrical performance
ideological and political, ideological work can be divided into theoretical activity, propaganda and agitation. At the same time, both the theoretician, and the propagandist, and the agitator decide one thing about

Expressive means of propaganda and artistic presentation
The screenwriters of propaganda and artistic performances have at their disposal a rich arsenal of expressive means. We will consider these means, focusing primarily on

Literary and musical composition as a type of theatrical performance
In almost every issue of the magazine "Youth Estrada", "Cultural and Educational Work" (and in other mass publications designed to help amateur art not only

Theme, idea, conflict in literary and musical composition
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The concept of "theatrical festivity" and the nature of its dramaturgy
Almost all varieties of folk festivities (this is confirmed by the historical part of the work) were and are theatrical in nature or include elements of theatrical

Festivities
A. V. Lunacharsky, drawing practical, organizational and theoretical conclusions on the basis of the first revolutionary festivities, already in 1920 identified two main parts of the mass theater

Festivities
Features of the scenario of a mass, theatrical festival, as it literary basis, and the elements of the composition, are primarily due to the specific qualities of the festival itself.

Where does the play begin? Where does the performance start? From the first act? From the opening of the curtain?

“Composition (from the Latin compo - sitio - composition, composition, connection, binding) is the construction of a work of art, due to its content, character, purpose, and largely determining its perception. Composition is the most important element of the artistic form, which gives unity and integrity to the work, subordinating its components to each other and to the whole.

In drama, as in any genre of fiction, composition is the motivated arrangement of the components (characterization, dialogue, etc.) of a literary work.

Drama has a beginning, middle and end.

Hegel considers the starting point of the drama to be the situation from which the conflict begins to develop, “and the guest end is achieved only when the goal and interest of the action around which the whole revolves turns out to be identical with individuals and completely connected with them.” In the finale, a comprehensive denouement of the conflict and complexity is carried out. In the middle between the outcome and the end will fit the struggle of goals and the dispute of clashing characters. These different links, being in the drama the moments of action, are themselves the essence of action, to which, therefore, the name of acts fully corresponds. According to Hegel, each drama should have three acts (1 - the detection of collisions, which is revealed in the second act "as a live clash of interests, as separation, struggle and conflict, and, finally, in the utmost aggravation of its contradiction, it is necessarily resolved in act 3 ").

According to Aristotle, drama consists of six interconnected parts:

ü Stage environment

ü Characters

ü Intelligence

ü Musical composition

There are stories "simple" And "woven" .

Simple plots consist of pictures and episodes "unnecessarily", poorly connected with each other. Actions in them pass without twists and turns and recognition. Such works, in the words of Aristotle, are written by bad writers. In a twisted (complex) plot, the action takes place with recognition and ups and downs.

Peripetia - "there is a change of events" to the opposite ... according to the laws of probability or necessity.

Recognition is the transition from ignorance to knowledge. So, the two Nastya plots are reduced to ups and downs and recognition, the third part is suffering, because suffering is the peak of action, “causing death and pain, such as, for example, any kind of death on stage, severe pain, wounding and all the like.”

The requirements for character in Aristotle follow from the rules that apply to tragedy:

1. The character must be noble (a noble direction can be in every person, no matter what social ladder he stands on).

2. The character must be suitable (that is, suitable for the quality that we represent: courageous, formidable, arrogant, proud, etc.).

3. The character must be believable.

4. The character must be consistent, i.e. he must consistently act within the framework of the assumed circumstances set by the author. “Nothing contrary to meaning should be in the course of events,” writes Aristotle.

reasonableness- "the ability to say what relates to the essence and circumstances of the case, which is achieved in speeches with the help of politics and rhetoric."

“The realm of thoughts,” writes Aristotle, includes everything that must be achieved by the word. This includes proofs, refutations, the excitation of mental movements, for example, suffering, fear, anger, and the like.

Verbal expression also includes a specific type of speech, which is called scenic. Mastering it is a complex matter of acting art, in which great attention metaphor, hyperbole, comparison of "long" (with a longer vowel than it should be) and "shortened" (if something was taken away from it).

Aristotle calls the musical part "the most important of the ornaments."

The stage setting includes everything that is given by the decorator (finishing the scenery, furniture, furnishings, props, costumes, etc.) and lies "... completely outside the field of the art of poetry and less characteristic of it."

K.S. Stanislavsky singled out five levels of drama: action, plot - canvas, characters, time and space. The play, according to K.S. Stanislavsky, is limited in time and space, in which the author is forced to impose an immeasurably greater load on structural elements compared to the novel: exposition, plot, development of action, climax and denouement . Drama is dominated by the law of tightness of the series of events.

The most important element of art - the concept of personality - finds direct and complete expression precisely in the system actors .

Of great importance in the composition of the performance is time category because the theater is a space-time art.

Having chosen a play, the director determines the idea of ​​the author, outlines the style and image of the future performance. Now all these elements that exist only in thoughts must be found in the text of the play, in the characteristics and behavior of the characters in the development of the plot, in the scenography and musical noise design of the performance. The director must visually imagine the composition - the drawing of his future performance. Like a builder who outlines in the drawing all the components and parts of the building: here is the main entrance, side gate, stairs, passages, rooms, here is the roof that crowns the entire building - the director must correctly and harmoniously compose the composition of the performance. The main entrance to the performance will be exposition , the stairs on which they will climb up - action development , his plot will lead all the characters in " central hall» the main events and, finally, the idea of ​​the author and the work, i.e. lead to a climax and a denouement.

Performance composition - the form of existence of the idea, expressed through the ratio of parts and the whole.

The whole is a performance, a part of a performance is an act, a part of an act is an episode, an event. Compositionally solving a performance means dividing the play into events that determine the actions of the characters, setting the director's accents (plastic, light, musical, color, etc.) finding the place for each actor in creating an effective spring and atmosphere of the performance.

“The director needs,” writes N.M. Gonchakov, - to clearly identify the exposition of the play, to correctly arrange all the individual parts of the performance along the line of increasing action, to highlight the episodes necessary both in ideological and plot terms, to find the dynamics of the relationship between the characters of the play, and finally, to clearly see visually (the whole) the plastic image of the performance (mise-en-scene) . All this combined into one whole (in the name of the idea - the "super task" of the play), and makes up the composition of the performance.

From the foregoing, it follows that the composition of the performance includes such components as the theme, idea, super-task, through action, logical chain of events, characters of characters, genre and style, mise-en-scene, rhythm and tempo, stage atmosphere, artistic (decorative) and musical design.

Thus, relying on these components, a single whole is created - a directorial, stage composition, the expression of which is the life of an actor on stage.

To build, to compose a performance means to guess what was in front of the playwright's spiritual gaze and convey it to the audience through all the expressive means of the theater.

So, composition in directing practice is understood as the arrangement of parts of the whole in an episode, in a picture, in an event, in an act or in a whole performance. The director divides the play into parts in such a way as to make one of them more significant, the other secondary: he emphasizes one, bringing it to the fore, as it were, relegates the other to the background, and talks about the third in passing.

Thus, highlighting the most important, the most essential in the composition of the performance, the director must convey to the viewer the meaning of what is contained in the content of the play.

Work on the composition of the performance involves the establishment of regular connections between its individual events (episodes) and individual elements within the events.

A dramatic work, as a rule, is based on the struggle of opposites, connected in the unity of the conflict. This polarity and strength of contrast illuminate the content of the work of art, revealing its deep meaning.

“If in a work of art (in this case, a play or performance), writes M.A. Chekhov - really happens beginning to end , that is, if there is an organic action in the play, then it, obeying the law of polarity , is expressed in the fact that the beginning (immediately or gradually) turns into its end at the end opposite. The polarity of beginning and end in a play or performance creates the right composition and enhances their aesthetic value.

The power of the conflict, illuminating the content of a work of art, gives it dynamism, relieves the reader or viewer from monotony, monotony and boredom.

The dramatic action, integral and complete in the internal logic of the development of the conflict, is a reflection of only a certain, artificially limited part of the real life action. In the exposition, it is necessary to restore effective links between the past and the present.

The display elements are: the name of the play, its genre definition, the list of characters, the so-called speaking names (especially of the classics), the prologue, the exposition gives a picture of the social environment and a description of the characters entering the struggle. She is really preparing the plot.

The plot covers events that took place outside the play and some of those that are in it. It implements the conflict possibilities given in the exposition. Exposure and plot - the source of a dramatic conflict, preparing material for the development of action. IN action development each play has a certain milestone that marks a decisive turn that changes the nature of the struggle. The denouement is unstoppable. This milestone is the climax.

The length of the climax and its place in each individual case is determined not only by the stylistic and genre appearance of the performance, but, above all, by the semantic task. After climax the action must not move downward. To enhance the action, the director must find technological methods of tension. One of the most important methods of such amplification is the introduction of new plot or plot devices, for example, the introduction of new opposing forces through "director's pauses", the solution of space or atmosphere, the introduction of musical counterpoint. With the help of directorial techniques and calls, completing the action of the performance, it is possible to achieve the necessary denouement, which contributes (in contrast) to a further increase in tension.

denouement – the finale of the performance. Only the final gives an idea of ​​the director's intention, reveals the ideological meaning and moral pathos of the play and production.

Sometimes the performance ends with an epilogue, which was invented by the director as a figurative move that marks the point of the performance.

Epilogue – special form the finale of a performance or drama - sums up the action, shows the distant (previous) result of the dramatic struggle.

Techniques for the composition of the performance:

retrospective, circular composition.

M.A. Chekhov, in his staging practice, turned to the technique of the so-called "triangularity" . He urged the director, by repeatedly playing the play in the imagination, to get used to it so that it could appear to the inner eye all at once.
Only then can all actions be seen together as a three-membered whole. M.A. Chekhov wrote: Start you experience like a seed from which a plant develops; end like a ripe fruit middle - as a process of turning a grain into a mature plant, from beginning to end. Each of these parts has its own task and its own specific character in the composition of the whole.

Their relationship can give the director the right direction in staging the play.

In the era Renaissance ideas about the composition of the drama, laid down in antiquity, are being streamlined.

• the basis of the drama is the plot (you need to carefully develop the intrigue of the play);
• characters must be typical;
• the five-act structure of the plays (with reference to Horace, a Roman poet and art theorist);

An extremely important provision, developed in the 16th century and anticipating classicism, was the concept of "three unities" in drama - unity of action, place and time.

The composition of the play is subject to the disclosure of the conflict.

The laws of composition:

· Integrity;

Interrelation and subordination;

· Proportionality;

· Contrast;

Unity of content and form;

· Typification and generalization;

With the development of dramaturgy, the initial division into the middle, beginning and end in the technique of dramaturgy has become more complicated, and today these parts of a dramatic work have the following names: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement, we also highlight the prologue - before and the epilogue - after.

Prologue

The Prologue currently acts as a Preface - this element is not directly related to the plot of the play. This is a place where the author can express his attitude, it is a demonstration of the author's ideas. It can also be the orientation of the presentation.

exposition
Exposition (from Latin expositio - “exposition”, “explanation”) is a part of a dramatic work in which the situation preceding the beginning of the action is characterized. Its task is to present all the proposed circumstances of a dramatic work.

The exposition should be closely related to the main action. The playwright must assume that he is writing for people who know absolutely nothing about his material, except for a few historical topics. The playwright should make it clear to readers:

1) who are his characters

2) Where are they located,

3) when the action happens

4) what exactly in the present and past relationships of his characters serves as the plot plot.

tie

Here are the events that violate the original situation. Therefore, in this part of the composition there is the beginning of the main conflict, here it acquires its visible outlines and unfolds as a struggle of characters, as an action. Tie - very important point in the development of the plot, this is the moment when decisions are made ( fraught with consequences), the moment of awakening the will to conflict, pursuing a specific goal.

Shakespeare's plays use a particular conflict to establish the causes of an action. "Macbeth" begins with the sinister incantations of the witches, after which we learn that Macbeth has won great victory. Hamlet begins with a silent picture - a ghost passes silently across the stage. In both cases, the amount of information reported is directly proportional to the strength of the tension created.

Development of action

The most extensive part of the play, its main field of action and development. Almost the entire plot of the play is located here. This part consists of certain episodes, which many authors divide into acts, scenes, phenomena, actions.

Drama is struggle; interest in drama is, above all, interest in the struggle, in its outcome. Who will win? Will lovers unite in defiance of those who interfere with them? Will the ambitious man succeed? And so on.

The playwright keeps the reader in suspense, delaying the decisive moment of the battle, introducing new complications, the so-called "imaginary denouement", temporarily calming the reader and rekindling him again with a sudden, stormy continuation of the struggle. We are fascinated by the drama - first of all - as a competition, as a picture of the war.

In the play, the action goes along an ascending line - this is the basic law of dramaturgy. Dramaturgy requires a build-up of action, the lack of build-up in action instantly makes the drama boring. If a lot of time passes between actions, the playwright depicts us only the moments of collisions, growing towards a catastrophe.

The increase in action in drama is achieved by:

1) The gradual introduction into the struggle of more and more active forces from the side of counteraction - more and more influential and dangerous characters for the hero;

2) Gradual intensification of the actions of each of the combatants.

Many plays use the alternation of dramatic, tragic scenes - scenes in which the characters fight with dangerous means, with scenes in which a comic struggle takes place.

climax
The pinnacle of the development of the play. This is a required scene. In each play there is a certain milestone, which marks a decisive turn in the course of events, after which the very nature of the struggle changes.

The climax in dramaturgy is the main event that causes an increase in action, this is the immediate goal towards which the play develops.

The climax is the point in the play where the action reaches its peak. higher voltage, the most critical stage of development, after which comes the denouement.

In the play "HeddaGabler" the climax seems to be the moment when Hedda burns Levborg's manuscript; is the climax of all events or crises her life, shown in the play or that happened before it began, which interest Ibsen. From this moment on, we see only results, the action never reaches such tension again. Even the death of Hedda is only a logical consequence of previous events.

The climax is by no means the most noisy moment in the play, it is the most significant moment and, therefore, the most intense.

denouement

Traditionally, the main (plot) action of the play ends. The main content of this part of the composition is the resolution of the main conflict, the cessation of side conflicts, other contradictions that make up and complement the action of the play. The denouement is logically associated with the tie. The distance from one to the other is the plot zone.

It should be noted that the catastrophe, which in ancient tragedy is followed by a denouement, in many new dramas, coincides with the denouement.

In the denouement, the destinies of all the main characters must be completed.

Epilogue

(Epilogos) - a part of the composition that produces the semantic completion of the work as a whole (and not storyline). The epilogue can be considered a kind of afterword, a summary in which the author sums up the semantic results of the play. In dramaturgy, it can be expressed as the final scene of the play, following the denouement.

11. "Poetics" of Aristotle: the concept of mimesis, the difference between the arts on the subject, ways and means of imitation.

Aristotle's Poetics is the first systematic theory of drama.

In his treatise, Aristotle considers drama inextricably linked with other arts. All arts, according to Aristotle, are imitation (mimesis). However, this is not an imitation of nature in general, but an imitation of man: his character, passions and actions.

The arts differ from each other in the types of imitation. At the same time, art (as mimesis) is not a mechanical, but a creative reproduction of reality, serving both for knowledge and for pleasure. From masterfully reproduced things we enjoy. The artist reproduces human life, focusing on the general, and not on random particulars, he, according to the laws of reason, common sense creatively recreates reality, imitating these very nature. From this thought comes the position of Aristotle that "poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history." The historian grasps only the particulars that really happened - the accidental and fleeting, the poet, having the opportunity to creatively recreate reality, turns to the generalized and typical in man.

So, all kinds of arts differ in subject, means and way of imitation.

12. Drama as a species verbal creativity. Peripetia and recognition. Varieties of plots (tales) according to Aristotle.

The specificity of drama is in the way of imitation: if an epic (such as the Iliad) is imitation through a story, then drama is action imitation. If the epic tells us about an event, then the drama shows that it represents this event in action. Hence the name of this art form ("drama" in Greek literally - action). This is how Aristotle gives us the classical definition of the artistic specificity of drama.

Varieties of dramas differ in the subject of imitation: lofty and noble objects and actions are depicted in tragedy, low objects in comedy. However, the specificity lies precisely in the method, and not in the subject or means of imitation. Low objects can be depicted in a parody, high objects in an epic poem. In all cases, the means of imitation is “decorated speech” (that is, poetic, rhythmic, with meter and rhyme). However, tragedy and comedy are precisely actions, imitations of action.

Sequence of events in drama. The plot is the processing of the myth, a certain combination of events in the drama, this, according to Aristotle, is "the basis and soul of tragedy." It is by building the action in a special way that the poet shows his art.

At the same time, Aristotle requires the observance of the principle unity of action: the plot cannot begin "anywhere", it has a beginning, a middle and an end, and is an imitation of a single and integral action, from which the tragedian should not be distracted. What, according to Aristotle, is an event? It is the transition from unhappiness to happiness and from happiness to unhappiness. The sequence of such transitions from the tie to the fracture and the denouement is the essence of tragic action. The rule of unity of action is classical for drama and retains its relevance to this day (in contrast to the rules of unity of time and place of action).

Action, according to Aristotle, is of two types - simple and intricate. Tangled is characterized by the presence vicissitudes And recognition. What is peripety? This is a change of what is happening to its opposite: from happiness to unhappiness or from unhappiness to happiness. Recognition is the transition from ignorance to knowledge. The third element of tragic action is suffering (an action that causes death or pain). It is the saturation of the action with ups and downs and recognitions that makes it tense and produces a tragic impression.

13. Semiotic theories of drama and theater.
Semiotic theories of the theater as a system of signs and cultural theories of the theater as a divergence of the actor's position ("to mean" and "to be"). Spectator theory: observation, enjoyment, co-experience, analytics, estrangement and criticism. Theater criticism: the difference between two types of subjects - research and evaluation. The special position of the theater critic, who occupies a specific place in the theater process. The influence of the critic on the formation of aesthetic priorities and moral values ​​of society. The position of the critic as a reflection of the dominant system of views.

14. E. Grotovsky and his concept of "poor theater".

The concept of the poor theatre, developed by Grotovsky, relies in all its principles on the actor. Theater limited in expressive means, poses the problem of perfect purity, when only two main components are needed for the existence of a performance-action - an actor and a spectator. The actor becomes the focus of all the possibilities of influencing the viewer. A person in the empty space of the stage is able to express all the diversity of the artistic and psychological depth of the images he creates.

22. What is the content of the concept of "monodrama" in the concept of N. Evreinov?
Monodrama - principle theater theory N. N. Evreinova, the unfolding of stage events, as if projected through the consciousness of the protagonist or one of the characters. It implies a dramatic performance that presents the surrounding world as it is perceived by the protagonist “at any moment of his stage life”, and makes each of the spectators become in the position of this person, “live his life”.

To strengthen the element of spectacle - such is the task of Evreinov.

He also wants to "abolish the ramp", but for different purposes and in a different way than the supporters of the metaphysical ballet.

He wants to merge the hero and the viewer, that is, to turn the sympathy that we feel for the main character into real empathy. We must not only

think and feel, but also hear, see, feel like a hero.

"The main character felt dizzy and green circles flashed in his eyes ... The viewer will also see these green circles on the stage." Items should also change

depending on the attitude of the hero towards them. Nature too. Hence the name: "monodrama". The art of the director, technical improvements must come to the rescue

Such is Evreinov's theory. "I'm afraid to be too hasty in my decision," he says, "but it seems to me that the refreshing idea of ​​the monodrama hangs now, as it were, in the musty air of the decrepit theater and that I am the spokesman for what could be expressed tomorrow by another or others."

The viewer has a proud place in the drama. He looks at a piece of life like God. Actors meet, collide, create drama. The drama is not a hero, not a heroine, not a noble father, not a villain - a drama, as something whole, as there is a whole chess game in which neither pawns, nor kings, nor ladies are interested, but what is created with the help of them is interesting and good. - the party itself. Will this "whole" survive in the monodrama? Who will guarantee?

COMPOSITION OF A DRAMATURGIC WORK.

The word "composition" goes back to the Latin words "compositio" (drawing up) and "compositus" - well-placed, slender, correct.

Any work of art in all its forms and genres must create a complete image of the depicted. If the artist's goal is to depict a person at work, he will definitely show both the tools of labor, the processing material, and the working movement of the worker. If the subject of the image is the character of a person, his inner essence - sometimes it is enough for an artist to depict only one person's face. Recall, for example, famous portrait Rembrandt "The Old Man" The person is not depicted here in its entirety, but the integrity of the image was not only not affected by this, but, on the contrary, won. After all, the subject of the image in this case is not the figure of the old man, but his character. Depicting the face of an old man, Rembrandt creates typical image human character, characteristic of old people who have lived a long life filled with experiences. This image is completely finished, holistic.

The subject of the image in a dramaturgical work is, as we already know, social conflict(of one scale or another), personified in the heroes of the work.

The history of dramaturgy shows that to create a holistic artistic image conflict event, to comply with a seemingly simple condition, to show not only the beginning of the conflict, but also its development and result, is by no means simple. The difficulty lies in finding the only correct dramatic development, and then the completion of the initial situation.

When the beginning of the play remains the most interesting part of it and further development goes from the beginning not “up”, but “down”, its author is forced to throw new “logs” into his dying fire, replacing the development of this conflict from its initial situation by tying some new, additional collisions. This path excludes the completion of the play by resolving the conflict with which it began, and leads, as a rule, to an artificial conclusion by way of the author's volitional command over the destinies of his characters.

Basically, due to the compositional complexity of creating a dramatic work, a fair belief appeared that dramaturgy is the most complex kind of literature. Add to this: good dramaturgy. For seventy pages of a bad play are easier to write than nine hundred pages of a bad novel.

In order to cope with compositional difficulties, the playwright needs to understand his artistic task well, to know the basic elements of a dramatic composition and to imagine the “typical structure” of constructing a dramatic work. The word structure is not accidentally placed here in quotation marks. Of course, no work of art is written according to a predetermined pattern. The more original the essay, the better.

The "scheme" in no way encroaches either on the individual originality of each given play, or on the infinite variety of works of dramatic art as a whole. It is conditional in nature and serves to clearly explain what compositional requirements are in question. It will also be useful for analyzing the structure of dramatic works.

At the same time, the proposed “typical structure” objectively reflects the composition of a dramatic work as such and, therefore, has some obligation.

The ratio between convention and obligation here is as follows: the content of the play and the ratio of the sizes of its parts in each this work different. But their presence and sequence of arrangement are obligatory for all works.

The essence of this relationship can be illustrated by a quite convincing example.

The diversity of human individualities of the living, living and future people is boundless. Each person is individual and unique. However, all people have a single "structure" of the body. Deviations from it, illness or injury - a great misfortune. It would therefore be strange to consider it an attack on the individuality of each individual person"scheme" of a person in general. Of course, such an image of him is the ultimate simplification of the object. This, however, does not make this "scheme" wrong and even in the slightest degree controversial. There is hardly anyone who does not agree that any violation of this "scheme" of "man in general" is undesirable in absolutely every case.

A person who lacks at least one element of the universal "constitution" - although he can live, is an invalid. In the same ratio is the general "scheme" of a dramatic work and the uniqueness of each individual play.

There are quite a few plays and scripts constructed without observing the necessary compositional requirements. Some of them live - go on the stages of theaters, sometimes - with success. But these are, nevertheless, plays - "disabled". They would undoubtedly be much more complete if their “arms”, “legs” and “head” were “intact” and in their places. This applies not only to obviously bad plays. There are quite a few plays that went on with great success, leaving a noticeable mark on the history of the theater, which, however, could have been better if their authors had been more thoroughly artistically refined, “brought to standard”. The most authoritative confirmation of this is the statements of the playwrights themselves. So, for example, N. Pogodin, whose famous play “Aristocrats” ends with a rally of criminals reforged on the White Sea Canal, “pests” and other prisoners, admitted that “with persistent and long searches, one could find a more successful ending for“ Aristocrats ”. A finale that beautifully and powerfully puts the last point ... without tiresome speeches on stage. One cannot but agree with this.

Underestimation and misunderstanding of the paramount importance of composition in writing a dramatic work is quite common. Many authors are seriously convinced that the neglect of composition is a sign of the free flight of their creativity, the path to innovation.

At the heart of true innovation lies the improvement of artistic means, the strengthening of their effective power, the raising of the previous level of the artist's skill to a higher level. Facilitating the creative task by refusing to fulfill the elementary requirements of one's art leads to the creation of an inferior work. Talk about innovation is intended in such cases to cover up the creative helplessness of the author.

Since without the main elements of the dramatic composition - the image of the beginning of the struggle, the course (development) of the struggle and the result of the struggle - it is impossible to create a holistic image of a conflict event, their presence and the named sequence of location in a dramatic work are a necessary, in the full sense of the word, elementary artistic requirement of a dramatic art.

Hegel drew attention to the need for the presence of the three named basic elements in a work of dramaturgy. Therefore, the fundamental scheme underlying the dramatic work is usually called the Hegelian triad.

For clarity, the fundamental structure of a dramatic work - Hegel's triad - can be depicted in this way.

Based on the fundamental structure of the work, we list the specific elements of the dramatic composition, and then reveal the essence and purpose of each of them.

The beginning of the struggle is revealed in the exposition and in the beginning of the main conflict.

The course of the struggle is revealed through specific actions and clashes of the heroes - through the so-called twists and turns that make up general movement actions from the beginning of the conflict to its resolution. In many plays (although not all) there is a pronounced moment of the highest tension of the action - the climax.

The result of the struggle is shown in the denouement (resolution) of the main conflict and in the finale of the play.

Each dramatic work necessarily has an exposition, that is, an initial part.

The exposition is the initial part of a dramatic work. Its purpose is to inform the viewer of the information necessary to understand the upcoming action of the play. Sometimes it is important to let the viewer know in which country and at what time the events take place. Sometimes it is necessary to report something from what preceded the conflict. So, for example, if the viewer does not know from the very beginning that the hero of Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw - Mr. Higgins - is a linguist who studies various dialects and patterns of profanity, he will not understand, or rather, misunderstand the reasons that prompted Higgins to take into his a stately aristocratic house for an ill-mannered and uncouth girl - street flower girl Eliza Doolittle.

The exposition has one more task. With its help, so to speak, in its space, a person who has come to the theater is transformed into a spectator, a participant in the collective perception of the play. In the exposition, the viewer gets an idea about the genre of the work.

The most common type of exposition is the display of that last segment of everyday life, the course of which will be interrupted by the emergence of a conflict.

Dramaturgy has much in common with the folk tale and most likely comes from it. Dramaturgy took from folk tale, as its main theme, its main miracle, a social miracle - the victory of good over evil. There is also much in common between the construction of a fairy tale and the structure of a dramatic work. In particular, the exposition of most plays is built on the same principle as the exposition of a fairy tale. So, for example, "An old man lived with his old woman by the very blue sea," says at the beginning of Pushkin's "Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish." “The old man was fishing with a net. The old woman "spun her yarn." This went on for “exactly thirty years and three years”, but there was no “fairy tale”. Only when the old man caught a goldfish that spoke human voice, this ordinary flow of life was interrupted, an occasion arose for this story, the "Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" began.

The beginning in many plays is built on the same principle: “Once upon a time ...” and suddenly there is “ gold fish”or“ the golden egg ”of this work is the conflict that will be depicted in it.

Another type of exposition is the Prologue - a direct appeal of the author to the viewer, a brief story about the characters of the future action and its character. In a number of cases, the prologue exhausts the exposition, since the plot of the play's conflict is contained (announced) in itself. Often, however, the prologue only opens the exposition, which then continues until the beginning of the conflict by showing the flow of life that preceded it. This is how the beginning of Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" is constructed. The exposition after a short prologue continues throughout the first act.

Sometimes a play begins with an inversion, that is, showing how the conflict will end before the action begins. This technique is often used by the authors of action-packed works, in particular, detective stories. The task of inversion is to captivate the viewer from the very beginning, keep him in additional tension with the help of information about the end of the depicted conflict.

There is also a moment of inversion in Shakespeare's prologue to Romeo and Juliet. The tragic outcome of their love is already mentioned in it. In this case, the inversion has a different purpose than to make the ensuing "sad tale" fascinating. Having told how his dramatic narrative will end, Shakespeare removes interest in what will happen in order to focus the viewer's attention on how this will happen, on the essence of the relationship of the characters that led to a tragic end known in advance.

From what has been said, it should be clear that the exposition - the initial part of a dramatic work - lasts until the beginning of the plot - the plot of the main conflict of this play. It is extremely important to emphasize that we are talking about the beginning of the main conflict, the development of which is the subject of the image in this play.

From the very beginning of the Romeo and Juliet tragedy, we encounter manifestations of the age-old conflict between the Montagues and the Capulet families. But this enmity is not the subject of the image in this work. It lasted for centuries, so they "lived and were", but there was no reason for this play. Only when the young representatives of the two warring clans - Romeo and Juliet - fell in love with each other, did the conflict arise, which became the subject of the image in this work - the conflict between the bright human feeling of love and the dark misanthropic feeling of tribal enmity.

Thus, the notion - "setting" - includes the setting of the main conflict of this play. In the plot, his movement begins - a dramatic action.

Some modern playwrights and theater critics express the opinion that in our time, when the pace and rhythms of life have accelerated immeasurably, it is possible to do without exposition, and start the play right away with the action, with the outset of the main conflict, taking, as they say, the bull by the horns. This way of putting the question is wrong. In order to "take the bull by the horns", you must at least have a bull in front of you. Only the heroes of the play can start a conflict. But we must understand the meaning and essence of what is happening. Like any moment of real life, the life of the heroes of the play can only take place in a specific time and in a specific space. Not to designate either one or the other, or at least one of these coordinates, would mean an attempt to depict some kind of abstraction. The conflict in this unimaginable case would arise from nothing, which contradicts the laws of motion of matter in general. Not to mention such a difficult moment in its development as the movement of human relations. Thus, the idea of ​​doing without exposure when creating a play is not well thought out.

Sometimes the exposure is combined with the plot. This is exactly how it is done in N.V. Gogol's The Government Inspector. The very first phrase of the mayor, addressed to the officials, contains all the necessary information for understanding the subsequent action, and, at the same time, is the beginning of the main conflict of the play. It is difficult to agree with E.G. Kholodov, who believes that the plot of the "Inspector General" occurs later, when the "comedy knot" is tied, that is, when Khlestakov was mistaken for the auditor. The plot is the plot of the main conflict of the play, and not this or that plot "knot". There is no conflict between the characters in The Inspector General. All of them - both officials and Khlestakov - are in conflict with the viewer, with goodie sitting in the hall. And this conflict satirical characters with the viewer begins before the appearance of Khlestakov. The very first acquaintance of the viewer with the officials, with their fear about the “unpleasant” news for them about the arrival of the auditor, is the beginning of the conflict (according to the specific laws of satire) confrontation between the “heroes” and the audience. The denial of bureaucratic Russia depicted in the comedy with laughter begins with the exposition (See: Kholodov E., Drama Composition. - M .: 1957, pp. 102 - 103).

Such an approach to interpreting the plot of The Inspector General, in my opinion, is more in line with the definition of the plot, which, based on Hegel, is given by E. G. Kholodov himself: and its needs, give rise to just that specific conflict, the deployment and resolution of which constitutes a special action of this particular work of art ”(See: E. Kholodov, Drama Composition. - M .: 1957, p. 96).

This is what we see at the beginning of The Inspector General - a certain conflict, the deployment of which constitutes the action of this work.

Sometimes the main conflict of the play does not appear immediately, but is preceded by a system of other conflicts. Shakespeare's Othello is full of conflicts. Conflict between Desdemona's father - Brabantio and Othello. The conflict between Desdemona's unfortunate fiancé Rodrigo and his rival, the more fortunate Othello. Conflict between Rodrigo and Lieutenant Cassio. There is even a fight between them. Conflict between Othello and Desdemona. It arises at the end of the tragedy and ends with the death of Desdemona. Conflict between Iago and Cassio. And, finally, one more conflict, which is the main conflict of this work - the conflict between Iago and Othello, between the bearer of envy, servility, chameleonism, careerism, petty selfishness - which is Iago, and a direct, honest, trusting person, but possessing a passionate and furious character, which is Othello.

denouement main conflict. As already mentioned, the denouement in a dramatic work is the moment of resolving the main conflict, the removal of the conflict contradiction, which is the source of the movement of the action. For example, in The Inspector General, the denouement is the reading of Khlestakov's letter to Tryapichkin.

In Othello, the denouement of the main conflict comes when Othello learns that Iago is a slanderer and a scoundrel. Let's pay attention to the fact that this happens after the murder of Desdemona. It is wrong to believe that the denouement here is precisely the moment of the murder. The main conflict of the play is between Othello and Iago. Killing Desdemona, Othello does not yet know who his main enemy is. Consequently, only the elucidation of the role of Iago is here the denouement.

In "Romeo and Juliet", where, as already mentioned, the main conflict lies in the confrontation between the love that broke out between Romeo and Juliet, and the age-old enmity of their families. The denouement is the moment when this love ends. It ended with the death of the heroes. Thus, their death is the denouement of the main conflict of the tragedy.

The outcome of the conflict is possible only if the unity of action is preserved, the main conflict that began in the plot is preserved. From this follows the requirement: this outcome of the conflict must be contained as one of the possibilities for its resolution already in the plot.

In the denouement, or rather, as a result of it, a new situation is created in comparison with the one that took place in the plot, which is expressed with a new relationship between the characters. This new attitude can be quite varied.

One of the heroes may die as a result of the conflict.

It also happens that outwardly everything remains completely the same, as, for example, in John Priestley's "Dangerous Turn". The heroes realized that they had only one way out: to immediately end the conflict that had arisen between them. The play ends with a deliberate repetition of everything that happened before the beginning of the “dangerous turn” of the conversation, the old fun begins, empty talk, glasses of champagne clink ... Outwardly, the relationship of the characters is again exactly the same as before. But it's a form. And in fact, as a result of what happened, the previous relationship is excluded. Former friends and colleagues have become bitter enemies.

The final is the emotional and semantic completion of the work. "Emotionally" - this means that we are talking not only about the semantic result, not just about the conclusion from the work.

If in a fable morality is expressed directly - “the moral of this fable is this”, then in a dramatic work the finale is a continuation of the action of the play, its last chord. The finale concludes the play with a dramatic generalization and not only completes this action, but opens the door to perspective, to the connection of this fact with a wider social organism.

A great example of an ending is the ending of The Inspector General. The denouement occurred, Khlestakov's letter was read. The officials who have deceived themselves have already been ridiculed by the viewer. The Governor has already delivered his monologue-self-accusation. At the end of it, an appeal was made to the audience - “Who are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself!”, which already contains a great generalization of the whole meaning of the comedy. Yes, not only they - the officials of a small provincial town - the subject of her angry denunciation. But Gogol does not put an end to this. He writes one more, final scene. A gendarme appears and says: “An official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg demands you all this very hour ...” This is followed by Gogol's remark: “A silent scene.”

This reminder of the connection of this town with the capital, with the tsar is necessary in order for the satirical denial of the behavior of the officials of the town to spread to all the bureaucracy of Russia, to the entire apparatus of tsarist power. And it's happening. Firstly, because Gogol's heroes are absolutely typical and recognizable, they give a generalized image of the bureaucracy, its morals, the nature of the performance of their official duties.

The official arrived "by personal order", that is, by order of the king himself. A direct connection between the characters of the comedy and the king has been established. Outwardly, and even more so for censorship, this ending looks harmless: outrageous things were happening somewhere, but now a real auditor has arrived from the capital, from the king, and order will be restored. But this is purely the external meaning of the final scene. Its true meaning is different. One had only to recall here about the capital, about the tsar, as through this “communication channel”, as we now say, all impressions, all the indignation that accumulated during the performance rush to this address. Nicholas I understood this. After clapping his hands at the end of the performance, he said: “Everyone got it, but most of all I.”

An example of a strong ending is the end of Shakespeare's already mentioned tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The main characters of the tragedy have already died. This unleashes, resolves the conflict that arose due to their love. But Shakespeare writes the end of the tragedy. The leaders of the warring clans are reconciled at the grave of their dead children. The condemnation of the wild and absurd enmity that separated them sounds all the stronger because in order to stop it, it took two beautiful, innocent, young creatures to be sacrificed. Such an ending contains a warning, a generalized conclusion against those dark prejudices that cripple human destinies. But at the same time, this conclusion is not "added" to the action of the tragedy, it is not "suspended" by the author. It follows from the natural continuation of the events of the tragedy. The burial of the dead, the repentance of the parents responsible for their deaths do not need to be invented - all this naturally completes and ends the "sad" story of Romeo and Juliet.

The finale in the play is, as it were, a verification of the dramaturgy of the work as a whole. If the main elements of his composition are violated, if the action that began as the main one is replaced by another, the final will not work. If the playwright did not have enough material, lacked talent or knowledge, lacked dramatic experience in order to complete his work with a genuine finale, the author often, in order to get out of the situation, ends the work with the help of an ersatzfinal. But not every ending under one pretext or another is the final, can serve as the emotional and semantic completion of the work. There are several stamps, typical examples of ersatzfinal. They are especially visible in the movies. When the author does not know how to end the film, the characters, for example, sing a cheerful song or, holding hands, go into the distance, getting smaller and smaller... The most common type of ersatzfinal is the author's "punishment" of the hero. In the play "104 Pages About Love", its author - E. Radzinsky - specially made his heroine a representative of a dangerous profession - an aeroflot stewardess.

When Anna Karenina ends her life under the wheels of a train, this is the result of what happened to her in the novel. In the play by E. Radzinsky, the death of the plane on which the heroine flew has nothing to do with the action of the play. The relationship between the hero and the heroine developed largely artificially, through the author's willful efforts. Different tempers heroes complicated their relationship, however, the ground for the development of a conflict, a genuine contradiction, reflecting any significant social problem, not in the play. Conversations "on the subject" could go on endlessly. In order to somehow finish the work, the author himself "ruined" the heroine with the help of an accident - a fact external to the content of the play. This is a typical ersatzfinal.

The problem of such an ersatzfinal - with the help of the murder of a hero - was considered by E. G. Kholodov: “If this alone achieved drama, it would not be easier than to pass for a tragic poet. Lessing ridiculed such a primitive understanding of the problem of the tragic”: “any scribbler who would bravely strangle and kill his heroes and not let a single one leave the stage alive or healthy would also imagine himself as tragic as Euripides "(See: Kholodov E., Drama composition. - M .: 1957, p. 185).

Compositional construction of cultural and leisure programs

1.4 The concept of composition in dramaturgy

The word "composition" goes back to the Latin words "compositio" (drawing up) and "compositus" - well-placed, slender, correct.

The subject of the image in a dramatic work is the social conflict personified in the heroes of the work.

The history of dramaturgy shows that it is by no means easy to create an integral artistic image of a conflict event, to observe a seemingly simple condition, to show not only the beginning of the conflict, but also its development and result. The difficulty lies in finding the only correct dramatic development, and then the completion of the initial situation.

When the beginning of the play remains its most interesting part and further development proceeds from the beginning not “up” but “down”, the author is forced to throw new “logs” into his fading fire, replacing the development of this conflict from its initial situation by tying some new ones, additional collisions. This path excludes the completion of the play by resolving the conflict with which it began, and leads, as a rule, to an artificial conclusion by way of the author's volitional command over the destinies of his characters.

Basically, due to the compositional complexity of creating a dramatic work, a fair conviction arose that dramaturgy is the most complex kind of literature. Add to this: good dramaturgy. For seventy pages of a bad play are easier to write than nine hundred pages of a bad novel.

In order to cope with compositional difficulties, the playwright needs to understand his artistic task well, to know the basic elements of a dramatic composition and to imagine the “typical structure” of constructing a dramatic work. Of course, none piece of art not written according to a predetermined scheme. The more original the essay, the better.

The "scheme" in no way encroaches either on the individual originality of each given play, or on the infinite variety of works of dramatic art as a whole. It is conditional in nature and serves to clearly explain what compositional requirements are in question. It will also be useful for analyzing the structure of dramatic works.

Since without the basic elements of a dramatic composition - images of the beginning of the struggle, the course (development) of the struggle and the result of the struggle - it is impossible to create a holistic image of a conflict event, their presence and the named sequence of arrangement in a dramatic work are necessary, in the full sense of the word, elementary artistic requirement of dramatic art.

Hegel drew attention to the need for the presence of the three named basic elements in a work of dramaturgy. Therefore, the fundamental scheme underlying the dramatic work is usually called the Hegelian triad.

For clarity, the fundamental structure of a dramatic work - Hegel's triad - can be depicted as follows:

The father of drama theory was Aristotle (384-322 BC). His "Poetics" is the first work that has come down to us containing the theory dramatic art V Ancient Greece 1 . The most difficult thing in drama is the creation of a plot, Aristotle writes: “The plot is the basis and, as it were, the soul of tragedy” ...

“There are two parts to every tragedy: the plot and the denouement. The plot "embraces" an event that is outside the drama, and some of those that lie in itself" 2.

The tie is that part of the action "which extends from the beginning to the moment, which is the limit from which the transition to happiness [or from happiness to unhappiness] occurs" 3 . the denouement is the rest of the action "from the beginning of this transition to the end" 4 . Thus, Aristotle establishes two very important elements of the composition of the drama associated with its action. From the ancient poetics, the rules of composition, obligatory for the authors of comedies and tragedies, were extracted. Here they are:

1. The basis of the drama is the plot. This position of Aristotle, confirmed by Horace, is accepted by all drama theorists. It served as a rationale for the need to carefully develop the intrigue of the play. Drama theorists and practitioners prefer simple plots over complex plots. However, while most critics and writers have rejected complex composition dramatic action, considering it artificial, A. K. Tolstoy remained a supporter of well-developed dramaturgy. He saw in it an important means of achieving artistic effect. The construction of the drama by A.K. Tolstoy compared with the composition of the symphony, which has a certain "pattern". Every tragedy must have its own dramatic core. But it is not immobile, but rather represents a certain movement of action 5 .

2. Typification of characters.

Typification is understood as the correspondence of the character's image to the characteristics of a certain age, gender, profession, social status, etc. According to this understanding of typification, Achilles must always be angry, and Orestes gloomy, etc. As for comic characters, although they invented by the author, nevertheless, they should have the characteristics that are considered the most typical for this character: grouchiness for old people, amorousness for young people, cunning for servants, and the like.

As is well known, outstanding works of drama violated such a limited understanding of typing.

3. The five-act structure of the play.

The division of the drama into five acts had its rational justification. Its essence was seen in the fact that each act represented a certain step in the composition of the play. “The Romans believed that the plot should be five acts,” wrote Giraldi Chintno. - The first contains the exposition. In the second, what is given in the exposition begins to move towards its end. In the third, obstacles arise and changes occur. In the fourth, an opportunity begins to appear to correct what caused all the troubles. In the fifth, the expected end takes place with a denouement corresponding to the entire exposition.

Some rules of composition were of particular importance, since they determined the specifics of the dramatic action. This applies, in particular, to how to build the action as a whole. There were two trends in theory and practice in the 16th century. One was to build the action of the tragedy, to concentrate attention on the already accomplished misfortune. A friend is to dynamically depict events, emphasizing their drama. Opposed to this dynamic principle is a principle which may be called static. The event itself has already happened and the action is only to establish the fact of the incident. This kind of concept was proposed by Scaliger, who considered it ideal 1 .

Based on the fundamental structure of the work, we list the specific elements of the dramatic composition, and then reveal the essence and purpose of each of them.

The beginning of the struggle is revealed in the exposition and in the beginning of the main conflict.

The course of the struggle is revealed through the specific actions and clashes of the heroes - through the so-called ups and downs that make up the general movement of the action from the beginning of the conflict to its resolution. In many plays (though not all) there is a pronounced moment of the highest tension of the action - the climax.

The result of the struggle is shown in the denouement (resolution) of the main conflict and in the finale of the play.

Each dramatic work necessarily has an exposition, that is, an initial part.

The exposition is the initial part of a dramatic work. Its purpose is to inform the viewer of the information necessary to understand the upcoming action of the play. Sometimes it is important to let the viewer know in which country and at what time the events take place. Sometimes it is necessary to report something from what preceded the conflict.

The great French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot (1713-1784) in his treatise "On Dramatic Poetry" - "On Interest", in which Diderot develops the question: how to capture the attention of the public? In plays, the action should arise naturally, as if spontaneously: “Let them (the characters) form the plot of the amia without noticing it, let everything be dark for them, let them go to the denouement without suspecting it” 1 . the meaning of this principle is that the viewer's attention should be focused not on external events, but on the experiences of the characters, their thoughts and feelings, their reactions to reality.

The action should be built economically and thoughtfully in order to focus on the most important and essential.

Already the exposition of the drama is of great importance for the entire subsequent development of dramatic events.

“The events chosen for the beginning of the play will serve as the plot of the first scene; she will call the second, the second will call the third, and the act will be completed. It is important that the action proceed with increasing speed and be clear... the more events the first action leaves in an undeveloped state, the more details will be for the following acts. However, in striving for the reality of the exposition, one can make a mistake that will ruin the drama. The initial event should not be such that its interest exceeds the interest of subsequent scenes and events: “If you start with a strong moment, the rest will be written with equal tension, or completely wither. How many plays have been killed by the beginning! The poet was afraid to start coldly and his positions were so strong that he could not support the first impression he made on me.

The most common type of exposition is showing that last segment of everyday life, the course of which will be interrupted by the emergence of a conflict.

According to Gogol, the incident should seem alive, natural, recently happened. Only when the drama gives a natural, truthful picture of life, when the thought embedded in it is capable of influencing the public, “then the work is lively, dramatic, boiling before the eyes of the viewer. And at the same time in the highest degree didactic is the height of creativity, accessible only to great geniuses” 1 .

Dramaturgy has much in common with the folk tale and most likely comes from it. Dramaturgy took from the folk tale, as its main theme, its main miracle, the social miracle - the victory of good over evil. There is also much in common between the construction of a fairy tale and the structure of a dramatic work. In particular, the exposition of most plays is built on the same principle as the exposition of a fairy tale. So, for example, "An old man lived with his old woman by the very blue sea," says at the beginning of Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish." “The old man was fishing with a net. The old woman was spinning her yarn. This went on for “exactly thirty years and three years”, but there was no “fairy tale”. Only when the old man caught a golden fish that spoke with a human voice, this ordinary flow of life was interrupted, an occasion arose for this story, the Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish began.

The beginning in many plays is built on the same principle: “Once upon a time ...” and suddenly there is a “goldfish” or “golden egg” of this work - the conflict that will be depicted in it.

Another type of exposition is the Prologue - a direct appeal of the author to the viewer, a brief story about the characters of the future action and its character. In a number of cases, the prologue exhausts the exposition, since the plot of the play's conflict is contained (announced) in itself. Often, however, the prologue only opens the exposition, which then continues until the beginning of the conflict by showing the flow of life that preceded it. This is how the beginning of Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" is constructed. The exposition after a short prologue continues throughout the first act.

Sometimes a play begins with an inversion, that is, showing how the conflict will end before the action begins. This technique is often used by the authors of action-packed works, in particular, detective stories. The task of inversion is to captivate the viewer from the very beginning, keep him in additional tension with the help of information about the end of the depicted conflict.

From what has been said, it should be clear that the exposition - the initial part of a dramatic work - lasts until the beginning of the plot - the plot of the main conflict of this play. It is extremely important to emphasize that we are talking about the beginning of the main conflict, the development of which is the subject of the image in this play.

In the Educational Book of Literature, Gogol solves the problems of dramatic composition. Gogol defines the elements of composition that provide authentic dramatic development Actions. The first thing a playwright must take care of is to create a "strictly and cleverly considered plot" 1 . The most important condition is the unity of action: “All persons who must act, or, better, between whom an affair must begin, must be taken in advance by the author; the fate of each of them is preoccupied by the author and cannot carry and move them quickly and in multitude in the form of phenomena flying by. Every arrival of a person, apparently insignificant at the beginning, already announces his participation later. Everything that is not is only because it is connected with the fate of the hero himself” 2 .

The most important compositional principle, according to Gogol, is that “the writer, deprived of the opportunity to cover the whole of reality, chooses one event, one incident, but one in which the most important patterns of life are revealed.

The tie should embrace all faces, not just one or two - touch what excites, more or less, everyone acting characters. Here every hero; the course and course of the play produces a shock to the whole machine: not a single wheel should remain as rusty and not included in the case.

Thus, the notion - "setting" - includes the setting of the main conflict of the play. In the plot, his movement begins - a dramatic action.

For example, from the very beginning of the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" we meet with manifestations of the age-old conflict between the families of Montague and Capulet. But this enmity is not the subject of the image in this work. It lasted for centuries, so they "lived and were", but there was no reason for this play. Only when the young representatives of the two warring clans - Romeo and Juliet - fell in love with each other, did the conflict arise, which became the subject of the image in this work - the conflict between the bright human feeling of love and the dark misanthropic feeling of tribal enmity.

Some modern playwrights and theater critics express the opinion that in our time, when the pace and rhythms of life have accelerated immeasurably, it is possible to bypass the exposition bases and start the play right away with the action, with the outset of the main conflict. This way of putting the question is wrong. Only the heroes of the play can “start” a conflict. But we must understand the meaning and essence of what is happening. Like any moment of real life, the life of the heroes of the play can only take place in a specific time and in a specific space. Not to designate either one or the other, or at least one of these coordinates, would mean an attempt to depict some kind of abstraction. The conflict in this unimaginable case would arise from nothing, which contradicts the laws of the mother's movement in general. Not to mention such a difficult moment in its development as the movement of human relations. Thus, the idea of ​​doing without exposition in creating a play is not well thought out.

Sometimes the exposure is combined with the plot. That is how it is done in N.V. Gogol. The very first phrase of the mayor, addressed to the officials, contains all the necessary information for understanding the subsequent action, and at the same time, is the plot of the main conflict of the play. Gogol's "Inspector General" is the embodiment of precisely this principle of comedy composition and a classic example of compositional unity ... In "The Inspector General" there is not a single person, not a single position that was not closely connected with the main event, with its idea. All the characters participate in the plot and its subsequent development of the action. Each of them lives on the stage and reveals his own character in relation to the central conflict. All the characters in his play actively participate in the events and each has its own individual face.

And so, according to Gogol, it is the idea that determines all the elements of the composition in the drama: the plot, the plot, the development of the action, the role and significance of individual characters 1 .

Sometimes the main conflict of the play does not appear immediately, but is preceded by a system of other conflicts. Shakespeare's Othello is full of conflicts. Conflict between Desdemona's father, Brabantio and Othello. The conflict between Desdemona's unfortunate fiancé, Rodrigo, and his rival, the more fortunate Othello. Conflict between Rodrigo and Lieutenant Cassio. There is even a fight between them. Conflict between Othello and Desdemona. It arises at the end of the tragedy and ends with the death of Desdemona. Conflict between Iago and Cassio. And finally, another conflict. He is the main conflict of this work - the conflict between Iago and Othello, between the bearer of envy, servility, chameleonism, careerism, petty selfishness, which is Iago, and a direct, honest, trusting person, but possessing a passionate and furious character, which is Othello.

Resolution of the main conflict. As already mentioned, the denouement in a dramatic work is the moment of resolving the main conflict, the removal of the conflict contradiction, which is the source of the movement of the action.

In Othello, the denouement of the main conflict comes when Othello learns that Iago is a slanderer and a scoundrel. Let's pay attention to the fact that this happens after the murder of Desdemona. It is wrong to believe that the denouement here is precisely the moment of the murder. The main conflict of the play is between Othello and Iago. Killing Desdemona, Othello does not yet know who his main enemy is. Consequently, only the elucidation of the role of Iago is here the denouement.

The resolution of the conflict is possible only if the unity of action is preserved.

The theory of drama at one time considered it necessary to observe three unities in a dramatic work: the unity of time, the unity of place and the unity of action. Practice, however, has shown that dramaturgy can easily do without observing the unity of place and time, but the unity of action is a truly necessary condition for the existence of a dramatic work as a work of art.