The subject of the research is the structural and content-related features of contemporary dramatic texts, arising under the influence of the digital environment and the integration of works into the global hypertextual space. The focus is on the ways of organizing plays that utilize hyperlinks, generative algorithms, and autonomous systems as integral elements of artistic structure. The transformation of traditional dramatic categories in the context of cybertext is analyzed, as well as the change in the nature of interaction between the text, the reader, and the performer, which requires the recipient to exert physical effort, make choices, and participate in the construction of the artwork's meaning. The material for analysis includes the works of E. Augusteniak "Lorem Ipsum," D. Gursky "Ikonostas.mp3," and E. Demidova "Text Generator 'Distant Relatives,'" presented within the framework of the fringe program of the dramaturgy festival "Lyubimovka." The theoretical basis of the research consists of concepts such as the "multimodal turn," hypertext by D. Landow, understood as a decentralized structure connected through hyperlinks, and cybertext by E. Orset, emphasizing the figure of the reader as an integrated participant who makes non-trivial efforts to navigate through the text. The scientific novelty of the article is due to the fact that it identifies and systematizes the main strategies for utilizing digital technologies in contemporary Russian dramaturgy for the first time. The article highlights two strategies for using generative technologies: the conflicting montage of machine and human text (Augusteniak) and assigning the program a co-author role with a fundamentally different perspective (Demidova). It concludes that hypertextual dramaturgy presents new demands on the reader and the performer: physical effort in reading, the right to choose, and independent text construction, along with new possibilities for the topological organization of the play. Although the analyzed plays were created within the framework of a specific festival project, the identified principles of their structure are subject to broader extrapolation. There are broad prospects for further studying digital dramaturgy.
Theatre scholars and practitioners have expressed concerns about the state of theatre, with some even proclaiming that it is dying or dead. This viewpoint is often rooted in the observation of the growing competition in the art and culture sector, driven by the advancements in technology that have led to the emergence of digital art and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). While these technological innovations have the potential to enhance the quality of theatre content, they also present a new alternative that theatre finds hard to compete with. This article builds on Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, to explore the concept of aura and its relevance in contemporary Nigerian theatre. The study delves into the nature of the aura's manifestation, examines Benjamin's claims on the decay of the aura, and investigates how the aura has survived in the past. It further examines how modern art, particularly digital art and NFTs, have created a new form of utility. The study aims to identify strategies that can amplify theatre's aura to compete favourably with modern technology and attract new audiences whose tastes are heavily influenced by modern technology. The study finds that the theatre and its artists can use NFTs to record the provenance of their physical artworks, such as costumes, props, and set designs to allow potential buyers to easily check for the authenticity of the artwork and preserve the aura of the piece. Thereby, providing insights on how the aura can be preserved and revitalised to ensure theatre's continued relevance in the age of technology.
This dissertation makes a case for the Shakespearean stage in the modern Anglo-American tradition as a distinctive laboratory for producing and navigating theories of emotion. The dissertation brings together Shakespeare performance studies and the newer fields of the history of emotions and cultural emotion studies, arguing that Shakespeare’s enduring status as the playwright of human emotion makes the plays in performance critical sites of discourse about human emotion. More specifically, the dissertation charts how, since the late nineteenth century, Shakespeare performance has been implicated in an effort to understand emotion as it defines and relates to the “human” subject. The advent of scientific materialism and Darwinism involved a dethroning of emotion and its expression as a specially endowed human faculty, best evidenced by Charles Darwin’s 1871 The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. Shakespeare’s poetic, formal expression of the passions was seen as proof of this faculty, and nowhere better exemplified than in the tragedies and in the passionate displays of the great tragic heroes. The controversy surrounding the tragic roles of the famous Victorian actor-manager Henry Irving illustrates how the embodied, human medium of the Shakespearean stage served as valuable leverage in contemporary debates about emotion. The dissertation then considers major Shakespearean figures of the twentieth century, including Harley Granville Barker, Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Brook, whose “stages” similarly galvanize and reflect contestation and change in what William Reddy has called “emotional regimes” or Barbara Rosenwein “emotional communities.” For each of these figures, a specific emotional paradigm is at stake in staging Shakespeare and particularly Shakespearean tragedy. I engage with a range of sources, from performance reviews to popular psychology, to locate these canonical moments in Shakespearean performance history as flashpoints in a cultural history of emotion.
During the examined period, the state exercised ideological control over all segments of public life including artistic creation. This control was particularly pronounced in the years following the Second World War, even though it was present throughout the entire period. In theatres, it was expressed through various forms, of which the most significant were political censorship on the one hand, and on the other, their dependence on state financing. Since a lot has already been written on the significance of the ideological factor, we will instead focus on the influence of the financial circumstances on the formation of theatre repertoires in Belgrade, between 1945 and 1980. Roughly speaking, two major phases were identified. The first one, the period of centralization, was the period of strong state control of the theatre repertoires in Belgrade, also accompanied with firm financial support. The other period, the period of decentralization, allowed theatres to create their repertoires more freely, but also meant that they had to partly obtain financing from other sources.