THEATRE IN THE LIFE OF PEOPLE
Eternal Art?
The rapid development of cinematograph, TV, the Internet and other mass media, characteristic for the end of the XX and the beginning of the XXI century, persuaded some people that in the nearest future these things would provide the disappearance of one of the most ancient arts in the world – the theatre. Sceptically orientied people prophesied that people would prefer to sit in the comfort of their home watching a drama on TV instead of going to the theatre. They supposed that theatre wouldn’t win the competition with the “blue screen” and that the theatrical art would come to an end sooner or later.
Fortunately, the theatre has survived, ant even nowadays, in the time of scientific and technological progress, it still remains as a miracle for many people.
Each performance is unique. The magic world opens its doors every evening at 19.00 or at 19.30. The curtain rises, the lights go down and the process of creativity and inspiration begins. Actors come onto the stage; they love and hate, laugh and cry, worry and are delighted. Each time the performance is different. All the feelings that are born on the stage and in the hall are new. A good performance is a discovery for each separate person. Everybody becomes here a discoverer of eternal postulates and an explorer of people’s souls.
Theatre gives us samples of ideal characters in various life situations and it asserts high ethic principals in each case. Performances not only demonstrate ideal heroes and their actions, but also show the ways in which these heroes are made and on the whole it is a reference-point for a teenager in the course of constructing the plan of his own life; it encourages self-upbringing. Theatre “infects” a young man with brave ambitions and gives an impulse to his imagination. All this makes theatre the “main school of dream”.
We come to the theatre in order to find a miracle, to experience some wonderful and unforgettable feelings. The theatre exists especially for it. Its main aim is to make people kinder and cleverer, more honest and noble on leaving the hall. But we can’t deny the fact that the spectator should be ready for the perception of the message. It’s crucial not only for him but for the actors as well, because a spectator is not a passive observer but the major partner of the actors. “It’s the audience that defines the professional fate of an actor,” – wrote E. Shwarts once.
If the actors were made to perform in front of the empty chairs in the hall every evening, they wouldn’t be able to play soon. Why? Because the empty chairs can’t be the interlocutors, so necessary for the actors; they can’t be the partners who react to every word, who are deeply absorbed by the play and who express their emotions laughing or crying.
It’s not easy to be a good spectator. It’s not enough to buy a ticket and to look at the stage with your eyes widely open. You should learn to understand what you see or hear; to reveal the deep essence of the simple words and gestures. And it becomes possible only if you think, speculate, contemplate and if both your head and soul work hard. The prominent Russian physiologist A. A. Ukhtomsky explained this phenomenon with the help of the “theory of dominant”, created by him. The scientist wrote that “we perceive only those things for which our dominants are ready. Valuable things and ideas are not paid attention to, if your ears are not ready to hear them and our eyes are not prepared to see them”.