EVERYDAY LIFE DRAMA AS ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN THE CONTEMPORARY DRAMATIC COMPOSITIONS

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1 BABEŞ-BOLYAI UNIVERSITY, CLUJ NAPOCA FACULTY OF THEATRE AND TELEVISION EVERYDAY LIFE DRAMA AS ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN THE CONTEMPORARY DRAMATIC COMPOSITIONS SCIENTIFIC COORDINATOR: Prof.Dr. Daniela Gologan PhD Student: Raluca Sas-Marinescu Cluj-Napoca

2 Table of contents CHAPTER 1. WORKING THESIS AND HYPOTHESES... 3 CHAPTER 2. Phenomenology of theatricality... 7 CHAPTER 3. Theories of contemporary dramaturgy between writing and text adaptation Theoretical preliminaries From dramaturgist to dramatist Writing techniques The birth of the idea Dramatic action Sources of inspiration Dramatic sentence Topic vs. subject The character The plot The dialogue Didascalies Conclusions CHAPTER 4 Typologies of everyday drama case studies Typologies of everyday drama Virtual drama The drama of indifference Relational drama Case studies The program Everyday Drama Religion and spirituality Sexual identity and intimate relationships

3 Tabloid news as dramatic source Role playing game or the emergence of the virtual in the reality Social canons Behavioral deviations Selfwriting Conclusions, settings, representations, volumes CHAPTER 5. The state of contemporary Romanian dramaturgy The situation of Romanian theatres overview Romanian National Theatres the season Poland example of development and promotion of national contemporary dramaturgy CHAPTER 6. Conclusions and perspectives Conclusions Perspectives Works cited

4 ABSTRACT KEYWORDS: dramatic writing, theatricality, everyday life drama, contemporary This thesis proposes a development of the teaching methodology for contemporary dramatic writing, by considering the element deemed essential in the development of contemporary plays, respectively everyday life drama. To this end, in a first stage, the approach will be phenomenological, attempting to define the concepts of theatricality and everyday life drama. According to the phenomenological research methodology, theatre is seen by many authors as an aesthetic object, while the minimal definition of the theatre involves the virtual spectator s contribution. Once theatricality is defined, we try to identify three types of its occurrence, retrieved from the texts coordinated by the author and discussed in this thesis. Furthermore, we will propose a teaching methodology model for dramatic writing, i.e. play composition for the contemporary performance. The method relies on the construction of the dramatic structure of a text, introducing the elements deemed important to the development of the student s writing skills. Chapter III of this thesis analyzes these elements, by proposing a series of possible exercises for the development of work styles in writing contemporary plays. Chapter IV resumes the examination of everyday drama as essential element in contemporary play writing, by proposing, through case studies, different types of approach of such theatricality, mirrored in various cultural products: film, theatre, 3

5 computer games, author s texts and coordinated texts. We will also explain and prove in this chapter the three categories of everyday life drama identified by our approach: virtual theatricality, the drama of indifference and relational theatricality. The last years of research for the completion of the model proposed in chapter III have relied on the drawing of dramatic writing workshops and of specialty courses taught by the author of the thesis, as well as on the organization, in the Everyday Drama Laboratory, of the Vlad Mugur Research and Creation Centre, Faculty of Theatre and Television, in the Babeş-Bolyai University, of the annual research and creation camps. These camps included both introduction workshops and advanced tutoring classes, based on the texts written by the students. The result: two volumes of Plays 1 and a series of camp supplements of the Man.In.Fest journal, including original texts. Additionally, Chapter IV of this thesis proposes an analysis of the creative methodologies applied in the production of the plays under the wide-ranging authority of the five-year topic Generation X-Men and Women, focusing on the process of development of the representative plays for the research subtopics selected. The method proposed also involves a series of reading performances required in order to test the impact of the text on the audience; these performances represented a sort of work in progress for the authors. First and foremost, the selected subtopics focused on 1 Studii de teatru şi film piese de teatru şi scenarii de film , editors Raluca Sas-Marinescu and C.C.Buricea Mlinarcic, Limes publishing house, Cluj Napoca, 2009 and Studii de teatru şi film piese de teatru , editor Raluca Sas-Marinescu, Limes publishing house, Cluj Napoca,

6 an anthropological field study, by surveys, focus groups and quality interviews, and only afterwards did they undergo the process of fictional development. Given the necessity of synchronizing the theatrical performance and the exterior field of reference and the dynamics of the concept of theatricality which shifts incessantly, we believe that the dramaturge s reintroduction in the theatre can be a solution for the abolishment of the comprehension gap between the performance and the audience. To this purpose, we propose, in chapter V, a comparative overview of the Romanian and Polish theatrical reality, at the level of the specific dynamics research of the mise en scene of the contemporary text in the national Romanian and Polish theatres, by interpreting the statistical data provided by the Polish Theatre Institute on the performances set in Poland in a theatre season. The appendix to this thesis is an interview with the dramatic authors Oleg and Vladimir Presniakov. Born in Ural, brothers Vladimir and Oleg Presniakov (born in 1969 and, respectively, 1974) studied philology at the Maxim Gorki University of Yekaterinburg. They attended the courses of the same faculty: Oleg studied the theory of literature and philology, while Vladimir focused on the theory of literature and psychology. They founded together the university s youth theatre "Cristina Orbakaite", an organization committed to producing experimental performances. Playwrights, novelists, directors, the Presnyakov Brothers became famous worldwide in 2003, with the premiere of the play Terrorism at the London Royal Court Theatre. Their plays were performed in New York, Washington, London, Vienna, Lisbon, 5

7 Sydney, São Paulo, Torino, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne etc. At present, Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakov s plays are the most popular Russian theatre products performed worldwide, after A. P. Chekhov s. They also wrote the plays Captured Spirits and Resurrection. Super, both performed for the first time in Moscow, in Playing the Victim was written for the 2003 Edinburgh Festival, then produced by Kiril Serebrenikov at the 2005 Golden Mask Festival. In September 2005, at the New Drama Festival, Playing the Victim was performed under Yuri Butusov s direction, at the Tabakov Studio. The interview was made in May 2011 and we believe it is important precisely because it proves, to a great extent, the working hypotheses of this thesis. The authors argue strongly in favor of the creators forms of communication with the audience, in favor of the necessity to explain to the audience the contemporary audience. The writing technique used by them, in tandem, relies on the study of immediate reality, on the non-participatory observation of the environment and its transposition, in different forms, in the dramatic text. The language used by Presnyakovs characters is street language, a language studied by the authors and adapted to the types of characters used. The working hypotheses of this thesis are drawn in a context of a theatre where contemporary dramaturgy is scarce, where playwrights emerge only oddly; they are based on the premise that a theatre expert should create a performance text at least once; he/she should be able to generate a dramatic structure, to assign a destiny to the characters, and, mandatorily, to build functional relations. The thesis emerges from the 6

8 author s belief that a healthy approach for the Romanian dramaturgy would be a therapeutic configuration on the fact, on the events that are currently marking our existence. In their turn, theatre managers throughout the country should be able to understand that mounting such texts is an absolute necessity. We dare say even that a theatre that does not produce contemporary text performance rejects the writing of its own history. 7