REPORT

in the discipline "Russian literature and culture"

on the topic "Folklore theater"

Content

1. Folk art. Folklore theater .............................................. 3

2. Buffoons ................... ....................... .. ............................. ................3

3. Balagan…………………………………………………………………….5

4. Rayok……………………………………………………………………… ...7

5. Features of Paradise verse…………………………………………….9

6. Types of folk puppet theater………………………………… ..10

6.1. Petrushka Theatre. The image of Petrushka……………………………11

6.2. Puppet theater Vertep……………………………………….15

Folklore (eng. Folklore, lit. - folk wisdom) - folk art. In collective artistic creativity, the people reflect their labor activity, social and everyday life, knowledge of life and nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, the richest world of thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness. Having absorbed the centuries-old experience of the masses, folk art is distinguished by the depth of artistic development of reality, the truthfulness of images, and the power of creative generalization. Folk art was the historical basis of the entire world artistic culture.One of the types of folk art is the folklore theater, presented in different types and forms of dramatic performance.

The folk theater, which exists in forms organically connected with oral folk art, originated in ancient times: the games that accompanied the hunting and agricultural holidays contained elements of reincarnation. Theatricalization of the action was present in the calendar and family rituals(Christmas dress, wedding, etc.). In the process of historical development, the creative, playful beginning intensifies in dramatic actions: games and performances arise that parody the wedding ceremony (for example, the Russian comedy game "Pakhomushka"), the funeral ceremony (the mortuary game "Mavrukh"). Such actions served as the basis for the further development of folk theater and drama among all peoples. Folk theater in a broad sense is unprofessional, however, all peoples had their own theatrical specialists: ancient Roman mimes, Western European stud men, jugglers, Russian buffoons, as well as puppeteers from different countries. Uniting in groups (in Russia they were called "troops"), they wandered around the cities and villages. The repertoire consisted of plays of folklore origin, and later adaptations of professional plays and other literary works.

For a long time in Rus' there were buffoons: comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, trainers. They took part in folk rituals and holidays. There are proverbs about the art of buffoons (“Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon”), songs and epics. Their work was reflected in fairy tales, epics, in various forms of folk theater. They performed in places of folk spectacles, at fairs. Buffoons- wandering actors in Ancient Rus', who acted as singers, wits, musicians, performers of skits, animal trainers, acrobats. Buffoons have been known since the 11th century. and were especially common in the XV - XVII centuries. They were persecuted by ecclesiastical and civil authorities. (Big explanatory dictionary of cultural studies. Kononenko B.I. 2003)

Buffoons roamed Rus', amusing the people with their art. They were known in Kievan Rus, in Suzdal and Vladimir, in the Moscow principality, in the lands of Novgorod - from the banks of the Dnieper River to the Frozen Sea (Arctic Ocean). They danced, sang funny amusing songs, played the harp and domra, wooden spoons and tambourines, pipes, bagpipes and a violin-like whistle. The people loved buffoons, called them "merry fellows", told about them in fairy tales, put together proverbs, sayings: "I'm glad buffoons about their domras", "Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon", "A buffoon is not a comrade to the priest." The clergy, princes and boyars did not favor buffoons. The buffoons amused the people. In addition, the "merry fellows" more than once found a funny, sharp word about priests, monks and boyars. Already in those days, buffoons began to be pursued.

Free living was only in Veliky Novgorod and Novgorod land. In this free city they were loved and respected. A buffoon, a professional musician, was the hero of the Novgorod epics, the singer-gusler Sadko, who became a "trading guest". By playing the harp and singing, he conquered the kingdom of the sea - the Tsar of the Sea himself and his daughter, the beautiful princess Volkhova. Where between Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga there was a "drag", where ships had to be dragged along the ground, Princess Volkhova overflowed, flowed like a fast river. Thus, according to folk legend, the gusli singer Sadko opened the way for Novgorod ships to distant lands, to the "blue ocean-sea."

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

The more fun the art of buffoons was, the more they ridiculed the princes, clerks, boyars and priests, the stronger the persecution of the "merry fellows" became. Decrees were sent to towns, villages and villages - to drive buffoons, to beat them with batogs, not to allow the people to look at the "demonic games".

The fate of the Novgorod buffoons has also changed. Novgorod lost its liberty. The buffoons began to be pursued here too. Some were taken to Moscow, to royal and princely courts; others settled in the remote places of the Novgorod land. To this day, there are names in the north: the village of Skomorokhovo, Cape Skomoroshy. Other buffoons were very far from their native lands. They settled in central Russia and Siberia. Therefore, traces of buffoon songs can still be found throughout our country. But there are especially many of them in the former Novgorod land.

The images of buffoons and their music were included in the works of Russian classical composers: Glinka's Kamarinskaya, where a dance buffoon tune sounds, the dance of buffoons in the opera The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov; buffoons Skula and Broshka in Borodin's opera "Prince Igor" ...

The folk art of buffoons lives in a modified form full life today: puppet theaters, a circus with its acrobats, jugglers and trained animals, variety concerts with their well-aimed ditties and songs, orchestras and ensembles of Russian folk instruments have developed into separate large areas from the diverse cheerful art of buffoons.

In the second half of the XVIII century. there is a division in the field of art - according to the criteria of "high" and "low", and folk - into "urban" and "peasant". Urban folklore turned out to be closely connected with fair culture, for which the 18th century. also became Starting point development (by 1830 there were about 1,700 fairs in the country). The fair reproduced the atmosphere of a national holiday in the spirit of carnival, its space included taverns, taverns, entertainment centers, merchants, and idle people, vagabonds, thieves, and beggars found their place in it. The fair was the main means of realizing the urban folklore culture, one of the main fair spectacles was the farce.

BALAGAN, (Persian balahana - balcony) - 1. A light wooden building for fairground spectacles. 2. Folk theatrical spectacle with primitive stage technique; theatrical style based on imitation of this primitive technique (theatre) 3. Temporary wooden booth for fair trade. (Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935-1940). Balagans were traditionally arranged on the squares (the first booth was opened in Moscow in 1765 for free, which was associated with the establishment of the authorities to legalize urban festivities in order to equalize representatives of all classes in the right to them). The booth personified the center of festive fun and served as a complex embodiment of many types of arts: theater, pantomime, clowning and so on. The compositional principle of the farce, and in general, the fairground spectacle is typically grotesque: to combine in one phenomenon (at least in a place) the well-known, familiar and unusual, exotic (and the latter was often achieved through open deception and fraud). Unprecedented and exotic was given a natural preference. Giants, satyrs, bearded women, midgets, fish women were demonstrated. In the booths of St. Petersburg in the 1870-90s. a calf with two heads, the mummy of the “Egyptian king-pharaoh”, a savage from the island of Ceylon eating live pigeons, a man drinking kerosene and eating a glass, “spider lady”, “siren girl” with a mermaid tail and much more other. The ordinary was presented as unusual, the terrible turned into fun. The people went to the "spectacle" and the organizers of the fair did everything not to disappoint the public. Hence the use of surprise, shock, excess, so that the visitor left stunned, overwhelmed by an excess of emotions. An unthinkable riot of colors, noise, movement was created, merging into a "gigantic, monstrous, ugly chaos"6. Recalling his impressions of the first visit to the booth, A. Benois wrote: "... I left the booth drugged, intoxicated, insane ...". It was for such a resonance - not just getting pleasure or aesthetic emotions, but the production of shock, confusion of feelings, bringing to exaltation, combined with shock - that the fair actions were calculated. If the booth did not overturn private norms, then on the whole it was a genuine anti-world, full of bright colors, unusual costumes, flashy signs of taverns, attractions, the sound of hurdy-gurdies, trumpets, flutes, drums. Any color, sound, word was amplified by an excess that violated the limit of habitual perception.

Actually, the booth itself (from the Persian "balakhane" - the upper room, balcony) is a performance, a stage performance. In fact, his plot was barely outlined and had no particular significance, it only had to correspond to the general atmosphere of the fair of turmoil, confusion of concepts, disorder. The disorder actually was the "ordering" structure, according to which the fair life was organized. “Frantic pace”, “machine-gun shot of acrobatic stunts”, “elements of absurdity” - these are excerpts from newspaper announcements about the arlikinade of the English brothers Gunlon-Lee, who performed in a booth on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg in 1875-1877.

The puppet theater of Petrushka, which became a constant companion of the fair from the 1840s, turned out to be similar in composition. Despite the simplicity and primitivism, the "comedy" enjoyed constant success. Full of alogisms, absurdities, stupid fuss, it inspired the audience's sympathy and the fact that the protagonist in the course of action cracked down on persons personifying the highest order - a quarter policeman, a military commander, a doctor, i.e. made a desecration of the officially accepted order.

In addition to actions, the most important tool for influencing the mood of the public was the fair word. A farcical word is a joke or a story, a sharp and well-aimed statement addressed to the crowd, jokes. The latter is a continuous stream of jokes, sayings, word combinations formed by rhyming and alliteration.

This is a laughing monologue “about nothing”, the main thing is its continuity, since the termination of the monologue process, which holds the unity, the fusion of the background of the anti-world, immediately leads to its disappearance and return from laughter to care and seriousness. Jokes “destroys the meaning of words and distorts their external form”, “reveals absurdity in the structure of words”, i.e. turns semantic order into chaos. The solution of this problem is facilitated by rhyme, which allows one to line up words belonging to different, far from each other semiotic codes, but similar in sound; rhyme "stupefies" the word, desemantizes old meanings and creates new, unusual ones. At the same time, it marks the text, testifying that the world before us is invalid, buffoonish. Acting as a means of achieving a comic effect, rhyme creates morphological symbioses, connects the logically incompatible, giving rise to phrases - "monsters". The rhyming flow preserves the constant incompleteness, openness of the text, allowing you to endlessly attach words with a new meaning to it.

Another type of performance at the fairs was a mobile picture theater - a paradise. This name is associated with the content of pictures from biblical and gospel stories. RAJEC- in the performing arts, the term has two meanings. 1. The outdated name of the upper tier of the theater, the same as the gallery. 2. Amusing panorama, a kind of popular entertainment at the fair festivities. Raek is a small box with holes in the front wall (often equipped with magnifying glasses), inside which a long strip with some images is rewound from one rink to another. The viewers watch through the holes in the picture, and the viewer, the owner of the panorama, moves the pictures and comments on them.

Raek was one of the most popular amusements that flourished during folk festivals throughout the 19th century. Its origin goes back to the large panoramas brought by foreign guest performers to Russia for farce festivities from about the last third of the 18th century. From here, most likely, the very name of the attraction has its origin: at the base of the panorama there was once the European so-called. "Paradise action" (Paradeisspiel), using biblical stories.

A viewing ticket cost from 1 kopeck. up to 5 kop. for the entire repertoire. At the same time, the plots of the Russian district were extremely diverse: from the biblical themes, Adam and his family were especially popular; heroes (Ilya Muromets, Mikula Selyaninovich and others); statesmen and famous people (Bismarck, Napoleon, Suvorov, Stepan Razin, dancer Fanny Elslert, Balakirev, etc.); battle scenes, in which the victories of Russian weapons were most often sung; view panoramas (Petersburg, Italy, France, Germany); historical events; collections of "freaks" and dwarfs; fashion; etc. Relatively small openings for viewing (especially if there were no magnifying glasses in them) did not allow viewers to read the inscriptions under the pictures, so the comments of the rider (the so-called "racea") became the main part of the amusing panorama. These were witty jokes that widely used various artistic techniques and are close to many small folklore genres. Fragments of songs, proverbs, sayings, jokes, fables, etc. were used here. Functionally, racea is close to the cries of merchants and genres based on formulas (calendar sentences, chants, etc.). In farcical practice, there were two types of rayshny commentary-races: emotional and deliberately dispassionate, in which the rayshnik emphasized semantic accents with his voice. Onomatopoeia was widely used in races, which helped to "revive" a static picture, to give it an effective character.

Description of work

Folklore (eng. Folklore, lit. - folk wisdom) - folk art. In collective artistic creativity, the people reflect their labor activity, social and everyday way of life, knowledge of life and nature, cults and beliefs. Folklore embodies the views, ideals and aspirations of the people, their poetic fantasy, richest world thoughts, feelings, experiences, protest against exploitation and oppression, dreams of justice and happiness. Absorbed into centuries of experience popular masses, folk art is distinguished by the depth of artistic development of reality, the truthfulness of images, the power of creative generalization. Folk art was the historical basis of the entire world artistic culture. One of the types of folk art is the folklore theater, presented in different types and forms of dramatic performance.

Content

1. Folk art. Folklore theater..............................................3
2. Buffoons ............................................... .................................................3
3. Balagan…………………………………………………………………….5
4. Rayok……………………………………………………………………...7
5. Features of Paradise verse………………………………………….9
6. Types of folk puppet theater…………………………………..10
6.1. Petrushka Theatre. The image of Petrushka……………………………11
6.2. Puppet theater Vertep………………………………………….15

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

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

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

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

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

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

BALAGAN

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

THEATER OF MOVING PICTURES (RAYOK)

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

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

Petrushka Theater

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

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

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

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

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

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

nativity scene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The type of folk or folklore theater includes performances of buffoons, the Petrushka puppet theater, booths, raek, nativity scene, and finally folk drama.

The origins of the Russian folklore theater go back to ancient times, to ancient Slavic holidays and rituals. Their elements were dressing up, singing, playing musical instruments, and dancing. In ceremonies and rituals, they united in a certain sequence into a single action, spectacle. The first actors in Rus' are considered buffoons. Buffoons were divided into settled and stray, buffoons-puppeteers, buffoons with a bear. Groups of wandering buffoons carried folk art around the country, sang mischievous songs, and performed buffoons. Buffoons proved to the audience at the fairs "Bear Comedy", with the participation of a real bear. Buffoons expressed the thoughts and feelings of the people, ridiculed the boyars and priests, glorified the strength and prowess of the heroic, the defenders of the Russian land. The authorities treated the buffoons as rebels. In 1648, a royal decree was issued on the prohibition of buffoonery. However, neither the authorities nor the church succeeded in eradicating the buffoons.

The emergence of puppet theater is associated with buffoon games. The main character was determined - mischievous and perky Parsley. It was a favorite hero of both buffoons and spectators, a mischievous daredevil and a bully with a sense of humor and optimism, he dressed the rich and the authorities. The comedy about Petrushka remains a monument of oral folk drama, although it never had a permanent text and existed in many variants and improvisations.

In addition to the Petrushka theater in Russia, especially in its southern regions, the nativity scene - a special portable wooden box in which dolls made of wood or other materials could move. The "mirror of the stage", open to the public, was usually divided into 2 floors. A miniature bell tower was built on top of the roof, on which a candle was placed behind glass, which burned during the performance, giving the action a magical, mysterious character. The puppets were attached to a rod, the lower part of which was held by a puppeteer hidden behind a box. On the upper floor of the den, biblical stories were usually played out, on the lower floor, everyday, most often comedic.

With the development of trade in Russia, with the growth of cities and the popularity of Russian fairs, fair spectacles are gaining momentum. One of the most common was Raek. It existed until the end of the 19th century and was an indispensable part of the festive folk entertainment. Raek is a small instrument with two magnifying glasses inside. Inside it, a long strip with a home-grown image of different cities, great people and events is rewound from one rink to another. Spectators are looking through the glass… Raemnik not only showed pictures, but also commented on them, touching upon burning issues, and told proverbs. Raek was very popular among the people. The main thing in the successor was that it included 3 types of influence on the public: image, word and game. Raek entered the history of folklore theater as one of the brightest, original phenomena of folk art culture.

Along with the district committee, it is gaining wide popularity booth. In the 18th century, not a single fair could do without a booth. They were built right on the square from boards and linen. Inside there was a stage, a curtain and benches for spectators. Outside, the booth was decorated with garlands, signs, and when electricity appeared, with multi-colored garlands. The booth troupe, as a rule, consisted of itinerant actors. They gave several performances a day. Basically, these were interludes, tricks, clowning. Singers, dancers, and just "outlandish people" performed here.

Folk dramas were put on holidays in villages and cities. These were original performances on historical, change houses, religious themes and plots. They were played in a spacious hut, sheds or in the open air. The texts were created by unknown authors, were works of oral folk art. These folk dramas were usually performed by people from the people, peasants, artisans.

Along with the Russian folklore theater, there were performances close to it in form, held during church holidays in Orthodox churches. They are called liturgical actions. The heyday of liturgical actions dates back to the 16th century. Liturgical performances were staged mainly on biblical subjects.

1. Temporary building for folk entertainment, fair shows (theatrical performances, districts, "rooms of laughter", exhibitions of "freaks", mobile menageries, trade tents, etc.). In this sense, the term was established in the 18th century. and was widespread until the beginning of the 20th century.

2. The genre of a democratic fair performance is a rude, often comic spectacle with satirical motives, based on rhyming jokes, jokes, and equipped with various sound effects. It got its name from the building-booth. It also existed in its pure form from the 18th century. until the beginning of the 20th century.

3. The modern theatrical genre based on the stylization of folk farce performances.

4. In a figurative sense - something rude, frivolous, not corresponding to high artistic taste. This contemptuous attitude towards the farce was established in the 19th century, when fairs and folk festivals, which occupy a very prominent place in the life of the urban population of Russia, nevertheless did not become the subject of deep professional research. Later, from the beginning of the 20th century, serious art criticism and cultural studies appeared, considering the farce in the context of the history of world culture (A. Leifert, Yu. Lotman, M. Bakhtin, etc.). Balagan was also seriously studied by theater practitioners (V. Meyerhold, A. Blok, etc.). The fundamental attitude to the booth, as well as to the entire folk theater, was radically revised. However, in everyday speech, the negative sound of the word has been preserved; however, in this sense it is no longer used in relation to the theater (for example: "Turn a serious meeting into a farce").

THE ORIGINS OF THE BALAGAN

The origins of the booth lie in ancient times, in early pagan rites and rituals. The succession of farcical spectacles is especially evident in the campaigns of shamans, in primitive totemic holidays dedicated to the animal - the patron of the tribe. It was there that one of the fundamental acting techniques of the booth was born - the art of onomatopoeia. On the one hand, ritual shamans were able to convey a wide variety of natural sounds with their voices - the whistle of the wind, the sound of bird wings, the howl of a wolf, etc. On the other hand, participants in totemic holidays often spoke in altered voices (for example, falsetto) in order to hide the specific identity of the actor from their patron, just in case. Later, these techniques were transformed into the art of ventriloquism, extremely popular in the farce culture, and also into the squeaker, a special device for changing the voice, which was traditionally used by farce parsley actors. Totemic rites also gave rise to one of the most popular fair spectacles - "bear fun" (street comic performance of the so-called "leader" or "guide" with a bear).

The very principle of organizing temporary booths is undoubtedly associated with the desire of the secular and church authorities to regulate folk holidays, to introduce them into a certain framework - at least temporary. Precisely set dates were allocated for farce performances - as a rule, Maslenitsa and Easter festivities, trade fairs, etc. In the European cultural tradition, the mysteries that appeared in the 13th century became the forerunner of the booth. from the church to the streets and squares, and, along with the plots of the Bible and the Gospel, included everyday interludes and comic numbers. By the middle of the 16th century, due to the disproportionately expanded comedic component of these performances, in almost all countries Western Europe mysteries were officially banned. The only "ruler" of temporary buildings erected for the holiday for the amusement of the public was the farce (commedia dell'arte, carnivals, etc.). The democratic nature of the farce aroused keen interest on the part of the poor population of all Europe.

BALAGAN IN RUSSIA

In Russia, the first farce was associated with the name of Peter I. In 1700, Peter ordered to build in Moscow, in Kitay-gorod, a wooden "comedy mansion", which was opened two years later by a touring troupe of German comic artists. It was the first public theater where everyone could come to the performances. Since that time, booths have firmly entered the tradition of Russian official holidays.

A variety of buildings were erected for the festive festivities that took place in specially designated places (in Moscow - on Razgulyai, on the Neglinnaya and Moscow Rivers; in St. Petersburg - on the Neva, Fontanka, Admiralteyskaya Square) - carousels and swings. Among them are booths proper, which, depending on total, fame of the owner, etc., were located in one, two or three lines. Large rich "theatres" lined up on the first, on the second and third - smaller and poorer booths. They were made of boards, the roofs were made of coarse canvas (row) or burlap according to the big top principle. The size and internal structure of the booth varied depending on the wealth of its owner and the specific purpose.

The smallest booths, the so-called. "columns" or "baststones" were built with the help of a pillar on which a bast canopy was held. They demonstrated a variety of "curiosities" - dwarfs, giants, "hairy women" and other "freaks". One of the most popular and traditional spectacles is the "Spider Lady", constructed using a system of mirrors and black velvet: a furry torso with spider legs, crowned with a woman's head, which answered questions from the public. The “African cannibal”, devouring a live pigeon in front of the audience, also enjoyed unconditional success (in fact, it was a stuffed bird, inside of which a bag of cranberries was placed). In tiny booths (or even just on the street) there could be fortune tellers, puppeteers with Petrushkas and puppets, and panoramas-raiki (moving pictures that became the forerunner of hand-drawn animation). Mobile menageries were sheds closely lined with cages with animals.

But the main festivities were large theatrical booths with a stage, a curtain and an auditorium. The collapsible stage-scaffold was precisely calculated and was assembled every time from the same parts. In front of it there was a place for several musicians. Further - several open boxes and two or three rows of chairs, separated from the rest of the seats by a blank barrier. Behind them - the so-called. "first places", seven to eight rows of benches with a separate entrance; "second places" - another ten or eleven rows located on the rising floor. These benches were so high that those sitting did not reach the floor with their feet. The auditorium of the so-called. "corral" - standing places, separated by a barrier, where the poorest public stood. Such a farce could accommodate up to 1000 spectators. After several large fires, the police forbade the use of stoves in the wooden buildings, the only source of heat was kerosene lightning lamps placed on iron brackets and used to illuminate the stage. Therefore, winter booths were sheathed with two rows of boards, between which sawdust was poured.

Booths were decorated with flags, signs, paintings, posters. A balcony was built in front of the booth, the so-called. “Raus” (German: Raus, from heraus - out), from which the “grandfather-raeshnik” invited the audience to the performance. It was, perhaps, the most difficult farce profession - the popularity of the spectacle, and hence the financial collection, directly depended on the improvisational skill and wit of the raeshnik. Sometimes separate scenes from the performance or specially prepared clown interludes were played on the rous, which gave rise to a separate “balcony” dramatic genre, which was also called the raus.

Each performance lasted from 10–15 minutes (in small booths) to 30 minutes, sometimes an hour (in large booths). Performances usually started at noon and lasted until 9 pm. Thus, every day there were at least 6 performances (in small booths - up to 30). During the performances in the auditorium there was a brisk trade in seeds, nuts, gingerbread and other food.

Theatrical performances consisted of several numbers, divided into three sections. In the first of them, as a rule, circus acrobatic and gymnastic numbers were shown - trapeze work, tightrope walkers, power attractions, etc.; in the second - scenes from folk life; in the third, harlequinades and pantomimes, comic, melodramatic or heroic. Plays from the repertoire of the folk theater were staged here ( Comedy about Tsar Maximilian etc.), dramatizations of chivalric novels, later popular literary works(up to Pushkin, Tolstoy, Lermontov).

This direction in the last third of the 19th century. It was especially brightly presented in the largest St. Petersburg farce theater of A. Alekseev-Yakovlev "Entertainment and Benefits", where dramatizations and live pictures based on Krylov's fables, Nekrasov's poems, Gogol's stories, Ershov's and Pushkin's tales, Ostrovsky's plays were shown. True, all these works were adapted to the festive atmosphere of the festivities - they were built according to the principles of brevity, optimism and brightness.

In Moscow, the farce theater of M. Lentovsky "Skomorokh" worked in the same vein, the repertoire of which included plays by A. Ostrovsky, A. Pisemsky, A. K. Tolstoy. It was "Skomorokhu" who gave his play for staging The power of darkness and L.N. Tolstoy.

Thus, the theaters "Entertainment and Benefits" and "Skomorokh" actually became a transitional link between the actual farce spectacle and educational folk theaters.

At the beginning of the 20th century the aesthetics of the booth was creatively rethought and became central to many artists, writers, poets, composers, directors. All art Silver Age literally permeated with images of a farce brought to a different aesthetic and semantic level. Balagan breaks into the poems and poems of A. Akhmatova and V. Bryusov; pay tribute to him

Tatyana Shabalina

The folk theater is a phenomenon of spontaneous folk art. In their unrestrained productions, not constrained by any framework, interactively, together with the audience, the actors, barkers, raeshniks played a real extravaganza.

Hurry! People's Theatre!

Balagan, nativity scene, rayek, Petrushka - everything that makes a Russian person happy
Here it is - a noisy, colorful fair! It is also a big stage of folk entertainment, a stage that does not know the spatial distinctions of an actor-spectator, a stage on which an action unfolds that is not subject to the plan of any director. And what, who only on it happened, you will not see! Buffoons, clowns, puppeteers, bear leaders, farcical "grandfathers" barkers, a paradise theater with outlandish city-countries, the tyrant king Maximilian - the hero of folk dramas - is right there interspersed with enchanted people, not squeezed by a three-dimensional image, surround sound, not swallowed by huge screens - the standards of modern leisure.

“Hey you, sisters, collect rags!”

Yes, “come here,” where spectacles and games are folklore theater in all its glory and eccentricity! Here is the continuity of the traditional, once obligatory ritual costumes for Christmas time, Shrovetide, Trinity, Kostroma, Ivan Kupala, here are biblical motifs, spiritual verses, tunes of lyrical songs, here is the influence of the popular print, foreign wandering artists, and later works fiction, and professional stage productions. Here is a theatrical performance that has absorbed the history and culture of the country from time immemorial pagan times, when they dressed up, acted, thereby performing a magical ritual aimed at ensuring the productive forces of the earth and man. Having lost its magical producing meaning, the rite did not disappear, but became a game, amusement, the basis for the folk theater, which continued to absorb and rethink historical processes, whether it was the reforms of Peter I, educational activities Catherine II, democratic moods of the 19th century, which determined the cultural image of tsarist Russia. Everything and everyone got to the fairground, displayed in a kaleidoscope of amusements, altered by folklore tradition and imprinted with paradise verses, cries of booth touts, biblical scenes from the nativity scene, Petrushka's biting jokes, replicas from folk dramas.

“Eh-va, so many booths have been built for your pockets ...”

With these words, the bearded man came out and called out to the raus - a balcony built in front of the booth, went out in a red calico shirt, in winter in a sheepskin coat. He went out to invite the public, who scurried past the booth or stared at the colorfully painted booth poster. And in that poster there are magicians, strongmen, dancers, gymnasts, puppeteers, folk choirs, plays! Fair booths - just temporary structures for theatrical, variety, circus performances - literally attracted everyone who found himself on the market square. First of all, they attracted and at the same time frightened the farce "grandfathers" - barkers, shouted, whose loud and caustic exclamations, from which "bellies burst", fascinated, fascinated from young to old. “But I’ll say this, gentlemen: throwing gingerbread and a nut is a great sin. Better rest and give me six kopecks!”

“Look at the Turkish battle, where Aunt Natalya is fighting ...”

This is how the grandfather-raeshnik voiced during the festivities, standing not far from the booths and the carousel with a small box in his hands. This box is the raek - the theater of mobile pictures. Two magnifying glasses are mounted in the box on the front, and inside a long strip of home-grown images of various cities, prominent personalities, great events, and, at first, biblical stories about Adam and Eve (hence the name paradise - paradise) is rewound from one rink to another. The task of the rayshnik is to move the pictures for the amusement of viewers who have paid “a penny from the snout”, and accompany each new image with intricate sayings-comments, the so-called rayshny verses. “But look, gentlemen, the battle of Sedan: the Germans beat the French and take Napoleon prisoner. The French put down their guns and sabers and asked for forgiveness.”

“I traded in stone, wind, brick and had nothing to do with it ...”

Petrushka shouts, he is Pyotr Ivanovich Uk-susov, he is Pyotr Petrovich Samovarov, he is Vanka Retatuy - the hero of the folk puppet theater, the hero-reasoner, hero winner in a red shirt, a cap with bells, in smart boots. A character with a big hooked nose, a laughing mouth, a protruding chin, a hump or even two humps, on the back and on the chest. A puppet hero without a body, with a skirt sewn on from below, with a cardboard head and hands into which the puppeteer puts his index, thumb and middle fingers. The puppeteer, the soul of Petrushka, who was always with the bear leader, tied a woman's skirt with an inset hoop around his waist, pulled it up so that the skirt covered it with his head, like a curtain, and the puppeteer himself could calmly move his arms behind her, put the dolls up and play comedies in which Petrushka invariably denounced and defeated everyone and everything: priests, police, merchants, landowners, and even the devil and death, while remaining unscathed.

“Dear musicians, play dances for us!”

You can hear Arisha exclaiming, a minor character in the crib puppet drama "King Herod", played out in the lower tier of the den - a portable box, often in the form of a house, church, iconostasis, divided into two floors. In the upper part, "heavenly", pasted over with blue paper on the inside, decorated with images of Nativity scenes on the back wall, dramas of religious content were played out. And in the lower part, “earthly”, decorated with bright paper or foil, with a throne installed in the middle of the stage, in contrast to the upper one, everyday scenes unfolded, sketches that denounced and ridiculed topical, pressing problems.

Slots were provided in the bottom of the box and in the shelf dividing the box into two parts, through which the puppeteer could, imperceptibly to the public, move the rods on which the motionless puppets were attached - the characters of vertep dramas - puppets made of wood or clay, decorated and dressed in paper or cloth clothing. It was possible to move the rods with the puppets along the box, the puppets could turn from side to side, enter and exit the stage through doors, special slots made on the right and left in both tiers.

"Hey there! Wipe your eyes drunk! You will see Tsar Maximilian!”

“The Imaginary Master”, “The Boat”, “Tsar Maximilian”, “Mavrukh” - the repertoire of folk drama is not so great, but very diverse, due to the variability of performance, the transformation of plots, the combination of several plots into one, inclusion in one or another play excerpts from literary works, song folklore, historical legends. But even this is far from the whole feature of folk dramatic art, which does not know the concept of a stage, played out by craftsmen folk actors in any hut or booth during festive times, played out without scenery, props, backstage, with minimal props, or even without it at all. The folk theatre, conditional inside and out, not knowing the laws of the unity of time and place, assumes active participation, co-creation of performers lined up in a semicircle, and spectators standing right there, in close proximity to the theatrical action taking place. Dynamism, lack of verbal pauses and procrastination in actions, vivid self-characteristics of the characters, addressed to the audience, helped to recreate the place, time, conditions of events, thereby enchanting, leaving no doubt about everything that was happening.

The proscenium, proscenium, stage, backstage, scenery, through which we see theatrical art today, make us and our world even more conditional, despite such vain attempts to overcome the gravitating convention of time, place, action and perception. To hear the insolence of Petrushka, the screams, jokes of barkers and merchants, to look into a rayek or a nativity scene, you yourself need to be on the stage, a big stage-fair, a shopping area, and not in the auditorium, you yourself need to become the invincible Pyotr Samovarov, the fearless "grandfather" on rause in front of the booth: “And now let me give you the lowest respect, thank you for visiting. Come another time, we respect you and we’ll tell you one thing, that in the old days not only the bar and bar, but also the most first boyars were amused by this joke!