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THEATRE AND MASS MEDIA: NOW AND THEN

D. Khaustova

Abstract

Traditionally, mass media have been viewed as channels for the dissemination of public information. With effective strategies, mass media can be a platform for diverse and dynamic two-way flows of information enabling better social and individual decisions. Most papers and training courses entitled ‘Theatre and Mass Media’ consider the media specificity of the theatre itself in terms of the adaptation of canonical plays for cinema or/and television. But there are other dimensions, too. First, the performative theatre has to be considered as a medium for communication. The contemporary understanding of theatre as a mixed medium, a locus where various other media are brought together in acts of mimesis, is a relatively recent development. It wasn’t until the late 17th century that the word ‘theatre’ came to indicate dramatic performances as a branch of art, or as an institution; the drama. Since the development of technologies for reproduction and mass distribution, theatre thinkers have emphasised theatre’s differences as a medium. Theatre is neither a film nor a television series. What works on a stage doesn’t work or works differently anywhere else. When the television and film were developed as more effective media than theatre for the presentation of realism, theatre practitioners shifted their focus to the symbolic and metaphorical area. As an older medium, the way theatre avoids obsolescence is through adaptation and reinvention of itself and its message. There is another dimension in the theatre vs mass media relation. In various cultures, critical analysis of plays and performances and theatre journalism can play different roles in the theatre process. In Russia, theatre critics had for many years been not only respected by the dramatists, directors, managers, and actors, but very much influential in terms of the public appreciation of theatre productions. Names of the contemporary Russian theatre critics and historians as Alexey Bartoshevich, Boris Lyubimov, Vidas Silyunas, Dmitry Trubotchkin, Grigory Zaslavsky are known not only in Russia but also abroad. Still, ‘thick’ theatre journals gradually lose their positions, and theatre practitioners claim that they consider critical essays rarely: modern life and economy make them think first of all of the opportunities to get full house rather than of the academic criticism. Finally, we should consider mass media that grow rapidly and irresistibly, namely – social networking websites. A list of major active social networking websites contains hundreds of sites, Facebook and Instagram being most popular (visited) with audiences of 280-300 million people each. Is social networking an opportunity for the theatres or is it simply a modern ‘must do’? The article considers experiences of the Royal National Theatre in London, the Vakhtangov Theatre and the Maly Theatre in Moscow, discusses the rational for inviting networkers to step inside the rehearsal rooms, watch famous videos, and express their opinions on Facebook, Instagram sites and other social networking websites.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/6.2/S27.075

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