ASPECTS OF PSYCHOTECHNICS IN THEATER AND IN VARIETY ART (COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)
Authors: Krypchuk Mykola 
Published: May 2023

The article investigates the specifics of the basic elements of psychotechnics in theater and variety art. The nature and variety of the artist’s psychotechnics is clarified and specified. The specific peculiarities and differences of the way of existence of a dramatic actor and a stage artist are determined. Specificity of performance in the variety turn, which uses a laconic arsenal of means of acting expression is characterized. The “foundation” of K. Stanislavsky’s entire system are the basic principles where the process of dramatic transformation of an actor into an image is crucial. The theater reformer was able to discover the secret of creating an everyday life in unrealistic conditions. In this sense, it is necessary not only to select the crucial elements of the performing arts, but also to synthesize them, to merge into a new “human soul” seeking for dramatic transformation. The purpose of the article is to determine the nature of actor psychotechnics in the theater and on the stage, its aspects. The experience of the Ukrainian variety shows proves that the tendency of combining acting skills and technical virtuosity of performing a variety turn of a particular genre, which are becoming relevant at the current stage of development of variety art as a whole, is actualizing. Many components of the variety artist’s profession are based on the general fundamental principles inherent in dramatic theater, musical theater and the circus. Stage attention is one of the most important elements of a person’s mental activity, which includes being focused and to focus consciousness on a particular object. Possession of our attention is connected with the activity of our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste), ability to think and act. However, if in dramatic theater the artist’s attention on stage can be both passive and active, then on the stage the artist’s attention is always suspended, since the short time frames of the performance and co-operative interaction with the public do not allow the artist to involuntarily perceive it. Therefore, the attention of the artist on the stage is always active. In a dramatic performance, a complex form of external-internal attention is used; not during the entire theatrical production, but in some individual moments of perfoming the role. And on stage the artist almost always uses this type of attention throughout the variety turn. Therefore, in order to successfully demonstrate the artist’s variety turn, it is necessary to have a complex form of external-internal attention, to be able to manage multidimensional attention at different concert venues, to have the ability to instantly and repeatedly switch the attention from the object on the stage to the audience and back. Thus, the “double world” of a variety art also influences this element of the actor’s internal technique creating a different structure of attention other than the art of theater. The author emphasizes that psychotechnics are the most important in the art of the actor. The artist in his or her psychophysical unity is for him/herself both the creator and the “tool”. According to the author of the study, in order to create favorable conditions for creativity, it is necessary to bring into proper condition the “tool” of the actor – his own organism. For this purpose it is necessary to improve the internal (mental) technique of the artist. The analysis of the problem made it possible to identify and classify the two main differences between variety art and theatrical art: first, it is a special system of communication between the artist and the auditorium; secondly, this difference is laconicism.