THE ROLE OF PLASTIC SYMBOLS IN A DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE (TO THE EXPERIENCE OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)
Authors:   Art History, Head of Scientific Editorial Department, Senior teacher at Department of Choreography Direction, T. K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Urazymbetov D. D. ,   lenida@mail.ru,   https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8471-1405, Tsoy A. V. ,   master of art sciences, 1st year PhD student T. K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Department of «Direction choreography», Almaty, Kazakhstan; fannyannya@mail.ru; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4151-4441
Published: October 2020

In modern drama theater directing, there is a tendency to translate literary or verbal idioms into the language of the stage. In the space of the scene, every day, familiar expressions are recreated in the literal sense, and are read in the figurative sense. Drama theater directors strive to give symbolic meanings to the associative characteristics of certain events and situations. The theater has long used plastic and/or dance in its arsenal of artistic means to symbolize artistic images. Symbolists of stage art affirm the search for inner meanings in expression and attempts to make super reality visible. The desire of dramatic art to form a new stage language, which is based on the reorganization of the action, character, time and space, and the speech component of the play, becomes natural. The appeal of directors to the plastic nature of the actor, as one of the bright means of artistic expression in the structure of a dramatic performance, is supported by the nature of the multi-valued artistic and figurative specificity of the choreographic art’s language, which is a set of visual signs. Such visual and acoustic forms of stage action make it possible to trace the process of transformation of visible objects in the mind of the viewer before their projection into the subconscious. A symbol expressed in plastic language and focused on identifying internal emotional processes that are usually summarized in a dramatic performance by a word can be called the main typological characteristic of the interweaving of plastic and dance in the canvas of stage action. The modern theater considers the role of semantic physical activity, plastics and dance fundamental in the formation of the language of symbols. The authors offer an attempt to comprehend and compare the works of "Othello" by the Lithuanian director E. Nyakroshus and "Block" by the Kazakh director D. Zhumabayeva, where the role of plastic symbols in the formation of a special semantic performance’s structure is revealed through the prism of multi-episode, open play and physical actors action. The expressive symbol’s language of the analyzed performances of each director has its own characteristics and way of expression. The active appeal to the principles of performance organization and plastic symbolization of artistic images remains common for all. The completeness and autonomy of each individual scene together make the multi-episode performance, where there is no causal relationship between such independent acts. Involving the viewer in the situation of an open game used in the works of the mentioned directors allows the viewer to see the material in an unexpected angle, to engage in a situation of meaningful activity, in which the motive is not the result, but the gameplay itself. Specific physical actions of actors aimed at their direct application, without any additional subtext or intent, allow the actor to live these feelings in performances as their own, without any artificial addition. This all shows the similarity of directing techniques of Lithuanian and Kazakh theater figures. Along with acting, metaphors and symbols in plastic embodiment act as a constructive and semantic means in the context of the dramatic canvas. Appealing to the viewer's subconscious through plastic symbols, which play a huge role in creating the performance, contributes to the generation of complex associations, it appeals to the feelings of the viewer.