Fragment of the book street theater

FEATURES A STREET THEATER PERFORMANCE BY THE EXAMPLE
 AESTHETICS OF THE ITALIAN THEATER



ABSTRACT :  The article focuses on investigation  the concept of street theater in the work of the brilliant Italian director Dario Fo.
My literary pseudonym for foreign websites - Viola Vatel.
E-mail - 007dega@gmail.com.


KEY WORDS :  Dario Fo; the aesthetics of street theater; society; democracy; the historical heritage; world view.




"Inheriting the medieval jesters, blames the power and authority and protects the dignity of the oppressed" - such is the wording of the Nobel Committee, sounded in 1997 with the presentation of the Italian for Literature Prize satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer Dario Fo.
The true son of Italian humor and hypocrisy, born in oral forms of folk art in the north in the small alpine village of San Jano in the poorest worker-peasant family with the ideals of anti-fascism, Dario started in the first half of the twentieth century satirical monologues in the spirit of folk storytellers on the radio. In 1953 he left the faculty of the Polytechnic Institute of Architecture in Milan's Brera Academy, where Dario studied painting, and creates a variety theater for which writes farces, tries himself as an artist and writer in some movies: all this creates in him a desire to create his own theater. In 1959 it appears "Troupe Dario Fo - Franca Rame", for which the sparkling talent of the writer creates a lot of farcical comedies, containing a satire on bourgeois society and in fact reviving the medieval genre of street areal Italian comedy (commedia dell arte).
In the mists of time, in popular roots theater of folklore first professional "skilled theater" in Europe with the elements of direction and the basics of acting, born of the extravaganza of Italian carnivals with their clowns, masks, mimes, expressive humor and sparkling improvisation, splendor and brilliance of the costumes and direct response temperamental southern spectators, willingly becoming members of street theater - this throughout originates Dario Fo and carries it all in the cultural life of the modern metropolis.
It is natural to mention the proximity of street theater and circus arts on extreme emotional impact on the viewer, the energy concentration of the action and all the entourage of graphic means. Clowning is present in both art forms.
At all times and for all peoples of street performances have traditionally been free, and very often the viewer - actor improvised performances - he received a small gift, or remuneration for participation in the presentation. This simple reception is always activated and the audience today an interactive feature street theater advertising technologies are used intensively.
Speaking about the aesthetics of street theater on the example of the Italian theater of Dario Fo, we can note that the funding of street theater was formed in two ways.The first method: Presentation will cover organization interested in public interest in large-scale action and pursuing its corporate objectives (the city administration, sponsors, workshops of artisans to advertise their products, the church).
The second way: street theater troupe puts the chamber performance at their own financial risk by offering the audience volunteered to pay for street performance, thereby determining the kind of the equivalent of the resulting aesthetic pleasure from what he saw. It is clear to any true opposition political satire theater and Dario Fo.
It is pertinent to mention and submission to public venues with paid entrance - from pop venues in the city parks to the famous Craig Theatre Arena Goldoni in Florence, taking its origin from the classical ancient Greek and Roman theaters with only their inherent unique view of the organization of performances.
Two types of funding of street theater identified two historical lines of development of this kind of theatrical art - "propaganda" and "opposition".
The complexity of the historical mutual coexistence "propaganda" trend of street performances and "opposition" trend reflected in the fact that very often they get in each other and are rarely found in its pure form, is constantly intersecting and interacting with each other.
The financial impact from public interest groups can lobby in the "opposition" towards some of the topics of presentations and, on the contrary, in the "propaganda" critical direction is formed within.
"Outreach" towards the beginning of the identified primitive rituals with their archaic desire to support the authority of the chief or shaman spells along with an abundant harvest, successful hunting or rain in a drought. It may be noted that in modern PR-technologies of the organization of mass street performances almost nothing has changed.

In totalitarian regimes such vivid emotional experiences and actions are often used by the authorities to distract people from the seditious thought: "Bread and circuses" - since Roman rulers allowed bad manipulate mass opinion. Middle Ages vividly reflected in the extraordinary religious Christmas and Easter processions, mysteries, and there was a period of penetration of street performances on biblical themes in the walls of Gothic cathedrals.
Then there are the first professional acting troupe of street theater. A characteristic feature of this historical period was that with the increase in national scale increased the scale of mass street theater performances, and thus increased the number of acting troupes serving these "outreach" activities.
The courtiers entertaining spectacle, especially popular in France, Italy and England in the Middle Ages and tested, usually outdoors landscaping palaces, became one of the directions of development of the theatrical phenomenon, but without the bright ideological overtones.
Street performances wandering actors - very ancient phenomenon as in Russia (clowning) and around the world. They marked the beginning of "the opposition" towards street performances, and with the formation of a professional theater events, street troupes began to unite in acting on the farm and community mutual basis.
Historically, the development of the "opposition" of the trend is very interesting and diverse in its manifestations. This was highlighted in the Italian Renaissance, whose theatrical street germ commedia dell 'arte was the basis for the development of the entire European theater.
Do not remain aloof from the political and social storms and representatives of Italian art in the twentieth century, and one of the most talented children of his people was and remains Dario: at the moment he 89 years old, but it's hard to believe. Political developments in the world of the late 1960s, especially the Vietnam War changed the director's position to his creativity: he broke with the commercial theater, ceased to be a "clown of the bourgeoisie" by going to the theater of the political - a movement that experienced in those years in Western countries its heyday.
Dario was a part of the cultural organization of the Italian Communist Party and with his new theater "Nuova Scena" has traveled all over the country, showing a presentation on the areas of simple villagers and factory workers. He wrote and directed is now in agitprop style comedy about the struggle of the proletariat against capital - but even this is not an easy period of his plays are filled with a farce, a compound of fiction and reality, buffoonery and grotesque. It is necessary to be aware of the perception of the Italian communist attitude toward fascism, deeply different from Russian, and even Soviet - in simple terms is explained by Bernardo Bertolucci in his epic film "The Twentieth Century", released in theaters in 1976.
In 1969, Dario made the Mystery-Bouffe on the subjects of the Gospels and the medieval chronicles, Italy, and other European countries - is considered by many critics and the public it is the product can be called the best of all created writer and director. Dario took to Scripture as to folklore, relying on apocryphal rather than canonical gospels.
The play, keeping the medieval tradition of Italian street performance, has an open structure and is easily extensible, interpreted, taking new subjects, scenes - easy game plot goes to chat with the audience, provoking discussion of contemporary politics.
Thus Dario creates a play of his life: from one year to change his outlook and changing dialogue with the audience, they even published versions of Mystery-Bouffe different from each other. The game plot over the past decade have visited all the leading politicians of the world and Italy. It should be noted that since 1970 Dario joined the extreme left position and created a new theatrical group "La Comune" independent economically and politically.Most often in theaters around the show another bright rapidly through the story and directing farcical work of Dario Fo "Accidental death of an anarchist" (1970).
And in 1982, the Italian genius creates a one-man show "Profanity fable" based on the popular farces of ancient masks, street theater, as always, was a huge public outcry. In general, the phenomenon of aesthetics Theatre Dario Fo can be understood in the context of modern cities as a litmus test of genuine democratic society and the political regimes that are currently in the country's power.
It is called the clown, admired, his hate and fear - which means that the brilliant actor, an interesting director, master of improvisation, and the most popular of living playwrights Italy lived a life not in vain, preserved medieval historical heritage of his people and instilling it into a modern stage the cultural life of cities.