• Theatre Itself or the Theatre for the Audience: The Problem of Taking Part in the Participatory Performance

УДК: 792.09+792.073

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-2-87-105

EDN: LHQJMY

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Kristina N. Matvienko

Cand. Sc. in Art Studies, Head of Social Theatre Master’s Degree
Russian State Institute of Theatre Art (GITIS)
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: kristina.matvienko@gmail.com

Theatre Itself or the Theatre for the Audience: The Problem of Taking Part in the Participatory Performance

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of participation in socially engaged or participatory theatre projects. The purpose of the participatory projects is to provide the audience’s involvement both in the process and in the result. The process of creating participatory art is always complicated and non-completed at the same time. So the author of the article analyzes such important components as equality, representation of the oppressed or excluded people voices. One of the most important agenda for such a project is the idea of inclusion — ‘nothing about us without us’. The problem of participation is described from different points of view and combines aesthetical, ethical and political positions. The conclusion drawn by the author is that participation becomes one of the important categories not only for social theatre, if we define it separately, but for contemporary dramatic art itself. Participating as a process is always under the influence of different circumstances as inside of the project and outside, which is connected with the political and social climate. So we should include in our research many fields of the social sciences besides art but keeping art (theatre in our case) as the main issue.

Keywords

Participation, participatory art, social turn, relational practice, theatre of citizens, inclusive art.

For citation

Matvienko K. N. Theatre Itself or the Theatre for the Audience: The Problem of Taking Part in the Participatory Performance. Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2024, no. 2, pp. 87–105.

DOI: 10.35852 / 2588‑0144‑2024‑2-87-105

EDN LHQJMY

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Received: 07.10.2023

Revised: 23.04.2024

Accepted: 06.05.2024