The idea of a street performance was first implemented in Sevastopol
in 1994, during the Chersonesus Games Theatre Festival; the performance
was called Description of a Monster. Subsequent performances in the UKMA
courtyard in Kyiv include Coming Home on September 1, 1995 (produced by
V. Bilchenko), Opus No. 4 on October 16, 1995, Opus No. 5 on June 20, 1996
(with first participation by UKMA students), and Marko from Hell on June
28, 1998 (Convocation Day). The theatre also performed a Street Concert
in October 1998 at the Golden Lion Festival in Lviv. Director – Anatoli
Petrov.
Street theatre reflects and materializes mentality of people and philosophy
of time. It could be politically-promoting, or intellectually-entertaining
and thus gaining the maximum influence on audience. Due to its more or
less abstract, common and simplistic images, street theatre is able to
transmit to the “simple viewer” the most complex concepts, problems and
situations of today’s life. Gathering a crowd of random citizens, street
theatre frees the souls of people, cleanses their instincts, teaches how
to exist comfortably in a community.
«In European countries, the tradition of carnivals and street happenings,
going back to the Middle Ages, still survives even in today's television
era. In Ukraine television has taken possession of the people. What can
oppose it? The street performances by the Experimental Theatre are an attempt
to win over the spectating masses in the street, to switch their attention
to live events and even to have them participate in them». - Larysa Briukhovetska. |
