Home performances

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

In pre-revolutionary Russia, home performances were part of the everyday life of the nobles. From home theaters to live paintings, impromptu performances were very popular. Not a single summer cottage was complete without a show, the scenery was a garden, a pond or picturesque sunsets over the lake, as in Chekhov's The Seagull. Christmas performances with a baby sleeping in a manger, the Magi and Tsar Herod were traditional.

The novel by Alexander Blok and his Beautiful Lady, Lyubov Mendeleeva, began after a home play in which the poet played Hamlet and his young lover Ophelia. In Yasnaya Polyana home performances staged based on plays specially written by Count Tolstoy, and in the Yasnaya Polyana performances the people played tsars, and the count's family - commoners.

The remarkable traditions of home performance are a thing of the past after the revolution. Everything new is well forgotten old, so it's time to revive a beautiful tradition.

Choosing a stage. If a "real" theater begins with a hanger, then a home theater begins with a choice of a scene. The choice of the play, and the scenery, and the number of actors, and the number of spectators will depend on this. If you are going in the best aristocratic traditions to make a theatrical performance in the country or in the courtyard, where there is a lot of space, then you can handle complex plays with a large number of characters. At least put on "War and Peace".

If you have only a tiny odnushka at your disposal, you can replace the performance with "living pictures", representing a small excerpt from a work or a painting by famous artists.

Alena, 27 years old:

- My friends and I spent the weekend in the village with my grandmother, when due to a hurricane the electricity was cut off for two days. We had already played a hundred times both in "crocodile" and in "association", when suddenly my sister pulled out such and such an old dress, a scarf from her grandmother's closet, wrapped herself up, lit a candle and began to read Tatyana's letter to Onegin. We all got into the game, and my then boyfriend and I showed the final scene of Romeo and Juliet. At the phrase “Oh greedy, you drank everything”, the audience laughed like crazy, because just the day before Igor went over a little with alcohol.

Since then, always, if we are going to our cheerful company, we show such small excerpts from our favorite works. Who knows, maybe one day we will swing at a home performance.

Play. If your performance is timed to coincide with any holiday, then you can choose something thematic for staging: for example, "The Nutcracker" for New Year's Eve.

In general, a home play (and the role of a home director) is good because you are given complete freedom of action. Romeo and Juliet didn't die, but got married and had a bunch of children? Please! Did the three sisters still go to Moscow? As much as you like!

There is only one piece of advice you can give: do not take a scenario that is too tragic with a sad ending. Of course, we can all be drama queens if we want to, but for the debut, Pygmalion is still preferable to King Lear.

Well, if you have a certain literary talent, then you can write a script for your favorite work of art and stage your own play based on it.

Larisa, 34 years old, mother of 6 children:

- Every Christmas, my children and I put on a small play dedicated to the birth of Jesus. My husband and I portray Mary and Joseph, the boys are the Magi, the sweetheart daughter is the Christmas star, and one of the smallest is a baby. Previously, the little ones almost arranged a fight because of the main role, so now we have an agreement: whoever behaves best during the year will be in the manger. Here is such a cunning educational move.

Casting. When choosing a play, you need to take into account the number of potential actors, so that later you do not have to call your friends with a plaintive “Waa-a-asenka, come on, you will be our hero-lover”. As a last resort, episodic characters can be played by the same person

The number of people employed in the performance can be calculated using the formula "cast + 1". "+1" is a director, prompter, sound engineer and illuminator all rolled into one.

When staging a simple play, "+1" may not be necessary, and you can also take part. But if the play is complex, in several acts, you will have to forget about acting fame. If the scene still beckons you, then entrust the directing to one of your older relatives - your mother or grandmother will gladly take over the command of the parade.

Props. In the manufacture of decorations, our faithful assistants are stationery and grocery stores. We are interested in grocery stores as a source of various boxes, boxes and other thick cardboard, from which we can make screens by painting them or pasting them with photographic paper.

In specialized stores, you can buy any carnival costume. If you buy costumes not on the eve of Halloween or New Years, when the modest dress of the statistician can undermine the entire budget of the performance, you can even save money.

If you know how to sew at least a little, then enough beautiful fabric and a few stitches to get the dress of an empress or a grand lady. Moreover, making a crown out of shiny paper is a matter of ten minutes.

Did you want to be an actress as a child?

	Yes, of course, and now I also want to.
	I wanted to, but it was fleeting, not serious.
	No, there never was such a desire.
	I do not remember.

Important little things:

- Curtain (it can be made from curtains);

- Programs. The main thing is to indicate the name of the performance, a summary and the cast;

- Intermission and buffet - the kitchen is quite suitable for these purposes.

Olga, 30 years old, mother of two children:

- You can arrange performances with the very minimum of materials at hand! The main thing is the actors. Once on vacation, my children and I put on the "Golden Fish" - right on the beach. The most fun of all was the "fish" that was dragged in my pareo. Well, and vacationers who were dying of laughter, looking at my artists.

“The world is a theater, the people in it are actors,” William Shakespeare once said. “And the troupe is no good,” added Oscar Wilde later.

You have the opportunity to confirm the opinion of one and refute the words of the other. At least within the framework of a single apartment.