“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”. It is difficult to disagree with this famous aphorism of William Shakespeare. Indeed, each of us really plays a role in this life. People love and go to the theater. But not everyone knows how it appeared.

The new kind of art was born in ancient Greece in 534 BC. At that time, the Athenians dressed up in goat skins and various garments, gathered choirs of “satyrs”, organized festivals and mysteries dedicated to the patron gods. In particular, songs of praise, which were called dithyrambs, were sung to Dionysus, the god of vegetation and winemaking. The celebrations took place several times a year. At first, only the choir sang, but later, the actor-declaimer (commentator), who entered into dialogue with the choir, began to appear. A little later, a second actor appeared, and then the third one. And they communicated with each other, which created the dramatic action. Genres began to emerge: tragedy (originated from the chorus of “satyrs”, translated from Greek “tragos” means “goat”, and “ode” means “song”) and comedy (“komos” means “a merry procession or celebration in honor of Dionysus”, and “ode” – “song”). The roles were played only by men in masks, there were no decorations. The plots were written mainly based on legends and myths. As the theater developed, songs began to be sung not only about Dionysus, but also about characters, such as Oedipus, Hercules, Theseus and many others.

For more than 2,500 thousand years, the theater worldwide has changed and transfigured a lot. The scene smoothly switched to another form – digital. The Culture Online will talk about several modern theater formats, and give examples of the portal projects.

You haven’t seen “Alice in Wonderland” like this yet. The symbiosis of stage art and high technology: interactive animation of virtual characters in real time. The project takes the actor into the space of Lewis Carroll’s famous fairy tale, and allows him/her to play a character, performing their actions on the display. The VR scene created in the EV Toolbox constructor is combined with the coordinates of the real location, where the actor is in a special mockup suit. Thus, viewers see on the display the character’s actions and movements to be controlled by a person in real time.

Another unusual format of the modern theater has been acquired by the project “A.I.Q.  TEST:  The easiest test for determining the artificial intelligence quotient”. This is a one-viewer digital performance in format of the questionnaire. In this production there will be no scenery, no stage, no actors, no images of them, no voice. Your interlocutor will be just a test. The spectacle entirely consists of questions and, of course, your answers to them.

Video version of the play “Peer Gynt.  Three Short Stories” based on the play with the same name by Henrik Ibsen. In this performance of the State National Theater of the Republic of Karelia, talented actors from Russia and Finland took part. The shooting took place in the Ruskeala, the beautiful mountain park, in the Italian quarry. For the show, the mobile stage platform equipped with special lighting and sound devices, as well as the display was installed. Individual episodes were filmed in the unique landscape of the park. The audience will see interesting interpretation of the open-air performance, and will get a real pleasure.

There are innovative ideas, due to which anyone can create their own theater and realize all their creative abilities. The Online Theater video contest is a large theater show organized by the Novosibirsk State Regional House of Folk Art. The project brought together more than a thousand participants of any age from different regions of Russia. The event involved individual performers and theater groups who demonstrated their productions, posted their works in the Internet, and the jury determined the winners. After the contest, a large platform of like-minded people was formed in Vkontakte, where group members learn information on new contests and projects.

The modern world offers us many different options for how to touch theatrical life. For such a long period of time, this beautiful kind of art has retained its base – the actors’ on-stage play. I’d like to reflect what the theater will be like in 1-2 thousand years? It remains only to dream up and hope that actors’ live performance will exist even then.

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