IV семестр

К сессии IV семестра необходимо:

1. Письменно перевести тексты в рабочей тетради, выписывая из них незнакомые слова в словарь с транскрипцией и переводом.

Text 1

1. The director of a company is responsible for the choice and production of the plays; he plans the action and effect of a play, and instructs the actors, actresses and technicians. 2. This season the the­atre showed only one new English play, while a year ago it presented three such productions. 3. The art of the stage designer, responsible for the decoration of the stage, helps the audience to understand the production better. 4. Few British theatrical companies have their own play-houses specially built for them. 5. When a play has been chosen for production, the director casts the play, that is chooses actors for the parts in it or distributes the parts. After that he rehearses the cast,that is trains the actors in what they are to do. 6. In order to cast a play the director usually arranges auditions, or hearings to test the voice, etc. of each actor. 7. Last season this company staged Shakespeare's "King Lear", and now they are putting on "Hamlet." 8. The theatre manager is responsible for the work of the theatre in all respects. 9. Each play at this theatre runs (that is 'is shown' or 'is on') only three weeks, after which another play is put on. If a play runs for a long time, we may say that it has a long run; if it runs three monts, for instance, we may say that it has a run of three months.

Text 2

British Theatre

1. Two systems of theatres. Professional theatres in Britain are of two types: subsidized and commercial. The first and much the older, is associated with the world's most famous theatrical companies, such as the Comedie Francaise¹ in Paris, the Burgtheatre² in Vienna, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Old Vic³ in London. Subsidized theatres are publicly owned and supported from public funds by a subsidy from the Arts Council of Great Bri­tain and/or the local authority. The essential characteristic" of these theatres is that they have a permanent company of directors, actors, designers, etc., and each season stage several productions, which are presented in repertory. For this reason such companies are called reper­tory companies.

The most well-known companies of this type are the Royal Sha­kespeare Company (which performs in its own playhouse — the Ro­yal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, and gives a season in the Aldwych Theatre in London), the National Theatre (whose play­house in London has the same name), and the English Stage Company (whose home is the Royal Court Theatre in London). Most provincial towns have a subsidized theatre. Among the better-known are the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, the Oxford Playhouse, the Nottingham Playhouse, the Bristol Old Vic, the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.

Why is the system of repertory theatres the better system of running a theatre?

2. Being a member of a true repertory company can be hard on a lazy actor, who may be playing five parts in one week and permanent­ly has to rehearse old productions or create new ones. But for actors who love their profession this is the better system! It enables them to display their talent, prevents them from going stale, and makes good acting easier, like playing regularly with a team. Nearly all the famous British actors and actresses, both old and new, started in the theatres that work on this system.

What is the difference between the subsidized and the commercial theatres?

3. Commercial theatres are those which receive no subsidy and therefore have to cover all their costs from the sale of tickets, which they hope to make a profit. A commercial theatre is simply a building, with no permanent company. It is privately owned, and run by a manager who arranges with a director to stage a particular play. The director, employed by the manager for a particular produc­tion, arranges auditions, casts the play, rehearses it, and then the pro­duction opens. Since only one production is put on at a time, it does not alternate with others, as in the subsidized theatre, but is presented every evening, sometimes twice, as long as enough tickets are sold to make it commercially profitable. When the income from the sale of tickets falls below a certain level, the play is taken off, and the theatre manager arranges for another production to be staged, usually by a dif­ferent director who chooses mainly different actors. Most of the London theatres are of this type. Since they are nearly all situated in the West End, this name is sometimes used to denote the London commercial theatres collectively.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the system of commercial theatres as compared to the system of subsidized theatres?

4. The one great advantage of this system is that it offers the play­wright and director a wide choice of actors and actresses. It encoura­ges "type-casting" — finding an actor exactly right in type for a part. In all other respects it is inferior to the permanent company and reper­tory system. A play may run two weeks — or two years, and sometimes it has to close after a few days. A very short run is bad for all people who have worked on the play. A very long run is bad for actors and audiences; for, if actors get stale, audiences see a mechanical perfor­mance.

Text 3

American theatre

What was the American drama like during the nineteenth century?

1. The American theatre is over 200 years old, but a distinctly native drama has been slow in developing. To be sure, there was from the beginning a steady and growing concern with specifically American subjects and characters, as may be seen from the Indian and Yankee plays, plays about slavery, plays dealing with the American Revolution and later with the Civil War. However no truly outstanding American playwright appeared before the 20th century. There are several reasons for this. During the 19th century, the American drama, like the drama in England, suffered from a certain cosmopolitanism, for it borrowed widely and freely from foreign playwrights.

Which theatre form is of truly American origin?

2. One of America's principal contributions to theatre art is the development of the 'musical' which is of truly American origin. The musical is a play with spoken lines, songs and dances. In the 1920s these plays were called 'musical comedies', and they told simple stories with happy endings.

It was not until the 1940s and the production of Oklahoma that musicals began to change in style and content. Although the basic plot of Oklahoma presented a simple love story, the characters in the play seemed more like real people, and, instead of the routine dancing, ballet was introduced. Since Oklahoma many successful musical plays have appeared on the American stage. They often deal with serious themes, accompanied by sophisticated music and dancing.

Who is considered the most important dramatist of the United States?

3. The first important American playwright of serious, non-musi­cal drama was Eugene O'Neill, who wrote deep and sensitive analyses of human relationships. Although he died forty years ago, O'Neill remains the country's most important dramatist. Other well-known modern American playwrights include Thornton Wilder, Lillian Hell-man, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Jack Gelber, Jack Richardson, Carson McCullers and Edward Albee.

Text 4

Street Festival

1. There's a long tradition of street performers in many countries, medieval times, dancers, singers, musicians and actors traveled around, performing at markets, fairs and festivals, wherever there was a crowd to watch them. The tradition is still alive, in many different forms.

2. In some countries, such as France, there are festivals every year, were performers entertain the crowds. These festivals still have the spirit of the medieval fairs. In Germany there's a different kind of festival; it's called "street theatre". Groups of actors and entertainers come from different countries to perform in the open air. Then there's the carnival, which in some ways is very different. The most exciting carnivals are the ones in South America and the West Indies, where people dress in fantastic, brightly coloured costumes and dance to music in the streets. Here, we look at the three different kinds of festi­val: the "saltimbanque" in France, the festival of street theatre in Germany, and the West Indian Carnival that takes place in Britain every year.

3. The town of Aix-en-Provence, in France, has a festival called the "saltimbanque" each year. The festival goes on for three or four days: everybody stops working (except the people who work in bars and cafes) and people come out on the streets and watch the perfor­mers. Everyone dresses up: ordinary people wear costumes of animals, fairies and monsters, or they just wear something strange and unu­sual. Children love the festival. Often, the street players paint the child­ren's faces for them. Many groups of actors and musicians entertain the crowds; there are mime shows, street bands, storytellers and short plays. There are lots of individual performers who thrill the people watching. There are fire eaters and tightrope walkers. In the evening, there are many musicians playing music from different countries. People dance and sing to the bands in the streets.

4. In Hamburg, West Germany, there's a different kind of festi­val. It's the International Street Festival. The festival is relatively new, but already many performers from Europe take part in it. There are performances in the underground; often the people on the platforms don't know what is happening when the performers start their act. The traditional figures from the fair and the circus are at the festival. Dancers perform German square dancing (with the dancers facing inwards from four sides)¹ to the music of bands. But there are also more modern performers who mix with the crowds, surprising people with their strange actions and their odd appearance. Jazz musicians play on a floating platform on the lake. You can see many different kinds of play. The idea of many artists is to show the history of street theatre and to bring back street theatre for audiences today. So you can see actors lead the audience to the main stage on stilts, or put on a play written in the time of the "comedia dell'arte", or something else original.

5. In London, there's a West Indian Carnival every year. People who originally came from the West Indies keep the tradition of the carnival alive. Street bands play on the platforms of lorries driving through the streets. In front of them, groups of dancers, wearing bright costumes, dance to music. The crowds join in with the dancers. You can buy all kinds of West Indian food everywhere in the streets. But there are still racial problems at the carnival; there are fights and people are often arrested by the police. In spite of this, many feel that it's important to have the carnival every year — because it is part of West Indian culture, and because at carnival time all should be able to enjoy themselves.

1. squaredancesстаринные нар. танцы, разновидность кадрили

Text 5

May Spring Festivals

How is May Day celebrated in Britain?

1. May Day in Britain. May Day is not a public holiday in Britain, but working people celebrate this day. Workers march through the streets and hold meetings to voice their own demands and the demands of other progressive forces of the country. The issues involved may include demands for higher wages and better working conditions, pro­tests against rising unemployment, demands for a change in the Go­vernment's policy, etc.

What kind of dancing was often part of the May Spring Festival in ancient times? Whom did the celebrating people usually represent during the festival?

2. May Spring Festival. The 1st of May has also retained, to some extent, its old significance — that of a pagan spring festival. In ancient times it used to be celebrated with garlands of flowers, dancing and games on the village green¹. A. Maypole was erected — a tall pole wreathed with flowers, to which in later times ribbons were attached and held by the dancers. The girls put on their best summer frocks, plaited flowers in their hair and round their waists and eagerly awaited the crowning of the May Queen. The most beautiful girl was crowned with a garland of flowers. After this great event there was dancing, often Morris dancing, with the dancers dressed in fancy costumes, usually representing characters in the Robin Hood legend (Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian — a boy disguised as a girl, Friar Tuck). May-Day games and sports were followed by refreshments in the open.