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.