The Concept of Modern Theatre Directing: Reconsidering Traditional Approaches in the Era of Digital Media

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of theatrical directing of the first quarter of the 21st century through the prism of the problems of using digital media in stage productions. Research methodology. The theoretical method, the method of analysis and synthesis were applied, which contributed to the processing and generalisation of the materials analysed in the article. The method of system-structural analysis, the method of cognitive analysis and the method of comparative analysis, thanks to which the variability of approaches to the use of digital technologies in stage productions was revealed. The method of art historical analysis, the use of which allowed us to analyse the features of the directorial methodology of M. Rau, G. Cassier, R. Castellucci, J. Jezurun, M. Wims, I. van Hove, P. Delbono, H. Goebbels and other directors of the European theatre of the 21st century. Scientific novelty. The features of the use of digital technologies in modern theatre directing were considered through the prism of the transformation of conceptual approaches to stage production; analysed the characteristic approaches (illustrative, performative and generative) used by leading European theatre directors of the first quarter of the 21st century in the process of integrating innovative technologies into the visual series of a theatrical work. Conclusions. The post-media technological context that characterises the first quarter of the 21st century, the widespread use of the Internet and computerised production processes, influenced the formation of new aesthetic paradigms in the field of theatre direction. Conceptual approaches to theatre direction of the 21st century are based on the understanding of stage production as a complex process of creating a new immersive experience for the viewer here and now, in which digital technologies are not so much a means of enhancing the spectacle of the production, but a powerful tool for constructing and implementing its idea. During the first quarter of the 21st century. In theatre directing, a complex process of forming an innovative ecosystem of interaction between the actor, the play, and the viewer takes place, the key vectors of which are: the transition from the director’s interpretation of the dramaturgical primary source to the creation of an author’s visual-sensory stage text; the understanding of digital technologies as a new organic matter (the use of video mapping, media art, virtual and augmented reality technologies, generative artificial intelligence); the activation of the hybridisation of the theatrical and audiovisual; an emphasis on the actor’s media sensitivity.