The theater, like no other art form, is reflected the reality around the apparent perception of the available forms of the life itself. In this, the accessibility feature of its ideological and aesthetic impact is laid, the dialectic relationship of the theatrical works with the audience, the secret of the most active sensory perception, which is based on the empathetic hero and the author.
However, the theatrical image perception – is the sufficiently complex process, that is required the enhanced sensory activity, the active work of the imagination, the associative thinking, the certain culture of senses, and the corresponding intellectual training. These are the tasks that are directed at the theatrical tours and the excursions, which have their own features. «The specific theater art is confronted its own demands before the theatrical tour, it has become, like the connective link between the man and the theater» [1].
Really, there is the limitless range of the vital material (e.g. the objects), which can be drawn their themes by the authors for the theater excursion programs. So, the theatre excursions can be overviews, and the specific thematic, the city, the country, and the museum ones. The latter have the special significance, since they are most clearly revealed the essence of the theater art, its masters, the preparation process of the performances and the others. The museums funds are contained the most rich documentary data and the materials on the theaters history.
It is quite possible for us to be distinguished the three types of the theater museums: the museums generalists in all its entirety; the museums in the theaters, more narrow focus, with the permanent exhibitions, collecting materials, related to the development history of the given theater and its companies; the type of the memorial museums, dedicated to the life and the works of the outstanding figures and the personalities of the theater art (e.g. the actors, the stage directors). The expositions of the most known and the famous theater museums are the following: the Theater Museum after A. Bakhrushin (e.g. Moscow), the Museum of Theatrical and Musical culture (e.g. St. Petersburg), the Paris Theater «Grand–Opera», the Milan Theater «La Scala», the London Theater «Covent Garden», the New-York «Metropolitan–Opera», the Museum of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Mariinsky Theater in St.Petersburg have been based on the spectacular nature of the theater art, with its specificity. So, there are quite large archives files in these museums, having preserved the manuscripts, the plans, the directing developments of the performances, having shown on the preparation process.
The Memorial Museums (e.g. the K.S. Stanislavsky House – Museum, the M. Ermolova House – Museum, the Ulanova House – Office and etc.) are borne more intimate chamber character. The Memorial Museum, as a rule, is presented the theatrical figure and the personality in the various manifestations of his character, it is conveyed that atmosphere, where the celebrities have lived, worked, and created. So, the exhibits of such museums, on the expiry of time, have been become invaluable, as the rare sign of their talent and the gift, especially, when many pages of the theater history are quite forgotten, the sightseers (e.g. the theater lovers) willingly will meet with that phenomena, which these artists were for our culture. This significant and the noble task of the theatrical museum collection is served by all its image informational material, by all its quite clear structure. So, the museum profile knowledge is taken into account by the guide at the preparation of the tour material.
There are three different versions of the museum’s theater tour carrying out: the chronological one, when the items are displayed in that consequence order, in which the related with them events are being developed; the theme one, at which, in accordance with the requirements of the theme opening; and the complex one, i.e. the subject and chronologically. At the same time, the material selection principle (especially, it is related to the large excursions) and its semantic organization will be become the significant challenge in the work on the tour, having chosen one or another particular variant for themselves, and having formulated the coming goal for themselves. Usually, the tour guide is going to have two possible material’s interpretations: the documentary one and the imaginative and creative one.
Having given to the fact, that the theater collections’ structure is included in itself such components, as: the exhibits, having related to the theater’s species (e.g. the drama, the ballet, the opera), and also the stage directions, the acting art, the theater stage design, the stage equipment, the audio- and the video – recordings, the archival (e.g. the source materials) and the bibliographic departments.
Thus, every tour guide, who is taken for the development of the theatrical museum excursion, will have to possess the publicist’s temperament, in order actively to influence upon the necessary perception of the documentary materials (e.g. the photographs, the drawings, the manuscripts) by the sightseers. This is practically contributed the sense of the truth, the sincerity, the clarity of the truth to the presented materials, but very often, too much documentalism and the facts noting is accompanied by the imagery and the entertainment loss. The tour, which is the fine arts- and the arts review related topics, should not be confused and identified with the journalist’s treatise, it must be necessarily presented the artistic facts’ generalization and the reality phenomena in it. Exactly, the vital content, having associated with the personalities and the roles, must be brought to the audience in the various combinations with the figurative and the metaphorical their reflection and the comprehension, because there are quite different here, than in the excursions to the historical theme, like the acting, the inner feeling, as well as the necessary image concentration. So, this specific feature and the peculiarity are indicated by A. Zis: «The actor – is the chief exponent of the specific performing arts, the support bearer of his unique,…peculiar to him alone the specific features» [2]. Indeed, the theatrical image – is the harmonic system. It is the reconciled and balanced ratios of the external and the internal features of the embodied role of the private and the public ones in it. It is the living self – propelled model of the reality. So, «the theater cannot be existed outside the time, outside of the space, and outside of the presence effect on the scene of the living person, for exactly, and the time, and the space, and the movement it is by him, the actor, is formed in the theatre» [3].
So, everything is mentioned in the theater tour, as if, it is constantly being projected on the historical background, that it is informed them the large scale, the credibility, and also the high reliability. The actor’s or the stage director’s art is evaluated, in the context of the historical time, against the background of the general public and the artistic panorama, in the unity of the performances, in the consonance of his school, the fate of the team. The challenge of the historicism of the guide’s artistic thinking and the creative comprehension at the present stage of our society’s movement is the one from the key ones for the tours’ development of the given subject. The significant aspect of this challenge – is how the modern expert’s opinion is manifested on the events of the theoretical past. And it is especially valuable, when in the subjects, having suggested by the history and selected favorites for their tour of the story; we meet with the distinct expressed creative position, with the distinct presence in the presentation of the author himself.
Thus, it is quite necessary the guide’s sufficient erudition, and his deep knowledge of the historical details, having combined with the acting specific features and the peculiarities, with the ability to the dry facts of the ancient chronicles to be melted into the living flesh of the unique story.
So, the great possibilities for the principle implementing of the connection between the theory and the life is given the tour guide the comparison admission, at which the sightseers fuller and more aware of the existing changes. It is meant on two different historical periods of time, in which the outstanding actors and the prominent stage directors have been living. That distance, which is determined their creative lives, is practically defined the stylistic boundary between them.
In addition to the story, the show and the demonstration are the significant constituent part of any one, including the theater trip and the excursion. The show – is the access presentation to the items’ inspection. The demonstration – is to be shown the things in their action or movement. In this case, the show is served, as the common «information method», and the demonstration, – as the additional method of the proof and the persuasion. If the direct static show is served to be informed the visitors about the objects’ and the works’ presence in the exhibition, the main purpose of the demonstration – the best way to be revealed their characteristics and their peculiar features.
As it has already been noted, the Theater Museum, as a rule, has the handwriting exhibits and the documentary nature ones (e.g. the books, the libretto shows’ writings, the scenes’ photos from the places and the performances, the actors and etc.) and the visual sources (e.g. the sceneries’ and the decorations’ sketches, and the costumes, the videos). Hence, the notion on the actor’s identity, the character of his acting way is suggested the possible methods for the tour guide, at least, two basic interpretations. In one case, we can talk the way of the actor, the stage director, first of all, as his positions, his credo, the elected moral and the ideological and aesthetic principles by him, in the other one – both of his development (e.g. the evolution) of the creativity. So, the theatrical exhibition of the Museum is very diverse, and each of its faces could be the subject for the separate discussion. Let us dwell briefly upon each of them. The overwhelming majority of the theatrical exhibitions can be taken by the documents and by the artistic photos, having provided the frames, imprinted the way theater world, as it is seen by the camera lens. So, the photos have the large documentary and the artistic significance, because they are given the visual presentation on the theater’s figures and its personalities, the heritage of which has been played the large role in the culture of that or another country. So, the Museum workers and the theater critics are widely referred to the genre of the graphic, the pictorial or the sculptural theatrical portrait, which, as the permanent testimony on the artists’ life and their creative work, as if overlapping the space and the time, having remained forever the constituent part of the fine legacy. The images of the artists in the works of art have already become something inseparable from the spiritual interpretation of the authors – the artists.
Here, you often have to be dealt with the deeply natural paradox of the verbal transmission of their personal artistic perception and the comprehension. Since, that the perception is more individual, the higher it is at the spiritual level, the brighter and more fully in the story on the actor is played the personality of the narrator himself, and here, it is significant not to be obscured his main hero by the narrator, and not to be replaced it by the bright creation of his rich imagination and professionally well – grounded savvy.
So, the high level of the visual culture is explained much of the success and the dignity of the theatrical performance, in particular the artistic solution of the most significant components and no small important indicators of the costume, the scenery, and the decoration. The set designer and the decorative artist – is the man of the theater, the representative of the ancient theatrical occupation, the significance of which has been steadily increased with the evolution of the art scene. The basic conception of the decorative art – is the emotional relationship of the design and the theatrical performances’ activity. The costumes sketches and the scenery sets, the exhibitions are carried in themselves the energy plans, the ideas, and the artistic fantasies. «The theater is relied entirely, and it is based on the conventional forms of the expression, so, they have the genetic predisposition to the conventional methods of the stage directing» [4]. The scenery sketches for the plays and the decorations for the performances are contained that transition, when the individual is joined, the invented conditional peace with the actual reality. The large scale and the most prominent set designers, having presented the significant artists in the museums’ exhibitions, open to the audience the quite wide panorama of the shows images, the structure of their poetics, the color – light stage directing. So, the approval of three – dimensional stage has been entailed for itself the return of the theater models, which are often on display at the exhibitions. The stage design and the sceneries are conceived in them bigger and more bulk, the theater, as if strives to be comprehended its own structure. The lines, the color, the texture, the form, the perspective, the space and the movement of the actor has been become the basis of the meaningful comprehension in such exhibitions.
The search for the necessary costume is the quite serious step in the work of the theater artist and the actor on the way. The costume in the theater is also as well as the work of the art, having entered the constituent and the integral part of the performance set design. The stage product is the complex one by its nature (although sometimes it is quite simple by its form) is based on its own composition principles, the plastic organization laws, with its rich expressive language. The characters’ clothing on the stage is interacted, as with the cast as the pattern of the roles, well as more – with the author’s thought. By focusing on the actor, his psychological state, the artist in his sketches, as if it opens up the aesthetic value of the composition, having allowed you to be felt the plastics’ spatiality, the diversity of the shapes and the suit silhouette. The attention is drawn to this feature of the costume in the theater, as it is the subject – material closeness just to the scenery. So, it is quite often made of the same materials, as the spatial scenic environment. Their artistic stylistic interaction is practically achieved by the technical pictorial means. The art of the artistic costumes, having formed in the process of the theater’s development, were given the boost and the strong impulse from the first major works of the old generation masters, is formed in the original art – school skill meaningful comprehension of the plastic values scenic image on the stage. Having overlooked the part of the exhibitions, which is associated with the scenery and the costumes, the associative range of the ideas is appeared at the sightseers, when they see the tangible expression of the artistic ideas. At the same time, the decorative feature means are restored the historical character of the performances. Having taken into account the fixed nature of the sketches during the display, the tour guide has the possibility to be elaborated on the key themes of the stage directors, on the tempo and rhythmic patterns of the images, in order to be accented and highlighted the significance of the fine figure in the given passage, or in the performance, as a whole.
So, there is also another kind of the exhibition material – the video films (e.g. the historical, the newsreels and the documentary, the excerpts), having exhibited in the halls of the theater museums. Often, this is the interview with the actors, the film–makers, the artists, the fragments of the staging, the rehearsals. Such films have been become the powerful artistic component of the excursions, as their strength is in the reliability. They are greatly increased the material perception effect, and they, moreover, can be served, as the introduction, and be demonstrated up to its direct presentation. The film immediately helps to be created the positive psychological spirit, the positive mental attitude, to be enabled its listeners to enter into the subject of the conversation, having prepared the ground and setting the necessary stage for the future excursions. In the images of the film more directly and immediately the life stuff material has been reflected. Here, some connections have clearly been discovered the image with the prototype.
At last, the playbills and the posters are not less interesting exhibit at the Theater Museum’s exhibitions. Along with the history of the theater’s development, the whole area of the scenic advertising has been grown, having expanded its reach and involved and engaged more and more viewers in the process of the mutual communication. In the XIX-th century, the lithograph painted posters, having made by the first class masters, are practically invaded the streets, having painted in the bright colors, and having illuminated the urban environment in Germany, England, France, Holland, Belgium, and the USA. The decorative system of the art nouveau is particular noticeably has been manifested in the posters to the «Russian Seasons» ballets by S. Dyagilev at the end of XIX – early XX centuries.
The theatrical poster – is the document of its time, which is visible and tangible, which has its own psychological and aesthetic qualities of the reliability. The poster’s genre, having provided by the information text part – sometimes it is more persuade document, than the photo, which until recently was considered the most compelling and the irrefutable support authentication.
Thus, the Theater Museums exhibition, having built by the chronological principle, from the birth of the theater’s origin up to the present day, is practically demonstrated the variety of the forms, styles, genres, methods, and techniques, so characteristic for the ever – changing trends in the art are involved the findings by each artist’s his individual handwriting, position, manners. To evaluate such diversity is quite impossible without the true internal culture, the unity of mind and the emotions. So, having seen in the theatrical exhibition, the material, as a whole, is constituted the very «divertissement», which is deserved the special attention, it exactly is remained in the memory of the sightseers. After the exhibition halls viewing, the participants find themselves extremely in the indirect connections with the exhibits, and in the very direct ones with the tour guide. Thus, the museum exhibition – is the starting point of the excursion, and the impression of it – is the final.
As we tried to show the tour guide’s position, as a result, it has become the important, essential, synthesizing, significant, constructive factor, which has the impact on the final result of the viewer’s perception of such specific sphere, as the theater tour.
The work is submitted to the International Scientific Conference «Economic mechanism of innovative development», Australia (Sydney), March 26 – April 6, 2013, came to the editorial office оn 21.01.2013.