Theatrical and coral performance
as an artistic experience of younger teens in the educational institution
Red’ko Anatoly Maximovich
Teacher of the Perm musical college, Perm,
Senior teacher of the Perm State institute of culture, Perm, Perm krai,
Master of Business
Administration (MBA)
Abstract. The article on the example of the choral studio of the municipal
institutions of additional education The Palace of the Children’s (Youth) Creativity Perm
consideres the creative
development of younger teenagers in the choral action. This is
a particular field of the creative
activity, where the growing up
personalities can show their worth and realize themselves. A choral theater in general
is a way to identify talented studiycev. A creative product in one particular form of the coral theater gives the choirmaster the opportunity to diagnose their creative level. A
rehearsal period anda theatrical and
choral performance are the ways of testing and building of the scale indicators
of talent and creative growth of the choirsters.
Key words: a choral children’s theatre, a creative laboratory, cognitional,
educational, practical, demonstrational blocks, a block-test.
Introduction. A choral theatre is one of
the forms of active initiation of the artists’ team to the world of integrative
theatrical and choral art. A theatrical form involves the support and close
relationship with the subjects of aesthetic; it allows you to fully realize
their creative potential; it promotes the development of a whole range of skills,
active innovative perception of arts in integration.
Literature review. Theatrical activity for
younger teens is a special world, let us remember an excerpt from the
conversation of Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky with Natalya Sats: «Have
you never thought that it
would be good to start building the children's theater from childhood? After
all, each child has the
instinct of the game with transformation.
This passion to transform in many children often causes confusion even among us
- professional actors. There is something in pedagogics, that kills the
children's courage initiative, and only then, as adults, some of them begin to
look for themselves on stage. But if you eliminate this gap, if you combine the
talented children in a children's theater in the prime of their children's
creativity and develop their natural tendency since then- imagine
yourself a celebration of creativity which you can reach by their mature years,
the unity of aspirations» [1, p. 5]. Education by means of theater involves the
development of a full perception of integrating art, understanding of its
language and its specificity. N.P.
Kuraptseva and L.G. Surina write about it in their work «Our friend - theatre», that
the development of sensory perception, imagination, emotions, thoughts in the
process of impact of art is due to a human experience and a holistic understanding of the life phenomena in art. Through this holistic experience the
art develops the whole person, encompassing the
spiritual world of the individuals. Participating
in this process children get an indispensible creative experience.
Objective. The most active and
entertaining form of initiation of the studio students to the art in the
educational institution of additional
education is the integration of the vocal training with theater and literature
in the form of choral performances. The
work on the theatrical performance proved to be fascinating, interesting for
the choirmaster of younger teens.
In this article, we rely on the author’s (the author of the publication)
integrated program "A children's
choral theater" (founded in 2001).
Statement of the basic material. Why theater
classes are so important for young choristers? Because the
objects (theatrical, choral, musical and aesthetic) in the integrative complex aimed at the development of art in the
learning process force to include all
of its perception. Theatrical and choral classes help to include the sensory systems in the learning
process more effectively. By means of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell we recognize ourselves and
contact with the world. Then we begin to act mechanically, pulling away from
emotions. Mind displaces emotions but mind is just only one of the components
of our being that is necessary to develop in them and use in their entirety. Let's
try to keep the mind and return to the senses. Developing one of the sensory systems which the
chorists have, the choirmaster quasi disables another one. Choral music is
visible and invisible. It creates not only the vocal performance of choirs and
their nature (ie, younger teens) instantly responds to the impulses coming from
it. They are able to touch, see, hear the vocal music, as choral works are
abstract, but very sensual. Young
choristers are more open to perception of it, and first of all the words. In their
hands, all this tends to overcome its
immateriality and incarnate, get flesh, to become visible, alive. Their smell and touch is expressed in color, certain sounds and
theatrical and choral impromptu. Besides the vocal performance the plastic fantasies and improvisations on the rebuilding of
individual soloists and choral
groups are also used. Each theatrical and choral lesson includes a teaching block, a rehearsal block
rehearsal and creative improvisation as a form of the individual test survey. During the lessons there are two
relaxation breaks. They are designed to replace the kind of creative
activity. There is a view and
team discussion at the end of the lesson.
Each lesson
is divided into several stages:
1.
Mental attitude - adaptation. Musical and playing greeting. Test on the homework.
Conversation,
presentation, exploration of
the vocal material in theatrical realization.
2.
Cognitive block. Travel to the country «A choral theater".
3.
Training block. What
is dramaturgy?
4.
Musical pause. Creative Search,
theatrical exploration of the musical material, test and experiment on creation of the artistic image.
5.
Practical block. Rehearsal moment. Dramaturgy, review its theatrical realization.
6.
Demonstration block. Relax pause. Musical and
plastic pause. Identification
of the creative
and emotional activity. Discussion of the individual and collective homework.
7.
Test block – completion if the class.
Each block: cognitive, training,
practical, demonstration, test block contains illustrative material. This is a media showing the fragments of the theatrical musical and literary
performances. A rehearsal process where the studiycev feel
themselves as creators
and individual personalities. A creative search for the character of the portraying artistic characters appearing in the role, namely in the actor
process of younger teenagers raises
them to a completely innovative social level, thus they feel themselves
required and fit, meaningful and useful. Training in a choral theater also has
some preferential features because it is completely built on the creative
search of the choirmaster with the
choristers, and then on the creation of a theatrical product. The
classes in the choral
theater among the actors of
the concert choir "Melody" develop a collective nature of singing in general, and the most accessible form of initiation
to the beautiful, because
each individual has a specific musical instrument as a "voice."
We use
exercises contributing to the development of communication skills such as
making contact with each other, the ability to interact with their peers, sociability,
to give in and to restrain their impulses, to choose a partner for joint
activities, the implementation of specified actions on emancipation, to achieve
expressiveness in the scenic space. During the rehearsal process, they learn to
reproduce the words purposefully, to develop the skill to establish semantic
relationships between the objects, the amount of memory and attention is
expanding, and there is a constant development of the verbal memory. The work on the repertoire during the classes encourages interaction, allows to increase
the level of attention, stimulates feelings, the birth of new artistic images,
and plastic movements allow the actors of the children's choir to express themselves nonverbally, to recognize
their identity, to reveal the often hidden creative possibilities.
A creative
laboratory is the foundation of the lessons in the choral theater, because it
reveals something unique in every young chorister. The expression of children's
personality is appeared as a creative act. E.A. Yakovleva states: "Creativity is none other
than the realization of a man's own individuality. Depending on where and by
what means this presentation is carried out, we can talk about the specific
kinds of creativity. A child is asocial creature; his unique personality should
be shown and presented to other people” [2, p. 25].
During
the lessons we use the method of identification with the fact that young teenagers
voice the image. A choral theatre is the world of fantasy, the world of
miraculous transformations for the choristers, so all the author's method of
teaching is based on the moments of impromptu emotional and audience accents. What
could be more amazing than the sounds of vocal music and the magic performances
in the theater? But the most important thing is to teach them to create, and
the experience received will be a life compass. The earlier the giftedness is revealed,
the better the choirmaster understands the individual creative rout of the development
and the general direction of the educational process. There are many gifted,
there are even more talented, but they are not seen, sprung into action, not
understood, and not fully disclosed.
Dramaturgy
is the main component of the choral theater. The theme and its content usually
reflect understandable close to the actors of children’s choir phenomena of
reality, reveal the habits, character, images of birds. Dramatic path deepens the artistic images. Improvising on the lessons, the
choristers in motion are involved into the searching creative activity. Theatre
studiycev on the musical
images, emotional introduction of the choirmaster before the tasks on the
dramatic construction, based on the familiarity with dramaturgic ups and downs
in the searching tasks, the choirmaster preliminary interests them, informs
about the content, gives a description of the images as a methodological
procedure that allows them to give their individual nuances in the performance
of the theatrical roles. It is necessary at this time to direct the attention
of all the singers on the perception of the vocal and choral works in whole and
on the change in the assessment of the main characters of the heroes.
At a
more advanced stage of their figurative development the dramatic plots
stimulate the necessary improvisational arbitrary action. Here you can find, for example, the elements of
calls, the same construction of the individual soloists and the choral groups
with objects and plastic movements, which is certainly helpful in the search
for the characters of the actors. Expressive movements, solo and the vowel by
the art team depends on the emotional coloring of the plot.
This
program was initially tested in 2002 - 2006 on my artistic team, and then later
it was tested in 2010 – 2013 on the senior concert choir (artistic director: T.
Shevchenko) on the choral school at the children and youth’s center "Riphei"
in Perm.
This
complex educational program for young teenagers, aimed at the obtaining of innovative
knowledge, skills and creative experience. A great attention is also paid to
the relaxation breaks and finish relaxes, art therapy, individual educational
routes, creative and experimental levels.
Classes in theater skills they have an idea of musical theater, try
yourself in the role of actor. On the lessons of theatrical technique the students
get a general idea of the musical theater, try themselves in the role of actors.
Then the phased tasks are combined into a single route on the solution of the
educational problems, the result of which is the theatrical and choral
performance - a method of diagnosing of the creative level of the choristers. The
rehearsal process and the theatrical performance is the way of testing and
building of the scale of the talent and creative growth of the students.
In the
educational process in the children's choral theater the subjects of the
theatrical, musical and aesthetic cycle are integrated at the level of the
inter-subject relationship, allowing to develop in the unity the substantial,
operational and motivational components of the learning activity. Additionally
the following features are developed: the studiycev spirituality, their
creative abilities, and their ability to see and create the beautiful. Thus, we
educate many-sided persons; develop their creative potential and their common
cultural outlook, their ability to apprehend art actively.
The
following tasks on their development are solved:
- A
holistic idea of the art is developed;
- The
skills of creative activity are developed;
- The ideas
of general and specific concepts for different kinds of art are broadened;
- The
acting, vocal and choral singing skills and abilities are developed;
- The work
on performance improving is continued: the students learn to practice the
knowledge acquired.
The
following educational tasks are solved:
-
training of the artistic and aesthetic taste, the interest in art;
-
The ability of the active perception of art is developed.
The
following tasks on development are solved:
-
creation of conditions for realization of creative abilities;
-
Development of memory, voluntary attention, creative thinking and
imagination;
-
Identification and development of individual creative abilities;
-
Development of the ability of independent understanding of artistic
values.
Education
in the choral theater is performed on the following principles:
-
The unity of emotional and conscious;
-
Comprehensive education and development of the studiycev.
The leading
methodological procedure on the lessons is a method of the artistc
improvisation.
- imitation
of movements (through the body plastic and the image transfer) stage
adaptation (staging of separate episodes), improvisation on a given topic
(studies on the development of creative imagination);
- instrumental
improvisation;
- Improvisation
of the accompaniment of the music by sounding movements.
The word
on the scenic space sounds clearly, the idea is clearly heard, the action is emotionally
saturated - it dictates the proper operation on the word: the lessons
developing the technique and the logic of speech, practical mastery of the
verbal action. The lessons include the exercises developing articulation,
diction (tongue twisters), speech breathing exercises (exercises for the lips,
tongue), as well as breathing exercises. The following exercises developing the
intonation expressiveness of speech (reciting of the poetic text on behalf of
various fairy-tale characters, musical reciting, and rhythmic declamation) are
very important.
It is necessary
to pay attention to the vocal and choral work (exercises developing the singing
breathing and voice, the impressiveness of the performance), as well as to the
selection of the repertoire of the plastic image (musical and rhythmic
exercises), playing on the text and songs staging. Then comes a relaxation
pause. The students enjoy doing the exercises which help them achieve a
muscular freedom to acquire the skills of a proper stage behavior.
The studiycev do a test task in
the form of the theatrical performance. When working on the staging of the play
it is advisable to split the participants into the following groups:
- The soloists. This group includes the choristers
with enough level of musical abilities, as well as the younger teenagers with
good vocal abilities or with the prospect of their development;
- The
actors. This group includes the scenic actors;
- The
motional group. This group includes the choristers with plastic capabilities.
All these
small groups are mobile, next time the choristers can be transferred from one
group to another. With attention and effective help to the creative process,
the involvement of parents into the creative process on the production of the
costumes and scenery together with the teenagers – it is the way of the family rapprochement.
The lessons in the choral theater give the students the opportunity to
demonstrate their abilities in the process of creativity. Due to the relaxed atmosphere
prevailing on the lessons, the students receive a charge of positive mood and
are ready to create the beautiful again and again.
Result. Thus the theatrical
performances are born. For example, I can call the following concerts, actions
that have been made by the concert choir "Melody" / artistic
director: AM Red'ko / in 2010 - 2013: "A golden Russia"; " A Russian
Calendar"; "I sing to you, my city!"; "Where the music
originates»; "We are a long echo of each other"; "The choir
gathers friends"; "How wonderful this world is"; "Russia is
shining in the heart"; "Hey, Slavs, sing with us"; "Once in
the Epiphany’s evening ...";
"A big Secret for a Small Company"; "The noble impulses of the
soul"; "The thoughts are wonderful, the reasoning about the beautiful
are wonderful"; "A wonderful distant place"; "Love,
believe, Christmas has come"; "A lofty lyre is heard. I am singing. The
choir is listening to me "; "Seasons of the year"; "This
world is not created for the sorrows";
" A winter evening"; "The light of hope will be poured on our
souls"; "This world is not created for the sorrows"; "What is happening in the world";
"Tatyana's Day"; 'A birthday party with friends "; "The songs
of our Motherland"; "And I will call my friends and open my heart to
love ..."; "A Christmas good news ..."; "But it will be my best beauty - the lights
above the Kama ..."; "Do you think the heart forgets the one who
wants good for us ..."; "Oh, rejoice, Oh, sing, the Glory holiday has
reached us!"; "Sing this song
to me ..."; "Goy you, dear Russia!"; "The music of the
Russian Winter"; "Hey, troika! The Bird troika, who has invented you?";
"The light of the Christmas star!"; "The light of hope and destiny".
Conclusion. The studiycev develop creatively
and thus the gifted children are identified. A developed innovative technique
based on the theater allows to unload and to re-organize the educational space
in the institution of the additional education more flexibly. The training
material includes the knowledge for obtaining the creative skills for the
choral, theatrical and literary profession. Thus, the younger teenagers together
with their parents receive an invaluable creative experience, and additionally
the potential of the integration of all art forms is fully revealed.
References:
1.
Stanislavsky K.S. The stage
direction questions of the children's theater. M., 1998. - p. 5.
2.
Yakovleva E.A. Guidelines for the teachers on the development of the studiycev creative potential
- M., 1998. - p. 25.