International Festival
THEATRE METHODS 05
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

Sergey Ostrenko (Latvia)

During the festival Sergey Ostrenko will conduct
the Director's Laboratory "Director since Reading the Play till Meeting the Actors" and the workshop “Improvisation and Spontaneity in Performing Arts”.

Director's Laboratory
(Russian Tradition)

"Director since Reading the Play
till Meeting the Actors"

“Each art should be preceded by
the definite mechanical skill”
(Goethe)

LEVEL I
Director’s analysis of the play

1. Sensory penetration into the play
a) repeated rereading
b) contemplation of images
c) active retelling, etc.

2. Formulation of the plot
of the play
Brief story about the main conflict.


3. Revelation of the basic events and actions
a) determination of the initial and the final events
b) determination of the main event
c) determination of the central event
d) through actions of all characters
e) counteractions and conflicts

4. Investigation of the given circumstances
a) space
b) time
c) chain of objects

5. Characteristic of the personages
a) all statements about the personages according to the text of the play b) all statements of personages about themselves

6. Immersion into the material
a) investigation of the epoch
b) biography of the author
c) personal correspondence of the author
d) critiques of the contemporary

7. Formulation of the super-objective of the performance

Connection of the through action and the super-objective

LEVEL II
Composing the Performance

“Today’s actors often sit twiddling their thumbs
and anticipating the inspiration from Apollo.
Useless, my dear! He is too busy with his own business”
(G.Fedotova)

1. Release from stamps and stereotypes
2. Irresponsible composition of crazy ideas
3. Composition of style 
4. Determination of genre 
5. Search of the performance form 
6. The period of expectation, ripening 
7. Enlightenment 
8. Check-up by the play 
9. Director, composer, designer, choreographer –
   the team of leaders. 
10. Some words about casting

“When I am going to write a comedy
I lock up the rules under sextuple lock”
(Lope de Vega)