Semiotics of Theater & Drama Research Papers (original) (raw)

The perspective of a semiotic analysis and the need for a unifying centre suggest the need to decoding the mechanism of theatrical modelling, and namely, what in theatrical practice has been defined as mise-en-scéne – to-set/embody-something-on-the-stage. I am looking at it as a structuralist formation, a theoretical construct and a radical object of knowledge, and not just as a profane result of director’s (creative) interference with the dramatic and/or performative text. I am viewing the thesis that theatre performance is characterized by a dual function of the actor in the process of production of signs (actor's discourse) and the semiotizing of his very reflection to what is happening in the stage space (stage performance). Reconstructing the performative text in their minds, viewers perceive the whole corpus of the system configured of individual sign subsystems, namely as a theatrical performance, built with all the components surrounding the action - speech, gesture/mimics/movement, mechanization, sound. Theatrical performance is viewed as a semiotic code for the creative world of the creators of the show (director, actor, designer, composer, choreographer) presented as a mise-en-scéne and reproduced as a performative text and as an active matrix for the production of meaning. A more careful scrutinizing of the terms to-set/to-embody-something-on-the-stage revealed the existence of prior knowledge coming from experience, which is transformed by the creator of the show and pre-set as understanding (i.e. what is likely to be understood by the perceiver), following the convention that, in essence, the primary semiotic practice of theatre performance is to transform all objects in obvious signs/sign formations that are suitable to be recognized. Here I consider the role and impact of collective cultural archetypes on individual artistic activity and perception, treating these archetypes from an aesthetic perspective. I am postulatе the idea that the aesthetics of the mise-en-scéne, in contemporary theatre practice, is based precisely on the cultural experience set in personal conscious/unconscious of the theatre artist and of the spectator himself. Which leаds me to the conclusion, that the deep archetypal reflection of mise-en-scéne harmonizes the roles of the individual and the collective unconscious (or conscious) as a set of complementary perspectives of an optimal sign semiosis. This is a semiotic perspective that on the stage, in the flow of coordinated action and strict geometry of movements, in the style of arranged performative articulation and technical vision, emphasizes the signifying nature of the theatrical performance as a process of communication and representation.