Lietuvių folkloro teatrinės tradicijos XX a. mėgėjų teatre

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvių folkloras; Lietuvių folkloras, teatro elementai, mėgėjų teatro kūryba; Mėgėjų teatro kūryba; Teatro elementai; Amateur theatre activities; Lithuanian folklore; Lithuanian folklore, theatrical elements, amateur theatre activities; Theatrical elements.

ENThe ways of maturation of each national spiritual culture are unique and closely related to its history. The Lithuanian nation in all times and in all complex historical situations has remained true to creative aspirations. Creative thirst had been an everyday need in our peasant’s daily routine, as it transferred him to the imaginary life, full of goodness and beauty. When creating songs and performing them at work, ordinary man greatly facilitated the hard toil. However, creativity meant more than just a chance to escape bitter reality. By means of it, people expressed their dissatisfaction with the existing situation and sought more hopeful and beautiful life. The artistic activity of the past generations, imbued by moral values of the nation, its ideals and its wisdom, testified the inexhaustible spirit of social optimism. It was in the Lithuanian folklore that the first elements of the national theatre were born. In folk games and calendar rites, and primarily in Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras), we would find the elements of transformation; in them, improvisation, the contact between performers and audiences, and conflict and drama manifested themselves, and the drama of the folk wedding was developed. That was the theatrical basis which affected, preconditioned, and fed further stages of Lithuanian theatrical culture. Lithuanian folk weddings, Mardi Gras, and a number of other calendar festivals were interesting ritual cultural manifestations and also reflected a specific form of the national cultural expression. Those were mass holidays that brought together the population of one or even several villages. When people were preparing for such holidays, they tried to retain the principal traditional moments and to add something new, dedicated by the historical circumstances.The weddings and Mardi Gras were the feasts that involved the entire village in the creation of costumes and masks; they meant the disclosure of new talents, competition, and the pursuit of expressiveness and theatricality. The participants of the weddings and Mardi Gras always thought of the ways of their character presentation to the audience and tried to be more expressive and interesting than others, therefore, the rites were full of creativity and aspirations for self-expression. Due to those reasons, the weddings and Mardi Gras feasts are to be considered both the national folk creation treasury and significant theatrical events which opened up broad opportunities for the folk creative expression. Lithuanian calendar feasts and the rites of folk weddings abound in theatrical elements which are characterised by transformation, improvisation, the contact between the performer and the audience, conflict and drama, and the use of costumes, make-up, props, and scenography. The 20th C. amateur theatre applied the theatrical elements of the professionally processed folklore in their creation. By continuing the theatrical traditions of the folklore in the contemporary theatre practice, amateur theatres seek to give a new meaning to the folk culture. The folk theatrical traditions, accumulated and cherished, are becoming a permanent source of the theatre renewal. [From the publication]