La participación del público en el movimiento teatral

Abstract

In this text, the author initially analyzes the relevance of the public in the theatrical event, both from the perspective that there is no theater without the presence of spectators, with whom the scene dialogues about the world and itself, and from the character necessarily public of theatrical art, in order to always question aspects of social life, facing the urgent issues of our contemporary societies. So there is no transformation of theater that can be carried out without an effective relationship with the public. It then provides a brief historical overview of the relationship between theater and the public in Brazil, based on the observation, in the 1970s, of the emptying of theater halls. And it presents the reasons that have been cited in recent decades for the lack of audience in theaters, which involve: censorship operated during the military dictatorship, which banned shows and persecuted artists for more than a decade; the advent of soap operas, which seduced both artists and viewers; and the lack of laws to encourage artistic production, which are focused on stimulating major media events and care little about maintaining theatrical productions. Finally, it describes the proposals that have been developed by the Unstable Theatrical Reception Studies Group (iNerTE), a research group that, based on theoretical and practical studies, seeks to make poetic constructions specific to the act of reading recognizable, highlighting the elements that support the notion of an art of the spectator.