Architecture of Antique Theaters as an Element of the World Cultural Landscape

The article deals with the history of development of the antique theatrical architecture in the context of the environment that forms the territory acquiring the status of a cultural landscape. The material of antiquity is interpreted in the aspect of the formation evolution of theater buildings, ranging from ancient Greek to ancient Roman, which, despite being in ruins, amaze us with their large-scale and unspoiled architecture. The article attempts to systematize the valuable evidence of the past, material (theater architecture) and non-material (theater art), since the repertoire is alive as long as it is performed, and the theater architecture remains to posterity. There is considered their relationship in space and time. The study’s methods (descriptions of the phenomena under study, field observation, problem-historical analysis) made it possible to focus on the construction specifics of the theater buildings located in open spaces representing cultural landscapes — vast areas of co-creation of man and nature. Over the epochs, the theater architecture, designed for spectacular performances and connected with the environmental factor and acting art, was transforming, just as the theater itself was changing, sometimes within a single performance on a single stage. Fragments of the lost cultural experience are today open systems in associative, semantic, historical aspects, as well as in terms of objects reconstruction. They form an attractive and popular place that goes beyond the limits of urban planning conditions and has the property of an important public space. The composition of theater construction and the principles of shaping that formed in the ancient period had a great influence on their subsequent development and have been preserved in modern design solutions. In this context, the experience of interpreting the architectural monuments belonging to the theatrical art has a great cultural and educational value, not only in terms of reconstructing the lost stratum of cultural heritage, but also, to a greater extent, in modeling a new vision of the emerging architectural culture of the world.

ancient era theater, environmental factor, cultural landscape, theater of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, shaping principles, compositional structure

1. Dörpfeld W., Reisch E. Das griechische Theater: Beiträge zur Geschichte des Dionysos-Theaters in Athen und anderer griechischer Theater. Athens, Publisher Barth und von Hirst, 1896, 448 p.

2. Brunov N.I. Gretsiya: Arkhaika, klassika, IV vek [Greece: Antiquity, Classics, 4th Century]. Moscow, Vsesoyuznaya Akademiya Arkhitektury Publ., 1935, 122 p.

3. Mikhalovsky I.B. Arkhitekturnye formy antichnosti [Architectural Forms of Antiquity]. Moscow, Akademiya Arkhitektury SSSR Publ., 1949, 248 p.

4. Lawrence A.W. Greek Architecture. London, Penguin Publ., New Haven, Yale University Press Publ., 1967, 244 p.

5. Hoegler R. Griechenland. Vienna, Büchergilde Gutenberg Publ., 1965, 25 p.

6. Bieber M. The History of the Greek and Roman Theater. Princeton, N.J. University Press Publ., London, Oxford U.P. Publ., 1961, 343 p.

7. Kozlinsky V.I., Freze E.P. Khudozhnik i teatr [Artist and Theater]. Moscow, Sovetskii Khudozhnik, 1975, 239 p.

8. Smolina K.A. Sto velikikh teatrov mira [One Hundred Great Theaters of the World]. Moscow, Veche Publ., 2002, 473 p.

9. Barabanova O.V. Antinomic-Synthesizing Dialectics of the Ancient Theater Architecture, Problemy razvitiya regional’nykh shkol: materialy nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Novosibirsk, NGAKhA) [Regional Schools’ Development Issues: Proceedings of the Scientific-Practical Conference (Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk State Academy of Architecture and Art)]. Novosibirsk, NGAKhA Publ., 2004, pp. 44—48 (in Russ.).

10. Gudkov A.A., Morozova O.V. Research Aspects of Ancient Greek Theatre Architecture in Methodology of Modern Architectural Science, Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhitekturno-stroitel’nogo universiteta [Journal of Construction and Architecture], 2012, no. 4 (37), pp. 75—90 (in Russ.).

11. Polyakov E.N., Inozemtseva T.O. Ancient Greek Drama: History of Formation, Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhitekturno-stroitel’nogo universiteta [Journal of Construction and Architecture], 2014, no. 1 (42), pp. 9—30 (in Russ.).

12. Martha L., Kotsaki A. Ancient Greek Drama and its Architecture as a Means to Reinforce Tourism in Greece, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2014, vol. 148, pp. 573—578.

13. Barkas N. The Contribution of the Stage Design to the Acoustics of Ancient Greek Theatres, Acoustics, 2019, vol. 1, pp. 337—353.

14. Frederiksen R., Gebhard E., Sokolicek A. The Architecture of the Ancient Greek Theatre. (Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens). Aarhus, University Press Publ., 2015, 468 p.

15. Eco U. Otsutstvuyushchaya struktura. Vvedenie v semiologiyu [The Absent Structure. Introduction to Semiology]. St. Petersburg, Petropolis Publ., 1998, 432 p.

16. Zamyatin D.N. Local Histories and Methods of Modeling the Humanitarian-Geographical Image of the City, Gumanitarnaya geografiya: nauchnyi i kul’turno-prosvetitel’skii al’manakh [Humanitarian Geography: Scientific and Cultural-Educational Almanac]. Moscow, Institut Naslediya Publ., 2005, issue 2, pp. 276—323 (in Russ.).

17. Bazanov V. Stsena, tekhnika, spektakl’ [Stage, Technique, Performance]. Leningrad, Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1963, 120 p.

18. Choisy A. Histoire, De L’Architecture. Paris, Gauthier-Villars Publ., 1899, 187 p.

19. Pausanias. Opisanie Ellady: v 2 t. [Description of Greece: in 2 volumes]. St. Petersburg, Aleteiya Publ., 1996, vol. 1, book 1—4, 336 p.

20. Vitruvius M. Desyat’ knig ob arkhitekture [Ten Books on Architecture]. Moscow, Arkhitektura-S Publ., 2006, 328 p.

21. Tertullianus. O zrelishchakh [On the Spectacles]. Available at: http://www.tertullian.org/russian/de_spectaculis_rus.htm (accessed 23.04.2020).

22. Lucretius T. O prirode veshchei: khrestomatiya po antichnoi literature: v 2 t. [On the Nature of Things: Chrestomathy on Antique Literature: in 2 volumes]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1983, vol. 2, 718 p.

23. Emmons P., Lomholt J., Shannon Hendrix J. The Cultural Role of Architecture: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives. Abingdon, Routledge Publ., 2012, 228 p.