Prediction about Theatre in the future

Introduction:  The Evolution of European Theatre

The European theatre was born in the Classic period. Greek plays were performed to honour Dionysus while Roman’s were performed as entertainment. During the Medieval period, the Christianity just had biblical performances inside the church with a didactic aim. Later, the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation permitted the secularization of the representations. As the time went by, Molière’s and Shakespeare became popular playwrights for high-society in France in Great Britain. Since the XVII century, the theatre began to grow bigger. In Spain great writers like Lope de Vega and Cervantes marked a Golden époque for Spanish literature and theatre. When Romantic ideas arrived to Spanish society, theatre became more sumptuous as shown in the play: “Don Juan Tenorio”, by Zorrilla. Later, during the XIX century, theatre turned into a place where the newly emerged bourgeoisie went “to show themselves in society” and to demonstrate their economic influence. [1]

Since the XIX century, the less favoured social classes used the theatre as a way to criticize what they dislike, so they reflected the aspects of their own lives like religion, family and unfairness of society. [2] In this way, many theatrical genres were invented and created their own performance spaces and theatres. Theatre turns into a free representation of different points of view of reality; or the representation of abstract and symbolic ideas; or simply the place were actors and spectators expressed themselves without hindrances.  Many theatrical groups were created like Theatre of Cruelty, Poor Theatre, Theatre of the Absurd, etc, with different conceptions of what the theatre should be like and acted like cultural movements. [3]

Situation of the Theatre nowadays:

Nowadays, there is at least one Theatre in every town; and several of them in big cities, with daily or weekly passes. So the theatre is just another commercial element; it means that its survival depends completely on us, the spectators, who with our choice decide which play is good and which one deserve to be forgotten.

The elements and themes for the plays are completely free, and almost any plot can be represented.

Theatre world has become very competitive. Mostly, the plays which have more publicity are the best appraised; and independent theatrical groups have to work really hard to find their place at the cultural events programmed in a city.

But there is not only the competitive relationship between different plays or Theatre companies; there is also an extern kind of competition among all the actual alternatives of entertainment. We have such a huge variety of activities to fill our leisure time, like cinemas or concerts, which are much more common among the people; for that reason theatre has few spectators.

In addition, activities like watching television, playing videogames and surfing on the internet are becoming more and more popular. The alternative of staying at home doing any of these activities seems easier for comfort-loving people, than going out and spend some gratifying time with cultural activities.

Future perspectives for the theatre:

“…el peor de los supuestos sería que las elites secuestraran el teatro como ya secuestraron la ópera…el modelo deseable no puede iniciarse en la cúspide de la pirámide, sino en sus cimientos: el énfasis (el presupuesto) habría que ponerlo en el teatro escolar, en el teatro aficionado, en las producciones de pequeño formato, en los espacios alternativos…en un teatro público que asuma riesgos…hay que cambiar de mentalidad y asumir que el teatro no es un adorno para que se reafirme la clase dominante, sino una herramienta de transformación de la sociedad…de ahí la necesidad de una dramaturgia que refleje la realidad más inmediata…en vez de remitirnos a la distancia o al pasado; a obras, sí, trascendentales, pero generalmente ocultas bajo el envoltorio cultural.”

CAMPOS, Jesús: ¿…Y a dónde vamos?. Revista Las puertas del Drama (nº 24), de la Asociación de Autores de teatro. Otoño 2005

It is difficult to adventure a forecast for the future of theatre because it depends on different aspects.

In the first place, there is the need of creating more plays for children because it is important to attract them to the cultural world since their childhood. In addition, we have to instil them the reading habit, so they could value later those plays performed on a theatre. [4] But cultural growing is responsibility of their parents and environment; and unfortunately, cultural level in Spain is not very high compared to other European countries.

It is also essential Government’s support with grants to theatrical manifestations and associations, and also giving facilities to create new theatres and to perform more plays. [5]

Of great importance are the opportunities that theatre companies should give to quality plays even if they are out of the commercial standard; and they should also hire young talented actors and actresses even if they are unknown faces.

Furthermore, theatre enthusiasts and amateur playwrights should work harder to get themselves into the cultural activity they like and so they could succeed someday. In the same way, whoever who wants to become an actor should get out and look for opportunities because luck won’t knock his door unless he go for it.

And the most important of all is the society support to young drama students, to the independent plays they represent, and to any kind of theatre; not as an obligation, but as a more interesting way of spending their death hours and of improving everyone’s culture, because without public, there would be no plays.

So, as I see it, theatre has been growing all along these years, and it will continue doing like that if the factors I’ve just mentioned above keep going on the right way.

It is not easy but Spanish cultural background is getting better. There are more “cafés-teatro”, more free or cheap entrance representations, more artistic groups and more people who go to the theatre to have a good time. Newspapers and magazines also give more words to information about cultural events. And the number of associations related to theatre is growing day after day. [6]

Consequently, maybe in some years theatre tickets will be as cheap as the ones for going to the cinema. Maybe in a near future, more people will feel comfortable going to the theatre and stop thinking of it as a “snob people activity”.

And probably foreign theatre companies will be interested in Spanish actors and plays and decide to invest here. Due to it, young students will have a real chance to work acting as they want.

As a conclusion, I would like to add that young people is more open-minded and most of us are very into cultural movements; so, as we are the future, theatre world will not just survive, but grow stronger with our help.

Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ivonne Pamela Landázuri
ilanbe@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press