Major Directorial Poetics. The Evolution of Time-Space Concepts in Artistic Performance from an Exterior Placement to an Interior One

Abstract

Time and space are defining elements of creation in theater and all performing arts. These two concepts are embedded in the elements of the stage situation and were summed up by K.S. Stanislavski into the questions: When? and Where? The scenic representation of space can include the scenographic vision or it can be integrated through various techniques into a symbolization of it, either through gesture, sound, etc. Theatre theorists have made their contribution to the vision of time specific to theatre, analyzing it and making it visible in directorial poetics. Starting from the directors’ vision of the stage, we focused our research on how the performance and the perception of time change in the attempt to make the created scenic world as credible as possible. The concepts of time and space have evolved in directorial poetics from an exterior placement to an interior one. Furthermore, twenty-first-century performance art is developing new conventions of time and space through the most advanced technologies, and creators want the story to be experienced as intensely as possible by the audience. The research is also taking into account the chronological criterion, the period in which the directors in focus created—between the eighteenth and the twenty-first centuries.