The chamber theater provides the viewer with a unique opportunity to become a participant in the performance. The audience, together with the actors, experiences everything that happens on the stage. They know and love their audience in the chamber theater.
Room theater
The word "chamber" in the name of the theater indicates its main difference from other "temples of Melpomene." Translated from English, chamber is a room. That is, in this theater performances are played not in a huge hall, but in a small room. They are set for a narrow circle of viewers.
In chamber theaters there are usually about 100 seats. Sometimes viewers are placed right on the stage. They become direct participants in the theater.
Erased theatrical conventions, entertainment. No bulky scenery. Historical costumes. Bright makeup. Emotivity rules the scene. Human passions are raging. The playwright, director, artist, actors, viewers are one.
History tour
The first chamber theater in Russia is the Yusupov Theater. He was a small copy of the Big. Located in a family mansion on the Moika.
In 1908, the Bat-cabaret theater was opened in Moscow. A little later, the "Intimate Theater" began work. It was created by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Nikolai Kulbin.
In St. Petersburg at that time there was a theater of parodies "Crooked Mirror". He was also chamber. Small Theater. An interesting detail: the performances in it began at midnight.
Famous Moscow Chamber
The founder of the Moscow Chamber Theater was A.Ya. Tairov. He believed that the actors are not puppets in the director’s hands. They are the main ones in the theater.
The director demanded virtuoso technique from the actors. He created a rhythmic-plastic style of acting. In the performances of this theater, the actors were acrobats, dancers, singers.
To expand the boundaries of acting opportunities completely changed the structure of the scene. Three-dimensional scenery was built, consisting of various elevations, ledges and stairs. The artist in the Chamber Theater turned into an architect and builder.
The performances were designed for the emotional perception of the viewer. Even the plot of the play faded into the background.
The Moscow Chamber Theater was remembered by the audience for its early performances, when the troupe still did not need to appeal to the broad masses and socialize. In 1950, the theater was closed. Most of the team moved to the Drama Theater named after A.S. Pushkin. He then just organized.
Today, chamber theaters are not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in many cities of Russia. They, as before, reveal on the stage various aspects of life. And each of them has and will have its own audience.
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