How to stage a performance. Home puppet theater: how to organize and perform How to make a performance at home

Have you decided to organize something for your child and don’t know what to come up with that is original? Why not organize home for your children!

Create home theater with your own hands only at first glance it seems challenging task. In fact, with a large dose of creativity and relatively small investments, you can get a real holiday that both you and your child will remember for a long time.

How to make a home theater

The format and technologies for organizing a home theater will vary, depending on the purpose of the performance. If you decide to make an impromptu show one of the components children's day birth, then most likely it should be a mini-performance that will not be devoted to the entire holiday. And, of course, the main role must be played by the birthday boy! If organizing children's parties seems overwhelming to you, then it is better to entrust it to professional producers.

Another criterion is the age of the child. If the baby is no more than three years old, there is no need to arrange great show- let it be small children's home puppet show , where the main actors will be finger puppets. It can be placed anywhere - at the table, on the bed or sofa, on the floor. The fairy tales that you read with your child are suitable as a script - it is best if the characters are familiar to him. Such home puppet theater - this is not just entertainment, but also a way of development for your child. While playing with finger puppets Fantasy, memory develops, imagination turns on.

For older children it is possible to arrange home show more seriously - with the choice of script, distribution and memorization of roles, preparation of scenery, costumes and makeup. Here you can already invite the child’s friends to take part in the event, as well as invite spectators. As a rule, the latter will be the children's parents, grandparents, and neighbors.

Home theater for children - stages of organization

The first step is to choose the work that will be staged. By the way, it is imperative to make a stage - to fence off some space, otherwise the feeling of the theater will be incomplete. It is best if the book you are using as a basis is known to everyone involved in preparing the event. For example, if you arrange children's party Alice in Wonderland, you are unlikely to get into trouble - most children still read this book, or watched the movie.

Next, roles should be assigned. Of course, all children will want to play beautiful, smart, brave and strong characters. But what then to do with negative heroes? Try to present their images young actors so that these characters seem interesting to them.

The next stage is that each artist must take charge of preparing the costumes. Of course, not without the help of your parents. By the way, as for costumes and makeup for your child, old parental things, as well as mother’s cosmetic bag, will be used here.

The decorations are best done by the joint efforts of the event participants - everyone can bring from home everything that can pass for theatrical props. Be sure to invite children to do something with their own hands - this will also contribute to their development.

OK it's all over Now! All that remains is to learn the roles, charge the video camera in advance and invite the audience to sit comfortably. The show begins...

How is a children's performance different from an adult's? It should have a topic that interests children and a language that the child can understand. You can talk about anything, even about death, the main thing is that it’s clear. If you are staging a play at home, without a professional team, then it is best not to role-play it as in classical psychological theater: it is difficult for non-professional actors not to fake it. We offer several formats modern theater, which will help stage a performance for a small company and do not require special skills, special props or long preparation.

Subject theater

From 1 to 3 participants

Shadow play

From 3 to 5 participants

Theater designation

From 3 to 7 participants

From 1 to 15 participants

Subject theater

From 1 to 3 participants

What it is

A performance with objects is one of the most accessible options for a home performance. It is set up like a puppet theater, only instead of dolls there are any objects that can be found at home, and before the eyes of the audience they will turn into heroes of the play. For example, you tell “Hen Ryab”, and the phone charger becomes a mouse breaking an egg with its tail-wire, and the kettle, on the handle of which you put glasses on, becomes a sad grandfather. Thanks to the fact that the object begins to perform a function other than its own, a transformation occurs, the “miracle of the theater.”

The method of narration in such a performance is storytelling, retelling the plot from the first person. The actor does not try to act, he acts as a storyteller, and thanks to his distance from the plot, the technique turns out to be more honest: I am Glasha, and I am telling you the fairy tale “Ryaba Hen” - and I am not playing Ryaba Hen at all.

How long does the performance last?

You need to limit yourself in advance in time: 7 minutes for a home children's performance is ideal, more than 15 should not be exact.

What you will need

In addition to the objects themselves - the heroes of the play, you need to prepare the stage: it is most convenient to perform the play on a well-lit table (a table lamp can help).

What to put

A good option- take your favorite book. You need to find it storyline, where there is a problem and its solution or a change in the hero. Here, for example, is the problem in Kolobok: it didn’t work. On a bear, a wolf, and a hare, Kolobok's song worked, but on a fox it did not. Why? Because it is impossible to solve all life problems in the same way. And to brag at the same time.

How to bet

If you are heavily adapting a book, you need to write a script. If you leave the text unchanged, it’s enough just to collect all the necessary pieces in one place (or bookmark it in a book). You also need to write out all the characters and come up with suitable images for them. For example, a mouse is a shoe with a long cord-tail and two socks-ears inside, a mouse-knot is a smaller shoe. Big snail- tape measure, small snail - twisted centimeter. There are special manuals that will help you train your imagination and think about how an object can be used.

If suddenly during the preparation you successfully came up with a character who is not in the book, it’s okay, it’s quite possible to add him to the script or replace him with someone else. It is not necessary to visualize all the characters, but it is advisable to visualize all the important ones. And the main characters should be specifically identified: for example, it’s good if they are present on stage all the time.

What is important to consider: all objects must become heroes in front of the viewer, only then will it be theater. That is, blanks, for example, a teapot and glasses, should be at hand, but they should turn into a character - in this case, a grandfather - only during the performance, when the grandfather is first mentioned. If there are a lot of objects, then, in addition to the narrator, one or two participants can be involved in the performance.

You can limit yourself in the choice of objects, agree, for example, that a fairy tale is created only from things that may end up in the kitchen, pantry or mother’s bag. You can even come up with a beautiful approach: for example, a mother comes home from work, sits down at the table with a computer to work, and next to her are two bored daughters who start playing and disturb her. Then mom decides to tell a fairy tale to captivate them: she takes a comb out of her bag - it becomes a hedgehog, turns over the laptop - it becomes a house, and so on. Moreover, in addition to the bag, of course, many items can be prepared in advance in boxes and on shelves around.

Theatrical effects will help develop the action. If you cut the paper finely and sprinkle the scene on top, you get snow; if you point a hairdryer or fan at the pieces of paper, you get a blizzard; if you crumple the foil over the characters, you get lightning; put blue cellophane on the table — the sea; and if you put transparent cellophane — ice . Theatrical effects can also depict turning points: if a hero dies, you can effectively pull a red handkerchief out of your sleeve and throw it over him. Plot twists It is also easy to show by changing light or sounds: an egg fell and broke - hitting a cup with a spoon or clapping your hands.

For the entire performance, you can take the soundtrack from your favorite movie (a safe bet, by the way, is music from Wes Anderson’s films) or just your favorite song or classical composition.

Shadow play

From 3 to 5 participants

What it is

The shadow play is also based on storytelling: the play is led by a narrator, and the others use shadows to illustrate his story. Shadows can be different: there are silhouette shadows (when the shadow is cast by specially carved figures), live shadows (the shadow is cast by the entire person) and (when the shadow is cast by the actor’s fingers). All shadow techniques can be combined, sometimes the shadow can even go beyond the screen, and this is very spectacular: a boat floats in front of the screen, and then drives behind it, and we can already see its retreating shadow.

How long does the performance last?

The optimal time for a home performance is 7-15 minutes.

What you will need

For a shadow theater you will need a screen (a sheet will do) and several light sources. The narrator is in front of the screen, and the actors and lighting are behind it. It is most convenient to place a projector or table lamp in the middle on the floor or on a table - this is general light. To highlight specific shadows, each actor must have a flashlight or phone with a flashlight in their hand. If there are many participants, then you can appoint illuminators - they will be responsible for both the lanterns for individual shadows and the lamp.

If you are working with silhouette shadows, then you need to cut them out and prepare them in advance. It will be most convenient to control them using chopsticks (sushi sticks are suitable), and secure the figures with plasticine.

What to put

Literary basis it may be the same as in subject theater: a favorite book adapted for a performance - you need to highlight a storyline in which there is a problem that interests you and its solution.

How to bet

It’s good if the decision of the play is immediately clear from the book: for example, if this is a work about adults and children, or about giants and midgets, then the play can be based on playing with the sizes of shadows. Let's say you take the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. Then one person stands closer to the lamp, further from the screen - he gets a large shadow, this is the giant Cyclops. The other one is closer to the screen, further from the lamp - he has a smaller shadow, this is the hero Odysseus. In the story, Odysseus pierces the Cyclops' eye - the actor only needs to extend his arm diagonally upward so that the audience gets the impression that his finger hits the Cyclops.

Shadow art requires rehearsals, so for such a performance you will definitely need a director - a person who will be in front of the screen during all rehearsals to monitor whether the shadows overlap each other and whether they are clearly visible.

It's interesting when the shadows begin to interact with the narrator. For example, he tells how the heroes went into the forest, and a bird (silhouette shadow) lands on his shoulder, the narrator blows on it, and the bird flies away. Another successful technique is to use the contrast of one and the crowd, when all the actors behind the screen respond equally to the words of the narrator. Then the forest scene will look like this. The narrator says: “And they went into the forest,” - all the other actors depict swaying branches with their hands. Narrator: “And they saw a cat,” all the actors begin to meow and raise their hands with bent fingers, as if they were scratching.

The image of the narrator should always be associated with the performance. Think about who could tell your story? If it's a fairy tale - grandma or grandpa. If ancient greek myth- a Greek in a toga. From whose face do you suddenly hear a familiar story? The narrator of “The Wizard of Oz” can be not only Ellie, but also Totoshka, and even an oak tree near Lukomorye can tell Pushkin’s fairy tales.

How to make a performance more interesting

Theater can be extracted from everything. The screen can also be playful: for example, if it is a play based on Mary Poppins, then it can begin with the Banks family looking for a nanny, all the actors walking around the stage with newspapers, and then the wind changes, and a screen moves in from above, glued together from pieces of newspaper. You can play with lighting: change the projector light to blue (if something magical is happening), red (if you need to depict danger). A wandering lantern can be used to show dangerous moments, a climax, or some kind of instability. They should focus on the hero. They look very interesting in a shadow theater staged dances. If you work with the lamps differently, the image will be refracted - this will be a spectacular interruption in the performance. Music will also help to enliven the performance: it is better if it is live, for example a drum or a bell for accents or general background.

Theater designation

From 3 to 7 participants

What it is

This theatrical form will be most similar to the type of theater that is most familiar to children: there is still a narrator, but the play is no longer performed by puppets or shadows, but by actors. The difference is that the actors here also do not really play, as in psychological theater, but rather indicate actions and reactions, distancing themselves from their characters Such a theater is close " epic theater”, which was invented by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. In Brecht's theater, the actors did not identify themselves with the characters and did not strive for “authenticity”, but on the contrary, they presented the familiar with unexpected side. The decorations were laconic and the plays were responsive to contemporary issues..

Let's say the narrator is talking about a competition for the heart of a princess: the hero must hit the target with a bow in order to marry the girl. Then one artist shoots, the second takes his arrow, slowly shows its progress, brings it to the target, shows that the arrow hits - bam! (to enhance the effect, you can add musical accompaniment) - and the wedding celebration begins at normal speed. And death, for example, is depicted like this: one hero shoots at the second, he freezes, the third comes up and draws a red circle on his chest with makeup or paint - it is important that during the drawing the victim does not move, and only when this process is completed -shen, the deceased may leave the stage (or start dancing or moving strangely - to depict a transition to another state). It's like living pictures: an ordinary picture captures some an important event, and the live one captures the entire process that led to this event.

How long does the performance last?

Just like in previous versions, the production’s timing is from 7 to 15 minutes.

What you will need

There are no required props, but it would be great to use in the play live music: for example, drums.

What to put

For such a performance it would be most convenient to take fairy tales, where there are obvious transformations that will be interesting to show " close-up", slow down.

How to bet

Favorite trick: a child falls asleep while reading a book. Let's say he sits at the table, reads the end of the paragraph and falls asleep. Heroes of the fairy tale he was reading appear around him, perhaps objects come to life: a vase of flowers is removed from the table, and instead an actor in a floral suit leans on the table. And these heroes continue the fairy tale, and the child himself becomes, for example, a prince. In this case, the performance will not have one narrator, but a whole group: one will convey the word to the other. You can end the fairy tale with the sound of an alarm clock or the voice of your mother - a ring composition always gives integrity to the action.

The play "Cinderella" is based on the play by Joël Pomert - this social drama about how the memory of her deceased mother does not let go of the girl Zoya, nicknamed Zola, which is why she takes on all the menial work and does not find a place for herself. In this scene, the sisters and father mark the corners of a small, cramped room and convince Zola (Nadezhda Lumpova) that the room suits her just fine. Behind the scenes is the Fairy Godmother, the narrator who leads the play.

Scene from the play "Cinderella". Directed by Marfa Horwitz

The first meeting of Zola's stepmother (Katerina Vasilyeva) and father (Alexander Userdin). All the characters froze, and everyone expressed their attitude towards this meeting: the stepmother and father are happy new love, the sisters are unhappy that they now have to live together, and look at Zola in a pointedly arrogant and condescending manner. As a talisman, Zola puts forward an alarm clock that rings every five minutes, reminding her of her mother.

You need to come up with costumes for the heroes: things from the closet, sheets, colored paper and everything you can find at home. If this is a prince and princess, you can make them crowns from foil or paper and golden cloaks - buy a thermal blanket at a store for hunters and fishermen.

Wrapping paper (for example, free from IKEA) will also come in handy. Such paper can even become the solution to the entire performance: you can cut out all the props from it and make one-color costumes for all the characters. For example, if we are talking about a boring life that is transformed thanks to love or creativity, then costumes can be painted with paints and felt-tip pens during the performance.

In order to create an image, one piece of the costume will be enough. Ask yourself: what is the most important thing about your character? Let's say you're playing the dog from " Bremen Town Musicians”, who was kicked out of the house by her owners because she “had become old”. Her main characteristic maybe old age. Fantasize: why exactly was she kicked out? Perhaps she went blind or lost her sense of smell? Then the costume could be glasses, which the dog sometimes loses, takes a long time to find, and is therefore late everywhere. And if you have a dog from the “Magic Ring,” then its main quality is devotion. A leash is enough to show how the dog follows its owner and how happy it is to serve him.

How to make a performance more interesting

To make the story look more theatrical, effective theatrical techniques will help. The narrator says: “Once upon a time there was a girl, and suddenly she...” - the girl throws out a red ribbon from her bosom. Narrator (after a pause): “I fell in love.”

The sea, flood or waterfall can be depicted with cellophane or a blanket. Sheets are good for showing snowdrifts. The actors themselves can convey the weather: for example, one character picks up the corners of the second’s cloak and shakes the fabric, as if the cloak is inflated by the wind. Or you can do without any decorations at all and solve everything with sound: if you crush starch in a bag, it will sound like the creaking of steps in the snow; if you blow into a corrugated pipe or start waving it, you will get wind or a blizzard; Moreover, it will be interesting to produce sounds not behind the stage, but in front of the viewer, in an open manner.

From 1 to 15 participants

What it is

Reading is the most adult format of a home performance; it is suitable for children over 12 years old. From the outside, the reading looks very simple matter: actors sit on chairs and read the play by role. But for this to become a performance, and not just a reading, serious preparation is needed: analyzing the play and thinking through the transitions between scenes, so you need someone to take on the function of the director (you may need the help of an adult).

How long does the performance last?

There can be no time limit here: you need to play as long as it takes to read.

What you will need

Chairs on which the actors will sit, and printed texts of the play.

What to put

Suitable plays can be found on the website of the children's drama competition "Little Remark" and in collections modern dramaturgy adult authors. Here are the plays to watch:

• Anastasia Bukreeva. "Gandhi was silent on Saturdays"10 characters
• Irina Vaskovskaya. "God Rides a Bicycle"8 characters
• Ivan Vyrypaev. "What I Learned from the Snake" Monopoly
• Vadim Klimovsky. "Mitina's War"8 characters
• Masha Kontorovich. “Mom, my arm was torn off”12 characters
• Serafima Orlova. "Asta"10 characters
• Dana Sideros. "To everyone concerned"13 characters
• Yulia Tupikina. "Inhale-exhale"6 characters

How to bet

After you have chosen the text, you need to assign roles and choose a narrator who will read the stage directions. An analysis of roles is always welcome - it usually happens like this: the director and the actors talk about what they like about the play, what excites them, and discuss each role separately.

There is a simple version of the analysis: you need to determine the main theme of the play and formulate a question related to this theme. For example, if the theme is the pursuit of happiness, then the question could be “What is happiness for my character?” To answer this question, you need to trace the entire character arc. When you find the answer, it will help you correctly place the emphasis in the play and better understand which scenes are key for the character.

And analyzing the play will help you figure out how to respond to the stage directions that the narrator reads. The author's explanations and instructions on how to play are the most interesting part of reading. Actors should not respond to them literally, otherwise it will be boring. If it is written “speaks, smiling” - this does not mean that you must definitely smile, you can not react in any way and continue speaking as before, if “out of breath” - on the contrary, you can read it extremely calmly if “the heroes are quarreling”, and we know that the heroes are married couple who does nothing but quarrel, then they can speak deliberately lazily or tenderly. The solution must be paradoxical - this is the law of the theater. But it is always based on text: actor play gives the remark an additional dimension and reveals the character of the hero, expands the meaning of the text, and does not contradict it.

The narrator can be combined with a small role or a separate character can be invented for him: for example, if you are staging a play where the main motive is some kind of competition between the heroes, then the narrator can be a football commentator. But it is very important to test any idea in rehearsals: sometimes what seems very good in theory does not work at all on stage. Therefore, rehearsal is an endless change in search perfect formula. At the same time, you need to remember that the acting in the reading should be minimal, main principle- concentration on the text. Therefore, the presentation, musical accompaniment, and stage solutions will be minimalist.

In order not to distract the viewer from the text, the actors should hardly move - it will be most convenient for them to sit on chairs. But you can organize space in different ways: for example, the characters participating in the scene can move forward. If this is a story about a quarrel, let the actors sit like in a ring, opposite each other. If there are not many participants, then one person can play two roles. Then he moves from place to place so that the viewer can understand who he is reading for. If the hero in the story dies, then he leaves or closes his eyes, sits with his back to the audience or stands on a chair (to get closer to the sky) - visually something should change.

How to end the reading? Always a winning move is a choreographic exercise when the action on stage obeys some kind of law. There is, for example, the “exhalation movement” exercise. The actors begin to breathe in rhythm, and for each exhalation they make any movement: a step, a turn, a tilt of the head, a wave of the hand. As soon as the exhalation ends, the movement ends. When you are focused on breathing, you don’t have time to fuss with your face, and this action looks incomprehensible and fascinating. For example, in a play about a family, this way everyone can gather into a family portrait.

If this is a play about creation, then in parallel with the reading, the actors can draw pictures, fold origami and create a collage - by the end of the reading, their work should be ready. The ending can also be decided by sound: for example, if the actors begin to depict the departure of the train - “chuchuh-chuchuh” - everything will be clear even without scenery. The main thing is that all decisions should be organic to the play itself - that is why the director (or directors) needs to work with the text and think about the characters, meanings and main topic performance.

How to make a performance more interesting

To make the reading more than just reading a text, you can come up with theatrical effects. For example, if this is a play about how the past cannot be returned, then everyone can simultaneously take the sheet they read and throw it on the floor. You can add details of props that will help the actors feel like characters and will develop the action: take an apple, a hat, a bag, and so on. For example, if one character sits with an apple throughout the play and then passes it to another, it becomes clear that this is a scene about trust, about love. And if, for example, under his pathetic text, Romeo takes out a lollipop, unwraps it and gives it to Juliet, then we understand that in fact they are still children.

Learn how to create a puppet theater with your own hands. At the same time, characters can not only be sewn and molded, but also made from plastic spoons and wooden sticks.

DIY finger puppet theater

Do you want to develop fine motor skills baby, speech, thinking and simply have the opportunity to lift the whole family’s spirits, then turn the room into a temple of art. To do this, you need to know how to make a finger puppet theater with your own hands.

• felt;
• threads;
• scissors.

Fold 2 character blanks wrong sides together, sew along the edge using a machine or with a thread and a needle on your hands.

To make a beard for your grandfather, wrap several rows of thread around your fingers and cut them on one side. Fold these identical threads in half and sew the beard in place.

Check out one more interesting idea. This could be a home puppet theater for staging the fairy tale “Turnip”. IN kindergarten better to have more big characters so that the whole group can see them from afar. But you can do something like this by taking:

• modeling paste (preferably Jovi, which does not need to be burned; it hardens in air);
• yellow and green paste Jovi Patcolor;
• acrylic paints;
• tassels;
• markers;
• stacks.

1. Let's sculpt the grandfather first. Take a piece of pasta measuring 2x3 cm, roll it into a sausage, and form a cylinder. You should end up with something like a nesting doll with a body and head, and at the bottom there will be a notch for your finger.
2. Separately sculpt the arms and attach them to the body. But outline the facial features, beard, and mustache using a stack.
3. Using the same principle, sculpt the grandmother, granddaughter and animals. Once these characters are dry, paint them with acrylic paints.
4. For the turnip, roll a ball of yellow paste, pull it out a little from the top, insert green plastic tops here, and secure.

When sculpting with paste, you will find that it dries quickly in the air, so periodically wet your fingers with water.

DIY table theater

If you want to have tabletop theater with paper dolls, then enlarge the next image. Print it on a color printer on thick paper. If this is not possible, attach a sheet of thin paper to the screen and transfer the outlines onto it. Then place it on cardboard, draw outlines, and let the child decorate the characters with colored pencils or paints. All that remains is to cut out the images, glue each one on the side and glue the top of the head to the head.

• plastic spoons;
• colored paper;
• scissors;
• ready-made plastic eyes;
• glue gun;
• textile;
• narrow tape, scissors.

1. Using a glue gun, glue the finished eyes to the convex side of the spoon.
2. Turn a piece of fabric tied with a ribbon into a dress. For a male character, just glue a bow tie to his neck.
3. Cut strips of colored fringe paper on one side and glue this hair. They will also be replaced by pieces of colored cotton wool.

Other characters are controlled in the same way, to create which you will need:

• ice cream sticks;
• children's magazines;
• glue;
• scissors.

How to make a screen for a puppet theater?

This is an essential attribute of puppet theater. Check out the simplest options:

1. Cover the hole under the table with a cloth, tying its two corners to the top of one and the other leg. The child sits on the floor behind him and leads the characters at the level of the table top - just above it.
2. Take an old curtain or sheet. Gather any of these fabrics onto a rope, tie the ends of the thread on one and the other side of the doorway. Make a rectangular cutout in the center of the top of any of these pieces. It should be at such a height that it is not visible to a child or adult sitting behind the curtain who are playing the role of puppeteers.
3. For finger theater a table screen is being made. The easiest way is to make it from cardboard. Take the box. It needs to be disassembled, covered with wallpaper or colored paper, and 2 sides bent so that a canvas of sufficient size remains in the center. There is a cutout in it through which the puppeteer shows finger toys.

• plywood;
• jigsaw;
• fabric or piece of wallpaper;
• glue;
• small door hinges.

1. Based on the presented dimensions, cut out 3 blanks from plywood: a central one and 2 side panels. Cover them with fabric.
2. When the canvas is dry, attach the loops to the designated areas so that you can close the puppet theater screen and fold it.

In order to make a screen, you will need:

• PVA glue;
• rope or lace;
• carton boxes;
• wallpaper;
• stationery knife;
• awl;
• roulette;
• wide brush;
• long ruler;
• rag.

1. The drawing is given for teenagers or adults whose height is 1 m 65 cm. If you are making a screen for children, reduce this figure.
2. To make it durable, make it three-layer. For this one large leaf Glue the second cardboard, then on the other side - the third. Apply PVA glue with a wide brush. This way you will make the front part - the apron.
3. The side elements are also made in three layers, but the folds, which you then glue to the apron, should consist of one layer.
4. Connect the parts by gluing them. When the glue has dried, sew in these places with a lace, having previously made holes in the fastening points. Attach the top arch in the same way.

We make do-it-yourself glove dolls

These can be seen in a real puppet theater. Dolls put gloves on their hands. By bending your fingers, you can make the fabric character tilt its head and move its arms.

If you then make human dolls, you can make the hairstyle from fabric or thread.

The thickness of the character's neck should be such that the puppeteer can insert the middle and index fingers to control the hero of the play.

So, here's what you need to sew a glove doll:

• faux fur and/or plain fabric;
• tracing paper or transparent paper or cellophane;
• pen;
• scissors;
• threads;
• buttons for eyes.

But it is best to embroider the nose and mouth by stretching these areas onto a hoop or sewing blanks of appropriate colors and eye buttons.

Cut out a shirtfront for the bunny glove doll from white fur, sew it on triangular part to the front half, and a semicircular one, in the form of a collar, to the back. To this same back side the tail is attached, and white paws with or without pink claws are attached to both parts.

Other glove dolls, for example, a pig, are also created using this technique.

Staging a performance yourself is not only fun, but also fashionable. There's a real boom going on all over the country. amateur theaters, and this is confirmed by all the new festivals and competitions taking place in all corners of the country. Acting schools for adults are overcrowded. What is this connected with? Tired of horror stories on TV and bad news, more and more smart, energetic people are turning to art, which has been helping to maintain a fresh outlook on life for many centuries - to the theater.

They say that theater is more addictive than any drug. Numerous participants in the Second Moscow Festival of Family Theaters “A Fairy Tale Comes to Your Home,” which this year brought together about a hundred talented families, will probably agree with this. All of them are infected with home theater and devote all their free time to it.

The long winter holidays lie ahead, during which you can stage and show your friends and family not just one performance, but several. And about how best to do this, we asked professionals - founders and managers Theater House“Home Theater” directed by Arseny Epelbaum and actress Olga Zeiger.

Why is a home theater better than a professional one?

Firstly, the performance features exactly those artists whom the audience most wants to see. When you come to a theater, it may happen that you don’t like the performers - this doesn’t happen at home. So success is guaranteed in any case.

Secondly, the performance lasts not two hours, but much less. It's best if home performance will be short - the minimum time in which you can convey the content. In our nursery theater studio In four lessons of 2 hours each, we make a performance that lasts 10-15 minutes.

Third, yours is the most convenient theater Hall, which you don’t need to get to because it’s at home. And the audience does not have to stand in line for the wardrobe, there is no need to be embarrassed by strangers - you can take off your jacket and even sit on the sofa with your feet up.

Fourthly, after the premiere there will definitely be a luxurious banquet, and it will last much longer than the performance and its budget exceeds the budget of the performance. This is what professional artists of any theater dream of most.

How to choose a play for a performance?

Since we have so many advantages: the play is played only once, favorite artists participate in it, and success is guaranteed in advance, then why don’t we take on what the “big theaters” always dream of - great works. Even for “Our William Shakespeare”! In home theater, you can treat great authors without undue reverence - perceive them as members of your family. You are a brilliant director, you have brilliant actors, and at the same time you take Pushkin and Beethoven as co-authors - how can you not end up with a brilliant performance? Don’t be afraid to add or rewrite something—everything is allowed to you in this theater. Most strong effect always produces something that breaks stereotypes. If Small child the kolobok plays, this is perceived by everyone as quite familiar story

and is unlikely to cause any aesthetic shock, which is what we usually achieve in the theater. But if a six-year-old child comes out with a skull and a sword in his hands and says: “To be or not to be!” - then the degree of impact of such a performance increases many times over.

One of the laws of home theater is that the greater the discrepancy between who is playing and what is being played, the greater the artistic effect you will produce. Don’t be afraid to take on the most serious works, be it ballet “ Swan Lake ", tragedies "Romeo and Juliet" or "Hamlet", famous bible stories etc. Their beauty is that almost every viewer knows the plot almost by heart, so you don’t have to go into details. In addition, you have the opportunity to at least a little introduce your child to “correct” literature and music. That is, to lay the foundation of what will then lead him to the conservatory, to the opera or a serious performance, will force him to open good book

or go to an art gallery.

1. How to write a script? Shorten the play Break up the play to some of the most important, recognizable scenes. Each of them can contain literally several replicas that will briefly convey the essence of what is happening. 3. Select a genre. As you can imagine, opera and ballet require long rehearsals. But there is, for example, shadow theater — the curtain and flat dolls are made very quickly, and everything looks impressive. There is a paper theater, which has enough cut-out paper dolls and backdrops. 4.

Find music

. The more serious it is - even if the theme of the work is not related to the theme of the performance - the better. It is better if music accompanies all the action. And be sure to find a solemn melody for bowing.

How to rehearse?

First of all, there must be one person who prepares everything. There must be a chief director who knows exactly when the performance will be ready and what it will look like.

This person can prepare everything in advance without unnecessary fuss, for example, a mother comes up to the child and says: “Can you draw me a prince’s castle, a skull, a sword...” It’s interesting and not difficult for the child to draw for twenty minutes, and the mother already has the scenery for a paper theater.

Then mom (who most often happens to be the main director) goes to dad and, as if by chance, asks him to find some solemn music on the Internet, something pathetic. Five minutes later dad finds it, writes it down - and now the soundtrack of the performance is ready.

And it is absolutely not necessary to cheat everyone. And after everything has been selected and prepared, the music has been recorded and the props have been made, the chief director decides to gather everyone and put on the performance “in one go.” How to make a stage and auditorium? We are playing theater. And the more paraphernalia there will be academic theater, the better it will look and the more fun it will be for everyone.

Announce that the buffet is open and start handing out drinks and sandwiches.

And don’t forget the main thing - you, unlike professional directors and actors, are doomed to success!

Of course, a three-year-old has no interest in playing Hamlet or anything like that. He doesn't understand this. But to be in a situation where he is standing on stage, and all the spectators are very happy with what he is doing - this is very important for him. Because it is generally very important for a child to do so that others like it. By the way, artists differ from other people in that this period lasts until old age - it is very important for them to know whether they are doing the right thing and whether others like it.

There is no need to torture your child with the theater: rehearse many times, explain the essence in too much detail. Just briefly tell him the plot - believe me, this will be exactly what most people come to the theater for. And then set simple tasks: “You run here, scream and fall.” For making decorations in paper theater

take a paper roller like fax paper. Draw the scenery on it in order of the scenes. Then attach the roller on both sides to the two bottles. You have scenery that you change by simply scrolling the video backwards or forwards. And the audience immediately understands where the scene takes place. You can come up with a lot of things here, for example, cutting out windows in the decoration, behind which figures of people will flash. Ozolin family

Margarita, Andrey, Ilya Margarita and Andrey have long been seriously passionate about theater. As a child, Margarita studied at the famous theater studio of the House of Culture "ZIL" and even tried to enter the Theatre Institute to the acting department. And when it didn’t work out to become an actress, she entered the profession of a cultural organizer. Andrey is an engineer by profession. He came to the same studio, but later, while studying at a technical institute. Over time, Andrei received a second education as a playwright and began writing plays, some of which have already been staged in Russian theaters . Now they work together as methodologists in cultural center

“We started staging a family play mainly because of my son Ilya. He dreams of becoming a film artist, so we help him get closer to his dream,” says Margarita. This is the second year the Ozolins have participated in the family theater festival. Last year they reached the finals with a performance based on the fairy tale by Gianni Rodari, and this year they became winners.

For the production, the Ozolins chose Ostrid Preusler’s little-known fairy tale “The Robber” and wrote a play based on it, “Nothing can be done about it, that’s just the way we are.” The main characters of this tale are characters from German folklore Kaspel and Seppel (analogues of our Petrushka). They are played by Margarita and Ilya. Andrey plays the role of a policeman and a thief rolled into one. The most difficult thing, according to them, was to do it in 10 minutes, and this was one of the mandatory conditions performances at the festival. "We succeeded political satire

on the topic of the day,” says Andrei, “about a policeman who was also a robber, and spent the whole performance catching himself. This topic is a hot one now, so the audience received our performance very well.” They rehearsed the performance for 3 weeks. Most of all they were afraid that Ilya would get confused on stage, but he showed himself as a real artist and did not forget a single word.

Dorokhov family Anatoly Dmitrievich, Tamara Pavlovna, their children Natalya and Pavel, daughter-in-law Irina, grandchildren Maxim and Anton This large, cheerful and very friendly family lives playfully all the time. The performance at the family theater festival is just one of the episodes of their creative life. The soul and engine of the family - older generation, Tamara Pavlovna and Anatoly Dmitrievich. She is a former history teacher, he is a former electrical mechanic. Having left the city several years ago and becoming passionate farmers, they constantly gather relatives, friends, and neighbors in their home. On

New Year they have holidays with Santa Claus, their own skating rink on the pond, and on Easter there are festivities with masks and costumes. And so, for no reason, friends gather to read new poems, listen to Tamara Pavlovna and daughter Natasha sing, celebrate birthdays... And on Tamara Pavlovna’s anniversary

At the festival, the family presented a performance based on three of Krylov’s fables - “The Dragonfly and the Ant,” “Quartet” and “Wagon Train,” in which the whole family took part. Anatoly Dmitrievich made all the decorations with his own hands - he spent a whole month inventing, cutting, painting. Tamara Pavlovna wrote the script (she has been writing both prose and poetry all her life), sewed the costumes and gathered everyone for rehearsals. “Our most talented artist is Maxim, my youngest grandson,” she claims. “He’s just a born actor!”

theatrical creativity family theater The main thing is not skill, but the relationship of the artists, their ability to support each other. On the other hand, the contact that occurs on stage then moves into everyday relationships, changing them and making them better.

And in this sense, theater complements life, and life complements theater. pre-revolutionary Russia home performances were part of the daily life of the nobles. From home theaters to live pictures, improvised performances were very popular. Not a single summer season was complete without a performance; the scenery was a garden, a pond, or picturesque sunsets over a lake, as in Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” Christmas performances with a baby sleeping in a manger, the Magi and King Herod were traditional. The novel by Alexander Blok and his Beautiful Lady , Lyubov Mendeleeva, began after a home performance in which the poet played Hamlet, and his young sweetheart- Ophelia. IN
The wonderful traditions of home performances became a thing of the past after the revolution. Everything new is well forgotten old, so it’s time to revive a beautiful tradition.

We choose the stage. If a “real” theater begins with a hanger, then a home theater begins with the choice of a stage. The choice of the play, the scenery, the number of actors, and the number of spectators will depend on this. If you are going to do in the best aristocratic traditions theatrical production at the dacha or in the yard, where there is a lot of space, then you can handle complex plays with big amount actors. At least put on “War and Peace.”

If you only have a tiny one-room apartment at your disposal, you can replace the performance with “living pictures”, representing a small excerpt from a work or painting by famous artists.

Alena, 27 years old:
— My friends and I were spending the weekend in the village with my grandmother when the electricity was cut off for two days due to a hurricane. We had already played both “crocodile” and “association” a hundred times, when suddenly my sister pulled out such and such an old dress and scarf from her grandmother’s closet, wrapped herself up, lit a candle and began reading Tatyana’s letter to Onegin. We all got involved in the game, and my then boyfriend and I showed final scene Romeo and Juliet. At the phrase “Oh greedy, you drank it all,” the audience laughed like crazy, because just the day before Igor had had a little too much alcohol.
Since then, always if we are going to our cheerful company, we show such small excerpts from our favorite works. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll take part in a home performance.

Play. If your performance is timed to coincide with any holiday, then you can choose something thematic for the production: for example, “The Nutcracker” for New Year’s Eve.

In general, the good thing about a home performance (and the role of a home director) is that you are given complete freedom of action. Romeo and Juliet didn't die, but got married and had a bunch of children? Please! Have the three sisters gone to Moscow after all? As many as you like!

I can give only one piece of advice: don’t take an overly tragic script with a sad ending. Of course, we can all be drama queens if we want, but for a debut, Pygmalion is still preferable to King Lear.

Well, if you have a certain literary talent, then you can write a script for your loved one work of art and stage your own play based on it.

Larisa, 34 years old, mother of 6 children:
— Every Christmas, my children and I put on a small play dedicated to the birth of Jesus. My husband and I portray Mary and Joseph, the boys are the Magi, the sweet daughter is the Christmas star, and one of the little ones is a baby. Previously, the little one almost started a fight over leading role, so now we have an agreement: whoever behaves best during the year will lie in the manger. This is such a cunning educational move.

Casting. When choosing a play, you need to take into account the number of potential actors, so that later you don’t have to call your friends with a plaintive “Waa-a-asenka, well, let you be our hero-lover.” As a last resort, episodic characters can be played by the same person
The number of people involved in the performance can be calculated using the formula “ cast+ 1". “+1” is a director, prompter, sound engineer and lighting engineer rolled into one.

When staging a simple play, “+1” may not be necessary, and you will also be able to take part. But if the play is complex, in several acts, you will have to forget about acting fame. If the scene beckons you, then entrust the direction to one of your older relatives - your mother or grandmother will be happy to take command of the parade.

Props. In the production of decorations, our faithful assistants are stationery and grocery stores. We are interested in grocery stores as a source of various boxes, boxes and other thick cardboard from which we can make screens by painting them or covering them with photo paper.
In specialized stores you can buy any carnival costume. If you buy costumes not on the eve of Halloween or New Year, when a modest dress for an extra can undermine the entire budget of the performance, you can even save money.

If you know how to sew at least a little, then beautiful fabric and a few lines are enough to make a dress for an empress or grand lady. Moreover, making a crown out of shiny paper takes ten minutes.