On Robert Brustein's Ideas Of Theatre

Robert Brustein,as a famous playwright,director,actor,critic,and educationist in American,has been a universal genius on stage.His practice has covered creation,performance,directing,criticism,and education.He has accumulated a lot of valuable experience in many aspects of theatre,and also proposed a series of ideas with personal characteristics.For performance,Brustein has argued that the purpose of performance is that it is not only the record of the times,society,and people,but also influences and transforms the times,society,and people.In this way,performance can become a special “mirror”.In order to play the role of “mirror”,we need “transforming” actors who can express different images — they must possess unique temperament,abundant knowledge and excellent skills,meanwhile they are able to cooperate with people inside and outside the theater.For directing,Brustein has explained that different types of directors various their attitudes towards different aspects of theatre: interpretive directors give the greatest respect to the text,and they are accustomed to teaching actors to experience the text;they use stage performance to show their own understandings to the audience.Conceptual directors adapt the old text according to the modern point of view,they put more demands than guidance on actors,and at the same time they strengthen the communication with the audience.Auteur directors have less loyalty to the text yet control the actors most,but they have expanded the border of communication from audience to everyone in the theater.Brustein insists that no matter what types of director they are,they must take their role as the coordinator when they lead the production,and should deal the relationship properly among text,performance and audience.Criticism and classics are mainly aimed at drama texts.Brustein insists that criticism is no longer “for the sake of art”,but should take its responsibility.The primary function of criticism is to guide people to have a correct understanding of theatre art,to connect people's lives in the process of comprehending art,and to enable audiences and artists to engage in the communication of their souls.In order to realize the function of criticism,Brustein adopts a variety of different criticism methods,such as traditional dichotomy method and pluralistic unification.In addition,he believes that the academic rationality in criticism should be consistent with emotional interpretation.For Brustein,there is no gap between critical methods,just as different methods of performance and directors can be combined with each other.Guided by such ideas,Brustein proposes his classic theory of “revolt”.The subversive inheritance of predecessors' works has gave birth to the classics.Although advocating the aesthetic value of classics,Brustein also advocates the function of classics — it must connect people's minds,souls and lives,which makes his ideas of criticism beyond the filed of pure art theory but entering the field of humanity.To create a classic,playwright should be more active,and constantly explore the possibility of people in the form of conflict.Establishing classics can not only clarify the creative rules of classics,but also establish the standards and point the way for later works and criticism.Brustein has accumulated abundant experience in practice,production,and criticism,from which he has concluded his own patterns of theatre education.Theatre education should serve for the cultivation of high-quality theatre people,so its primary principles are art and people.Brustein has opposed the education for economic benefit and specific purposes,but advocated the education with noble ideals and various methods.As for specific measures,we must ensure the independence of drama school by adequate financial resources;the arrangement of curriculum should balance the proportion of liberal arts and stage practice;we should adapt a more diverse faculty team to replace the original one.Theatre is an organic unity composed of multiple parts.We cannot look at texts or performances in isolation but be clear about the close relationship between them.Our understanding of theatre is not isolated and rigid.We must constantly update our own ideas,and obtain new knowledge in the process of exploration.When faced with any aspect of theatre,Brustein's focus has always been on people.The ideal theatre he has been dreaming of is the theatre that connects life.This is also the greatest inspiration to us from his ideas.Brustein's ideas have important implications for training contemporary Chinese theatre people and developing Chinese theatre: first of all,we must respect the classic text and interpret it with contemporary mind,so that our understanding of the text can keep pace with the times.Second,the text needs to be given life by stage practice,while with the development of the practice,the presented life forms of the text will also change.In this case,it requires us should not to be kept from practice,but constantly update our ideas of theatre in practice.Third,in order to fully understand the art of theatre can become a“bridge”connecting different lives we welcome the communications between different lives in order to free ourselves from a closed state.Fourth,the development of theatre should not be divided from the domestic culture,the spiritual needs of the people and the objective needs of literary and arts,thus we should create a mainstream theatre,not so-called“new”theatre,that can promote the introspection of the people.With the four points of inspiration above,we have touched Brustein's ideas of the ontology of theatre—that is,actors,directors,playwrights,audiences and critics inside and outside the theater must work together to connect the lives of each other and realize the“harmony and tolerance”of theatre.