A new system of national holidays celebrated at the State level developed in Uzbekistan after gaining independence. Among them are early banned religious and updated folk traditional holidays, various sports events and festivals dedicated to city jubilees and our great ancestors. There are family and professional holidays, those devoted to labor and harvest, to women and children, and etc. All possible conditions are created for their celebrations. They are deeper and deeper permeating spiritual life of the society.
Mass theatrical performances long ago become popular with many peoples of the world. Independence Day and Nauruz are such holidays celebrated in Uzbekistan. On these days events greatly contributing to the revival of traditions and national idea are held in the large squares in the cities and villages of the Republic.
For many years many talented directors and other workers of culture have been involved with the arrangement of folk celebrations. Among them are the chief producer of mass performances held during such events – Edward Kolosovsky; chief directors of the artistic scenes – Nosir Otoboev, Marat Azimov, Bakhtiyar Khamidov, Shakir Akhmedov, Alexander Kalutsky, Karima Zaripova and Boris Pokrovsky; chief choreographers – Yulduz Ismatova, Mamura Ergasheva, Ibraghim Yusupov, Kadyr Muminov, Nasiba Madrakhimova, Gavhar Matyakubova and many others. Many artists made significant contributions to the preparation of mass theatrical performances. In 1992-1996 the Independent Day performance was conducted by the group of artists led by Rafael Yusupov, in 1997-2004 – by Tolibjon Gaziev. Directors think out the general look of the square, picturesque scenes, every passage of the performance, as well as clothing and costumes and makeup for each participant.
Hundreds of dresses, waistcoats, ‘belbog’ and ‘kiicha’ kerchiefs, head-dresses and decorations are made. The majority of such creative workers are headed by the chief producer Rustam Khamidov. They all are striving to achieve one goal – to create a deserved theatrical performance. Many directors, choreographers, artists dealing with the arrangement of mass performances were educated at the Tashkent State Institute of Arts named after M.Uigur and at the Tashkent State Institute of Culture named after A.Kadyri. When preparing actors and actresses, directors and theatrical artists both institutes consider the mentality and national peculiarities of the Uzbek people when apply Stanislavski’s system, system of the famous Russian reformer of the stage art. For the arrangement of mass performances such important theories of Stanislavski’s system like “super task” and “trough action” are observed. It is impossible to create the integral, harmonious spectacle, integral composition appearing from merger of different arts, odd fragments and images.
The artistic event is performed by the instrumental ensemble, orchestra, soloists, academic and folk choirs that have on the program fragments from operas, pop music and songs, national classical and modern dances, circus, sports and military performances. To create the integral, individual performance adapted to the square, it is necessary to tie together the “live background”, such technical means like lighting panels, picture of the TV screen, domes, floodlights, decorated cars, tanks, motorcycles, moving landscapes, symbols, pyrotechnics (bonfires), balloons and flowers. Besides that, there are not 100 or 200 performers, but 4-5 thousand ones acting in an enormous open space. The director, producer and artists must possess a good feeling of space, place and action. I.G.Sharoev, for example, notes, “The main task of the director and the artist of the mass performance is the artistic perception of the place. Composition becomes the most important. Various types of composition matter – horizontal, vertical, diagonal; places in composition are defined in the symmetrical position, parts in the dissonance, and their construction.” Dramatized artistic presentation of the important event in the life of the country and its people, showing of the historical and vital materials, movements of the performers and crowd scenes – all follow the theatrical rules. If in the theatrical stage events in the performance take place in three rows (in front of the stage, in the middle and in its depth), sometimes in the auditorium, in mass performances the mise en scene is tenfold times larger; it can take up any composition and any needed form. Here comes to rescue the montage of composition on the whole and its separate fragments, symbols, landscapes, circus facilities and military performances. Building up the montage of mass performance implies determination of its idea, highest goal, plot, direction of movement, event-trigger row and substantial peak, mixture of different components and their interrelation, content of the whole performance.
When we are watching the dramatized performance, it is often difficult to state what you liked more variety of the composition, individual fragments, artistic performance, synopsis or direction, image facilities, stills or costumes? This happens because the dramatized performance together with the imaginary facilities produces a great impact on the spectator. At such moments actions of isolated independent staging groups and their desires turn into a single symphony, i.e. a single artistic whole is created, and that is particularly important for the theatrical art, and first and foremost for the dramatized mass performance. It is notable that the theoretical literature contains only very scarce data related to this issue; there are a few practical creative works and summarizing articles. Even K.Stanislavski did not address this topic. There is no term “artistic integrity” in his textbook entitled “Actor’s Mastership in Terms and Definitions” (I`., 1961). The Russian director A.D.Popov gives a detailed description of it in his book “Artistic Integrity of the Performance” (1957) and in a two-volume collection “Creative Heritage” (1979). The issue of the artistic integrity is related to director’s art, his outlook, the aim of the performance and the leading action, to director’s decision, artist’s creativity, perspective and regularity of the action, integrity of the stage image, crowd scenes, mise en scene, interrelation of the whole and the parts, and perception of the spectators. The term of artistic integrity is bound to all components and means of the staged work, to the views of its director, his way of thinking, imagination, theoretical and practical conclusions. The artistic integrity issue of the mass dramatized performances is an important scientific problem demanding special investigation.
Boltabai Shadyev