Ancient theater architecture as an element of the world cultural landscape

Abstract

The article examines the history of the development of ancient theatre architecture in the context of the environment, which forms a territory that acquires the status of a cultural landscape. The material of antiquity is interpreted in the aspect of the evolution of the formation of theatrical buildings, ranging from ancient Greek to ancient Roman, which, despite the ruins, amaze with their large-scale and untouched architecture. An attempt was made to systematize valuable evidence of the past in the environment: material (theatre architecture) and intangible (theatre art), since the theatre lives only when it is performed and theatrical architecture remains for posterity. Their relationship in space and time was considered. The research methods (descriptions of the studied phenomena, the method of field observation, the method of problem-historical analysis) made it possible to focus on the specifics of the arrangement of theatre buildings located in open spaces, representing cultural landscapes – vast territories of co-creation of human and nature. Throughout the eras, the architecture of a theatre, intended for spectacular performances, associated with the environmental factor and acting has undergone a transformation, just as the theatrical art itself has changed, sometimes within the same performance, on the same stage. Fragments of the lost cultural experience today are open systems in the associative, semantic, historical aspects, as well as in terms of the reconstruction of objects. They form an attractive and popular place that goes beyond city-planning conditions, being a significant public space. The composition of the construction of theatres and the principles of shaping that took shape in the antique period had a great influence on their subsequent development and remained in modern design solutions. In this context, this experience of interpreting architectural monuments related to theatrical art is of great cultural and educational significance, not only in the sense of reconstructing a lost layer of cultural heritage but, to a greater extent, in the form of modelling a new vision of the architectural culture of the new world that is being formed today.