Russian Online Theater in the Period of the Pandemia of Coronavirus Infection
This article consists of summation and analysis of the strategies of Russian theaters, which could continue only online work during the period of the coronavirus. The research is relevant as it deals with comprehension of situation unusual for theater, when the sociopolitical aspects of society’s life led to the technological development of the theater. The purpose of the study is to explore Russian online theater as a relevant phenomenon of our time. This phenomenon is a combination of technological, artistic and aesthetic, and media forms of theatrical art. All of this forms meet the requirements of progress, tendencies of contemporary art and the conditions of the development of media technologies. In the article, there are analyzed the strategies of online communication, the conditions for the development of theater as new media, the ways of theater self-presentation on the Internet, as well as the formats of theater projects that do not require a physical presence of the audience. The article analyzes theatrical projects working with personal interaction, verbal and visual communication, immersiveness, site-specific theater, virtual reality. The modern Russian theater has become interdisciplinary, having mastered the capabilities of mobile applications, programs for video conferences, online stores, computer games. This process can lead to the rethinking of the possibilities and tasks of Russian theater art and identify ways of further development of Russian theater practices. Impossibility for theaters to function as usual gave Russian directors the opportunity to rethink the theater’s resources as a synthetic and diverse art, which is capable of accumulating both unusual artistic strategies and the achievement of related spheres to create a cultural product that meets the requirements of the time.