Remar contra a maré – e a favor dela: professores de teatro e seus alunos na era da tecnologia. Um estudo à luz da teoria crítica da sociedade

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible problems in the theatre classrooms, generated by the relation between Drama graduation and youngsters who are permanently connected. Through analysis of interviews with drama teachers, the main constituent elements of the dramatic interpretation and the characteristics that mobilize the students nowadays were found. From the teachers’ point of view, as technology in today’s society advances, the difficulties in developing people’s capacity for mimesis, imagination, storytelling and memory (essential elements for the creative performance) increase. On the other hand, this situation can be explained by the predominance of the “pseudo-culture”, by the difficulty in experiencing the situation and by the empire of Cultural Industry, which changes the artistic and cultural events totally into merchandise. The interviewed teachers confirmed that, over the last decades, the theatre’s classrooms hold, simultaneously, a greater number of students. The main classes’ characteristics are: frequent use of technology, little or no previous knowledge of theatrical language, access to schools facilitated by social inclusion programs and meet the Cultural Industry’s request, which promises success without effort, and teachers whose teaching practice has as one of its key pillars the resistance to the simplification of the artistic production. The theoretical research consists of concepts created by authors of critical social theory, such as: experience, Cultural Industry, mimesis, storytelling and memory, which were collated with concepts of theatrical literature, which deals with the actor's training, specially the ones who have experience with scenic work. This decision meant the analysis of the transformation in the relation between the teachers and the students. As society becomes more technological, changes in the habits of individuals take place. Despite being beneficial consequences, these changes intensify the degeneration of the narrative, the devaluation of the memory, incapacity to form original images and difficulties in interpersonal relationships. Such a framework enhances the gradual loss of what Benjamin and Adorno define as experience and adds, progressively, obstructions to the artist's formation