Urania Interdisciplinary Academic Journal

The fractal nature of narrative, dramaturgical agency and the possibility of interactivity in narrative

Csaba Szekeres — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study is part of a larger study in progress, which attempts to describe the interactivity inherent in film narrative and the sequentialisations that characterize narrative. My aim is to explore the basic features of the functioning of the film receptive attitude inherent in interactivity. The exploratory method builds on the claim that in the macro and micro structures of narrative the fractal nature of narrative, which carries the potential for interactivity, prevails through two dilemmas. Thus, not only the narrative power lines in the body of the text, which form the basic structure of the dramatic structure, but also its variants, the shadow patterns, become visible. Consequently, the dilemma situations are able to form narrative shadow patterns, inducing a decision agency, which reveal a dramaturgically structurable system of a character’s decision situations, thereby creating the possibility of dramaturgical agency. The starting point for the investigation of dramaturgical agency is the Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN), which is well known in video games. Its functioning is significantly influenced by the interpretation of chance, which creates coherent or incoherent decision patterns in the narrative structure with a paragraphic nature. The study indirectly tries to show, through the concept of chance, that its interpretative significance has a stimulating or enervating impact on the recipient during the reception process.

Operetta premieres at the Royal Hungarian Opera House between 1888 and 1891

Hedvig Ujvári — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gustav Mahler, the Austrian conductor and composer, was the artistic director of the Royal Hungarian Opera House from 1888 to 1891. In his programme policy he paid particular attention to the staging of song plays, especially those by Jacques Offenbach, in addition to opera and ballet. During his Budapest tenure, however, of the planned operettas, only Eljegyzés lámpafénynél (Le mariage aux lanternes – The Wedding by Lantern-Light) was performed, while Sinan basa (Sinan Pasha) and A víg cimborák (The Merry Chums) were only performed at charity nights. The aim of this paper is to explore the reception history of these three compositions and how they fit into Mahler’s artistic vision and the repertoire of the Opera House.

Déryné on stage for two hundred years

Domonkos Márk Kis — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The production of Álmaimban Déryné (In My Dreams, Déryné) is based on György Lukácsy’s script, which he specifically wrote for my master’s project for the Doctoral School of the University of Theatre and Film Arts. I wished to present the history of Hungarian-language touring theatre (or travelling theatre), which began with Róza Déryné Széppataki and lasted for more than two hundred years, in a performance planned for an hour and a half, with dynamic space and time management, and character and scene building based on movement. I felt that in order to realise my concept, the actors needed to learn the method prior to the start of the rehearsal process, as it is not enough for them to understand the movement-based methodology, they need to experience it first hand in order to apply it. So I invited the Polish director Grzegorz Bral, creator of the Bral Acting Method (BAM), to give an intensive workshop for the artists. This summer workshop was the direct source of the ritual elements incorporated into the performance. In my case study, I will present the above mentioned performance and rehearsal process, as well as my experience gained during the work.

Theatre Education – Education through Theatre

András Pataki — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The subject of my work is theatre education, its forms and possible structures in the coming period, and my ideas on how to achieve this. In the context of my attachment to the theatre, I would like to contribute, at least in part, to the considerations on possible strategies. For that, I looked at the work of the TIE (Theatre in Education) groups, which operate as a system in the UK with local government funding, and which use theatre as an educational tool, in the form of performances, and also through the use of theatrical procedures and techniques. In Hungary, too, it would be necessary to introduce such forms of performance or drama workshops linked to performances, not just on a one-off, occasional basis, but in an organised form, with a wider scope, and above all age-specifically, since the creation of an understanding audience for future theatre art must be established at an early age.