earticle

영어

When traditional Turkish theater studies are analyzed, it becomes clear that genres are contextually classified as having rural or urban settings. Plays with sural settings are divided into theatrical village plays; the plays with urban settings, on the other hand, are divided into Karagöz, ortaoyunu, and Meddah. Rural chamber plays, which constitute the subject of this study, appear as a type of theatrical village plays. These plays are different in terms of time and content from the theatrical village plays that predominately have ritualistic features and follow the natural calendar. Rural chamber plays are entertaining plays that bring the community together at henna nights, weddings, or a suitable house for the villagers. The body and verbal comedy predominate in the plays, and the game setting is selected from a living area in the village; actors and audience are made up of village residents. With these features, plays fall outside the definition of Western modernist theater. However, they are quite remarkable in that they are a unique genre that includes the concepts of "theater,", "performance" and "theatricality" that changed in the 19th century. These plays, which embody all the dynamics of the Eastern Theater, are crucial as they bring the lifestyle, residents, and settings of a rural area to a theatrical space. Due to urbanization, the reduction of living space in rural areas, and changes in how people view entertainment, this playing technique, which is now all but extinct, contains significant information for creating and redefining the notions of traditional Turkish theater. It is critical to consider, redefine, and evaluate these plays, which reflect the village's agenda in terms of content and structurally the relationship between play, theater, and performance in terms of both cultural heritage and creating a distinct type of theater. The play examples included in this study were chosen from those that were played by residents of the villages of Gülef and Musallar, which are located within the boundaries of the province of Kastamonu. The plays were archived by the participant observation method in the field study. For this reason, they are original examples in terms of demonstrating the traditional theater genres that have been living in Türkiye recently.