Between Role and Audience: Features of Actor's Existence in Vaudeville

The subject of the study is the features of the actor's existence in the vaudeville performance in the context of the specific genre, as well as the relationships between the actor, the role, and the audience. The structure of the vaudeville stage image is analyzed, including the "gap" between the performer and the character, which is conditioned by the synthetic nature of vaudeville, its improvisational foundations, as well as its fundamental openness to the audience. The importance of the direct contact between the actor and the audience is emphasized, along with elements such as asides and soliloquies, which lend uniqueness and a "sparkling" theatricality to the performance. The focus is on the search for a balance between artistic convention and plausibility, as well as between the role and the actor's personality, which allows for the identification of the systemic principles of vaudeville aesthetics. Special attention is given to improvisation as a crucial means of stage existence, influencing the actor's internal technique and the nature of interaction with the audience. The study is based on a structural-semiotic approach, relying on the analysis of genre characteristics, as well as a historical-cultural method. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the identification of a stable model of actor existence in vaudeville as a special form of stage being, in which the interaction with the role and the audience is conditioned not by the desire for transformation, but by the construction of a "gap" between the actor's personality and the stage image. Thus, after analyzing the connections between the actor, their character, and the audience, the conclusion drawn is that improvisation in vaudeville is not a stylistic deviation, but one of the genre-forming elements that create the uniqueness of each stage event. It has been established that breaking the "fourth wall" in vaudeville is not an accidental technique, but an organic component of the interaction between the actor and the audience. Direct address to the audience, engaging them in the action, and the use of asides and soliloquies—all of this forms a unique type of theatricality, based in part on "flickering reality." Illusion and playful convention constantly alternate. Through the analysis of the relationships between the actor, the role, and the audience, the article demonstrates that vaudeville presents a stable theatrical model, in contrast to psychological theater, while maintaining the internal truth of stage action and high demands on acting skill.

vaudeville, improvisation, aside, genre features, audience, actor’s creativity, stage character, breaking the fourth wall, theatrical convention, interactivity