Knowledge of theatre and spectator theatre from a Philosophy of Stage Praxis

Abstract

In Medio siglo de farándula (1930), as an artist-researcher, José J. Podestá claims a insight of the theatrical event, a philosophy of stage praxis (in terms of Philosophy of Theater, Dubatti, 2020). In two remarkable chapters of his memoirs: “Analfabetos... pruebistas...” (Podestá, 1930, 145) and “De los autores” (146-151), he argues the existence of a specific insight from a reason of the scenic praxis and that dramatic literature must be read from the insight of the theatrical event and more specifically taking into account the audience. In his multiple roles as a theatrist (head of a company, producer-entrepreneur, programmer, actor, director, spectator, artist-researcher), Podestá affirms that, unlike the authors, he reads the pre-scenic dramatic text from the point of view of expectation. From his extensive theatrical experience he contrasts the implicit spectator design (generated by the dramatic text and its poetics) and the empirical insight of real spectators (Dubatti, 2023a). Podestá reads as a spectator, he puts himself in the place of the audience. He defends himself against the theatrical deprecationism (Dubatti, 2024a) of the early twentieth century and links to the deprecationist current the lack of specific insight  of the theatrical event on the part of writers and intellectuals. In theoretical terms, we use the Philosophy of Theater for an epistemology of the theatrical event and the distinction between implicit and real spectatorship, as well as the notion of creation-research and philosophy of artistic praxis from Mauricio Kartun's claims the “theater knows” and the “theater theatres” (2015, 239-240 and 136-137).