Theatrical program as a genre of theatrical discourse

The article is devoted to the study of the theater program as an independent and creative genre of theatrical discourse. It examines in detail aspects such as its genre characteristics, linguistic and structural-content features, as well as its multifunctional role in the system of modern theatrical communication. Special attention is paid to analyzing the program not as an auxiliary or purely informational material, but as a full-fledged semiotic object performing a number of key functions. The work investigates how the program, being a direct channel of dialogue between the creators of the performance and the audience, realizes informative, aesthetic, attractive, promotional, and identifying functions. The subject includes the study of the typical structure of the program, which is divided into two main blocks: information about the theater and information about the performance. Within the scope of the research, its role in forming the theater's brand identity is also analyzed in detail, which is manifested in the trend towards the individualization of formats, design, and content. The main method used is a directed survey to identify audience perceptions and practices of interaction with the program. Semiotic analysis and the concept of speech genres by T.V. Shmelevaya are also applied. The research material consisted of 50 theater programs from Moscow theaters from 2022 to 2024. The scientific novelty of the research lies in a fundamentally new approach to the theater program, which is examined for the first time as an independent, complexly organized, and creative genre of theatrical discourse. By consistently applying T.V. Shmelevaya's speech genre model, the study proves the program's right to genre independence, revealing its constitutive features. Practical conclusions confirm the program's key role in theatrical communication and the formation of the theater's identity. It has been established that its content is structured into two stable blocks (about the theater and about the performance), while the dominant form shows a tendency towards individualization and branded style. Thus, the program serves as an important semiotic intermediary between the stage and the audience, the theater collective and the viewer. The results are of interest to specialists in the fields of semiotics, linguistics, media communications, and cultural studies.

theatre programmes, theatrical discourse, theatrical communication, genre, semiotic analysis, functions of the theatre program, brand identity, survey method, linguo-semiotic analysis, Informative function