BETWEEN A RACCOON AND A GYPSY: A STREET ACTOR IN SEARCH OF A LOST IDENTITY

The subject of the study is the self-presentation of street theatre figures in modern media culture and its connection with professional identity. The appeal to this topic is due to the fact that the art of street theatre is often associated with a number of deviations, making it difficult to outline its contours within the framework of traditional forms of theatrical activity. The hypothesis of the study is the assumption of the existence of two dominant types of professional self-presentation of Russian street theater figures, the first of which is in direct connection with professional identification, and the second is deliberately distanced from it due to its stigmatization.The following served as the material for the analysis of self-presentation of street theatre representatives: online communication of street theatre figures, digital presentation of creativity, and a survey. The methodological framework of the study was based on E. Goffman's concept of stigma. As a result of the study, the hypothesis about two dominant types of professional self-presentation was not fully confirmed. In most self-presentations of street theatre figures, a desire to demonstrate comic self-parody is revealed as an obvious privilege of their profession. Laughter self-reflection of their professional activity, reflected in humorous self-stigmatization, allows classifying a modern street actor as a representative of the informal institution of destigmatization of street art, which traditionally includes buffoons, showmen, jesters and clowns.