This study examines how virtual reality images are used in contemporary theatre. Modern technologies get into various areas of life including the theatrical environment. Therefore, the study of the role of virtual reality in contemporary theatre is crucial for the qualitative understanding of the tendencies in development of the contemporary theatre scene in the context of the development of contemporary art. This determines the relevance of this study and subsequent academic research in this field as well. The purpose of this study is to assess the degree of influence of modern technologies on creating virtual reality in the development of theatrical art. The leading approach for this study is a combination of a systematic study of the main trends in the creation of virtual reality within the framework of the development of modern technologies and the logical construction of conclusions retrieved from the results of this study. The main results obtained in this study are supposed to be the identification of the main areas for creating virtual reality in the activities of contemporary theatres and changes in the work of theatre groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prospects for subsequent academic research in this field are determined by the increasing usage of modern technologies for creating virtual reality within the framework of the modern development of theatrical culture and the need for a deep study of this factor as the one that defines the prospects for the technological development of the contemporary theatre scene. The practical significance of this study lies in the possibility of using its results obtained to assess the role and place of modern technologies for creating virtual reality in contemporary theatre.

The relevance of this article is substantiated by the fact that contemporary theatrical art is on a complex and active path of experimentation, competing with the basic principles of classical theatrical staging. It is therefore necessary to consider in detail the technologies that are involved and rapidly being introduced in the practice of modern theatre. The purpose of this article is to analyse the use of digital tools in the practice of modern theatre art, which makes theatre in today's realities more demanding. The theoretical analysis of scientific literature, the historical method, the comparative method, the typological and systemic method, and the generalisation of theoretical and practical experience of the modern theatre were chosen as the main methods of cognition in this study. It was concluded that the modern theatre, through the use of digital technology, has been enriched with current technical concepts and formats. The practical value of the research consists in the fact that the materials analysed in the article can serve as an informative basis for training and retraining of specialists in the field of theatre education.

Martin Scorsese is an outstanding contemporary director, who strongly influenced the artistic and aesthetic foundations of American (authors’ in particular) cinematography of the 19th–20th centuries He was and remains one of the outstanding creators who shaped the aesthetics of the “New Hollywood” cinematography. In the period from 1917 to the early 1960s, there was a paradigm of “classic Hollywood”, in which films were produced according to the dominant aesthetic, genre and narrative formulas, the characters represented themselves as specific typical images with understandable motivations for the general public. Martin Scorsese is a representative of cinematography, who changed classical views of film art. That is why the study of Martin Scorsese's work remains relevant for researchers in the field of cinematography and culture to the present day. The purpose of this work is to study the creativity of director, screenwriter and actor Martin Scorsese, as well as to identify the author's style in the artist's work, determine his author's handwriting and manner. The methodology of this research is based on theoretical methods of scientific knowledge, in particular, the method of information analysis and synthesis, the cultural method, as well as historical and comparative methods were used.