Study Guide for Drama & Theater (Spring 2008)

The picture above is from Oregon State University's 2005 version of A Doll's House.  Yes, yes, it is set in the 1950s...in Dallas, TX.  For more about this production, see the two links below:

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2005/May05/dollshouse.htm

http://media.barometer.orst.edu/media/storage/paper854/news/2005/05/13/Diversions/a.Dolls.House.To.Close.Osu.Theatre.Season-2293784.shtml

Drama – playscript, text, includes stage directions, playwright’s conception, playwright's intentions

Is it still worth studying a play that is no longer performed?

Theater – performance, central idea, director, actors, audience, set, costumes, sound;

elements of play: action or plot, character, setting, spectacle, mise-en-scene, thought/language, song and dance, (at times) translation

In the pictures above, Avery Brooks performs the roles of Willy Loman (stage--Oberlin College) and Othello (stage -- DC's Shakespeare Theater).

Avery Brooks – films tell stories; theater is a place to explore ideas

Aristotle – unities of time, place, action

Henrik Ibsen's A Doll’s House (1879) -- problem play; well-made play; realism; original version is in Norwegian; first version performed in US was in German; in German version, Helmer makes Nora look at the children she would be abandoning; Nora is the central figure; altering her character would change the whole purpose; Nora's relationship with Helmer; Nora's relationship with her children; we saw most of Patrick Garland's film of A Doll's House (1973 -- Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson) as well as several scenes from Joseph Losey's film from the same year (1973 -- Jane Fonda, theater actor David Warner, Trevor Howard), Mabou Mines' production (tall women, very short men), and the Hunger Artists' version (set in the 1950s).

See this link for scenes from the 1973 version of A Doll's House starring Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwnBukRiRJI

See this link for the scenes of the other 1973 version starring Jane Fonda and David Warner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWM3PB0OI4s

See this link for the Mabou Mines version of A Doll's House:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHn2FxLJOoI

The picture above is of Nora and Doctor Rank.

See this link for the Hunger Artists' 1950s version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb3CIsynKa4

Mother Courage – set during Thirty Years’ war, written at the beginning of WWII, Brecht already in exile, relationship of songs & plot,epic theater, alienation effect, how to portray Mother Courage, Mother Courage's children (Eilif, Swiss Cheese, Kattrin), Chaplain & Cook,

See this link for the Antaeus Theater Company's trailer.  However, the picture above is from Live Arts' recent production in Charlottesville, VA.

Anteus Company's MC -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUmpBu_qkD0

See this link for more images of Mother Courage in performance.  Several are of Helene Weigel, Brecht's wife (the woman above).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYcpY7P0qcc