Dear future class of Literature and Theatre with Cate,

Take this class. Seriously, it was one of the most enjoyable! Not only do you get to share your ideas and thoughts in a chill laid-back environment and make friends out of everyone around you, but you IMPROVE your writing skills to the max. Something I learned to ask everyone and anyone is, “so, what?” It is an important lesson to learn why things happen, why they matter, and why anyone would care. We go through our daily lives doing things here and there that “seem” right or are never questioned. But seriously, why does it matter? Once you’ve asked this question, my friend, your views on life will change!! In addition, to improving your writing skills, having a fun experience, and acquiring the meaning of life, you will become more tech-savy and dive into world of cyber space(?) with Tumblr and the Wikipage, forget Blackboard! (yay!) 

ATTENTION: please show up to class or you will miss out on amazing food and treats by the great cook Cate :) Oh! and make sure you express your dislike or hatred for a particular character, play, or view again and again and again. Cate LOVES this! Don’t be afraid to be explicit in your writing and say sex and intercourse and COPULATION! HA!

Take this class.

Best ever!

Regards,

Emily Jimenez

I attended UT’s last production of 360 (round dance) this Sunday at 2pm. It is an adaptation of the 1900 play Reigen by Arthur Schnitzler. The production and performance as a whole was quite effective and pleasing to the audience. However, as we learned in class performances that are adaptations are more effective when the audience is aware of the original text. 

From a technical perspective, the crew did a wonderful job in keeping the performance within the realms of Epic Theatre. The actors, all eight of them began by sitting as part of the audience and walking right on stage when it was time to begin and going back to sitting around when they were supposed to be “absent” from a scene . Clearly, this broke the allusion of any fourth wall and kept the performance “presentational.” In addition, the change of scenery and costume happened right on stage as the actors themselves folded and unfolded the seats they were originally sitting on at the beginning to create arm chairs, tables, and a bed. There was ongoing music in some scenes which created an atmosphere of detachment from the story as the audience simply observed. The music, of course, intensified a particular scene or created a counter feeling to what was being said or performed. 

As far as the plot was concerned, it was all a little tricky and hard to follow sometimes. There is a soldier, a dancer, a maid, a rich man’s son, a married woman, her professor husband, a female student with her songwriter boyfriend, a singer, and a rich man. All of these characters are connected with each other in this “round dance” and the desire present in each of their sexual encounters is passed down with a silver bracelet making its way from character to character. In the end, knowing where that silver bracelet came from, tied it all neatly back together. 

As in Epic Theatre, the message of this play is very psychological and complex. The feelings and situations for each character are hard to empathize with. In the end, all that is left are questions about our desires and the many encounters that we might have in our lives without never really knowing how far it all goes. It spreads easily and quickly. For every sexual partner that has another sexual partner… and the circle goes on and on.

I would definitely recommend a play like this if you want to leave feeling like there was something more than what went on onstage, slightly confused, but very much entertained.

WHHAAATT???? 

That was literally what came out my mouth when I read the ending of a Dollhouse. It was totally unexpected. I literally thought that if a change were to happen, if at all, it would be about Nora going off with Pete who is so in love with her. I actually loved that she would take the kids with her. 

But, when Terry mentioned to her that she would be poor and she said she would be fine with it, I felt it was too good to be true coming from her. It just wouldn’t add up with Nora’s super materialistic character. But, this thought came after the real first thought of “Gillman doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Gillman obviously wanted to throw a message out there for the contemporary society. We need to get over ourselves and stay in marriages that we’re unhappy in because we need to better ourselves and hold on to money, nice houses, and nannies! :) SIMPLE AS THAT.

If I wanna be a little bet less pessimistic and cruel, I’d say, marriage counseling!! yay!

After having watched the Marat/Sade movie a lot of important specificities in the play became more clear to me. For one, I was reminded the play was being performed by real patients in an asylum and their behavior was clearly portrayed in the film with the constant disruptions and the odd crazy behavior even as they performed their lines. Another thing that was better understood after watching the movie was the set and more specifically, where the audience was situated, the bars being the division between the inmates and the audience, and where Coulmier and his family where seated. 

Aside from the visual, I also understood Sade’s behavior better, his carelessness for the production as a whole as he attempted to keep the inmates in control and ignored the interruptions of Coulmier. It was also better to keep in mind the inmates’ ailments and how that played part in their performance. Corday falling asleep in between her lines (gosh it took her forever to get them out!) Dupperret and his sexual mania not being able to stop himself, and the singers in their drunkenness. 

In the end, I can better understand what Sade tried to achieve with the performance a lot better. He does won me over. However, his laugh and eerie behavior at the end of the play in which all the inmates lose control, gave me chills. The raping that went on at the end of the film but not the play seemed a little too much for me. Everything was way over the top and felt 10 times worse than what I got from the play. 

I am very interested in Charlotte Corday’s character, especially towards the end of the play in the second act. She is more explicit in her discontent and anger with what has happened to the streets of France under Marat. She clearly believes that the violence and the blood that has ran through the streets is something that is transformative to society as a whole. She describes what has become of the innocence of children and no “righteous” authority out there to teach them right.

On page 200.

“What kind of town is this/ What sort of streets are these/Who invented this/Who profits by it/ I saw peddlers at every corner/they’re selling little guillotines/with tiny sharp blades/and dolls filled wit red liquid which spurts from the neck/when the sentence is carried out/what kind of children are these/who can play/with this toy so efficiently/and who is judging/who is judging”

I believe that the issue surrounding the Revolutionary society as a whole, in which violence is embraced, is seen today. The wars and battles surrounding our country and the violence, have transformed even our children. Instead of seeing our children playing hide and seek or hop scotch, today’s children are engulfed in violent video games of all kinds. One of the most notorious, is that of Call of Duty: Black Ops. I hardly know anyone who has not yet played or heard of the game. 8 yr olds, 10 yr olds are playing this game on a daily basis. The killing in various ways such as knifing someone, the beating and the bombing are seen as “okay.” Parents do not do anything about it, for who are they to judge? War and violence is normalcy. It is obvious, that wherever violence goes, no one can even keep the innocent from it.

If I were to cast Mrs Warren, I would choose Jennifer Coolidge to play her part. Jennifer Coolidge casts well as an older woman in her 40s yet still a “well conserved pretty woman” with a distinguished, yet flashy looks of an outfit. Here she flashes that “seductive” smile. Indeed, Jennifer Coolidge is actually known for her role as a hooker in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She seems to take roles like this quite often. With her sweet high pitched voice she is able to portray care, concern and understanding. However, it also portrays a slutty frame of seductiveness.

Mrs. Warren’s Profession contrasts significantly with A Doll House, in a number of ways that I would therefore call it a response to Ibsen. In Ibsen’s A Doll House, even though at the end Nora breaks away from her doll state of being that perfect wife, mother, and daughter, it is still a play about what was expected in society and how up until that point in the end, Nora was the weak character of the conventional definition of a woman. She acted in response to what she deemed right for her husband etc. But, what made her all the more weak was that she FELT wrong for doing what she did, she perceived it as a crime, and held regret and shame for the lies that would be deemed “unforgiving.” She felt and knew well she was not in that “perfect” mold of a woman. 

In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, the “unspeakable” unconventional ways, such as Miss Vivie’s education and independency, as well Mrs. Warren’s openness about her own independency and justification for such actions, are in their very own eyes correct and righteous. They accept their new unconventional woman ways just as they are, with no remorse or regret or knowledge of what else they “should be” or how else they should “behave” as. They are what they say they are and stand for it strongly. 

A specific example of the difference in A Doll House Nora’s relationships and Mrs. Warren’s Profession Vivie’s relationships are those between their father and mother, respectively. Nora had to behave a certain way with her father, listen to what he had to say respectfully, and do what he wished for her to do. Nora realized that is not what she liked or wanted all along and yet she never broke away from it because she knew she had no choice and that is how it “should have been” all along. Whereas Vivie acts on those feelings of disapproval towards her mother with no shame or restrain. She does not feel wrong or any less of a daughter for speaking up and saying what she believes. Indeed, these two characters and the rest in these two plays differ profoundly.

In 1880’s Sweden, a dramatic tragedy unfolds overnight as two people from entirely different worlds of class and distinction find themselves in an arousing seductive situation to fulfill each other’s unconscious dreams. A 25-year-old daughter to a Count, Miss Julie and her 30-year-old servant, Jean, are then caught in a complex, turn around of events and positions of power after a night of dance, alcohol, seduction and prohibited involvement on a Midsummer Eve. Secret intentions will be revealed and shame and despair will take place in this story. When there is nothing left but the realization of wrongdoing, Miss Julie must find a way out, an escapade. But what do you do when the person that has brought you down does not provide help? What do you do when that person is the only one you can rely on and succumb to for one final solution?

I, Emily was quite satisfied with the ending of the play. Nora finally opened up her eyes to see that things were wrong at home! She’s a doll, she’s been mishandled and treated unfairly. It was time to break free and she finally realizes that Torvald’s primary and only concern is status and what people might think; his reputation. Once that became no longer an issue, he wanted to go “back” and treat things and Nora just as they were. I am so glad Nora turned out to have a brain and words and actions of her own after all. I am very proud of her indeed. 

This play is definitely criticism and condemnation of unequal and unfair treatment of women at the time. It was a time in which women were merely accessories to posses and they could not hold their opinion, speak for themselves, do or support for themselves. The play definitely became a “modern-day tragedy” because nowadays it is in common in American society for women to be free, to be able to sustain themselves, take action. Divorce is common, abandonment is common. The “hero”  in a Doll House became Nora, for she not only acted for her own good, but she also acted on behalf of many other women who’d  been oppressed or mistreated; she acted on behalf of all the other dolls in society.

Nora: “You see, Torvald loves me beyond words, and, as he puts it, he’d like to keep me all to himself. For a long time he’d almost be jealous if I even mentioned any of my old friends back home. So of course I dropped that.” Pg. 157.

Torvald: “Nora dear, I can forgive you this panic, even though basically you’re insulting me. Yes, you are! Or isn’t it an insult to think that I should be afraid of a courtroom hack’s revenge? But I forgive you anyway, because this shows so beautifully how much you love me.” Pg 161.

Nora: “Yes — you see, there are some people that one loves most and other people that one would almost prefer being with.” Pg 166.

When analyzing the Helmers’ perceptions of love in the lines above, I come to think that they are both very wrong and distorted. Nora, for one believes it is okay to be “owned” and for love to be very jealous. I definitely cannot agree with that. I believe that if you love someone then you should take into consideration ALL things that make them happy, and if friends can insure that or other things, then you should welcome them, not deprive the person of them.

Torvald on the other hand, perceives Nora’s preoccupation with the lawyer’s hack and panic as a sign of “beautifully loving him”. And, at first this, might seem right in a way, because if you love someone then you should try to spare them as much pain as possible. However, in this case, Torvald and Nora’s preoccupation is not about hurt or sickness, but it is preoccupation with status and reputation. To spare someone from a “bad reputation” or do something because you do not want to “ruin” it for them, and for them to feel overly “thankful” about it, is NOT a good way to show love.

Later, Nora talks about being able to love someone the most, but preferring to be with someone else. This is a very clear sign of not real love! I believe when you love someone, there is no way you can prefer to be with ANYONE else. EVER. She talks about how Torvald is just like her Papa.. hmm… to this I believe that, yes, Nora might love Torvald but only to a certain extent and for other reasons. Yes, you love your parents, but mostly because they are your parents. What kid doesn’t know to love them? But, this just seems like the kind of love that is imposed, feels more of an obligation. So, Nora knows she must “love” Torvald  because he is her husband, whom she “must love.”