University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biographical Sketch ………………………………………………………………………… 2
Scope and Content ………………………………………………………………………… 3
Series Notes ………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Container List ………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Series I: Plays ………………………………………………………………………… 4 A: American ………………………………………………………………… 4 B: Danish ………………………………………………………………… 4 C: Finnish ………………………………………………………………… 5 D: French ………………………………………………………………… 5 E: German ………………………………………………………………… 5 F: Hungarian ………………………………………………………………… 6 G: Icelandic ………………………………………………………………… 6 H: Norwegian ………………………………………………………………… 6 I: Polish ………………………………………………………………… 7 J: Russian ………………………………………………………………… 7 K: Swedish ………………………………………………………………… 8
Series II: Other Documents ………………………………………………………… 9 A: Correspondence ………………………………………………………… 9 B: Newspaper Clippings ………………………………………………… 10 C: Articles ………………………………………………………………… 10 D: Miscellaneous ………………………………………………………… 10
Appendix: Biographical Information and Play Descriptions ………………………… 11 A: American ………………………………………………………………… 11 B: Danish ………………………………………………………………… 12 C: Finnish ………………………………………………………………… 14 D: French ………………………………………………………………… 17 E: German ………………………………………………………………… 17 F: Hungarian ………………………………………………………………… 18 G: Icelandic ………………………………………………………………… 19 H: Norwegian ………………………………………………………………… 21 I: Polish ………………………………………………………………… 24 J: Russian ………………………………………………………………… 27 K: Swedish ………………………………………………………………… 33
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 1 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dr. Felicia Hardison Londré is a theatre historian specializing in American, French, and Russian theatre plus Shakespeare. She is honorary co-founder of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and dramaturg for Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. In 2006 she received the Inspirational UMKC Faculty award. In 1998 she received a University of Montana Distinguished Alumna Award, having earned her B.A. in French there. She earned her M.A. at the University of Washington, and her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. In 1999, she was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and has served as secretary of the board. In 2001, she was elected to the National Theatre Conference. That year she also received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's national award for 2001 as Outstanding Teacher of Theatre in Higher Education. She was the founding secretary of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, and has served as president of the American Theatre and Drama Society. Dr. Londré has held visiting professorships at Hosei University in Tokyo and at Marquette University in Milwaukee. She has lectured internationally, including Beijing, Nanjing, Tokyo, Osaka, Venice, Rouen, Caen, Paris (Sorbonne), Brussels, Moscow, and a lecture tour of Hungary. For 22 years (1978-2000), she was dramaturg for Missouri Repertory Theatre. Of her fourteen books, her favorite is the twelfth one, The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theatre, 1870-1930, which won the George Freedley Memorial Book Award presented by the Theatre Library Association in 2008.
Source:
“Dr. Felicia Hardison Londré” [Faculty Bios]. UMKC Theatre. University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2012. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. http://www.umkctheatre.org/faculty_bios.html#londre
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 2 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection was a gift of Felicia Londré in Fall 2012. Contained within is a large collection of scripts, in typed, printed, and published (photocopied) manuscript form, almost all in either English or in English translation. American, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish playwrights are represented, offering a wide range of styles and aesthetics. Also contained in the collection is an assortment of correspondence, articles, and other documents relating to the acquisition of these manuscripts and matters concerning the theatre.
SERIES NOTES
SERIES I: Plays Located in box 1, folders 1-37, and box 2, folders 1-38; contains typed, photocopied, and printed scripts of plays by a variety of American, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish playwrights. All of the non-American works in this collection are here in English translations, apart from one of the Russian plays, which is in the original Russian. The Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish collections are notable for being largely contemporary works, rarely if ever performed in the United States.
SERIES II: Other Documents Located in box 2, folders 39-41; contains some correspondence to Londré regarding the acquisition of these manuscripts, as well as some articles and other documents related to the theatre.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 3 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description CONTAINER LIST
SERIES I: PLAYS
Box Folder Description
A: American
1 1 - Maxwell Anderson: Night Over Taos, typed manuscript, 71 pp. w/ inserts. 2 - Robert Anderson: The Days Between, typed manuscript, 89 pp. 3 - James Costin: Harry, typed manuscript, 34 pp. 4 - Robert Dean: Ivan the Terrible (A Chronicle Tragedy in Three Acts), typed manuscript, 153 pp. 5 - Cena Christopher Draper and Maurice Nugent: Summer Flight, adapted from the novel Papa Says by Cena Christopher Draper, typed manuscript, 140 pp. 6 - Kevin O’Morrison: Ladyhouse Blues, typed manuscript (American Playwrights Theatre Edition), 91 pp. 7 - Josephine Peabody: The Piper (A Play in 4 Acts), typed manuscript, 53 pp. 8 - Louise Saunders: The Knave of Hearts, typed manuscript, 21 pp.
B: Danish
9 Contemporary Danish Drama: Four Danish Playwrights (205 pp.): - Astrid Saalbach: Blessed Child (A Comedy), translated from the Danish by Michael Evans. - Erling Jepsen: The Man Who Asked for Permission to Exist (A Stage Play in Three Pictures), translated from the Danish by Claes Johansen. - Line Knutzon: First You’re Born, translated from the Danish by Charlotte Barslund & Kim Dambaek. - Peter Asmussen: A Sunny Room, translated from the Danish by Russel Dees. 10 - Erling Jespen: The Cure (Kuren), translator unknown, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 77 pp. 11 - Erling Jepsen: The Man Who Asked for Permission to Exist (A Stage Play in Three Pictures) (Manden Som Bad Om Lov Til At Vaere Her Pa), translated from the Danish by Claes Johansen, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 96 pp. 12 - Line Knutzon: First You’re Born (Forst Bli’r Man Jo Fodt), translated by Charlotte Barslund & Kin Dambaek, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 43 pp.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 4 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description 1 13 - Line Knutzon: The Time is Coming (Snart Kommer Tidem), translated by Gaye Kynoch, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 93 pp. 14 - Astrid Saalbach: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust (Aske Til Aske Stov Til Stov), translated by Gaye Kynoch, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 61 pp. 15 - Astrid Saalbach: Blessed Child (A Comedy) (Det Velsignede Barn), translated from the Danish by Michael Evans, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 114 pp. 16 - Thomas Vinterberg & Mogens Rukov: The Celebration, Theatre Play Version, Adaptation from the film screenplay by Bo hr. Hansen, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 76 pp.
C: Finnish
17 Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights (390 pp.): - Michael Baran: You Don’t Know What Love Is, translated by Eva Buchwald. - Anne Koski: Best Loved Songs and Melodies, translated from the Finnish by Ritva Poom. - Juha Lehtola: Mind Speak, translated from the Finnish by Eva Buchwald. - Juha Siltanen: Foxtrot, or The White Shadows, translated from the Finnish by Anselm Hollo. - Laura Ruohonen: Olga, translated from the Finnish by Anselm Hollo.
D: French
18 - Jean Racine: Andromache, verse translation by William L. Crain, Professor of French Language and Literature, University of Missouri at Kansas City, typed manuscript, 84 pp.
E: German
19 - Bertolt Brecht: Puntila and His Hired Man, new adaptation by Gerhard Nellhaus, typed manuscript, 65 pp. 20 - Christopher Hein: The Knights of the Round Table (A Comedy) (Die Ritter der Tafelrunde: Eine Komodie), translated by David W. Robinson, typed manuscript, 54 pp. 21 - Carl Orff: Agnes Bernauer, authorized English adaptation by Fritz Andre Kracht, typed manuscript w/ rehearsal schedule, 42 pp.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 5 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description F: Hungarian
1 22 - Iren Kiss: I Dreamed a City (A Drama), translated from the Hungarian by Philip Balla and Laszlo Tabori, typed manuscript, 63 pp. 23 - Peter Nadas: Encounter (Talalkozeis), translated by Judith E. Sollosy, Artisjus Agence Litteraire, Theatrale et de Musique Edition, 93 pp. 24 - Peter Nadas: Housecleaning (Comedy Without a Break), translated by Judith E. Sollosy, Artisjus Agence Litteraire, Theatrale et de Musique Edition, 62 pp. 25 - Gyorgy Schwajda: Anthem (A Comedy in One Act), translated by Judith Raphael Buckrich, Artusjus Agence Litteraire, Theatrale et de Musique Edition, 60 pp. 26 - Gyorgy Spiro: Chicken Head (A Tragedy), translated by Eugene Brogyanyi, Artusjus Agence Litteraire, Theatrale et de Musique Edition, 100 pp. 27 - Gyorgy Spiro: The Imposter (A Comedy in Three Acts), English version by J.E. Sollosy, Artisjus Agence Litteraire, Theatrale et de Musique Edition, 35 pp.
G: Icelandic
28 Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights (239 pp.): - Hrafnhildur Hagalin Guomundsdottir: Easy Now, Electra. - Arni Ibsen: Heaven: A Schizophrenic Comedy (Draft Translation). - Olaf Olaffson: A Feast of Snails. - Olafu Haukur Simonarson: The Sea, translated by Bernard Scudder. - Thorvaldur Thorastr: Talespin, English Translation by Aida Sigimundsdotottir.
H: Norwegian
29 Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights (271 pp.): - Jon Fosse: The Name, translated by Gregory Motton. - Finn Iunker: The Answering Machine. - Cecilie Loeveid: “Austria” – A Pastiche, translated by Ann Henning Jocelyn. - A.I.S. Lygre: Sudden Eternity, translated by Benedicte Waaler. - Petter S. Rosenlund: An Impossible Boy, translated by Charlotte Barslund & Kim Dambaek. 30 - Axel Hellstenius: Elling, translated by Nicholas Norris, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 71 pp. 31 - Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People, translator unknown, typed manuscript, 109 pp.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 6 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description I: Polish
1 32 - E.J. Czerwinski: I Am Innokenty (The Hell of Solzhenitsyn), typed manuscript, 27 pp. 33 - Witold Gombrowicz: The Marriage, translated from the Polish by Louis Iribarne, photocopy of published script, 158 pp. 34 - Witold Gombrowicz: Operetta, translated by Louis Iribarne, photocopy of published script, 109 pp. 35 - Ireneusz Iredynsky: An Altar to Himself, translated by Michal Kobialka, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 3, 83 pp. 36 - Tamara Karren: Madame Gabriela, translated from Polish by Krystyna Griffith-Jones, typed manuscripts, 52 pp. 37 - Kazimierz Moczarski: Conversations with The Executioner, Stage Adaption by Zygmunt Hubner, English Version by Earl Ostroff and Daniel Gerould, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 4, 45 pp. 2 1 - Slawomir Mrozek: Emigres, translated by Maciej & Theresa Wrona with Robert Holman, photocopy of published script, 82 pp. 2 - Slawomir Mrozek: The Hunchback, translated by Jacek Laskowski, typed manuscript, 89 pp. 3 - Slawomir Mrozek: On Foot, a literal translation from the Polish by Jacek Laskowski, typed manuscript, 43 pp. 4 - Tadeusz Rozewicz: The Trap, translated by Adam Czerniawski, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 8, 80 pp.
J: Russian
5 - Vasilii Aksyonov: Your Murderer, translated by Daniel C. Gerould and Jadwiga Kosicka, w/ Introduction by Daniel C. Gerould, photocopy of published script, 37 pp. 6 - Aleksandr Borshchagovsky: The Ladies’ Tailor, translator unknown, typed manuscript, 81 pp. 7 - Ignatii Dvoretsky: The Outsider, translated by C. Peter Goslett, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 5, 94 pp. 8 - Nikolai Erdman: The Mandate, translated and with an introduction by Marjorie Hoover, photocopy of published script, 85 pp. 9-10 - Aleksandr Galin: Retro (A Contemporary Tale in Two Acts), translated from the Russian by Robert Daglish, typed manuscript, 85 pp. (2 copies). 11 - Aleksander Gelman: Alone With Everyone, translated by Zora Essman, typed manuscript, 66 pp. 12 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Cinzano, translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 2 copies, 29 pp. and 27 pp.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 7 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description 2 13 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya (Love, Come into the Kitchen, Nets and Traps, The Violin), translated by Alma H. Law, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 7, 79 pp. 14 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Love (A One-Act Play), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 27 pp. 15 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Nets and Traps (A Monologue), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 17 pp. 16 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Smirnova’s Birthday, translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 2 copies, 26 pp. and 25 pp. 17 - Edvard Radzinsky: Don Juan Continued, translated by Alma H. Law, incomplete typed manuscript, 60 pp. 18 - Edvard Radzinsky: Jogging (Sporting Scenes, 1981), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 72 pp. 19 - Edvard Radzinsky: An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife, translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 68 pp. 20 - Mikhail Roshchin: The Old New Year (A Comedy in Four Scenes), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 114 pp. 21 - Viktor Rozov: The Class Reunion, translated by C. Peter Goslett, photocopy of typed manuscript, w/ maps, 113 pp. 22 - Viktor Rozov: Meet My Model Family (Scenes in Two Acts), translated by Marjorie L. Hoover, typed manuscript, 71 pp. 23-24 - Mark Rozovsky: Kafka, Father and Son (A One-Act Play for Two Actors, based of Franz Kafka’s “Letter to His Father” and “The Judgment”), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 46 pp. (2 copies). 25 - Eugene Schwartz: An Ordinary Miracle, translated by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, typed manuscript, 99 pp. 26 - Victor Slavkin: A Bad Apartment (A Comedy in One Act), translator unknown, typed manuscript, 27 pp. 27 - A. Sokolova: The Fantasies of Fariatev (A Tragi-comedy in Two Acts), translated by Marjorie L. Hoover, typed manuscript, 65 pp. 28 - Vyacheslav Spesivtsev: Ya Prishyol Dat Vam Volyoo (I Have Come to Give You Freedom), in the original Russian, typed manuscript, 109 pp. 29 - Iurii Trifonov: The Exchange, translated by Marjorie L. Hoover, typed manuscript, 44 pp. 30 - Aleksandr Vampilov: An Incident with a Paginator, translated and adapted by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 52 pp. 31 - Aleksandr Vampilov: Last Summer in Chulimsk, translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 95 pp. 32 - Aleksandr Vampilov: Twenty Minutes with an Angel (A Comedy in One Act), translated by Alma H. Law, typed manuscript, 36 pp. (2 copies).
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 8 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description 2 33 - Aleksandr Volodin: Never Part From Your Loved Ones, translated by Alma H. Law, Institute for Contemporary Eastern European Drama and Theatre, Playscripts in Translation Series, No. 1, 51 pp.
K: Swedish
34 Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights: - Mattias Andersson: The Runner (Loparen), translated by Einar Heckscher (41 pp.). - Sofia Freden: Hand in Hand (Hand I hand), translated by Edward Buffalo Bromberg (75 pp.). - Jonas Gardell: People in the Sun (Manniskor I solen), translated by Einar Heckscher (68 pp.). - Kristina Lugn: The Night Walkers (Nattorienterarna), translated by Verne Moberg (28 pp.). - Niklas Radstrom: Quartet (Kvartett), translated by Frank Gabriel Perry (84 pp.). 35 - Jonas Gardell: Cheek to Cheek, translator unknown, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 55 pp. 36 - Jonas Gardell: People Under the Sun (M’nniskor I Solen), from Two Plays About God, The Devil and Ordinary Humans, translator unknown, Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget Edition, 57 pp. 37 - Lars Noren: Munich – Athens (A Comedy About Love), translated by G.M. Anderman, typed manuscript, 67 pp. 38 - Lars Noren: Night is Mother to the Day, translated by Harry G. Carlson, typed manuscript, 164 pp.
SERIES II: OTHER DOCUMENTS
Box Folder Description
A: Correspondence
2 39 - July 4, 1989, from Ann Mari Engel (Swedish Centre of the International Theatre Institute) to Felicia Londré, re: Lars Noren plays, w/ invoice. - March 1, 1990, from David W. Robinson to Helen Merrill, re: Christopher Hein’s The Knights of the Round Table. - March 7, 1990, from Helen Merrill to Felicia Laundry [sic], re: Christopher Hein’s The Knights of the Round Table, w/ photocopy, and other information and notes about the playwright and play. - June 11, 1990, from Hannelore Retzlaff to Felicia Londré, re: Lars Noren plays. - February 18, 2001, from David Coffman (Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget) to Felicia Londré, re: The Celebration, w/ synopsis.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 9 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION Box Folder Description (2 39) - May 4, 2001, from Hanne Wilhelm Hansen (Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget) to Felicia Londré, re: Scandinavian plays. - February 19, 2002, from David Coffman (Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget), to Felicia Londré, re: Elling, with synopsis. - May 10, 2002, from David Coffman (Nordiska Strakosch Teaterforlaget), to Felicia Londré, re: Elling, with synopsis. - July 22, 2012, from Felicia Londré to Max Beatty. - Notes and synopsis of I Have Come to Give You Freedom. - Note re: Edvard Radzinsky’s An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife. - Telegram from Katona Jozser Szinhaz.
B: Newspaper Clippings
2 40 - Articles on Hungarian productions of The Government Inspector and Three Sisters, 13 pp.
C: Articles
- “Theatre Space Postulates,” by Kazimierz Braun, typed manuscript, 14 pp. - “Impressions of Theatre in a Changing Political Climate: Warsaw, East Berlin, and Budapest in January 1990,” by Felicia Londre, typed manuscript 16 pp. - “Wunder und Wirklichkeit,” photocopy, 4 pp.
D: Miscellaneous
2 41 - Notes and Documents concerning plays and productions, 7 pp. - Information on Gyorgy Spiro and his play Chickenhead, w/ synopsis, 14 pp. - Press opinions on Anton Tchekov’s Three Sisters, 11 pp. - Artisjus News Letter, w/ synopses of Hungarian plays, 20 pp. - Missouri Repertory Theatre Program: 1984 Winter Series, 37 pp. - Packet of Information on Katona Jozsef Szinhaz, 54 pp.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 10 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
APPENDIX: Biographical Information and Play Descriptions
AMERICAN
Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1956) American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Wrote plays in various styles, screenplay adaptations of others’ works, and books of poetry and essays. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1933. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Anderson
Night Over Taos: “During the U.S.-Mexican War, which took place from 1846 to 1848, Mexico lost nearly half of its territory, including what is now the state of New Mexico. Night Over Taos is the true story about a Mexican freedom fighter, Pablo Montoya, who in 1847 led a bloody and ultimately futile siege to protect New Mexico from being ceded to the United States.” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsA/anderson-maxwell.html#749
Robert Anderson (April 28, 1917 – February 9, 2009) American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre producer. He had a successful Broadway and Film career, earning an Oscar Nomination for this screenplay of The Nun’s Story. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1982. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anderson_(playwright)
The Days Between: (1965) “Wife's entertainment of successful writer causes problems for writing lecturer who cannot write.” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsA/anderson-robert.html#781
James Costin (1934 – 2005) Kansas City native, one of the principal figures in the development and growth of the Missouri Repertory Theatre. http://www.heartlandcremation.com/obituary/James-D-Costin/
Robert Dean Information Unavailable.
Cena Christopher Draper From Warrensburg, Missouri. Noted for children's stories that paralleled her own childhood. http://www.kchistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Local&CISOPTR=19459&CIS OBOX=1&REC=1
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 11 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
Kevin O’Morrison (May 26, 1916 – ???) Born in St. Louis, Missouri, American playwright and actor. Began career as an actor in the 1940s, began writing plays in the 1960s, mostly off-Broadway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_O'Morrison
Ladyhouse Blues: “In South St. Louis, people used to say, ‘When you're standin' there hurtin' so bad you could die, an’ you know you won't-that's the blues.’ And in August, 1919 in the midst of war-born inflation, while her eldest daughter is being wasted by tuberculosis-Liz Madden, a widow at forty-one, tries with what laughter, tears, and raillery she can muster, to hold her three younger daughters around - at least until Bud, her only son, ‘can get back from the Navy.’” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsO/o-morrison-kevin.html#26368
Josephine Peabody (May 30, 1874 – December 4, 1922) American poet and dramatist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Preston_Peabody
The Piper: Contemporary NY Times Article: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive- free/pdf?res=F70E1EFE3F5D16738DDDAC0894DA405B818DF1D3
Louise Saunders The Knave of Hearts: Dramatized version of Saunders’ Children’s Book.
DANISH
Peter Asmussen “At the core of Peter Asmussen’s work as a dramatist is the pointlessness of existence. Repeatedly, the characters in his plays are confronted by their choices in all aspects of Life, and Love In particular. This confrontation causes them to question whether or not they have chosen the right path. Torn and bewildered, they separate and reunite in new constellations, often only to find that they are no happier than before.
“Asmussen wants this pointlessness; he wants to expose Life and all of its false expectations; he wants to concentrate on the closest we will ever get to the source of this pointlessness: man himself…
“…A Sunny Room…in three sections deals with the breakdown of love and the domestic hell it leads to, all taking place in the same sun-filled room in the years 1920, 1997, and 2020.”
- From Introduction to A Sunny Room, by Nina Skriver Dahl, Contemporary Danish Drama: Four Danish Playwrights, translated by Charlotte Barslund, p. 162.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 12 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
Erling Jepsen “…Jespen often extends a friendly hand to his audience, building his tales on plausible situations. But reliable realism is not his main objective; Jespen wants to tell of other, darker, motivating forces than the ones we typically ascribe to ourselves and our fellow humans. In the beginning, we are presented with a secure, recognizable world. But then, bit by bit, we feel our security slipping away, until suddenly we find ourselves in a place of dark and “abnormal” urges.
“…In Manden som bad om lov til at vaere her pa jorden (The Man Who Asked permission to Exist)…Jespen works with one of his favorite themes, our fundamental existential guilt. …The play is made up of three scenes, three tableaux, and Jespen leaves it to the audience to find the coherence in the story.
“…In Kuren (The Cure, 2001), we recognize Jespen’s theme of suppressed instincts – but the play presents its grotesque ideas in a new, more direct way. The Cure also represented a new direction for Jespen in that he created it in collaboration with a director and a group of actors in Copenhagen.”
- From Introduction to The Man Who Asked Permission to Exist, by Jesper Bergman, Contemporary Danish Drama: Four Danish Playwrights, translated by W. Glyn Jones, pp. 66- 67.
Line Knutzon “Among contemporary dramatists, Line Knutzon (b. 1965) stands out as one of the most talented and original – and also one of the most popular. She made her writing debut in 1991 with a one- act play titled Splinten I hjertet (Splinter in the Heart), which foreshadowed the generational breakthrough in Danish drama in the 1990s.
Knutzon’s play…contained all of the elements that have since become her hallmark – first and foremost, the young, lonely characters, confused and furious, hysterical yet matter-of-fact, infantile yet poetic. The 26-year-old newcomer…proved herself as a playwright with the ability to transform complicated inner states into concrete linguistic images and give them a physical presence on stage.
“…Forst bli’r man jo fodt (First You’re Born, 1994), Knutzon’s sunniest text… In this absurdist fairy-tale comedy, Knutzon spins the wheel of love, allowing her insecure young characters to gather the courage to break out of the cocoon of childhood and meet someone. This time, the blockage of life, a central theme of Knutzon’s, is resolved in a happy ending.
“…Snart kommer tiden (The Time is Coming, 1988) is Knutzon’s biggest and most ambitious drama, and has also been her greatest success commercially… In this combination modern lifestyle farce/existential thriller, Knutzon skillfully dissolves time and space, as the five-year- old child of two parents, Rebekka and Hilbert, comes home one day as a 55-year old.”
- From Introduction to First You’re Born, by Brigitte Hesselaa, Contemporary Danish Drama: Four Danish Playwrights, translated by W. Glyn Jones, pp. 128-29.
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 13 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION
Astrid Saalbach “Saalbach is a political dramatist in the sense that she asks critical questions about the modern way of life. In an extremely sophisticated and often surprising form, she expands the naturalist structure with succinct and aesthetically astute dialogue. In her later plays, she also works with absurd and grotesque scenes, and the reasons for her characters’ actions become increasingly ambiguous. The audience’s task is to answer for themselves the questions raised in these dramas. Saalbach’s work forces the viewer into the role of active interpreter.
“With The Blessed Child, Saalbach offers up a dystopian, often parodical, matriarchal drama in which the theme is modern humanity’s loss of breeding and refinement, while the instinct for survival increasingly dominates life. The drama is built in a duel structure…the first part is set in the family, centered on the couples and families associated with the child Malte, who mutates and sprouts feathers! In the second part, he has grown up into a John the Baptist-like figure, preparing the way for the Messiah to come and lead a new, more capable breed of humans.
“In the modern tragedy Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust…a young woman named Nina commits a jealous murder after falling out with her lover Mikael. The author then introduces two paths of explanation to explain the murder: one leading to the obscure chemical processes of the brain, and the other to a psychological determinism based of childhood trauma.”
- From Introduction to The Blessed Child, by Anna Lang, Contemporary Danish Drama: Four Danish Playwrights, translated by W. Glyn Jones, pp. 10-11.
Thomas Vinterberg (May 19, 1969 –) Danish film director, who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Vinterberg
The Celebration: Stage version of one of the first Dogme 95 movies. “The film tells the story of a family gathering to celebrate their father's 60th birthday. At the dinner, the eldest son publicly accuses his father of sexually abusing both him and his twin sister (who had recently committed suicide).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celebration
FINNISH
Michael Baran “Baran’s own plays have a reputation for their verbosity. In an age when it is fashionable for playwrights to be brief and elliptic, Baran’s plays are courageously wordy. As the characters labor over their emotions and anxieties, they say less than they mean but talk more than they need. Their expression is an angst-ridden struggle to get to the heart of their own bewilderment. Over the years, this flow of words has become more refined. In his latest play, You Don’t Know
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What Love Is (1999), the dialogue is more rapid, terse, sometimes even mono-syllabic, but it is interrupted by long, self-searching monologues, like waves of intense feeling that cannot be stemmed by the emotional dam the speaker fights to keep in place. And while the dialogue seems to progress in a realistic way, the situation as well as the people in it are a far stretch from realism.
“In You Don’t Know What Love Is, there is very little sense of setting at all, and [Baran’s] characters remain nameless, linked to one another by little more than coincidence. Moreover, the action is propelled by a mischievous devil, whose motivations remain as cryptic as, indeed, the motivations of individual will so frequently are.”
- From introduction to You Don’t Know What love Is, in Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights, p. 6.
Anne Koski “[Koski] began writing plays when she was only nine years old. …Her graduation work at the Theatre Academy was the play Suuri toivelaulukirja (Best Loved Songs and Melodies).
“The play begins with the first meeting after many years of separation between the father, freed after a long prison term, and the grown-up daughter. As the play advances, father and daughter try to get to know each other, and the regressions of their reminiscing reveals the cause of the father’s prison sentence. He killed his wife, because she had an affair with the daughter’s piano teacher. During many years, the daughter shared her father’s sense of culpability, because she felt she had brought her mother and her teacher together. The personalities are drawn with detail and understanding.”
- From Introduction to Best Loved Songs and Melodies, in Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights, p. 73.
Juha Lehtola “Juha Lehtola (born 1966) belongs to a group of young theatre-makers who have made significant innovations in Finnish theatre and drama by challenging the division of traditional professional groups. The common denominator of these diverse stage artists could be considered to be the changes which took place in theatre training in the 1980s, which began in a new way to stress the team and its shared responsibility for the production in hand. The carrying of responsibility was seen not merely as an ideological or artistic question, but above all in terms of concrete participation: actors were invited to direct, and directors to act.
“The play Mielen kieli (The Mind Speak, 1994) in many ways reflects a totalist way of making. [sic] …The birth of the play was decisively influenced by the actor Jyrki Nousiainen, whose expressive skills as one of Finland’s few pantomime artists are in a class of their own. In the first performance, Nousiainen performed all the roles in the play, supported only by three assistants carrying floodlights.
“[In The Mind Speak] [t]he bonds between the characters appears to be almost overwhelming, even though they are not family relationships. People become rooted to different spots or are
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- From Introduction to Mind Speak, by Lauri Meri, in Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights, p. 139.
Laura Ruohonen “Laura Ruohonen’s plays reflect her ability to merge humorous elements, tragedy, and moral and ethical issues. Her typical characters are both very funny and deeply tragic figures at the same time. Her studies of biology create a special background to her ironical analysis of our time…while her vivid nature images bring a strong poetical element in her writing… Her landscape consists of swamps, Northern fells, deserted country villages, and anonymous urban suburbs. …Her dialogue and characters have been praised by critics for being original and full of life…
“[Olga’s] theme is a rare one in drama: a love affair between an old woman and a young man. Olga, who lives alone, is exploited by people around her. They are joined by a young scoundrel, Rundis. Olga, however, turns out to be an unconventional old person (as all old people are, Laura Ruohonen implies), and this overturns the young man’s values. Olga and Rundis experience a unique love affair which is magnificent and impossible in its defiance of society.”
- From Introduction to Olga, in Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights, p. 307.
Juha Siltanen “Stiltanen’s plays do not always follow the traditional line of scenes or drama. On the surface, urban, generally middle-class people who cultivate linguistic witticisms often act past one another. Beneath the text, however, there is a moral, even a political, base. People’s alienation, loneliness and incapacity to communicate in a world overflowing with communication tools, in which everyone longs for the harmony of people like them but in which no one appears to accept responsibility. [sic]
“Stiltanen’s musical background is apparent in his plays, either inbuilt or physically audible. Sometimes his plays consist of a theme and variations through which, by changing perspective, he bores deeper into the world he creates.
“As political and ‘theological’ a writer as Juha Siltanen considers himself to be, his social message is indirect. The characters in Foxtrot, who represent different generations, are media professionals, journalists, psychiatrists, politicians, whose control patients are the verbal virtuosi of the mental hospitals. In a Chekhovian manner, they are incapable of leaving their islands in relation to one another or to the important events of history which penetrate them. It is also a question of the cities formed by people, cold and dark.”
- From Introduction to Foxtrot (or The White Shadows), by Hilkka Eklund in Contemporary Finnish Drama: Five Finnish Playwrights, p. 185.
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FRENCH
Jean Racine (December 22, 1639 – April 21, 1699) “French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France (along with Molière and Corneille), and an important literary figure in the Western tradition.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Racine
Andromache: “A tragedy in five acts, written in alexandrine verse…The third of Racine's plays, written at the age of 27, established its author's reputation as one of the great playwrights in France.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromaque
GERMAN
Bertolt Brecht (February 10, 1898 – August 14, 1956) German poet, playwright, and theatre director. “An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the huge impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble – the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife, long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht
Puntila and His Hired Man: “The story describes the aristocratic land-owner Puntila's relationship to his servant, Matti, as well as his daughter, Eva, who he wants to marry off to an Attaché. Eva herself loves Matti and so Puntila has to decide whether to marry his daughter to his driver or to an Attaché, while he also deals with a drinking problem.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Puntila_and_his_Man_Matti
Christopher Hein “Since 1979, Christoph Hein is a freelance author of plays, translations, adaptations, novels and narrations. In 1992, Christoph Hein becomes a member of the German Academy for Languages and Poetry in Darmstadt. From 1997 to 2000, he is president of the German PEN Centre. Christoph Hein received many awards, among them the Deutsches Verdienstkreuz.” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsH/hein-christoph.html
The Knights of the Round Table: http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsH/hein-christoph.html#78004
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Carl Orff (July 10, 1895 – March 29, 1982) “20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937). In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential approach of music education for children.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff
Die Bernauerin: A bairisches piece, or so called by Orff, who wrote the music and libretto, dealing with the later years of famed historical figure Agnes Bernauer. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Bernauer in&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcarl%2Borff%2Bdie%2Bbernauerin%26hl%3Den%26tbo%3Dd&sa =X&ei=D_7AUKP8LcWOyAGE4ID4CQ&ved=0CDwQ7gEwAQ
HUNGARIAN
Iren Kiss “In early 1989 a new play appeared in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, and continued through the season to both critical and popular success. I Dreamed a City, by Iren kiss, featured but two actors. One of them, a girl in her early 20s, had come to Budapest from the historically Hungarian mountainous region known as Transylvania. Her language in the play was archaic, as Transylvanian Hungarian is considered today a purer forerunner, almost a relic, of the modern language. The other protagonist, much older than the girl, spoke a Hungarian completely modern, filled with the slang and idioms of urban intellectuals. This fellow was at once enchanted by and jealous of the girl’s heritage. Their contact becomes a clash between the two cultures, the girl being idealistic and infused with the strengths of her region’s traditionalism, the fellow being completely cynical, a combination of witty sophistication and self-destructive alcoholism.”
- Philip Balla, Appalachian Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Fall 1984): 24.
Peter Nadas (October 14, 1942 –) Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9ter_N%C3%A1das
“With the trilogy Takarítás (1977, House Cleaning), Találkozás (1979, Encounter), and Temetés (1980, Burial), Nádas established his fame in Hungary as one of the most original playwrights of his generation.” http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nadas.htm
Gyorgy Schwajda (March 24, 1943 – April 19, 2010) Hungarian dramatist and theatre director. Wrote several dramas and was the theater director of the city theater in Kaposvar.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Schwajda
Gyorgy Spiro (April 4, 1946 –) novelist, dramatist, and essayist, one of Hungary’s most prominent post-war literary figures. His plays have won numerous awards, including several for best Hungarian drama of the year.
“The best known one is Chickenhead (1986), an earthy and bitter drama of a young delinquent's disillusionment at the longed-for reunion with his drunken father. Dramatic Exchange described it as ‘widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years.’” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Spir%C3%B3 The Impostor is a strongly theatre-related piece, but beyond the provincial existence of actors, it centres around the resistance and submission towards the ruling power.
The great actor, Boguslawski arrives from the capital city to the little Polish town of Vilna being under Russian occupation, to play a leading role. Being in this provincial atmosphere as an outsider, Boguslawski is able to see the different problems from above, thus he opens some new perspectives that were so far imperceptible from inside and that give way to some alternatives that are drawing and appalling at the same time.
The drama is not merely a depiction of social conditions; the theatre-in-theatre structure is Spiró’s instrument with which he can continuously reflect on art as existence, on the place of the artist and art and last but not least on its responsibility. http://www.tamasitheatre.ro/en/1.html?cikk_id=7901
ICELANDIC
Hrafnhildur Hagalin Guomundsdottir “Born in Reykjavik in 1965, Hrafnhildur Hagalin Guomundsdottir graduated from the Reykjavik College of Music as a classical guitarist but gave up further musical studies in order to write. Her first play, I am the Maestro, was produced at the Raykjavik City Theatre and won her the Icelandic Critics’ Award in 1991 and the Nordic Theatre Prize in 1992. It has since been produced in many countries around the world. Easy Now, Electra, Hrafnhildur’s second play, premiered at the Icelandic National Theatre…and was subsequently one of seventeen plays to be selected for the anthology Modern Women Playwrights of Europe published by Oxford University Press in 2001. Her plays have also been published by Oxford University Press in 2001. Her plays have also been published in Icelandic by Mal og menning in Reykjavik. She has recently written a television play for the Icelandic State Television.”
- Introduction to Easy Now, Electra, in Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights, p. 11.
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Arni Ibsen “(1948 –) Icelandic playwright, poet, translator and dramaturg. Author of four collections of poetry and nine produced plays which have been translated into ten languages… Arni Ibsen came into prominence as a playwright with The Truth Gets There Too, his debut play about American poets William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound in 1984. …[I]n 1996 he was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Playwrights Prize for Heaven – A Schizophrenic Comedy, his most popular play to date, which has also been produced to acclaim by a dozen theatres in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Denmark. [Other] theatre credits are the disjointed, cinematic satire entitled For Ever, which was named play of the year in 1998, and Man Alive, a modern treatment of the medieval ‘Everyman.’”
- From Introduction to Heaven (A Schizophrenic Comedy), in Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights, p. 47.
Olaf Olaffson “[A]uthor of the Novels The Journey Home (Pantheon, November 21, 2000) and Absolution (Pantheon, 1994) in addition to four other novels and two plays, Four Hears and The Feast of Snails.
“Olafsson, who leads two dramatically distinct lives as vice chairman of Time Warner Digital Media in New York and as Iceland’s bestselling novelist, has been hailed by Library Journal as “a gifted writer,” by Kirkus Reviews as “a welcome new voice,” and by Forbes as a “top-notch Nordic novelist, who may become that true rarity, an Icelandic Nobel prize Winner.”
“Since November 1999, Olafsson has been vice chairman of Time Warner Digital Media. He is responsible for developing strategic business plans for Time Warner’s diverse digital media businesses and identifying emerging growth opportunities for the company in the digital realm.
“Olafsson studied as a Wein Scholar at Brandeis University where he received his degrees in physics. He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, and lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, while maintaining a residence in Iceland.”
- From Introduction to A Feast of Snails, in Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights, p. 125.
Olafu Haukur Simonarson “…[M]ainly writes for the stage and is one of the most respected and popular dramtists [sic] in Iceland. He is a very versatile writer having also written numerus [sic] novels, collections of short stories and poetry, children and youth books. His songs and lyrics for children have been released on records and CD’s [sic] and are sung in every kindergarten in Iceland.
“Simonarson has mainly worked as full-time writer since 1974. He was director of the People’s Theatre in Reykjavik 1980-1982, Chairman of the Icelandic Dramatists’ Federation 1988-1999, Vice-Chairman of I.T.I.’s (International Theatre Institute) playwrights’ committee 1993-1998, and Simonarson has been on the board of the Icelandic Writers Union and the Society of Composers and Copyright owners since 1985.
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“Major works for the stage: Under the Skin trilogy, The Sea, Baddi’s Garage, Meat, Turmoil, Tears and Endurance, The Idiots.”
- From Introduction to The Sea, in Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights, p. 159.
Thorvaldur Thorastr “(Akureyri 1960) [H]as been writing and making visual art since he was eleven and is currently one of Scandinavia’s most successful visual artists.
“After graduating from the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts (BA) and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Holland (MA) his first stage play, In Honor of the Occasion, was premiered in 1992. Since then, all the plays he has written have been staged at the Reykjavik professional theatres, among them Talespin, Me and My Boy, Fairytale About Love and The Message Pouch, (based on his own classical children’s book).
“Thorvaldur works simultaneously with many forms of theatre; one-man performances, drama, musicals, “stolen” texts and experimental work. He has written over a hundred scripts for television and radio, especially for children.
“Sometimes it is hard to categorise [sic] his work. A good example of this would be Thorvaldur’s Pocket Theatre, a large group of short texts that have been praised in many different forms; as strong literature, visual performance, theatrical drama and radio material par excellence.”
- From Introduction to Talespin in Contemporary Icelandic Drama: Five Icelandic Playwrights, p. 205.
NORWEGIAN
Jon Fosse “…[M]ade his literary debut with the Novel Red, black at the age of 23, and has published some 30 works: novels, poetry, essays, short stories and children’s books. His fiction has been nominated for the Nordic Council’s Prize for Literature.
“In the early nineties he started to write for the theatre, and he has made a remarkable international career as a playwright. His plays have been translated into some twenty languages, and have been published and produced for the stage in most European countries with a large expanding interest.
“…Fosse has acquired a great reputation in the German-speaking countries. He…is now the most frequently produced playwright in the German-speaking countries with his plays The Name, Nightsongs and The Child.
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“…Fosse has won many prizes and awards, for example the Norwegian Ibsen Prize, the Nordic Prize for Playwrights and the Austrian Nestroy Prize.”
- From Introduction to The Name, by Torunn Liven in Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights, pp. 10-11.
Axel Hellstenius Has written the script for eleven Norwegian films, among them Oscar nominee Elling. He also writes television, radio and stage drama and children and youth. In addition, he teaches regularly at The Norwegian Film School in Lillehammer. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&u=http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Hellste nius&prev=/search%3Fq%3Daxel%2Bhellstenius%26hl%3Den%26tbo%3Dd&sa=X&ei=UfzF UMbuB-GsyAGlzYDoAg&ved=0CDoQ7gEwAQ
Elling: Stage version of the Oscar-nominated Norwegian film of the same name. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279064/
Henrik Ibsen (March 20, 1828-May 23, 1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. Considered one of the great European playwrights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_Ibsen
An Enemy of the People addresses the irrational tendencies of the masses, and the hypocritical and corrupt nature of the political system that they support. It is the story of one brave man's struggle to do the right thing and speak the truth in the face of extreme social intolerance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Enemy_of_the_People
Finn Iunker “As a young Norwegian playwright he challenges the realist conventions of drama with more open dramatic structures and a visual dramaturgy related to performance art. He also writes short stories, articles and essays, published in various sources such as Sklaven (Berlin), Descant (Toronto) and Vagant, a Norwegian literary periodical that he also co-edits. His first collection of stories, Valves, was published in Oslo in 1985.
“…[F]rom 1991 to 1998, he took part in the development of the Norwegian Dramatic Arts Project at the Bergen International Theatre, both as a participant and as a co-writer… At the Dasarts’ School in Amsterdam, he started working in English and employed the artistic potential and freedom of using a foreign language to good purpose.
“While in Amsterdam he wrote the play The Answering Machine, which was first staged by the American director John Jesurun in Germany in 1994. The play represented Iunkar’s international breakthrough. It has since been staged all over Europe and was presented as a workshop
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 22 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION production in Montreal at the festival 20 Days of Risky Theatre. The play tells the story of a person traveling across Europe, while at the same time going through his/her whole life experience.”
- From Introduction to The Answering Machine, by Torunn Liven in Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights, pp.72-73.
Cecilie Loeveid “…[I]s considered to be an important pioneer in contemporary dramatic writing in Norway and Scandinavia.
“In addition to stage plays, radio plays, and television plays, she has written texts for performance theatre, opera and dance… Her plays have been translated into several languages, and she has won prestigious prizes and awards.
“Several of her works have been developed in close cooperation with other artists and…these works have been published or staged in different genres and contexts… When writing “historical” dramas, her texts are both mimetic and experimental. Loveid has created her own version of the contemporary physical, neo-expressionistic theatre of images without giving up the traditional base of the drama: dialogue, characters and plots, staging particularly women as bides situated in a socially interrelated space.
“She wrote the play Austria – A Pastiche for the International Ibsen Festival at the Norwegian National Theatre in 1998. Partly based on the diaries of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the play is a love story with a surreal twist. It was awarded the Ibsen Prize in 1999 (Best Written Drama). In 1997 Loveid’s play about the life of the Ukrainian wife of the Norwegian Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, Maria Q, was produced at the California State University, Hayward.”
- From Introduction to Austria – A Pastiche, by Torunn Liven in Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights, pp. 82-83.
A.I.S. Lygre “…[H]e began writing for the theatre at the age of 25. He made his debut at the Norwegian Drama Festival in 1996 with an abridged version of his first play, Mother and Me and Men.
“For the opening of the new millennium, Lygre’s second play Sudden Eternity premiered at the Norwegian National Theatre. Sudden Eternity plays with time, moving in a non-realistic scenario from New Year’s Eve 2000 to the turn of the millennium in the year 3000. As in Mother and Me and Men, Lygre follows a family through several generations. The women are in charge while fathers come and go and the matriarch subjects herself to numerous nips and tucks in the search for eternal youth. When genetic engineering suddenly makes it possible to stop the ageing process, the ‘bonfire of vanities’ explodes in tragedy.
“Sudden Eternity was received at the Norwegian National Theatre as a most promising debut. The play reveals the dramatist’s urge to explore the form of his own drama, shifting time
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- From Introduction to Sudden Eternity, by Torunn Liven in Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights, pp.126-127.
Petter S. Rosenlund “For a number of years he worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), making several full-length TV- documentaries addressing political issues, aimed at a young audience. He made his debut as a playwright in 1997 with the black comedy An Impossible Boy, which was acclaimed as the most delirious and striking comedy debut in years. He was awarded the Ibsen prize for this play in 1998… The play has been translated into Swedish, English, German and French and published in Norwegian and French.
“Rosenlund’s plays are characterized by sharp dialogue and dark wit, and several people have compared him to the New York playwright Nicky Silver. In An Impossible Boy young Jim has to see the doctor when his mother discovers what she thinks is his failing hearing. As events unfold in absurdity and farce, it appears that the ones whose hearing is failing the most are the mother, the doctor and the grandfather. Egocentric adults need children in order to condone their own neurotic actions, and the family institution is the worst threat to family values in Petter S. Rosenlund’s black comedies of human compassion in the age of cellular communication.”
- From Introduction to An Impossible Boy, by Torunn Liven in Contemporary Norwegian Drama: Five Norwegian Playwrights, pp. 228-229.
POLISH
E.J. Czerwinski Premiere of I Am Innokenty possibly took place at the Slavic Center at SUNY Stony Brook, where Czerwinski was a faculty member, in 1971. http://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/bitstream/handle/1951/27796/Statesman,%20V.14,%20n.%2 038.pdf;jsessionid=ED09F6B97B127E4A46C1B88000F8AE8C?sequence=1
Witold Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) “A Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor. He gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Gombrowicz
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The Marriage: “Written in Argentina after World War II. The narrative takes place in a dream, where the dreamer transforms into a king and plans to marry his fiancée in a royal wedding, only as a means to save their integrity.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_(Gombrowicz_play)
Operetta: “Begun in 1958 and not completed until 1966, has been produced in 25 countries and almost as many languages. Gombrowicz didn’t live to see it onstage, dying just a few months before its Parisian premiere. Take all the gleeful mayhem that any of the above artists caused and double it. No, redouble it. That’s part of the game(s) – betting, polo, dueling, scoring women – of this operetta, which concerns what is basically a pissing-contest between Count Charm and Baron Firulet. http://www.broadstreetreview.com/index.php/main/article/gombrowiczs_operetta_at_live_arts_f estival
Ireneusz Iredynsky “Playwright Ireneusz Iredynski is a renowned contemporary Polish dramatist. Born in Stanislawow, Poland, he was raised by his grandmother and aunt after most of his family perished in World War II, only to run away at the age of 16. His first collection of short stories, "Day of a Cheat," was published in 1954. Stanislaw Lem, Poland's renowned author of science- fiction tales has compared him to Dostoyevski.” http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/arts_culture/literature/drama/iredynski/link.shtml
An Altar to Himself: (1981) “Investigating the suicide of an opportunistic party member finally driven by inner demons to revolt against his own degradation.”
- From The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama: M-Z by Gabrielle H. Cody, p. 1082.
Tamara Karren Madame Gabriela: “The play, which is almost entirely based on the letters of a famous Polish writer Gabriela Zapolska, is an attempt to reconstruct the last two decades of the playwright’s life. It takes a look at her extravagant, impulsive nature, her numerous love-affairs, her marriage with a painter Janowski, and finally her loneliness and death.” http://www.playservice.net/index.php?1=1&page=play_det&FLD_SEARCH=&id=6.185&direkt _count=15
Kazimierz Moczarski (July 21, 1907 – September 27, 1975) “A Polish writer and journalist, officer of the Polish Home Army… Kazimierz Moczarski is primarily known for his book Conversations with an Executioner, a series of interviews with a fellow inmate of the notorious UB secret police prison under Stalinism, the Nazi war criminal Jürgen Stroop soon to be executed. Thrown in jail in 1945 and pardoned eleven years later during Polish October, Moczarski spent four years on death row (1952–1956), and was tried three times as an enemy of the state while in prison.”
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Moczarski
Slawomir Mrozek (June 29, 1930 –) “A Polish dramatist and writer. Mrożek joined the Polish United Workers' Party during the reign of Stalinism in the People's Republic of Poland, and made a living as political journalist. He began writing plays in the late 1950s. His theatrical works belong to the genre of absurdist fiction, intended to shock the audience with non-realistic elements, political and historic references, distortion, and parody.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%82awomir_Mro%C5%BCek
Emigres: “The action of this play takes place in an apartment located in a basement of a house in Western Europe, on the night of New Year's Eve. The two heroes are both of Polish emigrants, but when the first came to work, the second is a political exile. In the room we understand that the first, XX, came to earn money but in return as soon as possible at home to find his family. It is a simple man, who did not study and do not speak the language of the host country. The second character, AA, fled popular diet is an educated man, a writer who tries to write about the freedom of the human being or rather his lack of freedom. He says stay locked in the apartment to investigate XX.” http://fitheatre.free.fr/gens/Mrozek/LesEmigres.htm
The Hunchback: “The action takes place in the mid-twentieth century, the seemingly carefree conditions, somewhere in the mountains on vacation, in the guest house run by the Beetle, but visited by the Stranger. Trivial experiences of residents - big, flirty, break - become a grotesque character, atmosphere thickened, the reality of the performance achieved in symbolic meaning, the rank generalization.” http://www.tvp.pl/kultura/teatr/teatr-telewizji/archiwum/garbus/1195239
On Foot: “On Foot, by one of Poland’s most renowned playwrights Slawomir Mrozek, is perhaps one of the greatest plays ever written about war and human displacement. On Foot, a tragicomedy with ten characters representing a cross section of society, is both a historical drama and a metaphysical fable that takes place in the final days of World War II. It combines the tale of a young boy’s initiation into adulthood with the story of a war weary people’s fears of a coming political disaster and the allegory of waiting for a train that never comes. The universal themes present in On Foot speak to the horrors of both the past and present holocausts and mirrors the journey our own ancestors experienced when they settled this region.” http://www.madstage.com/Shows/onfoot.html
Tadeusz Rozewicz (October 9, 1921 –) “A Polish poet and writer. His youthful poems were published in 1938. Tadeusz survived the war and by the time of his literary debut in 1960, he was the author of twelve highly acclaimed volumes of poetry. He has since also written over fifteen plays. This
MS221-Felicia Londré Manuscripts Collection 26 University of Missouri-Kansas City Dr. Kenneth J. LaBudde Department of Special Collections NOT TO BE USED FOR PUBLICATION eruption of dramaturgical energy was also accompanied by major volumes of poetry and prose. Różewicz is considered one of Poland's best post-war poets and most innovative playwrights.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_R%C3%B3%C5%BCewicz
The Trap: “This text dramatizes the anxieties and nightmares of the writer Franz Kafka as he himself experiences them in relation to his father, his friend and his fiancée. Despite his attempts to escape the many threats of confinement, the traps prove too cunning for Franz.” http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/tadeusz+rozewicz/daniel+gerould/adam+ czerniawski/the+trap/5488795/
RUSSIAN
Vasilii Aksyonov (August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) A Soviet and Russian novelist. He is known in the West as the author of The Burn (Ожог, Ozhog, from 1975) and Generations of Winter (Московская сага, Moskovskaya Saga, from 1992), a family saga depicting three generations of the Gradov family between 1925 and 1953. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Aksyonov
Your Murderer: is a richly grotesque hodgepodge of different linguistic levels that defies all rules and mixes a powerful cocktail out of traditional slogans, invented obscenities, foreign words and phrases, terminology from sports and heavy drinking, and pure nonsense. http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=11426334&matches=12&cm_sp=works*listing*title
Aleksandr Borshchagovsky A Ladies’ Tailor: “In 1980, a small Jewish theatrical troupe in Moscow caused an enormous stir by performing a play about the 1941 Nazi massacre of more than 100,000 Kiev citizens at the ravines at Babi Yar. The play was ''A Ladies' Tailor'' by Aleksandr Borshchagovsky, and, to the astonishment of both Western journalists and Moscow audiences, it challenged the official Soviet version of history.” http://travel2.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/theater/index.html?s=oldest&field =per&match=exact&query=BORSHCHAGOVSKY,%20ALEKSANDR
Ignatii Dvoretsky “Ignatii Moiseevich Dvoretsky was born in 1919 at Slivdianka on Lake Baikal… He was first published in 1948; a book of short stories, Polnovodie (High Water), the novellas, Komandirovka (The Mission), Taiga vesenniaia (Spring Taiga), and Istochnik (The Source), as well as other books, have been published.
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“The Contemporary Chronicle Chelovek so storoni (The Outsider) was first produced in 1971 at the Lensoviet Theatre in Leningrad, then at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre in Moscow, and in other cities.”
- From Introduction to the play.
Nikolai Erdman (November 16, 1900 – August 10, 1970) “A Soviet dramatist and screenwriter primarily remembered for his work with Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1920s. His plays, notably The Suicide (1928), form a link in Russian literary history between the satirical drama of Nikolai Gogol and the post-World War II Theatre of the Absurd.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Erdman
The Mandate: “Erdman's weapon, as in his later The Suicide, is farce: the plot suggests Gogol crossed with Ray Cooney. We watch, astonished, as a family of ex-grocers tries to marry into a group of closet Tsarist romantics. The dowry for the daughter, however, has to be a bona fide communist. So we see the petty bourgeoisie frantically seeking to rustle up a group of fake proletarian relatives and Pavel, the son of the house, brandishing a mandate to prove he is a genuine party member. But, like everything in Erdman's world, even that turns out to be less than it seems. - Michael Billington, Guardian” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsE/erdman-nikolai.html#41244
Aleksandr Galin “What was life like for Soviet playwrights before glasnost? A fable-like glimpse was offered by Gleb Panfilov's recent film, "Theme," in which a refusenik dramatist prepares to emigrate, while his friend writes popular, state-approved hackwork.
Those were the extremes. Alexander Galin's life as a Soviet playwright falls somewhere in between these poles. He had early success ("A Delusion" in 1978), and, three years later, his comedy "Retro" was the most-staged work in the country. But four years went by before the Mikhail Gorbachev-led thaw allowed a production of his portrayal of the underbelly of Moscow during the 1980 Olympics, "Stars in the Morning Sky," by Leningrad's Maly Theatre.” http://articles.latimes.com/1988-12-19/entertainment/ca-488_1_streets
Aleksander Gelman (October 25, 1933 –) “A Bessarabian-born Soviet and Russian playwright, writer, and screenwriter. A survivor of the Holocaust during childhood, Gelman became a playwright and screenwriter after working as a newspaper journalist in Leningrad in the 1960s, winning the USSR State Prize in 1976. He has resided in Moscow since 1978.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Isaakovich_Gelman
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Alone with Everyone (or A Man with Connections, 1982): “Explores a crisis between husband and wife after an industrial accident in which their son loses both hands and for which the father is responsible. Oleg Efremov, who shared Gelman's concern for truth, directed his work at the Moscow Art Theatre, but so far Gelman has not written plays since perestroika.” http://www.answers.com/topic/aleksandr-gelman
Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (May 26, 1938 –) “A Russian writer, novelist, and playwright. The Moscow-born Petrushevskaya is regarded as one of Russia's most prominent contemporary writers, whose writing combines postmodernist trends with the psychological insights and parodic touches of writers such as Anton Chekhov. Over the last few decades, she has been one of the most acclaimed contemporary writers at work in Eastern Europe; Publishers Weekly has called her "one of the finest living Russian writers".” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Petrushevskaya
Cinzano and Smirnova’s Birthday: “Cinzano and Smirnova's Birthday are two linked plays, first published in Moscow in 1988, depicting the grim reality of domestic life in Soviet Russia. And despite the immense political and social upheavals of subsequent decades, they remain as resonant and relevant as ever. In Cinzano, first staged in English at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in 1989, three young men drink themselves into a stupor to escape their drab lives and family responsibilities. In the companion piece, Smirnova's Birthday, the men's girlfriends meet up at a birthday celebration.” http://books.google.com/books/about/Cinzano.html?id=hvLwAaS0sgUC
Come Into the Kitchen: “[W]as published in Odnoaktnye p’esy, Moscow, 1979. The English- language premiere took place April 25, 1982 at the Eccentrio Circles Theatre, New York, in a production directed by Sharon Carnicke.”
- From Introduction to play, in Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya.
Love: “[W]as originally published in the journal, Teatr, in March, 1979. It had its debut on the professional stage in Moscow in 1980 at the Ermolova Theatre. The English-language premiere took place April 25, 1982 at the Eccentric Circles Theatre, New York, in a production by Sharon Clark.”
- From Introduction to play, in Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya.
Nets and Traps: “[W]as originally published in the April 1974 issue of Aurora. It had its English-language premiere on April 6, 1983 at the University of Maine, Farmington, directed by Andrea C. Southard.”
- From Introduction to play, in Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya.
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The Violin: “[W]as originally published in the Russian Journal, Druzhba narodov, No. 10, 1973. It had it’s [sic] English-language premiere in Minneapolis on August 7, 1983, at the American Theatre Association Convention.”
- From Introduction to play, in Four by Liudmila Petrushevskaya.
Edvard Radzinsky (September 23, 1936 –) “A Russian playwright, television personality, screenwriter, and the author of more than forty popular history books.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Radzinsky
Don Juan Continued: “After an absence of two hundred years, Don Juan turns up in Moscow looking for his servant, Leporello. He finds him, now names Leppo Karlovich Rello, managing a photo studio that specializes in trick photography. Leppo Karlovich insists Don Juan has made a mistake. He remembers all too well the beatings and the sleepless nights he spent as Don Juan’s servant. But gradually, Don Juan forces him to remember all of their relationships over the past three thousand years, beginning in Troy when Don Juan’s name was Paris and Leporello was his slave.”
- From Introduction to the play.
Jogging (Sporting Scenes, 1981): “Radzinsky returned to the difficulties of the young in reconciling their ideals with contemporary, unromantic reality. Following the 1986 premiere of Jogging (Sporting Scenes, 1981), a battle of the sexes expose of the children of the running elite, he became one of the most frequently produced native playwrights in modern Russia.”
- From The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Theatre, edited by Sarah Stanton and Martin Banham, p. 303.
An Old Actress in the Role of Dostoevsky’s Wife: “This is my favorite kind of story because it’s theatre within theatre. There is the ACTRESS who plays the role of Dostoevsky’s wife, and who at the same time exists as an individual, as an actress who unites her life with that of Anna Grigorevna’s. There is also the madman who presents himself as Dostoevsky. But when I finished the play and reread it, then it became clear to me that I myself wasn’t sure who these characters are.”
- From Radzinsky’s Afterword.
Mikhail Roshchin (February 10, 1933 – October 1, 2010) “A Russian playwright, screenwriter, and short story writer.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Roshchin
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The Old New Year: “The Old New Year tradition has received mention in Russian art; the playwright Mikhail Roshchin wrote a comedy drama called The Old New Year in 1973, which was on stage in the theaters for many years. He also made it a screenplay for the TV-film which was played by famous actors and featured music by Sergey Nikitin, with the poetry lyrics by Boris Pasternak; the film was released by Mosfilm studios in 1980.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_New_Year
Viktor Rozov (August 21, 1913 – September 28, 2004) Russian playwright and screenwriter. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0747657/
Meet My Model Family: “His 1979 family drama, The Nest of the Woodgrouse (Meet My Model Family), is a generational-conflict play which confronts the problems of careerism and moral decay among top-level bureaucrats, and the collision of material, social and spiritual values, precipitating a sense of longing and religious consciousness, especially among the young.”
- From The Cambridge guide to Theatre, edited by Martin Banham, p. 946.
Mark Rozovsky (c. 1937 –) Russian director, writer, and playwright. http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Mark-Rozovsky.html
Eugene Schwartz (October 21, 1896 – January 15, 1958) “A Soviet writer and playwright whose works include twenty-five plays and screenplays for three films (in collaboration with Nikolai Erdman).
The Ordinary Miracle: This is a romantic and philosophical parable on love and relationship between the creator and his creation. This play was made into films in 1964 and in 1978. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Shvarts
Victor Slavkin “[B]orn in 1935, [Slavkin] belongs to the so-called “new wave” of Russian Dramatists who emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s and who include Aleksandr Galin, Liudmila Razumovskaia, and Liudmila Petrushkevskaia. Slavkin was educated at the Moscow Institute of Railway Engineers, but worked as a staff member of the journal Iunost` from 1967 until 1984. At Iunost` he was responsible for the regular and satirical section and most of his one-act plays are amusingly sceptical [sic] visions of life that is essentially absurd.”
“Polkhaia kvartira (The Bad Apartment, 1966), Moroz (Frost, 1966), and Orkestr (The Band, 1966) are concerned with serious issues such as loneliness and the essential absurdity of the human condition, yet they are saved from any hint of portentousness by an infectiously cheerful good humour.”
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- From “Blues at Forty: The Plays of Viktor Slavkin” in Reconstructing the Canon: Russian Writing in the 1980s, by Arnold P. McMillin, p. 259.
A. Sokolova “The Fantasies of Faritev, a tragi-comedy in two acts (Moscow, 1976), in the repertory of the Gorky Theater and the Lenin Komsomol Theater, Leningrad; and in that of the contemporary and the Soviet Army Theater, Moscow.”
- From the script.
Vyacheslav Spesivtsev Information on I Have Come to Give You Freedom available in Box 2, Folder 39.
Iurii Trifonov (August 18, 1925 – March 24, 1981) “A leading representative of the so-called Soviet "Urban Prose". He was considered a close contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Trifonov
The Exchange: “…a ruefully ironic dissection of a man without a spine. The story of the complications and quietly devastating concessions attendant on Viktor Dmitriev's attempts to exchange his one-room Moscow apartment for larger living quarters, the play is Chekhovian in its juxtaposition of a vestigial class of idealists and a new order of thick-skinned opportunists. It is a bit as if "The Three Sisters" had been transposed, in more blatant terms, to the 1970's with Andrei, the weak-willed, henpecked brother, as the central character.” http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/16/theater/theater-in-review-482188.html
Aleksandr Vampilov (August 19, 1937 – August 17, 1972) “A Russian playwright. Many of his plays have been filmed or televised in Russia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vampilov
An Incident with a Paginator and Twenty Minutes with an Angel: “In these two one act-plays, Vampilov uses masterly the form of the anecdote to express, through its paradoxes real events and satirize them in the light of a comic-tragic prism. In the former, the subject is the alienation caused on man by the pursuit of a post, of some even little power, making him being oppressive towards the inferiors to him and coward towards to his superiors. In the latter, the subject is the alienation that money provokes making people being suspicious towards every disinterested action. The absurd comic situations appearing and the vivid dialogue cause the spontaneous laughter of the viewers.” http://www.ntng.gr/default.aspx?lang=en-GB&page=2&production=4076
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Last Summer at Chulimsk: “gentle satire on a small group of people in a remote village in Russia; it tells of 24 hours in the life surrounding a forest cafe, in which guns are produced, marriages proposed, children banished…and everything stays much the same. - Paul Allen, New Statesman” http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsV/vampilov-aleksander.html#67034
Aleksandr Volodin (February 10, 1919 – December 17, 2001) Belorussian playwright and screenwriter. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0901668/
Never Part from Your Loved Ones: “The events of the play take place in a factory district on the outskirts of Leningrad in present-day Russia. The central action revolves around divorce proceedings between a young couple, Mitya and Katya. Mitya has questioned his wife’s faithfulness and she, in turn, questions the compromises in personal freedom seemingly necessitated by marriage.”
- From Introduction to the play.
SWEDISH
Mattias Andersson “As a playwright, Andersson is incredibly prolific – no fewer than ten of his plays have been staged since he left drama school in 1993. He now devotes himself entirely to writing and directing.
“The plays are usually aimed at a wide age range. He himself is quoted as saying that ‘what you see and experience before the age of fifteen is of decisive importance for the rest of your life.’ It is therefore not surprising that his plays have been especially well received by younger audiences.
“The Runner (Loparen, 2000) was first performed at the Stockholm City Theatre. It is a finely drawn picture of power relationships among adolescents – cruel in the extreme in its portrayal of helplessness in the face of sadistic bullying, but also touching and tender.”
- From Introduction to The Runner in Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights.
Sofia Freden “Her career as a playwright got its start when her graduation play I vara ljusa stunder (In Our Bright Moments) was taken up by a young and forward-looking Copenhagen theatrical company, Dr. Dante, for whom she went on to write Nya vanner och alskare (New Friends and Lovers, 1998)…
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“Sofia Freden returned to Stockholm to work with a small, committed group of women. Together, they wrote, directed and produced a stage blend of highly taut comedy of relations and political theater, performed in unusual and provocative spaces.
“Then followed Hand I Hand (Hand in Hand, 1999) at the Stockholm City Theatre. It was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike… [It] has also been performed in Denmark, England and France.”
- From Introduction to Hand in Hand in Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights.
Jonas Gardell “There are those who know Gardell mainly as a popular stand-up comedian and actor, a divinely talented satirist with a gift for gab, always on the mark. But Gardell is much more than that, he is the serious author of numerous plays, novels and movie scripts. These combine a keen eye for human foibles and tragedies with surprising tenderness and understanding of the human condition.
“Jonas Gardell…made his debut as a writer with Passionsspelet (Passion Play, 1985), a novel about homosexual love. He made his name as a dramatist with Lena och Percy Prariehund (Lena and Percy Prairie Dog) and Omheten (The Tenderness), both in 1989. Other plays include…Cheek to Cheek about an aging drag queen’s quest for companionship and love. In People in the Sun (Manniskor I solen, 1997), Gardell exposes the emptiness and insecurities of two couples who meet on vacation and decide to celebrate Midsummer together. In the course of the evening, characters and relationships are revealed under the pressure of the frantic search for conviviality demanded by Swedish Midsummer rituals.”
- From Introduction to People in the Sun in Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights.
Kristina Lugn “[O]ne of Sweden’s best-loved and most respected writers… her first play, I dodsskuggans dal (In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1984), was premiered by the Royal Dramatic Theatre, where most of her plays have opened.
“Her dramatic output includes a dozen plays. Lugn deals with the small things in life, everyday people with everyday anxieties. These she describes with a wonderfully absurd and drastic humor, lightly disguised by a kind of naïve earnestness… Nattorienterarna (The Night Walkers, 1998) is, as are many of her plays, a tragi-comedy, featuring the conversation of two women school teachers during their nightly walk.”
- From Introduction to The Night Walkers in Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights.
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Lars Noren (May 9, 1944 –) A Swedish playwright, novelist and poet. He is considered Sweden's most prominent contemporary playwright. His plays are realistic and often revolve around family relations and the impoverished and routed at the bottom of society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Nor%C3%A9n
Munich-Athens: “David and Sarah have already traveled for a day, from Stockholm via Copenhagen and Hamburg, when they finally arrive at Munich's central station. Shortly before transferring to the train to Athens, David encounters an old lady, who engages him in conversation, accompanied by mysterious gestures of intimacy. This woman is his mother, he explains later to his girlfriend, although he is supposed to be an orphan. This leads to their first argument - and it won't be the last. Cooped up in the dirty compartment, their journey turns into a trip to hell, into an absurd reckoning between two conflicting lovers. Their argument is being disturbed or rather enforced by a diabolic train conductor.” http://www.rowohlt-theaterverlag.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=72591&template=t_stueck_detail_en
Night is Mother to the Day: “A family saga, extending over two separate plays. Night is Mother to the Day takes place on May 9, 1956, in a run-down hotel. Martin, the proprietor, has recently started drinking again, which he keeps a secret, just like his wife, Elin, keeps her cancer a secret. She coolly rejects the care of her husband and her son, Georg, who is bound to his mother by a latently incestuous relationship. But the principal character of the play is really David, Georg's younger brother, who celebrates his 16th birthday today. Suffering from an unrequited love for his parents, bullied by Georg and hopelessly confused about his sexual and social identity, David intently listens to the radio report about a murderer's execution. Suddenly he grabs a knife and stabs his mother until she collapses, covered in blood... Ten years later, it is September 17, 1961. It seems to be the same family, older by ten years, although they have different names in Chaos is Close to God.” http://www.rowohlt-theaterverlag.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=72593&template=t_stueck_detail_en
Niklas Radstrom “[B]eyond doubt one of the most versatile writers in Sweden, equally at home with poetry, novels, plays and film.
“Radstrom’s first play Hitlers barndom (Hitler’s Childhood, 1985) was written for the legendary stage company Unga Klara and its director Suzanne Osten.
“His latest play Kvartett (Quartet) has already been hailed as a masterpiece and has been translated into several languages… The play takes its name from Shostakovich’s String Quartet no. 8 in C Major, written in 1960, “with,” as Shostakovich says, “tears running down my cheeks,” after the composer had finally been forced to become a member of the Communist Party. Quartet is about truth and betrayal, about human choices in a closed and oppressive society. A beloved Russian Jewish cello teacher has just died and requested that four musicians, all with a close relationship to him and each other, play the Shostakovich quartet at his funeral.
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During the rehearsal, past history is relived, relationships change, and fundamental human issues are raised – all interwoven with the music.”
- From Introduction to Quartet in Contemporary Swedish Drama: Five Swedish Playwrights.
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