The 20 th Century

1. The 20th Century Modernism & Theatre of the Absurd - - - Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

2. The Twentieth Century & Modernism • By the time the WWI ends, in 1918, the world has clearly changed. • Art: Picasso and Braque were suddenly painting weird paintings – cubism & modern art is born. • Music: Schoenberg and Stravinsky seemed to have tossed the traditional melodies and harmonies of music out the window. New forms of music being born. • Science: Einstein’s relativity theories and the development of quantum mechanics: it seemed that on some level you couldn’t be sure of anything. • Culture: There was an interesting new art form: movies, television.

3. The Twentieth Century Modernism

4. The Twentieth Century • The world was too complex; the reassuring nineteenth century truths were being called into question: Freud & psychoanalysis; the slaughter of millions in the WWI; the European colonial enterprises turned out to be less noble and altruistic than their supporters claimed.

5. Absurdism • “Theatre of the absurd”: Samuel Beckett (Irish), Ionesco (Romanian), Albee (American), Pinter (British) • From Pirandello: After WWII, these writers felt a sense of loss, despair and hopelessness: our world is an absurd, meaningless one. • Read Pirandello

6. Absurdism • Theatrical rather than realistic • Serious but often comic, especially satiric • Themes: • Human loneliness in a world without God • The inability to communicate • The dehumanization and impotence of individuals in a bourgeois society • The meaninglessness of life

7. Absurdism • Concerns: fear of nuclear holocaust, subordination of human values to rampant materialism, breakdown of interpersonal communication • Method: • non-didactic, irrational and non-linear • Protagonist no longer “hero” • Perspective shift

8. Tom Stoppard • TOM STOPPARD was born Thomas Straussler on July 3rd, 1937 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia. • In 1946, the Stoppard family moved to Bristol and Tom went to a public school in Yorkshire. • In 1954 he became a reporter on the Western Daily Press . He became a freelance writer in 1960 and wrote his first play, A Walk on Water which was later staged in 1968. He wrote a number of radio and television plays and also became a theatre critic for Scene magazine.

9. Tom Stoppard • “I am a man of no convictions – at least I think I am.” • He married first in 1965 and had two sons. • In 1967, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first produced on the Edinburgh fringe festival

10. Moons and Boots • In 1966, he writes his only novel, Lord Malquist & Mr. Moon: “I distrust attitudes because they claim to have appropriated the whole truth and pose as absolutes. And I distrust the opposite attitude for the same reason.” • William Boot: Stoppard’s pseudonym while critic: • In his writings, there are several Moons and Boots: “Moon is a person to whom things happen. Boot is rather more aggressive.” • “I’m a moon myself. Confusingly, I use the name Boot. This is beginning to sound lunatic.”

11. Moons and Boots • Which is Rosencrantz? • Which is Guildenstern? • Note how they differ

12. Tom Stoppard • In 1972 he divorced, then had two sons with his second wife • His play Jumpers was produced at the National Theatre in London. • Subsequent plays include Travesties, 1974; Night and Day, 1978; The Real Thing, 1978; and Hapgood, 1988. • Arcadia, 1993 • Coast of Utopia (trilogy); Rock n’ Roll

13. Film Work Some of his screenplays: • (1985) Brazil (script nominated for an Academy Award) • (1987) Empire of the Sun • (1998) Shakespeare In Love(co-authored by Marc Norman, script won an Academy Award) • He has also directed a film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. • Script doctor

14. Fate • Critic: “While it is clear that none of his characters control their own destiny, it is equally obvious that their unsinkable quality, their irrepressible vitality and eccentric persistence, constitute what Stoppard feels to be an authentic response to existence.”

15. Stoppard • “Prufrock and Beckett are the twin syringes of my arterial system.” • Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot- subtitled “A Tragicomedy in Two Acts,” written in the late 1940s and first published in 1952.

16. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

17. Prufrock TS Eliot • The intellectual aesthete trying to cope with modern experience • Believer in universality of experience (use of social, literary, mythic touchstones)

18. Prufrock Format: The traditional Love Song: celebration of uplifting feeling, love This is ironic few uplifting feelings Not sure who’s being addressed (lover? Self?) No logical narrative sequence – situation revealed by sense images, historical characters, literary references

19. Prufrock Epigraph from Dante’s Inferno • So (as applies to existentialism), we know nothing of afterlife, so why act as though it exists Literal/logical relationFigurative relation Prufrock in Inferno? Sense of imprisonment – Prufrock is damned? impossible to escape

20. Prufrock Prufrock & Hamlet: Secret wish is only to regress to a safe haven where his inner universe is no longer disturbed by any tormenting human problems

21. The Facade of Permanence: Death • “Whatever became of the moment when one first knew about death? • That shattering instant, surely inscribed on everyone’s memory, which for some reason no one can remember. • Connection to theme of death in Hamlet • Death in R&G .70, .83, .110

22. The Players • They are similar to R&G .22 • They are different from R&G • They have direction (although hollow) • Set against Hamlet’s “O what a rogue…” on .23, the state of the times…indifferent • Set against what Stoppard is doing: actors being self-conscious, claiming to do nothing

23. Per 1 Class activity: acting and interpreting • p. 21-28 (5) – tragedians Day 2 (Grant, Benitez, Lynberg, Skala, Sit) • p. 35-41 (5) – Elsinore* Day 3 (Alvarez, Drucker, Pratt, Tales, Kelly) • p. 42-51 (3) – question game Day 3 (Bellotti, Garces, Malmborg • P. 70-75 (5) – to be or not to be* Day 3 (Chun, Gutierrez, Martin, Schnoor, Turner) • p. 83-90 (4) – you can’t act death* Day 4 (Schwietz, Ha, Clark, McHugh) • p. 119-126 (5) – the end* Day 4 (Blach, Leary, Stolle, Karinth, Pleva) • Reader’s Theatre: use scripts, work out blocking • Post-Performance: explain what scene means • In context of this play • In context of Hamlet, and connect to themes of Hamlet • Connect to “Prufrock” • Connect to Waiting for Godot and the Theatre of the Absurd • Analyze themes, motifs, symbols • Turn in 1-page outline of your analysis (typed, with your names on it) on Day 3 • Presentations must be divided evenly and last 5-10 minutes

24. Per. 5 Class activity: acting and interpreting • p. 21-28 (5) – tragedians Day 2 (Forchette, Boyer, Watkins, Pfahnl, Yniguez) • p. 35-41 (5) – Elsinore* Day 3 (Bindi, Cuff, Heerinckx, Otto, Shea) • p. 42-51 (3) – question game Day 3 (Murphy, Burke, Cooper) • P. 70-75 (5) – to be or not to be* Day 3 (Coon, Kupiec, Radu, Wangworawut, Ibarra) • p. 83-90 (4) – you can’t act death* Day 4 (Cayabyab, Gates, McGrath, Purwad.) • p. 119-126 (5) – the end* Day 4 (Schultz, Dillon, Guerrero, Rathjens, Nelson) • Reader’s Theatre: use scripts, work out blocking • Post-Performance: explain what scene means • In context of this play • In context of Hamlet, and connect to themes of Hamlet • Connect to “Prufrock” • Connect to Waiting for Godot and the Theatre of the Absurd • Analyze themes, motifs, symbols • Turn in 1-page outline of your analysis (typed, with your names on it) on Day 3 • Presentations must be divided evenly and last 5-10 minutes

25. Per. 6 Class activity: acting and interpreting • p. 21-28 (5) – tragedians* Day 3 (Granger, Sands, Blankly, Vogel, Stofer) • p. 35-41 (5) – Elsinore Day 3 (_) • p. 42-51 (3) – question game Day 3 (_) • P. 70-75 (5) – to be or not to be* Day 3 (Gundersen, Seidel, Mabutas, Surapeneni, Agrawal) • p. 83-90 (4) – you can’t act death* Day 3 (Lee, Cruz, Miller, Thomas) • p. 119-126 (5) – the end* Day 4 (Byrne, Castro, Ellis, ) • Reader’s Theatre: use scripts, work out blocking • Post-Performance: explain what scene means • In context of this play • In context of Hamlet, and connect to themes of Hamlet • Connect to “Prufrock” • Connect to Waiting for Godot and the Theatre of the Absurd • Analyze themes, motifs, symbols • Turn in 1-page outline of your analysis (typed, with your names on it) on Day 3 • Presentations must be divided evenly and last 5-10 minutes

26. R&G Presentation Rubric B: • Scene performed with some energy and feeling; somewhat aware of pacing /timing; decent staging • Analysis is somewhat thorough and most aspects of the assignment are presented. • Connections to themes in Hamlet, “Prufrock” and Godot/Theatre of the Absurd are fairly clear. • Analysis is supported by some evidence (direct quotations from the play) • Secondary sources identified and cited. • Themes, motifs, symbols are defined. C or lower: • Scene performed with no energy or feeling; no awareness of pacing; not staged properly • Analysis is superficial and/or incomplete. • Connections to themes in Hamlet, “Prufrock” and Godot/Theatre of the Absurd are not clear or are superficial. • Analysis not supported by evidence (no primary or secondary sources mentioned) • Secondary sources are not identified and cited. • Group doesn’t understand the definitions of theme, motif, and symbolism A: • Scene well rehearsed, performed with energy and feeling, cognizant of pacing/timing and staged with an awareness of your audience • Analysis is thorough and not factual…all aspects of the assignment are presented. • Connections to themes in Hamlet, “Prufrock” and Godot/Theatre of the Absurd are apparent. • Analysis is supported by evidence (direct quotations from the play) • Secondary sources are identified and cited. • Themes, motifs, symbols are defined properly.