April 2010
1 post
Dramaturgical Note
Corruption is our only hope— Bertolt Brecht When reading One Flea Spare, before you even get to the dialogue you will find this quote. I was intrigued by this insert when I first read it— especially in relationship to this play and what Naomi Wallace was ultimately trying to tell us. Corruption hardly seems like any source of hope. Indeed, if anything, it should conjure up the opposite/...
February 2010
23 posts
and so it begins...
When: February 25, 26, 2010 8:00 pm February 27, 2010 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Where: The Powerhouse Theater
I was genuinely moved by the open dress tonight, you guys. Thank you for allowing me to be your dramaturg. Most of all, thank you for being so receptive and engaging. It has been a wonderful experience.
Love, Nijae
Oranges and Lemons →
link to the “Bells of St. Clements” song, actual nursery rhyme/song.
to/ morse
Lust in his limbs and rust in his skin A bear...
oh, and also…
the pamphlet to a sort of Leveller manifesto/list of demands (shoulda given you this link first) http://www.bilderberg.org/land/leveller.htm
definition: leveller
a. One who advocates the abolition of social inequities. b. Leveller A member of an English radical political movement arising in the Parliamentarian forces of the 1640s and advocating universal male suffrage, equality before the law, parliamentary democracy, and religious tolerance.
Heres the link to a pamplet printed by the Levellers in 1649 in defense of mutineers (those who refuse to obey...
Naomi Wallace on sexuality, sensuality, our...
“Yeah, well, I’m thinking about how there’s so much that we do every day that’s about sensuality but it’s fulfilled in a very hollow way, like through buying, eating fast food, all this stuff, as though we’re constantly filling ourselves. We have a great spiritual need but it’s filled by things you can buy, things you can bet on. There...
where the danger lies
“man against the elements” ”man against the captain”
In the face of devastation, its less about banding together to fight the elements/ forces of nature and more about fighting amongst ourselves. The structures designed to keep us in order, break down. The people trying to survive just the same as we are, become our enemies. The bubonic plague places all of these...
Corrupting Women
Friedrich Nietzsche on Women:
“Translated into reality: the danger for artists, for geniuses…is woman: adoring women confront them with corruption. Hardly any of them have character enough not to be corrupted-or “redeemed”-when they find themselves treated like gods: soon they condescend to the level of the women.-Man is a coward, confronted with the Eternal-Feminine-and...
dialect resources
http://web.ku.edu/~idea/
http://accent.gmu.edu/
for, Kabe →
website featuring some 17th century drinking songs. possibly could influence songs in the play?
the descent
Stages/symptoms of Bubonic Plague (Yersinia Pestis)
1/Person experiences nausea, vomiting, body aches. The bacteria (Yersinia Pestis) attacks the lymph nodes, rapidly damaging the immune system. 2/Lymph nodes beginning to swell. Swellings were called Buboes (tender, enlarged lymph nodes under the armpits, in the neck, or in the groin, ranging in size from 1 to 10 cm) also… diarrhea,...
Question:
How is the sexuality in this play used as a demonstration of power/means towards liberation?
“The erotic is the measure between the beginning of our sense of self and the...”
– From, Audre Lorde The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
To, Darcy
“Anyone in constant contact with plague victims, such as doctors, nurses,...”
– http://www.britainexpress.com/History/plague.htm
courtesy of Bianca Pasternack
corruption is our ONLY hope
corruption: 1 a : impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle : depravity b : decay, decomposition c : inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery) d : a departure from the original or from what is pure or correct
I was intrigued by this quote when I first read it— especially in relationship to this play and what Naomi Wallace was ultimately trying to tell us....
a disease that discriminates
“all the wealthy people have left, and god has followed them… “
What role does religion and morality play in certain character’s perceptions of the disease? Throughout the play, we encounter both Snelgrave’s and Darcy futile attempts at justifying the spread of the disease while, at the same time, ensuring their own security.
“When the rich die, it’s...
the role of vermin
In the article The Influence of the Bubonic Plague found in the 1978 issue of Medical History, Alan D. Dyer describes the harrowing role rats played in the spreading of the plague. Rats were the main carriers of the Bubonic plague and there was certainly a direct correlation between the migrations of the rat population and the spread of the plague. Rats did not travel cross-country and as a...
Half Hitch →
Butterfly Knot →
Bowline Knot →
Lighterman's hitch →
Ring around the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes. Ashes. We all fall down…