Angels in America and Fires in the Mirror

Dear Students
I am updating the blog rather late as I had a nasty flu after New Years day. As you recall in our last session, we will be doing two sessions in one, starting at 5pm.

Tony Kusher's Angels in America will be our first play. See here the trailer of its TV adaptation.

You might find this except of an interwiew, where Kushner talks about his drive to write.

You will get to know more about the playwright and his views by watching this speech at a Commencement cerimony.

You can watch some excepts of this adaptation here:

Chapter I Part I
Chapter I Part II
Chapter I Part III
Chapter I Part IV
Chapter I Part V
Chapter I Part VI

Chapter II Part I
Chapter II Part II

As the piece is quite long, I will not publish it all here, but as you open each link you will see, on on right, a list of all the chapters and parts. You will need many hours to watch the whole series, so it is wise to save the rest for your january break.

The second part of our extended session will be dedicated to playwright and performer Anna Deavere Smith and her first docudrama Firres in the Mirror.

Watch this program to understand her methodology of documentry theatre writing and performing.

Finally this is ADS at Bates College talking about identity and cross-identity encounters, a centerpiece of her work.

M Buterfly

Dear Students

You will find below, in 11 parts, the film adaptation of David Henry Hwang's M. Buterfly. Before you may want to watch this video clip where David talks about his most recent play, Yellow face, and about his views on hyphenated drama.

you may also fund interesting the video clip included here, on the occasion of the celebration of Asian-American identity,

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

Part X

Part XI

David Mamet e Glengarry Glen Ross

Dear Students

This interview with Mamet is a good introduction to his views on what a play should do. watch it ans associate it with the language and rythm of Glengarry.

Now for Glengarry.

Here you can see a scene that Mamet wrote for the film adaptation of the play, where the man from head office explains the challenge- be first on the sales contest of the month because if you are last you are fired, We will discuss theb function of this new scene in class.

In this clip you have a summary of the film version with several short scenes.Richard Roma, interpreted by Al Pacino makes his speech to the client to whom he wants to sell property, James Lingk

In this clip Moss and Aronov are "talking" about the idea od stealing the leads and sell them to a competitor. Watch the way the language works here (it is repeated for effect in this cut.

Away from the film, see how actors and directors talk about the play and their roles.

And again an actor who plays Shelley Levene in the same production talks about his role.

Sam Shepard's True West

Uma boa psquisa da carreira multifacetada de Sam Shepard pode ser traçada neste site que lhe é dedicado.

Podem-no ver aqui a ler excerto do seu livro Motel Chronicles.

Aqui podem ver uma cena de True West, numa produção que não consegui identificar.

Cena 1

mas mais interessante é esta entrevista com John C. Reiley e Philip Seymour Hoffman que desempenharam os papeis dois dois irmãos numa das mais famosas produções da peça, em que trocavam de papeis ao longo da peça.

Identidades Afro-Americanas em palco: A Raisin in the Sun

O título da peça de hoje é extraido de um poema de Langston Hughes, um poeta Afro-Americano da Harlem Renaissance, nos anos 20.


What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?


Or fester like a sore--
And then run?


Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?


Podem ver Denzel Washington declamar um dos seus mais famosos poemas, I too Am America, no filme Great Debaters.

Antes de verem excertos de A raisin in the Sun, recomendo-vos que vejam o trailer do filme que David Susskind realizou a partir da peça homónima.


Desta vez temos acesso a todo o filme, 14 partes.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
Part XI
Part XII

Part XIII
Part XIV

Há também uma versão muito recente do filme, baseado na mesma peça.
Junto- vos o trailer desta versão

Aqui vai tamb+em a cena com o representante da Associação de Moradores

Edward Albee- Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf

Dear students

A good place to start with Edward Albee is this short Clip where he explains what his views on what drama should convey to to the audience.

You may also watch this talk Albee gave recently at Ermory University where he talks with a moderator on his creative process.

Here are some excerpts from the film version of the play.

Arriving home

Fix me a drink

Intro.with the guests

Humiliate the host

Getting angry, baby?

Houseboy

Get the Guests

Final fight

Arthur Miller e Death of a Salesman

Dear Students

In preparation for our discussion of Death of a Salesman, I recomend that you watch this interview with Arthur Miller. It comes in three parts and it begins with his prosecusion during the McCarthy years and the writing of The Crucible.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Next, I am including a film tribute on the ocasion of his death, in 2005.

Here he talks about Death of a Salesman~, in Part I

More about his career in Part II.

Now some scenes from a 1996 production of Death of a Salesman

Here is scene 12

Card playing scene/ time folds, the past in the present.

Scene 14 where Willy and Biff finally confront each other.

Enjoy