I recently was cast as Dogsborough in Bertold Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Ui is the a very thinly veiled allegory about Hitler's rise to power and his taking of Austria, in which Brecht points out to the audience, "You could have stopped this, and you didn't." While Arturo Ui is the allegorical stand-in for Hitler, Dogsborough stands in for Paul von Hindenburg. Can't you see the resemblance? So today we're going to have a quick intro of Hindenburg! Paul von Hindenburg was born in 1847 and died in 1934, making him ancient, which is talked about a lot in the play. I am on old, old man, with very white hair. He was in the military, his first stint lasting 46 years, followed by retirement and then joining again in WWI. He was elected as president of Germany in 1925, at the age of 78. At the age of 84, he ran for reelection, even though he was not well, because he was believed to be the only candidate who had a chance at beating Hit...
Big news everyone, as of last week, my blog has been up and running for one year! It doesn't feel like a year, but apparently it is. I have done about 13 few posts than I aimed to do in a year, but you know, I'm still pretty proud of the 35 I did. So let's start with a quick recap of things that happened this year. 1. I started adultier adulting, including have an apartment for the first time! 2. I applied to grad school to study dramaturgy. 3. I took super cool classes on Shakespeare and August Wilson. 4. I went to InterVarsity Leadership Institute and had a life changing experience. 5. I celebrated my best friend's 21st birthday. 6. I learned that, no matter how organized I might be, I will still have days that go wrong. 7. I was rejected by Yale, but accepted by Ohio State. 8. I played Dogsborough in Arturo Ui and Kathy/Bev in Clybourne Park. 9. I made it through my senior year of college and graduated. 10. I became addicted to caffeine. 11. I stag...
Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright born in 1898. His experience of WWI was watching friends go off to die, giving him a strong distaste for war. He even begin to write anti-war essays in school, nearly getting him expelled. Not wishing to join the army, he enrolled in medical school, in order to be exempt from service, however he studied more theatre than medicine. He ended up being drafted anyway, but was placed at a medical post. He began playwrighting in 1918 and saw his writing as a chance to respond to other people's work and what he saw going on in the world around him. In 1922, he received an award for the most promising new playwright and was praised for his use of language and symbolism. What's different about Brecht's work is that he saw theatre more as a sport. He didn't want an audience to come in and be passively entertained for a few hours and go home. He wanted the audience to come in and take sides, to pick who they thought deserved to win and...
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