Nelken

Choreographed By Pina Bausch (12/30/1982)

Nelken Homepage

"Nelken" translates into "Carnations" which is an appropriate name based on the set. The stage is covered with upright planted carnations, forcing the dancers to be careful where they step. It was first performed on December 30, 1982, in cooperation with Matthias Burkert and Hans Pop. The scenic design was by Peter Pabst, and Costume design by Marion Cito.

This was the fifth of her pieces credited to utilize a dramaturg. Raimund Hoghe was her dramaturg from 1979 to 1987, before becoming highly in demand as a dancer and performance artist. She has never worked with another Dramaturg.

The piece lasts two hours pieced into snippets of different imagery. Themes are the balance of power, fear and threat, and bounces between serious and absurd, through the use of childhood games, a signed song and the ever present threat of dancers walk guard dogs on patrol. At one point a guard asks a dancer dressed as a bunny for his passport, and only one he is satisfied, the bunny is allowed to continue hopping. The dancers not only talk on stage but talk about their roles as dancers and their performance, pushing away norms of performance.

Original performers include: Jacob Andersen, Anne Marie Benati, Bénédicte Billiet, Matthias Burkert, Lutz Förster, Kyomi Ichida, Urs Kaufmann, Ed Kortlandt, Anne Martin, Dominique Mercy, Jan Minarik, Nazareth Panadero, Helena Pikon, Hans Pop, Jean-Laurent Sasportes, Janusz Subicz, and Francis Viet.

"'Nelken': Songs the color of carnations, flowers like wounds" By Ramsay Burt; Ballet Dance Magazine
"Pina Bausch: Nelken, Sadler's Wells, London" By Zoe Anderson

Cafe Muller

Choreographed By Pina Bausch (05/20/1978)

Cafe Mueller Homepage

The piece Cafe Muller was first presented in 1978, and most recently presented in New York City, in February 2008. The piece is 30 minutes long and origional scenic and costume design were by Rolf Borzik. In this piece Pina "drew on childhood memories of the cafe her parents ran," creating a piece comprising of 6 individuals and their tortured interactions. The pieces are physically demanding and often involve the movement of the various pieces of furniature and doors crowded onto the stage. The orgional performers were Malou Airaudo, Pina Bausch, Meryl Tankard,Rolf Borzik, Dominique Mercy, and Jan Minarik. Music was composed by Henry Purcell.

Times Online: "Pina Bausch Cafe Muller" By David Dougill

Pina Bausch

Pina Bausch is a German contemporary choreographer and dancer. She was born on July 27, 1940 in Solingen, Germany which is located in the middle of Germany and is known for manufacturing blades, knives and swrods. It's name means "City of Blades."

She began choreographing pieces in 1968 and to this day her work is considered a national asset and performances are attended by the German Federal President and Prime Minster. She has won 65 awards world wide including several from the Us as well as an Order Of Merit First Class form the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

She is the leader of the Tanztheater style of dance based in the expressionist movement, along with her peer Susanne Linke. The style incorporates small amounts of dialogue as well as elaborate sets and costumes to create an often sureealsitic picture. At age 15, she began studying at the Folkwang Academy in Essen, studying the expressionist dance movement, before moving to New York and studying at Julliard five years later. She danced with the Donya Feuer Dance Company, New American Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company before moving back to Germany. There she danced with the Folkwang Ballett Company, and grew to become it's Artistic Director. In 1972, she became the Artistic Director of the Wuppertal Opera Ballet which was later renamed the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company. Pina Bausch has ben touring the world with this company ever since.

She was married to a costume and scenic designer by the name of Rolf Borzik, who passed away in 1980 and whom designed both the set and costumes on many of her pieces. Themes in her work are repition, and the interactions between males and females. She uses contemporary, classcal and even rock music to create a unique style. Her work has influenced dance worldwide and even inspired films such as the 2002 film by Pedro Almodovar entitled "Talk To Her."

She died this year (2009).









"Vollmond"/"Full Moon" - May 11, 2006





Pina Bausch's Website

"Bausch Meets Almodovar in New Film" By Susan Yung - danceinsider.coma

Suggested Reading List

Suggested By The Mark Twain House & Museum

Nook Farm: Mark Twain's Hartford Circle.
Andrews, Kenneth R.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1950

Mr. Clemens a Mark Twain: A Biography.
Kaplan, Justin.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966.

The Mark Twain Encyclopedia.
Lemaster, J. R. and James D. Wilson, ed.
New York: Garland Publishing, 1993.

Susy and Mark Twain Family Dialogues.
Salsbury, Edith, ed.
New York: Amereon House, 1965.

The Quotable Mark Twain: His Essential Aphorisms, Witticisms, & Concise Opinions
Rasmussen, R. Kent
Chicago: Contemporary Suggested Reading List, 1997.

Mark Twain A to Z.
Rasmussen, R. Kent.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Mark Twain's Letters 5 vols.
The Mark Twain Papers.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review.
Twain, Mark.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

Mark Twain's Immediate Family Tree

source: The Mark Twain House and Museum
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/twain_tree.pdf

Biography of Mark Twain aka Samuiel Clemens

Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain 1835-1910 As his literature provides insight into the past, the events of his personal life further demonstrate his role as an eyewitness to history. During his lifetime, Sam watched a young United States evolve from a nation torn apart by internal conflicts to one of international power. He experienced the country's vast growth and change - from westward expansion to industrialization, the end of slavery, advancements in technology, big government and foreign wars. And along the way, he often had something to say about the changes happening in America. Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, the sixth of seven children. At the age of four, Sam and his family moved to the small frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri on the banks of the Mississippi River. Missouri, at the time, was a fairly new state (it had gained statehood in 1820) and comprised part of the country's western border. It was also a slave state. Sam's father owned one slave and his uncle owned several. In fact, it was on his uncle's farm that Sam spent many boyhood summers playing in the slave quarters, listening to tall tales and the slave spirituals that he would enjoy throughout his life. In 1847, when Sam was 11, his father died. Shortly thereafter he left school, having completed the fifth grade, to work as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper. His job was to arrange the type for each of the newspaper's stories, allowing Sam to read the news of the world while completing his work. At 18, Sam headed east to New York City and Philadelphia where he worked on several different newspapers and found some success at writing articles. By 1857, he had returned home to embark on a new career as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, however, all traffic along the river came to a halt, as did Sam's pilot career. Inspired by the times, Sam joined a volunteer Confederate unit called the Marion Rangers, but he quit after just two weeks. In search of a new career, Sam headed west in July of 1861, at the invitation of his brother, Orion, who had just been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Lured by the infectious hope of striking it rich in Nevada's silver rush, Sam traveled across the open frontier from Missouri to Nevada by stagecoach. Along the journey Sam encountered Native American tribes for the first time as well as a variety of unique characters, mishaps and disappointments. These events would find a way into his short stories and books, particularly Roughing It. After failing as a silver prospector, Sam began writing for the Territorial Enterprise, a Virginia City, Nevada newspaper where he used, for the first time, his pen name, Mark Twain. Wanting a change by 1864, Sam headed for San Francisco where he continued to write for local papers. In 1865, Sam's first "big break" came with the publication of his short story, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" in papers across the country. A year later, Sam was hired by the Sacramento Union to visit and report on the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). His writings were so popular that, upon his return, he embarked upon his first lecture tour, which established him as a successful stage performer. Hired by the Alta California to continue his travel writing from the east, Sam arrived in New York City in 1867. He quickly signed up for a steamship tour of Europe and the Holy Land. His travel letters, full of vivid descriptions and tongue-in-cheek observations, met with such audience approval that they were later reworked into his first book, The Innocents Abroad in 1869. It was also on this trip that Clemens met his future brother-in-law, Charles Langdon. Langdon reportedly showed Sam a picture of his sister, Olivia, and Sam fell in love at first sight. After courting for two years, Sam Clemens and Olivia (Livy) Langdon were married in 1870. They settled in Buffalo, New York where Sam had become a partner, editor and writer for the daily newspaper the Buffalo Express. While living in Buffalo, their first child, Langdon Clemens was born. In an effort to be closer to his publisher, Sam moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut in 1871. For the first few years the Clemenses rented a house in the heart of Nook Farm, a residential area that was home to numerous writers, publishers and other prominent figures. In 1872, Sam's recollections and tall tales from his frontier adventures were published in his book, Roughing It. That same year the Clemenses' first daughter Susy was born, but their son, Langdon, died at the age of two from diphtheria. In 1873, Sam's focus turned toward social criticism. He and Hartford Courant publisher Charles Dudley Warner co-wrote The Gilded Age, a novel that attacked political corruption, big business and the American obsession with getting rich that seemed to dominate the era. Ironically, a year after its publication, the Clemenses' elaborate, $40,000. 19-room house on Farmington Avenue was completed. For the next 17 years (1874-1891), Sam, Livy and their three daughters (Clara was born in 1874 and Jean in 1880) lived in the Hartford home. During those years Sam completed some of his most famous works. Novels such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Life on the Mississippi (1883) captured both his Missouri memories and depictions of the American scene. Yet, his social commentary continued. The Prince and the Pauper (1881) explored class relations as does A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) which, going a step further, criticized oppression in general while examining the period's technology explosion. And, in perhaps his most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Clemens satirized the institution of slavery and railed against the failures of Reconstruction and the continued poor treatment of African-Americans overall. Huckleberry Finn was also the first book published by Sam's own publishing company, The Charles L. Webster Company. In an attempt to gain control over publication as well as to make substantial profits, Sam created the publishing company in 1884. A year later, he contracted with Ulysses S. Grant to publish Grant's memoirs; the two-volume set provided large royalties for Grant's widow and was a financial success for the publisher as well. Although Sam enjoyed financial success during his Hartford years, he continually made bad investments in new inventions, which eventually brought him to bankruptcy. In an effort to economize and pay back his debts, Sam and Livy moved their family to Europe in 1891. When his publishing company failed in 1894, Sam was forced to set out on a worldwide lecture tour to earn money. In 1896, tragedy struck when Susy Clemens, at the age of 24, died from meningitis while on a visit to the Hartford home. Unable to return to the place of her death, the Clemenses never returned to Hartford to live. From 1891 until 1900, Sam and his family traveled throughout the world. During those years, Sam witnessed the increasing exploitation of weaker governments by European powers, which he described in his book, Following the Equator (1897). The Boer War in South Africa and the Boxer Rebellion in China fueled his growing anger toward imperialistic countries and their actions. With the Spanish-American and Philippine War in 1898, Sam's wrath was redirected toward the American government. When he returned to the United States in 1900, his finances restored, Sam readily declared himself an anti-imperialist and, from 1901 until his death, served as the vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League. In these later years, Sam's writings turned dark. They began to focus on human greed, cruelty and questioned the humanity of the human race. His public appearances followed suit and included a harshly sardonic public introduction of Winston Churchill in 1900. Even though Sam's lecture tour had managed to get him out of debt, his anti-government writings and speeches threatened his livelihood once again. Labeled by some as a traitor, several of Sam's works were never published during his lifetime either because magazines would not accept them or because of a personal fear that his marketable reputation would be ruined. In 1903, after living in New York City for three years, Livy became ill and Sam and his wife returned to Italy where she died a year later. After her death, Sam lived in New York until 1908 when he moved into his last house, "Stormfield", in Redding, Connecticut. In 1909, his middle daughter Clara was married. In the same year Jean, the youngest daughter, died from an epileptic seizure. Four months later on April 21, 1910, Sam Clemens died at the age of 74. Like any good journalist, Sam Clemens/Mark Twain spent his life observing and reporting on his surroundings. In his writings he provided images of the romantic, the real, the strengths and weaknesses of a rapidly changing world. By examining his life and his works, we can read into the past - piecing together various events of the era and the responses to them. We can delve into the American mindset of the late nineteenth century and make our own observations of history, discover new connections, create new inferences and gain better insights into the time period and the people who lived in it. As Sam once wrote, "Supposing is good, but finding out is better." From the Mark Twain House and Museum http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml

Claymation Adventures

Clips from the 1985 claymation movie entitled "The Adventures of Mark Twain.

The first clip is very creepy, and the entire production was banned from TV.

Read 4 Free

Hello!

These works have been downloaded from sites across the web. I have only been able to set them up for download, however if you cannot download them and need the url from whihc I found them please contact me and I will send you the site information as soon as possible.

Thanks!
marie@mariecoffey.com


*The copyright laws on all works have expired.

"Modern Man" Performed by George Carlin

Video from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on November 10, 2008, a 90-minute presentation of the Mark Twain Prize honoring George Carlin.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog dedicated to the SDSU Theatre Departments involvement in Mark Twain's Centenary Tribute. If you haven't heard, San Diego State University is participating in a year long event dedicated to Mark Twain and all of his accomplishments. The SDSU Theatre and Library Departments will be hosting a play written by Margaret Larlham for the Theatre of Youth. The production will be presented as part of the annual Theatre of the World Festival in 2010.

If you are new to Margaret's process then you may not know that the play has yet to be written. Over the coming months we will be exploring what it was to live in the times of Mark Twain, both within and without his adventurous stories. Only once we have discovered the beauty and truth of the subject, will Margaret sit down and write a story which will be presented for the students, adults and children alike throughout San Diego.

Throughout this process please feel free to follow the blog, leave comments with your views on the subject and email me any info you think is missing or want to learn more about at marie@mariecoffey.com

The play will be performed March 12, 13, 18 at 8pm; March 17, 19 at 10am; March 20 at 4pm; March 14, 21 at 2pm.