Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Masters of the Modern: The Birth of Realistic Theatre
Speaker
Professor Emeritus Steven Adler
Coordinator
Michael Olsson
In this course, we will examine four playwrights who rejected the artifice of romanticism and melodrama and instead responded to rapidly shifting developments in science, psychology, and world events, catapulting theatre into the present with shattering results. Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Clifford Odets, and Arthur Miller created plays rich with profound insights into the human condition that still reverberate on world stages.
July 9: Henrik Ibsen: The Slam Heard Round the World
After great success in the mid-nineteenth century with historical-mythological dramas like The Vikings at Helgeland, the allegory of Brand, and the poetic surrealism of Peer Gynt, Ibsen turned his focus to contemporary Norwegian issues such as social hypocrisy, marriage, heredity, and the clash between the individual and society. We will discuss A Doll House, Ghosts, and The Wild Duck.
July 23: Anton Chekov: The Character’s the Thing
Compassionate physician, prolific short story author, and brilliant playwright, Chekhov ignored formulaic dramatic recipes and instead employed humor, empathy, and tragedy to focus on the ennui and absurdities of the middle-class Russian zeitgeist at the turn of the 20th century. His collaborations with Konstantin Stanislavski created a template for theatrical innovation that became the envy of theatres worldwide. We will discuss The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard.
August 6: Clifford Odets: Strike!
The groundbreaking Group Theatre, which came of age during the 1930s, infused American theatre with the urgent need to address societal ills born of the Great Depression. Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, and their homegrown playwright, Clifford Odets, forged a new method of acting and created dramatic works that explored the conflicts rending society apart. We will discuss Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, and Awake and Sing!
August 20: Arthur Miller: Attention Must Be Paid
American theatre emerged from the ashes of WWII with the goal of reexamining the human condition on the brink of a new world order. No playwright has approached Arthur Miller in laying bare the soul of post-war America as it confronted the damage wrought by modern American myths and wrestled with McCarthyism. We will discuss All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge.
NOTE: Theater World will do a scene from a play by a playwright that Professor Adler will discuss in his lecture. It’s an exciting opportunity for all Osher Theater World folks to work on some great plays of the 20th, and maybe 21st, century. Plays to be announced later.
July 9: Henrik Ibsen: The Slam Heard Round the World
After great success in the mid-nineteenth century with historical-mythological dramas like The Vikings at Helgeland, the allegory of Brand, and the poetic surrealism of Peer Gynt, Ibsen turned his focus to contemporary Norwegian issues such as social hypocrisy, marriage, heredity, and the clash between the individual and society. We will discuss A Doll House, Ghosts, and The Wild Duck.
July 23: Anton Chekov: The Character’s the Thing
Compassionate physician, prolific short story author, and brilliant playwright, Chekhov ignored formulaic dramatic recipes and instead employed humor, empathy, and tragedy to focus on the ennui and absurdities of the middle-class Russian zeitgeist at the turn of the 20th century. His collaborations with Konstantin Stanislavski created a template for theatrical innovation that became the envy of theatres worldwide. We will discuss The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard.
August 6: Clifford Odets: Strike!
The groundbreaking Group Theatre, which came of age during the 1930s, infused American theatre with the urgent need to address societal ills born of the Great Depression. Harold Clurman, Stella Adler, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, and their homegrown playwright, Clifford Odets, forged a new method of acting and created dramatic works that explored the conflicts rending society apart. We will discuss Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, and Awake and Sing!
August 20: Arthur Miller: Attention Must Be Paid
American theatre emerged from the ashes of WWII with the goal of reexamining the human condition on the brink of a new world order. No playwright has approached Arthur Miller in laying bare the soul of post-war America as it confronted the damage wrought by modern American myths and wrestled with McCarthyism. We will discuss All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge.
NOTE: Theater World will do a scene from a play by a playwright that Professor Adler will discuss in his lecture. It’s an exciting opportunity for all Osher Theater World folks to work on some great plays of the 20th, and maybe 21st, century. Plays to be announced later.
Speaker Bio
Presenter: STEVEN ADLER is professor emeritus of theatre and provost emeritus of Warren College at UCSD. He has stage managed productions on and off-Broadway, on national tours, and at La Jolla Playhouse. He is the author of Rough Magic: Making Theatre at the Royal Shakespeare Company and On Broadway: Art and Commerce on the Great White Way, as well as chapters on producing for Oxford University Press and Routledge Press.
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