The masterworks

The Living Theater.

I am not in opposition to the post-dramatic interpretation of classic texts. On the contrary, I adore what has become the New Independent Theatre movement of our time – The Rabble with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Daniel Schlusser Ensemble with Menagerie, and Simon Stone with an adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector. All of those individuals and companies are successfully burning up the stage with hugely guttural responses to their world, skillfully done and appreciated by massive sell-out audiences.

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Konstantin Stanislavski performing in The Lower Depths.

Chekhov and The Moscow Art Theatre Ensemble, 1899.

Moscow Art Theatre, The Seagull premiere, December 17 1898, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

George Bernard Shaw

 Oscar Wilde

 Nikolai Gogol

August Strindberg

 

 

 

 

 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

 

 

 

 Henrik Ibsen

 

 

 

 

Goethe's Faust

Fundamentally I do not dislike difference, I love it. Yet I also love History, and all of the centuries of concentrated intelligence compressed into the masterworks of scripts for the theatre.

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Virginia Woolf, 1902.

To quote Virginia Woolf from her novelette A Room of One’s Own: “ … masterpieces are not single and solitary births, they are the outcome of many years of thinking by the body of the people so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice. For works of art continue each other in spite of our habit of judging them separately”. 

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Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theatre, 1904.

What I will highlight within the context of this project, is that great Writing, Acting and Directing for the stage can only be achieved through the study of the masters.

As I have worked with many new Australian Theatre practitioners, I constantly see the massive hole left in the quality of a work delivered by the inexperience of, and lack of information in, those artists that came before them. I, too, must eat from this plate I lay before you, as the older I get, the more I realise I do not know. 

— Peta Hanrahan

Complete devotion

A beautiful friend of mine said to me recently while we were lazily discussing a comrade’s latest directorial offering, that he didn’t see any reason, any value whatsoever in reproducing a great historical piece of writing, as written. He was completely devoted to the idea of adaptation and in the forward theatrical thinking of post-dramatisation and the deconstructionism of classicism.

Image (above) by Phil Maxwell

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I, on the other hand suggested to him, that nothing gave me greater joy than to experience great writing from previous centuries delivered as though it was fresh and seen for the first time; to indulge in the immediacy and if well-executed, the unfaded delicacies of the writer’s craft and wit.

Pictured above: The original stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando (far right). 1947.

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To unravel the secrets of the ‘Great Plays’, for me, as Director, is an artistic turn on. To learn through practice and research the intricacies of language – its rhythms and power. The skillful nature of birthing characters driven by turbulent passions, and plot and story woven through action and reaction. All intentional, all deliberate, all delivered, for us, as theatre directors, actors and audiences alike to devour and find our own reflection within the play’s refined construct.

Above: A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947. Starring (although not all pictured) Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden.

— Peta Hanrahan

Clifford Odet's Waiting for Lefty

The first play in the Elia Kazan: A Theatre Investigation is one of the most significant plays of the modern American theatre – Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty.

Set during the Great Depression, this unforgettable play deals with the exploitation of the working classes. First presented by the famous Group Theatre, Waiting for Lefty became a symbol of its time, and a beacon for many soon-to-be famous playwrights.

Director Peta Hanrahan has assembled a cast of Melbourne's finest professional actors to bring this volatile classic to life.

Waiting for Lefty will be introduced by Peta Hanrahan in the context of Elia Kazan's life and career as one of the most important theatre directors of our time, whose influence we will study over our three-month investigation of his life and work.

The performed reading will be followed by a Q&A session, moderated by Geoffrey Williams, The Sandpit's Artistic Director.

The Sandpit's 'pay what you can afford' policy will be in place for this event.

ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY
Sunday 31 August, 2014
3.00pm–6.00pm
The Sandpit, 148A Barkly Street, St Kilda 3182

CLIFFORD ODETS' WAITING FOR LEFTY is produced by arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd, on behalf of Dramatists Play Service, Inc New York.

Reservations: thesandpitstkilda@gmail.com

Welcome

Welcome to the Elia Kazan: A Theatre Investigation blog.

Over three months (August, September and October), award-winning Director Peta Hanrahan will be investigating the influence of Elia Kazan on the Theatre of the 20th century. Kazan is most well-known for his work as a film director, but his influence on Theatre was as, if not more, lasting and profound.

Elia Kazan remains one of the important figures in our theatre of the 20th Century, and over the coming weeks, this blog will be the place where theatre makers, actors, directors and our audiences, will be able to have direct input into our greater appreciation of this major theatrical undertaking.

The plays are (in order of their performance): Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty (Sunday 31 August); Arthur Miller's All My Sons (Sunday 28 September); and Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy (Sunday 26 October).

Please join the conversation.