Theatre

[Fabilius]

Hello everyone, incidentally I just signed up and this is my first thread started.

I am student at the Icelandic Art University, and there I study Theatre. So it´s quite obvious why I´d start a thread on the subject.

Anyway, I put this under visual art and not under literature because the art of performance and the art of writing texts for performance is not the same. I searched for a thread on the same subject but apparently no thread exists on the subject according to the search machine.

Does objectivist theatre exist or has any of you ever heard of performances related to objectivism?

I know that Ayn Rand wrote one piece for theatre but I don´t know much more about it. Did the people who made it make anything similar after that one might ask oneself.

I´ll do a small search on wikipedia and google about it now and see what I find. Look forward to hearing from forum-members.

[khaight]

I know that Ayn Rand wrote one piece for theatre but I don´t know much more about it. Did the people who made it make anything similar after that one might ask oneself.

Rand wrote more than one play. The one you are probably thinking of is "Night of January 16th", which had a modestly successful run on Broadway. She wrote some other plays, most notably "Ideal" and "Think Twice". (These three plays have been published in a single collection, called simply Three Plays, available from the Ayn Rand Bookstore.) I believe there was a failed attempt to adapt her novelette Anthem to the stage, under the title "The Unconquered", and Nathaniel Branden was working on a theatrical adaptation/production of The Fountainhead at the time of the split in 1968.

The Quent Cordair gallery (run by Objectivists) held an "Arts Cruise" early this year which featured a stage production of the play "Monna Vanna", one of Rand's favorites. The play was also staged in Los Angeles; one of the nights was a benefit for ARI.

I don't know of any ongoing theater production organizations run or influenced by Objectivists, if that's what you're asking.

[Fabilius]

Rand wrote more than one play. The one you are probably thinking of is "Night of January 16th", which had a modestly successful run on Broadway. She wrote some other plays, most notably "Ideal" and "Think Twice". (These three plays have been published in a single collection, called simply Three Plays, available from the Ayn Rand Bookstore.) I believe there was a failed attempt to adapt her novelette Anthem to the stage, under the title "The Unconquered", and Nathaniel Branden was working on a theatrical adaptation/production of The Fountainhead at the time of the split in 1968.

The Quent Cordair gallery (run by Objectivists) held an "Arts Cruise" early this year which featured a stage production of the play "Monna Vanna", one of Rand's favorites. The play was also staged in Los Angeles; one of the nights was a benefit for ARI.

I don't know of any ongoing theater production organizations run or influenced by Objectivists, if that's what you're asking.

Thanks. Didn´t know she had written more plays.

[Dr. Radiaki]

Anthem has been adapted into a musical

[D'kian]

I highly recommend "Think Twice." Not only does it clearly show the evil of altruism, but it's a well-crafted, old fashioned murder mystery.

Another rather good play is Henrik Ibsen's "The Doll House." It's about a woman who decides to gain her independence.

Edited June 5, 2008 by D'kian

[intellectualammo]

Another rather good play is Henrik Ibsen's "The Doll House." It's about a woman who decides to gain her independence.

I am actually reading as many of Ibsen's plays that I can right now. Being a self-directed learner, I came upon a mention of Ibsen's play through one of the near dozen or so books I was reading last month that had to with my dear Emily Dickinson, and checked out nights ago, Four Great Plays by Henrik Ibsen. I read A Doll's House two or three nights ago, Ghosts last night, and right now An Enemy Of The People. I can't get enough of his plays! I just came home right now from checking out a huge book on his "complete major prose plays" and also a biography about the playwright.

Edited August 22, 2008 by intellectualammo

[intellectualammo]

I read A Doll's House two or three nights ago, Ghosts last night, and right now An Enemy Of The People.

I just stayed up past sunrise to finish reading An Enemy Of The People.

Dr. Stockmann and his daughter Petra are very affirmable characters for they are principled, uncompromising, dedicated to the truth no matter what the consequences, they do not sink into pragmatism, but rather rise to ever virtuous heights throughout the play; a play where one man takes a stand against the majority, against public opinion - because he knows that it is the right action to take, regardless of the majority's might - and is deemed an enemy of the people for it. His family supports him (thus when Mrs. Stockmann does it redeems her some) and I think this is now one of my favorite plays, and favorite play of his.

The figurative language used in Dr. Stockmann's dialogue I really did enjoy. There wasn't much of that in the other two plays that I had read of his, and that is what I am always looking for in literature. OK, enough talking about that play, I need to start reading the next one The Wild Duck. I read a little on the effect A Doll's House had with Nora closing the door, about the mention of venereal disease in Ghosts and it's effect on play goers, but I really wonder what effect An Enemy Of The People had on people back then. I'd love to see either A Doll's House or especially an An Enemy Of The People production.