When Mary Zimmerman adapts a play from an ancient text her directing process and the way she engages with text are woven together, both dependent on the other. She writes these adaptations from nondramatic text, writing each evening while working through the pre-production rehearsals and improvisations during the day with the cast. The rehearsal process influences the text, and the text enriches the rehearsal process, so that one cannot exist without the other. Every rehearsal is structured the same but each production is unique because as Zimmerman states in “The Archaeology of Performance”, she is always “open to the possibilities”. The piece is open to everything happening in the world and to the people involved, so the possibilities are honest and endless.
Zimmerman refers to it as ‘devising a performance’ not directing, and “the piece is made and shaped by the digging itself: it is both unpredictable and utterly preordained.” It is also fast, she always has an opening date prior to starting the four week rehearsal process before any words are typed. The speed – consider four weeks of rehearsal when you do not have a text – and the ‘digging’ method create a personal workspace for both the actors and Zimmerman. Her ‘non-hierarchical’ directorial style, as noted by Andrea Nouryeh in "Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses: Storytelling Theater as Feminist Process.", generates an ensemble work process that embraces personal investment. It is this personal investment that frees the ensemble’s “unconscious and conscious” impulses that lay unpredictable and preordained moments on the stage.
It is also important to note that Zimmerman has never done a workshop or written a draft for any of her plays. Doing this wou...
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...January 2011], available at
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_zimmerman.html
"NOW with Bill Moyers – Transcript - Bill Moyers Interviews Mary Zimmerman – PBS”, op. cit.
Carl Gustav Jung, The archetypes and the collective unconscious, Translated by R.F.C. Hull. 9th ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981)
"NOW with Bill Moyers – Transcript - Bill Moyers Interviews Mary Zimmerman – PBS”, op. cit.
Bruno Bettelheim, op. cit. 29
Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, op. cit. 128-9
Baucis and Philemon ask that they die together. Zimmerman’s image was of their arms wound in each other’s as they pushed out of the water to become two trees.
Ceyx, after drowning at sea, comes back to Alcyone, and they transform into great sea birds and fly out over the sea.
Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, op. cit. 107
Mary Zimmerman, op. cit. 35
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Murrow held on October 25, 1958 followed with a speech from him on the stage. The movie flashbacks to Murrow’s life as a journalist and the efforts made in his television program, See It Now. It provided insight into the issues that occurred inside the CBS News building such as the decisions that Murrow bypassed by his Chief, William S. Paley. In addition, the screen paused to provide information that read: “Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism. Senator Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred ‘card-carrying’ communists had infiltrated the United States government. Few in the press were willing to stand up against McCarthy for fear they would be targets (SITE MOVIE).” This showed background information how the fear of communism was a big issue in the 1940’s and 1950’s. In addition, the movie included many visual references to the issue of communism from previous recordings that show how McCarthy acts and what he says about
up in what is happening. In Williams article he argues how Bill O’Reilly fails to
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As technology has developed over the years, society has become extremely reliant and addicted to the media. According to A.C. Nielsen Co., a global information and measurement firm, the average American youth watches twenty eight hours of television per week. Within a sixty-five year timeframe an individual will have spent a total of nine years watching TV (Herr). Both of these sects contribute millions of jobs providing individuals with ample opportunities, a gateway to success. It certainly provided the break for one African American woman to attain a status she could have only dreamt of as a child growing up in an unstable, emotionally debilitating, and unpromising environment. Oprah Winfrey is arguably one of the most influential women in modern times. She sprang up from seemingly nowhere becoming a media mogul, named most influential and wealthiest woman numerous years in a row by both Forbes and The Time. Oprah was brought to fame for her critically acclaimed talk show, which swiftly boosted her from rags to riches, and over the years resulted in her crowning as the “Queen of Talk.” Oprah Gail Winfrey, named the first African American female billionaire, was nominated for an academy award in her performance in The Color Purple, and through hard work and persistence forged her way into a position as CEO of her own television network and production company. Her self-entitled talk show, which would become the highest rated of its kind, served as a pioneer for many TV shows that emerged in the late 1980’s following the premiered of her show on daytime television. “I’m Oprah Winfrey, and welcome to the very first national Oprah Winfrey Show!” she exclaimed as the studio audience cheered enthusiastically (Brown). However, what pe...
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In 1960 American Journalist and Politician, Clare Boothe Luce delivered a speech to Journalists at the Women's National Press CLub, criticizing the American Press in favor of public demand for sensational stories. Luce prepares her audience for her message through the use of a critical tone.
"Black Feminism and Media Criticism: The Women of Brewster Place." Screen 32.3 (1991): 286-302. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
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