Play Guide A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / /
1
Oct 12 – Nov 4, 2018
2
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
TA B L E O F
CONTENTS P L AY G U I D E A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S :
D E S I G N E D BY:
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Emily Holt emilyfightscrime.com
Joanie Schultz Chelsea M. Warren Sam Henderson Savannah Elayyach
E D I T E D BY:
Kelsey Leigh Ervi Debbie Ruegsegger Joanie Schultz
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N V I S I T WAT E RT OW E RT H E AT R E .O RG O R C A L L 972 . 4 5 0. 62 32
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / /
01. 02.
T H E P L AY W R I G H T T H E FAT H E R O F R E A L I S M
4
ADAPTING IBSEN
6
T H E P L AY D R AW I N G I N S P I R AT I O N
8
W O M E N ’ S R I G H T S I N 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y N O R WAY
9
R E A C T I O N S TO T H E P L AY
03. 04.
10
OUR PRODUCTION M E E T T H E C AST
11
G E T TO K N O W TO R VA L D
12
M E E T T H E C R E AT I V E T E A M
13
D E S I G N I N G A D O L L’ S H O U S E
14
PAY I N G I T F O R WA R D
16
ADDITIONAL UNDERSTANDING
17
3
4 / / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
The Father of Realism Courtesy of UNIVERSITY L I B R A R Y, O S L O
Henrik Johan Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828, in the small port town of Skien, Norway. He was the child of a merchant family and suffered hardships in his youth when his father had to give up the family business in 1835. At the age of 15, Ibsen left home to become the apprentice to a pharmacist and began writing plays. In 1850, Ibsen moved to Christiania (now called Oslo, the capital city of Norway) to study medicine at the University, but he did not pass the entrance exam. Instead, he continued to write and in 1850 he published his first play, Catiline, under the pseudonym Brynjolf Bjarme. In 1851, Ibsen moved to Bergen, Norway to become an assistant at the Norske Theater. He wrote and staged plays for the theatre, mostly based on Scandinavian myths called sagas. He moved back to Christiania in 1857 to become the artistic director of the Norwegian Theatre and married Suzannah Thoreson, with whom he had one son, named Sigurd. The Norwegian Theatre went bankrupt in 1862, and in 1864, dissatisfied with Norwegian politics and his lack of success as a writer, Ibsen moved his family to Italy.
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / / 5
1850
1857
1873
1884
1894
Catiline
The Vikings at Helgeland
Emperor and Galilean
The Wild Duck
Little Eyolf
1862
1877
1886
1896
Love’s Comedy
Pillars of Society
Rosmersholm
John Gabriel Borkman
1879
1888
1899
A Doll’s House
The Lady from the Sea
When We Dead Awaken
1881
1890
Ghosts
Hedda Gabler
1882
1892
An Enemy of the People
The Master Builder
The Burial Mound
1852 St. John’s Eve
The Pretenders
1854
1865
Lady Inger of Oestraat
Brand
1855
1867
The Feast at Solhaug
Peer Gynt
1856
1869
Olaf Liljekrans
The League of Youth
In 1865, he published what is considered his first major work, Brand. Ironically, this play was a great Norwegian success and earned him a state stipend and financial stability. His success continued with Peer Gynt, a fantastical verse drama. One reason the work became so popular was Ibsen’s use of Norwegian fairy tales as inspiration for the story. However, even in this unrealistic drama, Ibsen had already begun to incorporate social satire into his work by creating a main character who is completely selfish and unconcerned about the sacrifices others make to accommodate him. In 1868, Ibsen and his family moved to Germany, where they lived for many years while Ibsen wrote the bulk of his major works. He was greatly influenced by his mother-inlaw, Magdalene Thoreson, who was a leader of the feminist movement in Norway. Many of his plays contain criticisms of marriage, portraying dominant, complex female characters that are trapped in unhappy situations by the constraints of strict Victorian traditions. Plays in this vein include A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881) and Hedda Gabler (1890). Following public outcry against A Doll’s House and Ghosts, Ibsen wrote An Enemy of the People in 1882.
Ibsen’s later plays represented a transition from his realistic social dramas to more symbolic and psychological dramas. These plays include The Wild Duck (1884), Rosmersholm (1886) and The Lady from the Sea (1888). As Ibsen’s successful dramatic career continued, he became a celebrated figure in Europe. A long black coat and white muttonchops became Ibsen’s signature and a frequent subject of caricatures. For his 70th birthday in 1898, there were large-scale celebrations in Christiania, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. In 1900, Ibsen suffered his first stroke, which ended his writing career. He died on May 23, 1906 in Christiania. Today, Ibsen is known as the “Father of Modern Drama.”
Ibsen’s plays pioneered realistic dialogue and characters with psychological depth on the stage, and gave birth to the modern movement in drama. Ibsen is also heralded as the greatest Norwegian author of all time, and he is considered the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Ibsen’s depth of character, naturalistic dialogue, and use of subtext changed the way modern drama is produced, and his social themes still have relevance when his plays are produced today.
6 / / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
P H O T O : E VA N M I C H A E L W O O D S
Adapting Ibsen An interview with the adapter, J O A N I E S C H U LT Z
Tell us a little about A Doll’s House: What did audiences think when it came out, and what makes it a play people still read and see today?
A Doll’s House was a revolutionary play in 1879 and remains one of the most important plays in modern theater history. Henrik Ibsen wrote the play during the advent of realism, an artistic movement that solidified itself in novels and paintings before it found root in theatre, with Ibsen and his contemporaries writing new works that captured middle class lives as they simultaneously critiqued them. Never before did people go to the theatre and see themselves reflected back the way Ibsen did with this play and his following major plays: Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, and The Wild Duck. A Doll’s House brought the audience into the living room of a middle class family that might look much like their own, and then confronted them with questions about how they live those lives. This is what is essential in the play that I think is so important to try to get an essence of now: that the Helmer’s lives are ordinary, that there isn’t anything particularly unusual about this family. Nora and Torvald have a typical life and relationship for a middleclass 19th century Norwegian family. And it is precisely this fact that made the questioning and upending of their lives and relationship so unnerving. Nora’s actions have been interrogated by society since the play was first performed. In fact, for the second ever production of this play, Ibsen wrote an alternative ending for an actress who refused to perform it as written,
swearing that no woman would do what Nora does. It’s the question of whether or not Nora does the right thing that remains so potent, and I think that the reason this play has withstood the test of time is that Ibsen offers more questions than answers. Why did you decide to adapt this play?
I’ve always loved Ibsen. I love the unity of time, the sharpness of plot, the messy twists and turns his characters make as they try to find their humanity in a very oppressive society. I’ve seen A Doll’s House in many productions, from traditional productions, to modern adaptations, to the post-modern version by Mabou Mines with giantess women and diminutive men. To be honest, none of them resonated with me, I just couldn’t see how this was a viable drama for our contemporary moment. But then I became a Lecturer at the University of Chicago for a few years, and taught a class that I called Staging Feminism. I was curious about pairing plays with theoretical feminist texts, discussing them with smart young people, and creating something new out of them. The second week of the quarter I had them read chapters from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. All three years that I taught that class the male students responded with a lot of empathy for Torvald, who I’d often seen depicted as an oppressor. But what these young men explained to me was that they felt a lot of pressure from
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / / 7
their families to get good jobs and provide for a family because of their gender. Our discussions started to make me look at the play differently, and consider it as a more complex and viable piece of drama than I’d ever considered it before. So, sparked by the success of Lucas Hnath’s new play A Doll’s House, Part 2, I returned to A Doll’s House and decided that I had something to share with this play, and that the time was now. I decided that in my version this play wouldn’t be a simple mouthpiece for women’s rights as I’d seen it so often (although, don’t get me wrong, I am for women’s rights), but that I’d try to restore the play to the complexity that I believe Ibsen intended.
when that thing is prescribed to us by society. I think this is what Ibsen was truly getting at in this play. Each character is stuck in some way, hindered by the conditioning and demands of the society they live in. I hope this new version highlights that for the audience, and helps us all reflect on our own complexity.
How have you approached writing this adaptation?
I’ve very much approached this adaptation like a director, by which I mean that I first analyzed the text and decided what I think it’s about, and then I shaped the focus towards that. Leading with my point of view has created a clear road map as I’ve edited the script. Some of the adaptation has come directly from my research, for instance I’ve removed some moments in which Torvald is, from a modern perspective, almost abusive to Nora, which were late additions by Ibsen to make him less likable to his audience. In some places I’ve tried to do what I think Ibsen would do differently now, like having Nora just sit silently rather than speak all of her thoughts. Mostly, I’ve tried to create something that people in our modern age can identify with, so that these characters don’t seem so far-fetched and fictional as I have often felt, but that their experiences resonate with our audience today. Ibsen wrote this play for his audience, an audience that would more easily empathize with Torvald than Nora, so as drafts of the play went on he turned up the volume on Torvald’s self-centered behaviors, to “give Nora a fighting chance.” I’ve altered some of that to give Torvald a fighting chance. I have made some of the language a little more straight-forward and relatable for a modern audience, and I’ve tried to amplify the complexity of what all of the characters are going through. But most notably, I’ve attempted to distill the text down to one sitting (we will see by opening if this is possible!) so that we can feel the impact of how quickly these three days unfold and reach their surprising conclusion. I’ve also added a little directorial twist to the ending, which I am more excited about than anything I’ve done in a long time! What do you hope audiences will take away from this production?
The thing that has become apparent to me as I’ve worked on the play is that it isn’t just about gender roles, it’s about roles we take on in the world. We all have them: teacher, mother, wife, artistic director, and so on. But if we are only those roles, if that becomes our entire identity, we lose our humanity. We cease to be complex, thinking human beings if we only dedicate ourselves to the duty of being one thing, especially
“I thank you for the toast, but must disclaim the honor of having consciously worked for the women’s rights movement… True enough, it is desirable to solve the woman problem, along with all the others; but that has not been the whole purpose. My task has been the description of humanity” – HENRIK IBSEN, at the banquet for the Norwegian’s Women’s Right’s League.
8 / / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Drawing Inspiration Courtesy of D O N M A R WA R E H O U S E
Henrik Ibsen was inspired to write A Doll’s House as a direct result of the traumatic events in the life of the successful Norwegian writer, Laura Petersen (1849-1932). In 1871, eight years prior to writing his play, Ibsen got to know Laura when she sent him a sequel she had written to his play Brand. He called her his ‘skylark,’ the pet name given to Nora in the original script. Laura’s husband contracted tuberculosis and was advised by his doctor to travel to a warmer climate to recover his health. She secretly arranged a loan to finance the trip. When repayment of the loan was demanded in 1878, she did not have the money and forged a check. The forgery was discovered and the bank refused payment. It was at this point that she gave her husband a full account of her actions. Despite the fact that her motive had been to save his life, he treated her like a criminal, telling her she was not fit to bring up their children and committing her to a public asylum. When she was discharged, she begged her husband to take her back, for the children’s sake, which he begrudgingly agreed to do.
At the end of 1878, Ibsen recorded some Notes for a Modern Tragedy, excerpts from which are printed below:
There are two kinds of moral laws, two kinds of conscience, one for men and one, quite different, for women. They don’t understand each other; but in practical life, woman is judged by masculine law, as though she weren’t a woman but a man. The wife in the play ends up having no idea what is right and what is wrong; natural feelings on the one hand and belief in authority on the other lead her to utter distraction. She has committed forgery, which is her pride; for she has done it out of love for her husband, to save his life. But this husband of hers takes his standpoint, conventionally honorable, on the side of the law, and sees the situation with male eyes. By placing these ideas at the heart of his play, Ibsen was contributing to the topical debate about women’s positioning in society which was taking place in Norway at the time; their roles were restricted to those of wife, mother,
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / / 9
and sexual partner. However, in his native Norway, Ibsen’s contribution to this debate in A Doll’s House was overwhelmingly seen as an outrage with his seminal notion that a woman could walk out on her husband and children.
Women’s Rights in
Norway
This fury followed the play to England ten years later, when it received its first production at the Novelty Theatre in London, on June 7, 1889, with Janet A. Church making theatrical and social history as Britain’s first Nora. It is difficult today to conceive of the shock and outrage caused in Victorian England by A Doll’s House. In this play Ibsen deliberately challenged all the cozy assumptions of Victorian England about marital relationships, sexual politics, and patriarchal control.
Courtesy of E N OT E S.C O M
LAU RA P E T E R S E N
In 1888, married women in Norway were finally given control over their own money, but the Norway of Ibsen's play predates this change and provides a more restrictive environment for women such as Nora Helmer. In 1879, a wife was not legally permitted to borrow money without her husband's consent, so Nora must resort to deception to borrow the money she so desperately needs. Ibsen always denied that he believed in women's rights, stating instead that he believed in human rights.
J A N E T A . C H U R C H as Nora in A Doll’s House
The issue of women's rights was already a force in Norway several years before Ibsen focused on the issue, and women had been the force behind several changes. Norway was a newly liberated country in the nineteenth century, having been freed from Danish control in 1814; therefore, it is understandable those issues involving freedom—both political and personal freedom— were important in the minds of Norwegians. Poverty had already forced women into the workplace early in the nineteenth century, and the Norwegian government had passed laws protecting and governing women's employment nearly five decades before Ibsen's play. By the middle of the century, women were granted the same legal protection as that provided to male children. Women were permitted inheritance rights and were to be successful in petitioning
1 0 / / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
for the right to a university education only three years after the first performance of A Doll's House. But many of the protections provided to women were aimed at the lower economic classes. Employment opportunities for women were limited to low-paying domestic jobs, teaching, or clerical work. Middle-class women, such as Nora, noticed few of these new advantages.
It was the institution of marriage itself that restricted the freedom of middleclass women. Although divorce was available and inexpensive, it was still socially stigmatized and available only if both partners agreed. The play's ending makes clear that Torvald would object to divorce, so Nora's alienation from society would be even greater. There was no organized feminist movement operating in Norway in 1879. Thus Nora's exodus at the play's conclusion is a particularly brave and dangerous act. There was no army of feminist revolutionaries to protect and guide her; she was completely alone in trying to establish a new life for herself.
Reactions to the Play
“Finally an event at The Royal Theatre, and an event of the first class! This play touches the lives of thousands of families; oh yes there are thousands of such doll-homes, where the husband treats his wife as a child he amuses himself with, and so that is what the wives become… Who, after seeing this play, has the courage to speak scornfully about run-away wives? Is there anyone who does not feel that it is this young and delightful young woman’s duty, her inescapable duty, to leave this gentleman, this husband, who slowly sacrifices her on the altar of his egotism, and who fails to understand her value as a human being?” – S O C I A L D E M O K R AT E N , 1 8 7 9
“I am thinking about the fact that it is Nora, that is, the woman, who acts as a spokesman both when it comes to the dissolution of the marriage and to entrusting the children she herself has borne to the care of a nanny. There is something indescribably unnatural in this, and therefore, in the final instance, artificial. Even if one can accept that there possibly may exist a woman who has done such a thing, one still feels dissatisfied to the utmost degree when it appears to be something that perhaps also has the sympathy of the author. If a woman, warped by a certain contemporary school of thought, can persuade herself that she is protecting her independence, freedom and honour by behaving à la a trumpet of doom over a dispirited husband and letting him sink down into his well-deserved ruin, there is no need for it in the female nature as such.” – E R I K V U L LU M , 1 879
“Ibsen’s Nora is not just a woman arguing for female liberation; she is much more. She embodies the comedy as well as the tragedy of modern life.” – J OA N T E M P L E TO N
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / / 1 1
Meet the
CAST KATE PAULSEN
C L AY W H E E L E R
NORA HELMER
N I L S K R O G S TA D
Last seen at WTT in
Last seen at WTT in
Pride and Prejudice
Spring Awakening
SAM HENDERSON
BRIAN MATHIS
T O R VA L D H E L M E R
DR. RANK
WTT Debut
Last seen at WTT in Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash
G L O R I A B E N AV I D E S
IVY OPDYKE
KRISTINE LINDE
ANNE-MARIE
Last seen at WTT in
WTT Debut
Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue
12
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Get to Know Torvald AN INTERVIEW WITH
Sam Henderson
Tell us a little bit about Torvald:
Torvald was born in the Mid-1800s and was raised in a very religious and agrarian household. However, he always wanted to work with his mind, instead of his hands, and so he dedicated his life to practicing law. He cares deeply about his reputation as an upright and righteous individual and desires to complete or evaluate any task with as much integrity as possible. His duty as a provider and a protector is his greatest honor and that which he values above all else.
How have you prepared for this role?
I mainly prepared for this role by memorizing my lines. Eventually, I will learn where to stand. Other than that, I've indulged in some momentary deep dives into 19th century Norwegian banking and society.
Tell us about working on this new adaptation. What are you excited about? What’s challenging about this play?
I was ecstatic and intimated by the prospect of working on this new adaption, if for no other reason than our director’s goal of doing it in 90 minutes. I'm also fascinated by how old things remain relevant, especially if it's art - that's the good news and bad news about this play. So, the greatest challenge will be to withhold any tendency to want to be overly self-aware, while remaining fastidiously committed to the stakes and the circumstances of the characters - they should be allowed to speak for themselves.
P H O T O : E VA N M I C H A E L W O O D S
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / / 1 3
Meet the Creative Team
What’s your favorite line from the play? DIRECTOR
“IT IS A THING MILLIONS OF WOMEN DO EVERY DAY.”
Joanie Schultz A S S I S TA N T D I R E C T O R
Debbie Ruegsegger SCENIC DESIGNER
Chelsea M. Warren COSTUME DESIGNERS
Melissa Panzarello Amy Poe LIGHTING DESIGNER
Driscoll Otto SOUND DESIGNER
Brian McDonald PROPERTIES DESIGNER
Hillary Collazo Abbott S TA G E M A N A G E R
Caron Grant A S S I S TA N T S TA G E M A N A G E R
Hillary Collazo Abbott
14
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Designing A Doll’s House Scenic design by C H E L S E A M . WA R R E N P R E V I O U S D E S I G N S AT W T T : H A N D T O G O D (COSTUME/PUPPET), PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (SCENIC)
What drew you to the project?
Often in my career I happily design shows that are contemporary or new works. I rarely get offered a classic. Designing a classic presents the opportunity to grapple with societal conversations that relate to audiences across culture and time.
What’s been the most challenging part of this design?
(Spoiler alert: maybe read this answer after experiencing the show.) My major point of departure is routed in this exciting new adaptation. What initially struck me in Joanie Schultz’s adaptation is how contemporary the story reads, while still retaining the essence of the Victorian era. Additionally, the most exciting challenge was Joanie’s request to have the show end with Nora and her decision to leave Torvald. Whereas traditionally the audience ends the journey with Torvald grappling with the loss of Nora, in our production we end with Nora and her first step into a new future. What an exciting task for the scenic designer!
A large part of the scenic design is a painted drop. Sorting out how to get such a large back drop painted has been a major task. With my background in scenic painting, I knew I wanted to be involved in the process of the back drop being painted. We determined that the best option was to have the hanging part of the drop painted where I live in Minneapolis. Additionally, as an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, we were thankfully able to use their large paint space for free. Although much effort went into the drop’s planning, it was so rewarding getting to be in direct contact with the painting process.
Where did you draw inspiration from for this design?
What do you hope our audience learns
What was the starting point of your design process for A Doll’s House?
I drew inspiration initially from the changes Joanie Schultz made in her adaptation, considering what was unique about this particular production. Additional inspiration was drawn from: • Norwegian architecture and paintings from the Victorian time period • The furniture photo shoots from Anthropologie – often their furniture has a Victorian flare and reminds me of the romanticism of Nora’s household • Tapestries and wallpaper from the time period
about Nora and Torvald’s marriage through your design?
My scenic design focuses on the poetic veil which Nora and Torvald have draped upon their marriage. Once that veil comes down, they both have to grapple with the reality of their situation and the fact that they are strangers to each other. Additionally, what was once a romantic, intimate, and private space transforms into an external, harsh, weathered, and unknown space.
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / /
STY L E
PAG E
&
SC E NI C
M OD E L
15
16
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
Paying It Forward Information and photos courtesy of G I R L S I N C . O F M E T R O P O L I TA N D A L L A S
A D O L L’ S H O U S E “ PAY I T F O R WA R D W I T H PAY W H AT Y O U C A N ” B E N E F I C I A R Y
Of Metropolitan Dallas Girls Inc. was founded in 1864 to serve girls and young women who were experiencing upheaval in the aftermath of the Civil War. Across the decades, we adapted to meet the specific environmental challenges facing girls and young women, always working in partnership with schools and communities, and guided by our founders’ fundamental belief in the inherent potential of each girl. Woven into those early girls’ clubs are the same core values of Girls Inc. today: the importance of creating a safe gathering place for girls to learn and to share in a sisterhood, and a strong premise that each girl can develop her own capacities, self- confidence, and grow up healthy, educated, and independent. As a nonprofit created in 1968, Girls Inc. Dallas was originally established as Girls Club of Dallas by a group of civic minded women as a response to the needs of low-income, inner city girls in the community. Since then, Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas has provided high quality afterschool and summer programs for girls ages six to 18 from low-income communities in Dallas County. Learn more at www.girlsincdallas.org. Or make a donation at www.girlsincdallas.org/donate.
A D O L L’ S H O U S E / / G U I D E / /
Additional Understanding PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHT A D O L L’ S H O U S E , PA R T 2
by Lucas Hnath Presented by Stage West in Fort Worth
O C TO B E R 2 5 – N OV E M B E R 2 5, 2 0 1 8
For tickets or more information, visit www.stagewest.org or call 817-784-9378.
A Doll’s House On Screen A D O L L’ S H O U S E (1973) Starring Jane Fonda and David Warner, directed by Joseph Losey A D O L L’ S H O U S E (1973) Starring Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins, directed by Patrick Garland S A R A (1993) Iranian film inspired from A Doll’s House A MODERNIZED FILM VERSION
of A Doll’s House is scheduled to premiere in 2019.
17
18
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
A Doll’s House On Screen A L I V E - T E L E V I S I O N A D A P TAT I O N
was broadcast in 1959 Starring Julie Harris and Christopher Plummer, directed by George Schaefer N O R A H E L M E R (1974) was a West German adaptation Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder A B R I T I S H T V A D A P TAT I O N CAME OUT IN 1992 Starring Juliet Stevenson and Trevor Eve, directed by David Thacker
Ibsen on Stage H E D DA G A B L E R AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE GHOSTS P E E R GY N T
Additional Reading A D O L L’ S H O U S E , PA R T 2 (2017) by Lucas Hnath N O R A (1989) by Ingmar Bergman T H E L A D Y W I T H T H E P E T D O G (1972) by Joyce Carol Oates T H E M I N I AT U R I S T (2015) by Jessie Burton americantheatre.org/2018/03/26/ibsen-our-contemporary Discusses the lasting power Ibsen’s plays
20
/ / WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E . O R G
B OX O F F I C E : 972 . 4 5 0 . 62 32 WAT E R T O W E R T H E AT R E .O R G