Ibsen

A play about a woman who declares her independence from her marriage and her family was something audiences in 1879 weren't ready for. Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House shocked and offended people wherever it was performed. The Norwegian dramatist maintained that his script wasn't about a woman; it was about anyone who had to live according to rules created by others. But the drama tied in perfectly with the stirrings about women's rights that were being felt in Europe and the United States toward the end of the 19th century.

A play about a woman who declares her independence from her marriage and her family was something audiences in 1879 weren't ready for. Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House shocked and offended people wherever it was performed. The Norwegian dramatist maintained that his script wasn't about a woman; it was about anyone who had to live according to rules created by others. But the drama tied in perfectly with the stirrings about women's rights that were being felt in Europe and the United States toward the end of the 19th century.

Theda Bara, the legendary actress of the silent screen, was the original Vamp, but she pales in contrast to Hedda Gabler, the selfish, immoral and conniving vixen created by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen some 20 years before Theda started leading men to their cinematic doom. Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, at the Kittamaqundi Theatre in Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia through Saturday, is the tale of a bored middle-class housewife married to an aspiring pillar of the community, scholar George Tesman.

In the grand tradition of George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen, W. Somerset Maugham was a proto-feminist playwright. Seeing Olney Theatre Center's gleaming revival of Maugham's The Constant Wife, it's clear that, like Shaw and Ibsen, Maugham believed that if women could attain economic freedom, then all sorts of other freedoms -- sexual, political, etc. -- would follow.

The Everyman Theatre is bringing an updated version of the classic Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler to Baltimore next week. Written in 1890, Ibsen questioned the role of women in Victorian society through his protagonist Hedda, an affluent woman trapped in a marriage to a struggling scholar. The adaptation, written by acclaimed up-and-comer Jon Robin Baitz, stays true to Ibsen's work but cuts down on much of the original text and replaces it with a more modern vocabulary. "This is a new approach for Hedda -- it's sexy and dangerous and fun," said Deborah Hazlett, a member of the resident acting company at Everyman who plays Hedda.

A little boy who refuses to grow up is at the core of the bold, intriguing production of Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre.Think of Peer as an existentialist Peter Pan or perhaps a Kierkegaardian Candide. When he was a boy, Peer's mother tells us, she regaled him with fables and fairy tales. They had a lasting effect, though Peer hardly lived happily ever after. Instead of facing reality, he deluded himself, and his life turned into a series of ever grimmer fairy tales.

Mark Lenard, 68, who performed Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen but was best known for playing Mr. Spock's Vulcan father in the "Star Trek" series, died Friday of multiple myeloma in New York.Pub Date: 11/28/96

Michael Bookspan, 73, a longtime percussionist for the Philadelphia Orchestra who was famed for his cymbal playing, died Thursday in Philadelphia of complications from heart surgery. A member of the orchestra since 1953, Mr. Bookspan, as principal percussionist, was known as a dynamic presence in the back of the ensemble. During his tenure, he played under three conductors and was widely recognized as an expert percussionist, especially with the cymbals. Rolf Fjelde, 76, a teacher and writer who translated the works of Henrik Ibsen into English, died Tuesday in White Plains, N.Y. Mr. Fjelde was best known for his translations of works by the Norwegian playwright, which are frequently performed.

EXHIBIT WALTERS' PRECIOUS BOOKS It's an odd name for an unusual exhibit. Schatzkammer: Henry Walters' German Manuscripts, an exhibit of 24 medieval German manuscripts, is on display Saturday through Oct. 29 at the Walters Art Museum. Henry Walters amassed the collection of high-quality, rare and illustrated ninth-through-16th-century Gospel books, prayer books, liturgical manuscripts and theological texts throughout his lifetime. During the Middle Ages, precious books and possessions such as these were stored in the Schatzkammer, or treasury, of a church or palace for protection.

INIMITABLE IBSEN The lowdown -- In this centenary year of Henrik Ibsen's death, Olney Theatre Center's Potomac Theatre Festival is presenting two plays by the Norwegian dramatist. First up is Hedda Gabler, now in previews and opening Sunday. Under Halo Wines' direction, Julie-Ann Elliott portrays the title character, the perilously disenchanted new wife of a professor, played by Christopher Lane. Next month, the same actors will again play husband and wife - Dr. and Mrs. Stockmann - in director Jim Petosa's production of An Enemy of the People.

It's surprising that the great filmmaker Frank Capra never made a movie of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. Like the title character in Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ibsen's protagonist, Dr. Stockmann, takes on the political power structure. And like George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Dr. Stockmann is -- at least initially -- concerned with the welfare of the people. But at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre, with the exception of Joseph Urla's carefully nuanced Dr. Stockmann, most of the portrayals of Ibsen's characters come across merely as foils, lacking dimension or shading.

EXHIBIT WALTERS' PRECIOUS BOOKS It's an odd name for an unusual exhibit. Schatzkammer: Henry Walters' German Manuscripts, an exhibit of 24 medieval German manuscripts, is on display Saturday through Oct. 29 at the Walters Art Museum. Henry Walters amassed the collection of high-quality, rare and illustrated ninth-through-16th-century Gospel books, prayer books, liturgical manuscripts and theological texts throughout his lifetime. During the Middle Ages, precious books and possessions such as these were stored in the Schatzkammer, or treasury, of a church or palace for protection.

INIMITABLE IBSEN The lowdown -- In this centenary year of Henrik Ibsen's death, Olney Theatre Center's Potomac Theatre Festival is presenting two plays by the Norwegian dramatist. First up is Hedda Gabler, now in previews and opening Sunday. Under Halo Wines' direction, Julie-Ann Elliott portrays the title character, the perilously disenchanted new wife of a professor, played by Christopher Lane. Next month, the same actors will again play husband and wife - Dr. and Mrs. Stockmann - in director Jim Petosa's production of An Enemy of the People.

The Everyman Theatre is bringing an updated version of the classic Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler to Baltimore next week. Written in 1890, Ibsen questioned the role of women in Victorian society through his protagonist Hedda, an affluent woman trapped in a marriage to a struggling scholar. The adaptation, written by acclaimed up-and-comer Jon Robin Baitz, stays true to Ibsen's work but cuts down on much of the original text and replaces it with a more modern vocabulary. "This is a new approach for Hedda -- it's sexy and dangerous and fun," said Deborah Hazlett, a member of the resident acting company at Everyman who plays Hedda.

Michael Bookspan, 73, a longtime percussionist for the Philadelphia Orchestra who was famed for his cymbal playing, died Thursday in Philadelphia of complications from heart surgery. A member of the orchestra since 1953, Mr. Bookspan, as principal percussionist, was known as a dynamic presence in the back of the ensemble. During his tenure, he played under three conductors and was widely recognized as an expert percussionist, especially with the cymbals. Rolf Fjelde, 76, a teacher and writer who translated the works of Henrik Ibsen into English, died Tuesday in White Plains, N.Y. Mr. Fjelde was best known for his translations of works by the Norwegian playwright, which are frequently performed.

Theda Bara, the legendary actress of the silent screen, was the original Vamp, but she pales in contrast to Hedda Gabler, the selfish, immoral and conniving vixen created by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen some 20 years before Theda started leading men to their cinematic doom. Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, at the Kittamaqundi Theatre in Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia through Saturday, is the tale of a bored middle-class housewife married to an aspiring pillar of the community, scholar George Tesman.

As the Spirit players raced downfield, a vintage Franklin McIntosh play unfolded.After he stole the ball from the Harrisburg Heat's Richard Chinapoo, McIntosh sensed that someone in a Spirit jersey was to his right. Once he brought Harrisburg goalie Todd Hoffard out of the goal, forced him to commit, McIntosh, instead of shooting himself, passed to the open man on his right, Zak Ibsen."All of a sudden the ball hit me on the foot," Ibsen recalled, smiling. "And then it was in the back of the net."

When most people think of a dramaturg -- if they're familiar with the term at all -- they probably envision an academic in an ivory tower poring over obscure texts related to a theatrical production. But ivory towers have never interested Rick Davis, who was named associate artistic director at Center Stage last summer after four years as that theater's resident dramaturg."I always tried to introduce myself as the dirty-hands dramaturg," says the easygoing, bearded Mr. Davis, 33. Even in the literary post of dramaturg, he explains, he attempted to have hands-on contact with whatever production he was researching.

A little boy who refuses to grow up is at the core of the bold, intriguing production of Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre.Think of Peer as an existentialist Peter Pan or perhaps a Kierkegaardian Candide. When he was a boy, Peer's mother tells us, she regaled him with fables and fairy tales. They had a lasting effect, though Peer hardly lived happily ever after. Instead of facing reality, he deluded himself, and his life turned into a series of ever grimmer fairy tales.

Mark Lenard, 68, who performed Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen but was best known for playing Mr. Spock's Vulcan father in the "Star Trek" series, died Friday of multiple myeloma in New York.Pub Date: 11/28/96