Monday, September 20, 2010

What is Kaspar?

Do you ever wonder what the world would be like if you were the lucky owner of one (and only one) sentence?


ABOUT THE PLAY:

“You are the lucky owner of a sentence which will make every impossible order possible for you and make every possible and real order impossible for you.”  

A terrifyingly comic play, a poetic meditation on language, identity, home(lessness), memory, and theatre. Also called “a speech torture”, Kaspar reconstructs the life on stage of Kaspar – the theatre figure and sometimes clown inspired from Kaspar Hauser, “riddle of his times” and of history, a mysterious speechless foundling who appeared in a German town in 1828 after sixteen years spent outside of all human society. Handke’s Kaspar shows young Kaspar, an autistic adolescent and owner of one (and only one) sentence, entering the stage and being made to speak by uncannily seductive Prompters. Subjected to the Prompter’s logical and alogical linguistic feats, Kaspar learns to use and live with language – until s/he is brought to order and social conformity. 

“Already with my first sentence I was trapped.”  


ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: 



Peter Handke (1942-) is an Austrian playwright, novelist, poet, and screenwriter, whose dramatic work has shaped theatre and the way we think about theatre art in the last century.

“Mr. Handke …  one of the most original and provocative of contemporary writers.” (Lawrence Graver, New York Times)

“Unmistakably one of the best writers we have in that self-discovering tendency in contemporary writing we have chosen to call post-modernism. His plays and novels have steadily and splendidly put to the test many of our essential presumptions about the nature of reality and art.” (Malcolm Bradbury)

Handke is one of the “makers of modern drama” who has “written the most interesting plays since Beckett” and who “is carrying on more resolutely than anyone I know of that effort to renew drama, to combat its tendency to inertia and self-repetition” (Richard Gilman)

“It’s not often you come across writing that resounds with the undeniable sense that a writer’s life hangs in the balance” (Sam Shepard, Vanity Fair)"

Kaspar Needs You

The Brown University Senior Slot Play for Fall 2010 is proudly/curiously/raucously Kaspar by Peter Handke to be directed by Ioana Jucan '11. Kaspar is a work of theater art that profoundly questions the applicability of proof, language, and the individual's socialization through mind, language, and consciousness.

We are looking for bold/intrigued/curious performers of all experience levels to audition to be a part of this experiment in language and society.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Monday, September 27, 2010: 7-11pm
Tuesday, September 28, 2010: 3-5pm & 7-10pm
Call-backs, if necessary, will be held on Wednesday, September 29 @ 7-10:00pm in the Cave (Lyman Hall 002)

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
KASPAR
a tragi-comedy

written by Peter Handke
translation by Michael Roloff

directed by Ioana Jucan’11
Produced by the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies and Sock & Buskin.

* Seeking performers of all kinds for an exciting theatrical adventure

* You can sign-up for an audition time in advance at the Leeds Breezeway bulletin board. If you are unsure of your schedule, you can stop by Leeds at any time on Monday or Tuesday and audition on the spot.

* If you want to read the play: copies are in the Becker Library in Lyman Hall. Email sockandbuskin@gmail.com for an electronic copy of the script.

* No prepared audition pieces necessary: you will be provided with selections of the script from which to read

First rehearsal: October 4. Runs December 2-5 in Leeds Theatre (inside Lyman Hall).
PLEASE NOTE: If cast, you must return early from Thanksgiving Break for tech at 11 AM on November 28.


Kaspar will be cast without regard to gender/sexual orientation/age/race/ethnicity.


Oh yes, there will be words.

Who is Kaspar?

Kaspar is hiding.

Kaspar makes speeches.


Somewhere in this picture, Kaspar is hiding.


Have you found Kaspar yet?




Kaspar is hiding in this sentence.

Kaspar has shadows.


Can you spot Kaspar's shadows?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kaspar is over here.