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12. Internationale Sommerakademie für hochbegabte Schülerinnen und Schüler an AHS und BHS

Semmering, 25. Juni - 3. Juli 2010

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Day #9: Saturday

Closing Ceremonies...

[Anna-lena and Caro introduced our presentation]

[The Taming of the Shrew: featuring Julia, Lena, Caro, Anna-lena, Lukas, Julia, and Tara]

[Pride and Prejudice: feat. Natalie, Annika and Julia]

[A Streetcar Named Desire: feat. Julia, Lukas and Julia]

[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: feat. Caro, Vera, Anna-lena and Julia]

[Vera concluding the presentation]

Friday, July 2, 2010

Day #8: Friday

                             Taming of      Pride and        A Streetcar           Who’s Afraid of
                             the Shrew       Prejudice      Named Desire        Virginia Woolf?


Themes                     1623              1813               1947                        1962

Battle of the Sexes      x                      x                     x                              x             
Dependence
on Men                      x                       x                     x

Not adapting                                                                                                            
to Expectations           x                      x                                                                   

Illusion vs. Reality                                                                                    x

Social/Personal
Status                         x                      x                      x                               x          

Relationship to
Parent(s)                    x                       x                                                       x

Children/
Pregnancy                                                                   x                               x         

Violence vs.
Vulnerability                                                             x                               x

Neurotic Behavior                                                       x                               x          

Death vs. Life                                                              x                               x

Abuse by Men                                                             x                               x          

Code of Ethics          x                         x                       x

In/ability to
Overcome Past                                                                                          x        

Social/Personal
Success vs. Failure                                                        x                              x

Adultery                                                                                                     x        

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Poetry Slam!

 
 [Poster for our English Poetry Slam]
 
[the excited audience]
 
 [Julia signing up to read her poem]
 
[The judges]
[Julia presenting her poem]
[Julia, Laura and Natalie presenting a Lewis Carroll poem]
[Julia reading her poem: Identity]

Identity

I won't act the way you expect me to be
You try to make me a copy of your precious perfection
All I really want is to be free
I don't care, no, I love that I am an exception.

I am sick of your lies
Always pretending to be someone you are not
I am not afraid to cut off all ties
And erase your memory of me like an inkblot.

Give up, stop trying to capture me
I dance my way out of your prison
I do what I want and am who I want to be
All of this is exclusively my decision.

I don't listen to what you say
And I will always stay this way.

[Teresa reading her poem]
[Caro, our 2nd place winner]
[Alysha reading her Limerick]

There once was an English class
whose sass right then did surpass
the capable teachers
with very nice features
who kicked the kids out on their a**

[Vera reading her poem]
[Annika presenting her poem:]

Golden waterworks lying like paintings on my cheeks
My life's morning dew
Shimmering in the light of the orient sun
She's fading away
Just when I realize
I adore her
And I have to face the fact
I lost my friend, I lost all hope.

[Anne-Lena, Tara, Julia and Julia]
[Monika and her sonnet]

How do I teach you? Let me think
There are so many things to tell
And it takes more than chalk and ink
to make your minds wake up and swell

You're born curious that's for sure
Looking at the world amazed
Your teacher's task is to allure
You all to get well based

In our world full of confusion
Doubt, betrayal, haste and rush
Fake, deception and allusion,
They teach with love and a little hush.

To finally see you sound and strong
Knowing exactly where you belong.



and our FIRST PLACE WINNERS ARE..... (drum roll please)

LUKE AND LENA!!!!
with their poem:

Sticky Stuff

Do you know what's sticky stuff?
Sticky stuff is sticky enough!
Nobody knows it, it's horrible,
But the people who know it are adorable.

You can stick stuff, it's kind of magic.
If you lose it, it's kind of tragic.
If you throw it through the bathroom,
You could hit a bottle of perfume.

If there is fake sticky stuff,
This stuff would probably be rough.
So stay with original sticky stuff,
Because this stuff is sticky enough!

Sticky stuff's so sticky,
And it's also tricky.
Sticky, sticky, tricky, tricky
STICKY STUFF!!!

[First Place!!!]

Day #7: Thursday

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 
[Reading Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf]
Edward Albee

Born in 1928 – parents´identity unknown, adopted at the age oft wo weeks by the Albees-

Grew up in this wealthy family in New York City – private tutors, servants, …

Family moved around a lot- Albee attended great variety of schools, left Trinity College after sophomore year

In 1950 he moved to Greenwich Village: centre of artistic freedom, bohemians,….Albee had started writing early (first play at the age of 12) and did all kinds of odd jobs (salesman, office boy,…)

First worldwide success: “The Zoo Story” 1958 : one-act play that was staged in West Germany first

Influenced by playwrights likeTennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, who used a realistic idiom,

but also by the new movement at drama writing: the Theatre of the Absurd:

speech is often deliberately confusing, it seems that humans had lost control of their lives and are faced with a certain hopelessness- humor is a relief

Important representatives of the Theatre of the Absurd:

Samuel Beckett (born 1906 Ireland) “Waiting for Godot”, “Happy Days”, wrote in English and French

Eugène Ionesco (born 1909 Romania) “The Bald Soprano”, “The Lesson”, “The Chairs” (French)

Edward Albee´s work is often seen as a link between the realistic theatre and the Theatre of the Absurd

He has, among others, received three Pullitzer Prizes and is currently teaching playwriting courses at the University of Houston

“Who ´s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” - title refers to the song “Who´s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”(reality or communism ?) and the British novelist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) , who used stream-of-consciousness technique in works like “Orlando”, “To the Lighthouse”, “Mrs. Dalloway”, “A Room of One´s Own” (quote: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

The play opened on Broadway in 1962-

Historical background.

John F. Kennedy, the youngest man ever elected President, was in office,

Traditional values seemed to be unshakable in the US, but the country was about to undergo a great turmoil: the Vietnam War, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

American relations with the Soviet Union were often extremely tense (Cold War)

attempts by blacks to end racial discrimination were not infrequently countered by violence by whites (civil rights movement).

A number of influential writers were questioning the American values that seemed so secure, and “Who´s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was one of the first popular successes to articulate these undercurrents of dissatisfaction.

The play critically analyzes institutions and values that Americans held dear: family, marriage and success, for instance- and suggests they might have been created in part to escape from reality.

The play set loose much controversy not only because of the questioning of traditional American values, but also for the shocking language that many found disturbing. On the other hand, the play was labeled a masterpiece and Albee was declared “one of the most important dramatists of the contemporary theatre”.

Albee denied any link of his work to his biography. Quote: “I´d rather people judge the work itself than by biographical attachments” or “Creativity is magic. Don´t examine it too closely”.

Setting: Living room of a house on the campus of a small New England college in New Carthage (flourishing civilization until it was conquered by the Romans in the Punic Wars)

Characters:

George, 46, associate professor of history, Martha, 52, daughter of the college president (Martha and George Washington?)

Nick, 30, a new faculty member in the biology department, Honey, 26, his wife

Major themes:

- Communication through violence, lack of real communication

- Hollowness of American values, corruption of American dream (moral and spiritual damage inflicted upon people by an excess of material wealth)

- Death and murder

- Sterility , impotence

- Marriage and family relations

- Battle of the sexes (George-Martha, Nick-Martha, Nick-Honey): weakness/strength (“I am the Earth Mother and you are all flops” Martha, “total war” George)

- Truth and illusion (imaginary child, imaginary pregnancy), devices used to avoid facing the real world: alcohol, sex, constant verbal assaults

- Status (intellectual superiority)

- Games (George and Martha constantly matching wits seeking the upper hand)

- History versurs science (George- Nick)

- Violence versus vulnerability

Style: there is a lot of humor aroused by clichés, slang terms and jargon.

Repetition creates a variety of rhythms : “never mix, never worry”, “the little bugger”, “quite a guy”

Wide range of language: from swearing to sophisticated intellectual usage of words “euphemism”, in the last scene short phrases and monosyllables. Drunken energy turned to exhausted quiet

Structure: three acts: Fun and Games, Walpurgisnacht, The Exorcism (each with a climax)

Othello Excursion


"'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;
They eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us."

Emilia, scene iv


[waiting for the train to Vienna]

[waiting for the tram]

[The group at the Lichtenstein Museum]

[American Theater Group Europe's production of
Othello... fantastic!!!]