questions i keep freaking missing final round part 3

Erasmus

(1466?-1536) Dutch Humanist and friend of Sir Thomas More. Perhaps the most intellectual man in Europe and widely respected. Believed the problems in the Catholic Church could be fixed; did not support the idea of a Reformation. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Wrote In Praise of Folly. He also wrote On Free Will, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

South Pacific

(Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan, 1949). The plot is based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book of similar name and combines elements of several of those stories. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed they could write a musical based on Michener's work that would be financially successful and, at the same time, send a strong progressive message on racism. The production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Libretto, and it is the only musical production to win Tony Awards in all four acting categories. During the Pacific Theater of World War II, Nellie Forbush, a U.S. Navy nurse, has fallen in love with Emile, a French plantation owner. Emile helps Lt. Cable carry out an espionage mission against the Japanese. The mission is successful, and Emile and Nellie reunite. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant, Cable, and a young Tonkinese woman, Liat, explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his Asian sweetheart. The issue of racial prejudice is candidly explored throughout the musical, most controversially in the lieutenant's song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught". Featuring the songs "Some Enchanted Evening," "There is Nothing Like a Dame," and "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair".

Pirates of Penzance

(W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, 1879). Frederic, having turned twenty-one, is released from his apprenticeship to the title pirates. Reaching shore for the first time, Frederic falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. Frederic realizes that he was apprenticed until his twenty-first birthday, and, having been born on February 29, he must return to his apprenticeship. Mabel vows to wait for him. The Major-General and the police pursue the pirates, who surrender. The pirates are forgiven, and Mabel and Frederic reunite. As the work is actually a light opera, most of the songs are simply titled after their first lines; the most memorable ones include "Pour, oh pour, the pirate sherry" and "I am the very model of a modern Major-General."

Art Nouveau

A decorative style of art, popular in Europe and America from the 1880s to the 1930s. This style is usually characterized by flowing lines, flat shapes, and vines and flowers. It was a reaction against the academic art, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decoration. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. In Britain, the leading graphic artist in this style was Aubrey Beardsley. He began with engraved book illustrations for Le Morte d'Arthur, then black and white illustrations for Salome by Oscar Wilde. Tiffany Lamps, the Sagrada Familia by Gaudi, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, and At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all cater to what artistic movement?

The King's Men

After Queen Elizabeth's death, the Lord Chamberlain's Men became _______ after it came under royal patronage in 1603. Considered the premier acting company in Jacobean England, the troupe included William Shakespeare as its leading dramatist and Richard Burbage as it principal actor. They often performed at the Blackfriars and Globe theatres.

Ashcan school

Also known as The Eight, a group of American Naturalist painters formed in 1907, most of whom had formerly been newspaper illustrators, they believed in portraying scenes from everyday life in starkly realistic detail. Their 1908 display was the first art show in the U.S. The best known artists working in this style included Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, and Everett Shinn. Theresa Bernstein, who studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, was also a member. The movement, which took some inspiration from Walt Whitman's epic poem Leaves of Grass, has been seen as emblematic of the spirit of political rebellion of the period. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to other "schools of art". Its origin is in a complaint found in a publication called The Masses alleging that there were too many "pictures of ashcans and girls hitching up their skirts on Horatio Street."

Alienation Effect

Also known as distancing effect. A psychological distance between audience and stage for which, according to German playwright Bertolt Brecht, every aspect of a theatrical production should strive by limiting the audience's identification with characters and events. It is widely considered in 4th wall breaks. It is achieved by the way the "artist never acts as if there were a fourth wall besides the three surrounding him ... The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen spectator at an event which is really taking place" The use of direct audience-address is one way of disrupting stage illusion and generating the distancing effect. Brecht first used the term in an essay on Chinese acting, published in 1936, in which he described it as "playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and utterances was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience's subconscious".

Moss Hart

American playwright and theater director. He had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, even going so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his autobiography Act One, the source for the 1963 film and a 2014 Broadway play of the same name. He scored his first broadway hit with George S. Kaufman with "Once in a Lifetime." During the next decade, he wrote "You Can't Take it With You" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner"

Falstaff

An endearing, fat, aging rogue who appears in several Shakespeare plays, especially Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth, and later the Merry Wives of Windsor. He is a lover of wine, women, and song; and although a coward in practice, he tells stories of his supposed bravery.

New World Symphony

Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No.9, although more commonly known by its popular name. It was composed in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on 16 December 1893. It has been described as one of the most popular of all symphonies. Traditionally numbered as Symphony No. 5, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a tape recording of it along during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969. The symphony was completed in the building that now houses the Bily Clocks Museum.

Tennessee Williams

Born Thomas Lanier, he more commonly goes by his pen name (actually a fraternity nickname from Alpha Tau Omega). He attended Soldan High School, a setting he referred to in his play The Glass Menagerie. His first submitted play was Beauty Is the Word, followed by Hot Milk at Three in the Morning. As recognition for Beauty, a play about rebellion against religious upbringing, he became the first freshman to receive honorable mention in a writing competition. He drew from a particular factory co-worker at the International Shoe Company factory, to create the character Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Speaking of his early days as a playwright and an early collaborative play called Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!, he wrote, "The laughter ... I know it's the only thing that saved my life." He was awarded a $1,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in recognition of his play Battle of Angels. He lived for a time in New Orleans' French Quarter, including 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carré. During the winter of 1944-45, his memory play The Glass Menagerie developed from his 1943 short story "Portrait of a Girl in Glass", was produced in Chicago and garnered good reviews. The huge success of his next play, A Streetcar Named Desire, secured his reputation as a great playwright in 1947. Between 1948 and 1959 Williams had seven of his plays produced on Broadway: Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Garden District, and Sweet Bird of Youth. Later plays also adapted for the screen included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rose Tattoo, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Summer and Smoke.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Considered America's greatest architect. Pioneered the concept that a building should blend into and harmonize with its surroundings rather than following classical designs, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater, which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture." He once worked as an apprentice in Adler & Sullivan's firm. Sullivan even signed a 5 year contract and gave him a $5,000 dollar loan to build a house for himself and his new wife in Oak Park, Illinois. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the philosophies of Louis Sullivan, he helped form what became known as the Prairie School. His first independent commission, the Winslow House, combined Sullivanesque ornamentation with the emphasis on simple geometry and horizontal lines. The Francis Apartments, Heller House, Rollin Furbeck House and Husser House were designed in the same mode. The Robie House, with its extended cantilevered roof lines supported by a 110-foot-long channel of steel, is his most dramatic. He began to build himself a new home, which he called Taliesin, by May 1911. His buildings include Fallingwater Kentucky Knob Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Johnson Wax Headquarters Taliesin Taliesin West Robie House Imperial Hotel, Tokyo Darwin D. Martin House Unity Temple Ennis House Larkin Administration Building Affleck House Dana-Thomas House Coonley House Marin County Civic Center First Unitarian Society of Madison Price Tower Westcott House Monona Terrace Meyer May House Allen House Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church Graycliff Westhope

Georges Braque

Cubist artist who helped develop collage

Ostinato

Deriving from the Italian word for "stubborn", it is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known pieces include both classical compositions, such as Ravel's Boléro and the Carol of the Bells, and popular songs such as Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love", Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn, and The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony". But one of the best known use is in John Williams' Duel of the Fates from Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Leningrad Symphony

Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 begun in the title city and completed in the city of Samara (then known as Kuybyshev) in December 1941 and premiered in that city on March 5, 1942. At first dedicated to Lenin, it was eventually submitted in honor of the besieged, where it was first played under dire circumstances on August 9, 1942, during the siege by Axis and Finnish forces. The symphony soon became popular in both the Soviet Union and the West as a symbol of resistance to fascism and totalitarianism, thanks in part to the composer's microfilming of the score in Samara and its clandestine delivery to New York, where Arturo Toscanini led a broadcast performance and Time magazine placed Shostakovich on its cover.

The Nose

Dmitri Shostakovich's first opera, a satirical work completed in 1928 based on Nikolai Gogol's 1836 story of the same name. It follows the story of a severed nose creating a life of its own. Taking place in St. Petersburg in the 1830s, Kovalyov, a government official, is being shaved by his foul-smelling barber, for a good time with the girls. The next morning, to his wife's annoyance, finds a severed nose in her loaf. He tries to dispose of it in the river but gets stopped by a constable. Kovalyov wakes and finds his nose is missing. He sees it entering Kazan Cathedral. It is now dressed as an official of superior rank and refuses his polite request to return to his face. Unable to get help from police and lawyers, he goes into a newspaper office and attempts to place an advertisement offering a reward for his nose's return. The clerk refuses and offers him snuff instead. Kovalyov returns home where he finds his manservant playing the balalaika and spitting at the ceiling. A stage-coach is leaving town and all sorts of colourful travellers are boarding, watched secretly by the police after a tip-off. When the nose appears under cover of darkness, the police arrest it and return it to Kovalyov who finds he cannot get it to stick to his face. He calls a doctor who is no help. Prompted by his friend Yarizhkin, he writes a letter to Madame Podtochina accusing her of bewitching him. She understands this as an amorous advance to her daughter and writes back accepting Kovalyov's proposal of marriage. The whole town has heard about the Nose and noisy crowds collect in the streets and parks. Kovalyov, who has mysteriously managed to stick his nose back on again, gets himself shaved once more by his barber and sets out for a good time with the girls. On the way, he satisfactorily snubs Madame Podtochina and her daughter and finds a pretty young street-seller who he invites back to his rooms.

Balanchine

Founder, director, and principle choreographer of New York City Ballet, and remained its artistic director for 35 years. Trained in the Russian school, he developed a neo-classical technique known for rapid footwork and abstract choreography, and is also called the father of American ballet. Had 4 marriages and 1 "partner," all of whom were fellow ballerinas. While still in his teens, he choreographed his first work, a pas de deux named La Nuit. This was followed by another duet, Enigma, with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, he created nine ballets at the Ballets Russes as their ballet master. 1928 in Paris, he premiered Apollon musagète (Apollo and the muses) in a collaboration with Stravinsky; it was one of his most innovative ballets, combining classical ballet, classical Greek myth and images with jazz movements. It is considered the original neoclassical ballet. On Your Toes, by Roger and Hart, featured two ballets: La Princesse Zenobia and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, in which a tap dancer falls in love with a dance-hall girl. He created dances for five movies, all of which featured Vera Zorina, his second wife. His other famous ballets created for New York companies include Firebird, Allegro Brilliante, Agon, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Episodes. What man had 4 marriages during his lifetime, all 4 of which were his dancers; Tamara Geva, Vera Zorina​, Maria Tallchief, and Tanaquil LeClercq

Cezanne

French post impressionist painter who influenced modern art (especially cubism) by stressing the structural components latent in nature. He is said to have formed the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that he "is the father of us all". His works are categorized into his dark period, Impressionist period, Mature period and Final period. His notable works include Mont Sainte-Victoire,Apothéose de Delacroix, Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier,The Card Players, and The Bathers

Freytag

German novelist and playwright. In 1863 he developed in Die Technik des Dramas what is known as his pyramid; the oldest dramatic structure, utilizing exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution. His literary fame was made universal by the publication in 1855 of his novel, Soll und Haben (Debit and Credit).

Circe

She is a daughter of the god Helios and either the Oceanid nymph Perse or the goddess Hecate. The best known of her legends is told in Homer's Odyssey. The beautiful witch-goddess who transforms Odysseus's crew into swine when he lands on her island. With Hermes' help, Odysseus resists her powers and then becomes her lover, living in luxury at her side for a year.

Omar Khayyam

Persian poet and mathematician and astronomer whose poetry was popularized by Edward Fitzgerald's translation (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam). As a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. As an astronomer, he designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year intercalation cycle.

Ruth St. Denis

She was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts with her husband Ted Shawn in 1915, in LA. While touring in Belasco's production of Madame DuBarry in 1904, she saw a poster advertising Egyptian Deities cigarettes, portraying the Egyptian goddess Isis enthroned in a temple. From then on, was immersed in Oriental philosophies, and choreographed to capture the mysticism the poster conveyed. The first piece that resulted from her interest in the Orient was Radha performed in 1906. Drawing from Hindu mythology, Radha is the story of Krishna and his love for a mortal maid. She met her husband, also a dancer, at a performance of her own. He applied to be a student, and they fell in love. In 1916 they created a collection of dances inspired by Egypt, which included Tillers of the Soil, a duet between her and Shawn, as well as Pyrrhic Dance, an all-male dance piece. She staged Ishtar of the Seven Gates in which she portrayed a Babylonian goddess. She also composed the East Indian Nautch Dance. Her and her husband were also instrumental in creating the legendary dance festival Jacob's Pillow.

Bellona

The Roman goddess of war, a belligerent lady attended by three handmaids: Blood, Fire, and Famine. Her main attribute is the military helmet worn on her head; she often holds a sword, spear, or shield, and brandishes a torch or whip as she rides into battle in a four-horse chariot. She had a temple near the Theatre of Marcellus. She is the counterpart to the Greek goddess Enyo

Falstaff

This character names a play by Giuseppe Verdi and 3 plays by shakespeare. The play by Verdi is a comic opera in three acts. The libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. The work premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan. Verdi wrote it as the last of his 28 operas, as he was approaching the age of 80. It was his second comedy, and his third work based on a Shakespeare play, following Macbeth and Otello. The plot revolves around the thwarted, sometimes farcical, efforts of the fat knight to seduce two married women, Alice and Meg, to gain access to their husbands' wealth. They quickly realize his plan and set to punish him. Bardolfo and Pistola, the main character's servants, beg to be restored to his service to spy for Ford. Ford disguises himself and learns of the main character's appt with Alice. The three women plot their strategy ("Gaie Comari di Windsor" / "Merry wives of Windsor, the time has come!"). Ford and the servants creep towards Fenton and Nannetta, who they think are Falstaff and Alice, behind the screen, while the women stifle Falstaff in the laundry basket. Alice orders her servants to throw the laundry basket through the window into the River Thames, where Falstaff endures the jeers of the crowd. Ford, seeing that Alice had never intended to betray him, smiles happily. Alice arranges another meeting with him. Ford draws Dr. Caius aside and privately proposes a separate plot to marry him to Nannetta: Nannetta will be disguised as Queen of the Fairies, Caius will wear a monk's costume, and Ford will join the two of them with a nuptial blessing. Mistress Quickly overhears and quietly vows to thwart Ford's scheme. The women arrive and disguise Fenton as a monk. the men, disguised as elves and fairies, soundly thrash Falstaff. In the middle of the beating, he recognizes Bardolfo in disguise. The joke is over, and Falstaff acknowledges that he has received his due. Ford announces that a wedding shall ensue. Ford conducts the double ceremony. Caius finds that instead of Nannetta, his bride is the disguised Bardolfo, and Ford has unwittingly blessed the marriage of Fenton and Nannetta. Falstaff proclaims "Everything in the world is a jest ... but he laughs well who laughs the final laugh"

Gone With the Wind

a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. The leading roles are played by Vivien Leigh (Scarlett), Clark Gable (Rhett), Leslie Howard (Ashley), and Olivia de Havilland (Melanie). Filming was delayed for two years because of Selznick's determination to secure Gable for the role of Rhett Butler, and the "search for Scarlett" led to 1,400 women being interviewed for the part. It received 10 Academy Awards from 13 nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress (the first African American to win the award). It set records for the total number of wins and nominations at the time, and adjusted for inflation, it is still the highest grossing movie of all time. The story is set in Jonesboro and Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War and Reconstruction and follows the life of Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irish immigrant plantation owner. It follows her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and her subsequent marriage to Rhett Butler. The barbecue where Ashley is to propose to Melanie is ended abruptly by the announcement of the Civil War. Scarlett marries Melanie's younger brother Charles to incite jealousy, but it doesn't work and he dies in the war. Scarlett causes a scene by dancing with Ashley in her mourning attire. Rhett helps Melanie, her new baby, and Scarlett escape the battles in Atlanta before he enlists. Returning home, Scarlett's mother died of illness and her father dies shortly after his return when he is thrown off his horse. The only ones in her family still alive are her sisters and the 2 former slaves of the house. Ashley and Scarlett have a romantic moment but he can't leave Melanie. In need of money, Scarlett dupes her younger sister's rich fiance, Frank Kennedy, into marrying her instead. After Scarlett is attacked driving through a nearby town, Frank, Rhett, and Ashley raid it, resulting in Frank's death. Scarlett accepts Rhett's marriage proposal. They have one daughter, Bonnie Blue. Scarlett and Ashley are caught hugging, and Rhett demands sex again. Scarlett refuses a divorce. She suffers a miscarriage after falling down the stairs as the result of an argument, and Bonnie dies soon after. Scarlett realizes she loves Rhett as he is leaving for Atlanta.

Godard

a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the 1960s French New Wave film movement. He first received global acclaim for his 1960 feature Breathless, helping to establish the New Wave movement. His collaborations with Karina—which included such critically acclaimed films as Vivre sa vie, Bande à part and Pierrot le Fou. His other notable works include My Life to Live, Contempt, Pierrot le Fou, A Woman Is a Woman, and Histoire(s) du cinéma

Kiss Me Kate

a 1948 musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang. It features such songs as "Why Can't You Behave?", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "Too Darn Hot", and "Always True to You in My Fashion" It was Porter's response to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and other integrated musicals; it was the first show he wrote in which the music and lyrics were firmly connected to the script. The musical premiered in 1948 and proved to be Porter's only show to run for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. In 1949, it won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

The English Patient

a 1996 British-American epic romantic war drama film directed by Anthony Minghella from his own script based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje and produced by Saul Zaentz. The film tells the story of four people who find themselves in an abandoned villa in northern Italy in the last months of World War II. The eponymous protagonist, who cannot remember his name, is a man burned beyond recognition who speaks with an English accent, tells his story to the young nurse, Hana, caring for him in a series of flashbacks, revealing his true identity and the love affair he was involved in before the war. The patient's only possession is a copy of Herodotus' Histories with notes, pictures and mementos contained inside. They are soon joined by Kip, a Sikh sapper in the British Army posted with his sergeant to clear mines and unexploded bombs in the local area, and David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who has no thumbs as a result of torture during a German interrogation.

Antonin Dvorak

a Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition. He displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being an apt violin student from age 6. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to a prize competition in Germany, but did not win. Brahms recommended him to his publisher, Simrock, who soon afterward commissioned what became the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. His Seventh Symphony was written for London. In 1890-91, he wrote his Dumky Trio, one of his most successful chamber music pieces. While in the United States, he wrote his 2 most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, and his Cello Concerto. He also wrote the American String Quartet during this time. By far the most successful of his 7 operas is Rusalka.

Soren Kierkegaard

a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote many Upbuilding Discourses under his own name and dedicated them to the "single individual". Whether being published under pseudonym or not, his central writing on religion was Fear and Trembling, and Either/Or is considered to be his magnum opus. After On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, his 1841 master's thesis under Frederik Christian Sibbern, he wrote his first book under the pseudonym "Johannes Climacus", "Everything must be doubted" was not published until after his death.

Jacob Riis

a Danish-American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He contributed significantly to the cause of urban reform in America at the turn of the twentieth century. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City. He is considered one of the fathers of photography due to his very early adoption of flash in photography. His most well known production was How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, an early publication of photojournalism documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s.

Spinoza

a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. He developed controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. Jewish religious authorities issued a herem against him, causing him to be expelled and shunned by Jewish society at age 23, including by his own family. His books were later added to the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books. His magnum opus, the Ethics, was published posthumously in the year of his death. He is buried in the Christian churchyard of Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.

Sibelius

a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite). Other works include the Kalevala and the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower). He composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony, the incidental music for The Tempest and the tone poem Tapiola , he stopped producing major works in his last thirty years, a stunning and perplexing decline commonly referred to as "The Silence of Järvenpää", the location of his home. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a Flag Day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the "Day of Finnish Music".

Eero Saarinen

a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs. He is best known for designing the Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. He was the son of noted Finnish architect Eliel.

Corneille

a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage of Cardinal Richelieu, who was trying to promote classical tragedy along formal lines, but later quarrelled with him, especially over his best-known play, Le Cid, about a medieval Spanish warrior, which was denounced by the newly formed Académie française for breaching the unities. The Cardinal took notice of him and selected him to be among Les Cinq Auteurs ("The Five Poets"). During his time with the department, he wrote his first play; the comedy Mélite. His first true tragedy is Médée, produced in 1635. His next plays were classical tragedies, Horace, Cinna, and Polyeucte. He composed the comedy Psyché with Moliere. He wrote his last piece Suréna in 1674; it was a complete failure.

Durer

a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, he established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. The woodcuts series are more Gothic than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the three Meisterstiche (master prints) Knight, Death and the Devil, Saint Jerome in his Study and Melencolia I. His work on geometry is called the Four Books on Measurement. His work on human proportions is called the Four Books on Human Proportion. His watercolors mark him as one of the first European landscape artists. Name this artist, with a self-portrait in silverpoint drawn as early as 13

Wundt

a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founders of modern psychology. He distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and biology, and was the first person ever to call himself a psychologist. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology". In 1879, at University of Leipzig, he founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research. He also formed the first academic journal for psychological research, Philosophische Studien (from 1881 to 1902), set up to publish the Institute's research.

Bertolt Brecht

a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Kurt Weill. His first full-length play, Baal, arose in response to an argument in one of Kutscher's drama seminars. He also wrote Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Hanuman

a Hindu god and divine vanara companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic Ramayana. He is the monkey god of courage and bravery. He is also mentioned in several other texts, such as the epic Mahabharata and the various Puranas. He is also son of the wind-god Vayu, who in several stories played a direct role in his birth. He is considered a bachelor and exemplary celibate.

Bartok

a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. In 1911, he wrote what was to be his only opera, Bluebeard's Castle, dedicated to his wife, Márta. He returned to composing with a ballet called The Wooden Prince and the String Quartet No. 2, both influenced by Debussy. His libretto for The Miraculous Mandarin, another ballet, was influenced by other contemporaries. In 1927-28, he wrote his Third and Fourth String Quartets, after which his compositions demonstrated his mature style. Notable examples of this period are Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) and Divertimento for String Orchestra (1939). The Fifth String Quartet was composed in 1934, and the Sixth String Quartet (his last) in 1939.

Henrik Ibsen

a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, he is often referred to as "the father of realism". His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, When We Dead Awaken, Rosmersholm, and The Master Builder. He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and A Doll's House was the world's most performed play in 2006. His first play, the tragedy Catilina, was published under the pseudonym "Brynjolf Bjarme", when he was only 22, but it was not performed. His first play to be staged, The Burial Mound, received little attention.

Seneca

a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and—in one work—satirist from the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor, he became his advisor and, provided competent government for the first five years of his reign. Influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 he was forced to take his own life; his stoic and calm suicide has become the subject of numerous paintings. As a writer he is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies. As a tragedian, he is best known for plays such as his Medea, Thyestes, and Phaedra.

Plautus

a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. He wrote Miles Gloriosus, Bacchides, and Amphitryon

Brancusi

a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered a pioneer of modernism. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His notable works The Endless Column, Bird in Space, Torso of a Young Man, The Newborn, Mademoiselle Pogany, Prometheus, Sleeping Muse, Princess X and The Kiss

Anton Chekhov

a Russian playwright and short-story writer. His career as a playwright produced four classics. He is often referred to as one of the seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. He practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." He renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898, which subsequently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

Anna Pavlova

a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. She is most recognized for her creation of the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour around the world, including South America, India and Australia. Her love of ballet was sparked after seeing a production of Sleeping Beauty. Because of her youth, and what was considered her "sickly" appearance, she was rejected from the Imperial Ballet School, but, at age 10, in 1891, she was accepted. She appeared for the first time on stage in Marius Petipa's Un conte de fées (A Fairy Tale). Among other ballet greats, she took extra lessons from Enrico Cecchetti, considered the greatest ballet virtuoso of the time and founder of the Cecchetti method. She was named danseuse in 1902, première danseuse in 1905, and, finally, prima ballerina in 1906 after a resounding performance in Giselle. In 1915, she appeared in the film The Dumb Girl of Portici, in which she played a mute girl betrayed by an aristocrat.

Athol Fugard

a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political plays opposing the system of apartheid and for the 2005 Oscar-winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood. In 1958, he organised "a multiracial theatre for which he wrote, directed, and acted", writing and producing several plays for it, including No-Good Friday and Nongogo. The Blood Knot has been declared to be his first "major play"."Master Harold"...and the Boys, written in 1982, incorporates "strong autobiographical matter"; nonetheless "it is fiction, not memoir", as Cousins: A Memoir and some of his other works are subtitled. The play is one of his best-known works, along with The Road to Mecca. His post-apartheid plays, such as Valley Song, The Captain's Tiger: a memoir for the stage and his 2007 play, Victory, focus more on personal than political issues.

Shostakovich

a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. He is known for his complex relationship with the Soviet government. He was heavily influenced by Stravinsky and Mahler. Especially well known is his "Waltz No. 2" from the Suite for Variety Orchestra, as well as the suite of music extracted from The Gadfly. Other works include the operas Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Nose and the unfinished The Gamblers, based on the comedy by Gogol. Examples of his works that included Jewish themes are the Fourth String Quartet, the First Violin Concerto, and the Four Monologues on Pushkin Poems, as well as the Piano Trio in E minor. He also wrote the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry.

Picasso

a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. He is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture and the co-invention of collage. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , and Guernica, a dramatic portrayal of the bombing by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African-influenced Period, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism, also referred to as the Crystal period. The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed in The First Communion, a large composition that depicts his sister, Lola. His Blue Period, characterized by sombre paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green only began either in Spain in early 1901 or in Paris in the second half of the year. La Vie and The Old Guitarist come from this period. His Rose Period is characterized by a lighter tone and using orange and pink colours, featuring many circus people, acrobats and harlequins known in France as saltimbanques. Family of Saltimbanques and His African-influenced Period begins with his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. This period is also associated with Primitivism. His Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Girl before a Mirror were painted in his analytical cubism style. Name this artist of such other notable works such as Le Rêve Guernica The Weeping Woman Massacre in Korea

Carl Jung

a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Freud saw him as the heir to take forward psychoanalysis and to this end secured his appointment as President of his International Psychoanalytical Association. He was a neo-Freudian who created concept of "collective unconscious" and wrote books on dream interpretation. He was one of the first people to define introversion and extraversion in a psychological context.

Robie House

a U.S. National Historic Landmark now on the campus of the University of Chicago in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was designed as a single family home by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of Prairie School, the first architectural style considered uniquely American. Muted, neutral colors were used throughout the interior, and the entire construction is meant to emphasize horizontal lines.

Anglicanism

a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation. It is a Protestant denomination of the Christian faith founded by Henry VIII in England. Unique to this sect is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of services in one Book used for centuries. It is often referred to as being a via media (or "middle way") between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. Saint Alban, who was executed in AD 209, is the first Christian martyr in the British Isles.

Neoclassicism

a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. In the visual arts, it began c. 1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; this type architecture is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry. In painting, it gained a new sense of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii. Name this art style featuring other artists such as Antonio Canova, Francois Gerard, Jean Ingres, and John Trumbull

kabuki

a classical Japanese dance-drama. It is known for the stylization of its drama, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate kumadori make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji, from left to right, mean sing (歌), dance (舞), and skill (伎), and is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing". It is considered to have begun in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni formed a female dance troupe to perform dances and light sketches in Kyoto. Much of the appeal in this era was due to the ribald, suggestive themes featured by many troupes; this appeal was further augmented by the fact that many performers were also involved in sex work. The famous playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, one of the first professional playwrights in this genre, produced several influential works during this time, though the piece usually acknowledged as his most significant, Sonezaki Shinjū (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), was originally written for bunraku.

The Taming of the Shrew

a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself. The nobleman then has the play performed for Sly's diversion. Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate is based on it, as well as the 1999 high school comedy film 10 Things I Hate About You. The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate title animal. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship; however, Petruchio "tames" her with various psychological torments, such as keeping her from eating and drinking, until she becomes a desirable, compliant, and obedient bride. The subplot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's younger sister, Bianca, who is seen as the "ideal" woman.

Fabliau

a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France between c. 1150 and 1400. They are generally characterized by sexual and scatological obscenity, and by a set of contrary attitudes—contrary to the church and to the nobility. Some argue that they originally came from the Orient and were brought to the West by returning crusaders. Several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decameron and by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales.

bunraku

a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), the tayū (chanters), and shamisen musicians. It is particularly noted for lovers' suicide plays. The main puppeteer, the omozukai, the left puppeteer, known as the hidarizukai or sashizukai, depending on the tradition of the troupe, an a third puppeteer, the ashizukai, operates the feet and legs, with each main puppet requiring 3 puppeteers. In plays with supernatural themes, a puppet may be constructed so that its face can quickly transform into that of a demon. Less complex heads may have eyes that move up and down, side to side or close, and noses, mouths, and eyebrows that move.

tragicomedy

a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending.

noh

a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. together with kyogen, it is part of Nōgaku theatre. It is often based on traditional literature with a supernatural being transformed into human form as a hero narrating a story. It integrates iconic masks to represent the roles such as ghosts, women, children, and the elderly, in a dance-based performance, requiring highly trained actors and musicians. Written in late middle Japanese, the text "vividly describes the ordinary people of the twelfth to sixteenth centuries". Name this art form associated with the court, noblemen, and samurai.

1776

a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969, earning warm reviews, and ran for 1,217 performances. The production won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 1972, it was made into a film adaptation. It was revived on Broadway in 1997; another Broadway revival is scheduled for 2021.

A Little Night Music

a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. It centers on a quote from Madame Armfeldt: the summer night smiles three times - on the young, the fools, and the old. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The musical includes the popular song "Send In the Clowns". It was adapted for film in 1977. The setting is Sweden, around the year 1900. One by one, the Quintet - five singers who comment like a Greek chorus throughout the show - enter, tuning up. Gradually, their vocalizing becomes an overture blending fragments of "Remember", "Soon" and "The Glamorous Life", leading into the first "Night Waltz". The other characters enter waltzing, each uncomfortable with her partner. Esteemed lawyer Fredrik Egerman has recently married a young virgin, Anne, whom his son, Henrik, has also fallen madly in love. Fredrik's dedication to his blushing bride is tested when he reunites with a former flame, the famed (and fading) actress Desiree Armfeldt. Things grow more complicated when her jealous (and married) lover Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm gets wind of the reunion. The coupling and uncoupling comes to a head when Desirée convinces her mother to host Fredrik and his family for a weekend on her lavish country estate—and the Count, with wife in tow, crashes the party. At the end of the night, Fredrika tells her grandmother that she has watched carefully, but still has not seen the night smile. Madam Armfeldt laughs and points out that the night has indeed smiled twice: first on Henrik and Anne, the young, and second on Desiree and Fredrik, the fools. As the two wait for the "third smile... on the old", it occurs: Madam Armfeldt closes her eyes, and dies peacefully with Fredrika beside her.

Zoroastrinism

a religion started by Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra) that teaches the belief in one god, Ahura Mazda or "wise lord" who created all things. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, which includes as central the writings of Zoroaster known as the Gathas, enigmatic ritual poems that define the religion's precepts, which is within Yasna, the main worship service. In this religion, Asha (truth, cosmic order), the life force that originates from Ahura Mazda, stands in opposition to Druj (falsehood, deceit)

recitative

a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines as formally composed songs do. It resembles sung ordinary speech more than a formal musical composition.

fresco

a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for pigment. a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. The intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape. Giornate is often used to describe this technique, meant to be completed in one day. A technique used in popular pieces of Michelangelo and Raphael in this style was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. The Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Creation of Adam are painted in this method

tanka

a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as "short song," and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form. Many of the great poets in this form were women, among them Lady Akazone Emon, Yosano Akiko, and Lady Murasaki Shikibu, who wrote The Tale of Genji, a foundational Japanese prose text that includes over 400 of these.

Unification Movement

a worldwide new religious movement whose members are sometimes colloquially called "Moonies". It was officially founded in 1954 under the name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in Seoul, South Korea by Sun Myung Moon, a Korean religious leader also known for engagement in social and political causes. The beliefs are based on Moon's book Divine Principle, which differs from the teachings of Nicene Christianity on its view of Jesus and its introduction of the concept of "indemnity". The movement is well known for its unique "Blessing" or mass wedding ceremonies. It also has unique funeral ceremonies for its members and has been criticized for its involvement in politics, which include anticommunism and support for Korean reunification.

hora

also known as horo and oro, is a type of circle dance originating in the Balkans but also found in other countries. At bar and bat mitzvahs, it is customary to raise the honoree, and sometimes his or her family members, on a chair during this dance. This is also done at many Jewish weddings, following Jewish tradition. Name this dance sometimes danced to the Hava Nagila, meaning let's celebrate To start the dance, everybody forms a circle, holding hands or interlocking arms behind their backs or on their shoulders and steps forward toward the left with the right foot, then follows with the left foot. The right foot is then brought back, followed by the left foot. This is done while holding hands and circling together in a fast and cheerful motion to the left. Large groups allow for the creation of several concentric circles.

barrel vaults

also known as the "tunnel" or "wagon" type, it is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design. It is the simplest form of a vault: effectively a series of arches placed side by side (i.e., one after another).

Enemy of the People

an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It tells the story of a respected doctor who courageously tells the truth about a health hazard in his small town and is consequentially denounced and ostracized. Dr. Stockmann reveals that the Municipal Baths that are attracting wealthy customers are actually getting people sick. Peter Stockmann, the mayor and the doctor's older brother, gets angry that he will ruin his name. Peter reveals that the money to fix them will come from tax money, and many rescind their support of the Dr. The Dr. holds a town meeting but Peter convinces everyone not to listen to him. The Dr. is voted the title derogatory title. The town completely shuns Dr. Stockmann and his family. He has to homeschool his children and takes in others off the street.

Gene Kelly

an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likable characters that he played on screen. He is best known today for his performances in films such as Anchors Aweigh, On the Town which was his directorial debut, An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon and It's Always Fair Weather. He made his film debut with Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal, and followed by Du Barry Was a Lady, Thousands Cheer, The Pirate, Summer Stock, and Les Girls among others. After musicals he starred in two films outside the musical genre: Inherit the Wind and What a Way to Go!.

Arthur Fiedler

an American conductor known for his association with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the United States. With his direction, the Boston Pops reportedly made more recordings than any other orchestra in the world, most of them for RCA Victor, with total sales exceeding $50 million. His recordings began in July 1935 at Boston's Symphony Hall with RCA Victor, including a world premiere recording of Jacob Gade's "Jalousie", and the first complete recording of Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin (with Jesús María Sanromá as soloist; around that time they also made the first recording of Edward MacDowell's Second Concerto). He made but a single recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra: Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Pearl Primus

an American dancer, choreographer and anthropologist. Her work was a reaction to myths of savagery and the lack of knowledge about African people. Born in Trinidad, she moved to NYC in 1921. She initially studied biology and pre med, but realized racial discrimination would keep her from a fulfilled career. Her first chance at show business was as an understudy on America Dances. She began her formal study of dance with the New Dance Group in 1941, studying with the founders, Jane Dudley, Sophie Maslow, and William Bates. She completed her first major composition entitled African Ceremonial. This thoroughly researched composition was presented along with Strange Fruit (dance was based on the poem by Lewis Allan about a lynching), Rock Daniel, and Hard Time Blues ("Motherless Child", "Goin' to tell God all my Trouble", and "In the Great Gettin'-up Mornin'"). She choreographed "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes. In December 1943, she appeared in Dafora's African Dance Festival at Carnegie Hall, as well as formed her namesake dance company. In 1946, she was invited to appear in the revival of the Broadway production Showboat, choreographed by Helen Tamiris. Then, she was asked to choreograph a Broadway production called Calypso whose title became Caribbean Carnival. She also appeared at the Chicago Theatre in the 1947 revival of the Emperor Jones in the "Witch Doctor" role that Hemsley Winfield made famous. In 1974, she staged Fanga created in 1949 which was a Liberian dance of welcome that quickly made its way into her iconic repertoire. She also staged The Wedding created in 1961.

Martha Graham

an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, her namesake "Contraction and Release" technique is still taught worldwide. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House (invited by the Roosevelts), travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. In 1911, she attended the first dance performance of her life, watching Ruth St. Denis perform at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles, with whom she began her studies at the newly created Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. Among other performances, together Mamoulian and she produced a short two-color film called The Flute of Krishna, featuring Eastman students. Following her first concert made up of solos, she created Heretic, centering on rejection and highlighting a separation from her early days of choreography. One of her most known pieces that incorporates the American life theme is Appalachian Spring, working with Aaron Copeland on the piece and starring in it herself. Two of her pieces—Cave of Heart and Night Journey —display her intrigue not only with Greek mythology but also with the psyche of a woman. Although invited to the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, she turned it down on the basis of morals, stating that she couldn't perform in a country that had persecuted so many admirable dancers and artists for no reason. In response, she choreographed American Document; expressing American ideals with excerpts from America's most important documents were read. In 1958, her namesake Dance Company premiered the ballet Clytemnestra, the only full-length work in her career. Her last completed ballet was 1990's Maple Leaf Rag. Just before she became sick with pneumonia, she finished the final draft of her autobiography, Blood Memory, which was published posthumously in the fall of 1991. Her dance company is the oldest in America, founded in 1926.

Verdi

an Italian opera composer. In his early operas, he demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco, and similar choruses in later operas, were in the spirit of the movement. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida, with three late masterpieces: his Requiem, and the operas Otello and Falstaff. His operas remain extremely popular, especially the three peaks of his 'middle period': Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata

Alfred Uhry

an American playwright and screenwriter. He has received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing for Driving Miss Daisy, the first in his "Atlanta" trilogy. He adapted it into the screenplay for a 1989 film starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, an adaptation which was awarded the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. The second of the trilogy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, is set in 1939 during the premiere of the film Gone with the Wind, and received the Tony Award for Best Play when produced on Broadway in 1997. The third is the 1998 musical Parade, about the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank. Apples & Oranges premiered on October 10, 2012 about the rediscovery of a sibling relationship. Hia early work was as a lyricist and librettist for a number of commercially unsuccessful musicals, including Little Johnny Jones starring Donny Osmond which ran for one performance. Here's Where I Belong, which closed after one performance on Broadway. They had better success with The Robber Bridegroom, which premiered on Broadway in both and had a year-long national tour and garnered his first Tony Award nomination, for best book of a musical in 1976. America's Sweetheart, with music by Robert Waldman and with the book co-written by him with John Weidman, ran at the Hartford Stage.

Paula Vogel

an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive, which examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest. A productive playwright since the late 1970s, she first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie Award for Best Play in 1992. Other notable plays include Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief, The Oldest Profession, And Baby Makes Seven, Hot 'N Throbbing, and The Mineola Twins. Her play Indecent was a finalist for the 2016 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama.

Mamet

an American playwright, film director, screenwriter and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow. He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway 1970s plays: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His plays Race and The Penitent, respectively, opened on Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017. Feature films that he both wrote and directed include House of Games, Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner and his biggest commercial success Heist. His screenwriting credits include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables, Hoffa, Wag the Dog, and Hannibal. He himself wrote the screenplay for the 1992 adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross, and wrote and directed the 1994 adaptation of his play Oleanna. He was the executive producer and frequent writer for the TV show The Unit.

Kaufman

an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. He started his career as a humor columnist and drama editor/reporter for newspapers. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. His Broadway debut was September 4, 1918 at the Knickerbocker Theatre, with the premiere of the melodrama Someone in the House. He wrote only one play alone, The Butter and Egg Man in 1925. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Of Thee I Sing (with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin) in 1932, and won again in 1937 for the play You Can't Take It with You (with Moss Hart). He also won the Tony Award for Best Director in 1951 for the musical Guys and Dolls. Who also wrote Once in a Lifetime (in which he also performed), Merrily We Roll Along, The Man Who Came to Dinner ( with the song "What Am I To Do" written by Cole Porter specifically for the play) with Moss Hart?

Helen Thomas

an American reporter and author best known for her longtime membership in the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from the start of the Kennedy administration to the second year of the Obama administration. Name this reporter known for her iconic sign-off: "Thank you, Mr. President"

John Webster

an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil, Macabre Violence, and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and work overlapped Shakespeare's

John Wesley

an English cleric, theologian and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. He led the "Holy Club", a society formed for the purpose of the study and the pursuit of a devout Christian life; it had been founded by his brother Charles and counted George Whitefield among its members.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

an English composer. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Using long, smooth lines and modal tonalities derived from folk sources, he deftly fashioned a unique style in the post-Romantic vein. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and The Lark Ascending. Although none of his operas became popular repertoire pieces, his ballet Job: A Masque for Dancing was successful and has been frequently staged.

William Congreve

an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period. He is known for his satirical dialogue and influence on the comedy of manners style. He was also a minor political figure in the British Whig Party. He used the pseudonym Cleophil, under which he published Incognita: or, Love and Duty reconcil'd. His first play The Old Bachelor, was recognized as a success. The second play to be produced was called The Double-Dealer which was not nearly as successful as the first. By the age of thirty, he had written four comedies, including Love for Love, which was nearly as well received as his first major success, and The Way of the World. He wrote one tragedy, The Mourning Bride which was extremely popular at the time of creation but is now one of his least regarded dramas.

Chaucer

an English poet and author. Widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, he is best known for The Canterbury Tales. He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. He also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. Among his many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde.

Sean O'Casey

an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. His parents were Protestants and he was a member of the Church of Ireland, and there is a church called 'Saint Burnupus' in his play Red Roses For Me. As a child, he suffered from poor eyesight, which interfered somewhat with his early education, but taught himself to read and write by the age of thirteen. He left school at fourteen and worked at a variety of jobs, including a nine-year period as a railwayman. As his interest in the Irish nationalist cause grew, he joined the Gaelic League in 1906 and learned the Irish language. Ballads authored around this time featured in the two editions of Songs of the Wren, published in 1918; these included "The Man from the Daily Mail", which, along with "The Grand Oul' Dame Britannia", became Irish rebel music staples. He spent the next five years writing plays. The St Laurence O'Toole National Club commissioned him to write the play The Frost in the Flower. He expanded a previously failed play to three acts and retitled it The Harvest Festival. His first accepted play, The Shadow of a Gunman, was performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. It was followed by Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars. In 1928, W. B. Yeats rejected his fourth play, The Silver Tassie for the Abbey. The plays he wrote after this included the darkly allegorical Within the Gates. The Star Turns Red is a four-act political allegory in which the Star of Bethlehem turns red. Purple Dust follows two wealthy, materialistic English stockbrokers who buy an ancient Irish mansion and attempt to restore it with their wrong notions of Tudor customs and taste. Oak Leaves and Lavender is a propaganda play commemorating the Battle of Britain. After the Second World War he wrote Cock-a-Doodle Dandy, which is perhaps his most beautiful and exciting work. From The Bishop's Bonfire his late plays are studies on the common life in Ireland, "Irish microcosmos", like The Drums of Father Ned. His play The Drums of Father Ned was supposed to go up at the 1958 Dublin Theatre Festival, but the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, refused to give his blessing. In 1965, his autobiography Mirror in My House (the umbrella title under which the six autobiographies he published from 1939 to 1956 were republished, in two large volumes, in 1956) was turned into a film based on his life called Young Cassidy.

Jean Lully

an Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France and became a French subject in 1661. When Louis XIV took over the reins of the government, he was not only named Superintendent of Royal Music but also named Music Master of the Royal Family. He later became director of the Académie Royale de Musique, which was the Royal Opera. Some of his most popular works are his passacailles (passacaglias) and chaconnes, which are dance movements found in many of his works such as Armide or Phaëton. Through his collaboration with playwright Molière, a new music form emerged during the 1660s: the comédie-ballet which combined theater, comedy, incidental music and ballet. He is credited with reinventing opera, inventing the enduring French overture, and making the minuet the dominant dance form of the era. Some of his best works include 'Le Mariage Force' (Forced Marriage)(a comedy ballet in one act with Moliere), 'Pastoral Comique' with Molière, 'Cadmus et Hermione' which popularized the form known as tragedie en music, 'Achille et Polyxène' a tragedy lyrique with Jean Galbert de Campistron, and 'Plaude Laetare Gallia'

Prose Edda

an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been written by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology. It consists of four sections: The Prologue, a euhemerized account of the Norse gods; Gylfaginning, which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál, which continues this format before providing lists of kennings and heiti (approximately 50,000 words); and Háttatal, which discusses the composition of traditional skaldic poetry (approximately 20,000 words).

Cubism

an early 20th-century style and movement in art, especially painting, in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (Montmartre and Montparnasse) or near Paris (Puteaux) during the 1910s and throughout the 1920s. The movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. One primary influence that led to this movement was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne. The "proto" type of this style of art features artworks typically depicting objects in geometric schemas of cubic or conic shapes, with little to no perspective.

The Dinner Party

an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, it functions as a symbolic history of women in civilization. There are 39 elaborate place settings on a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women. Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Theodora of Byzantium, Virginia Woolf, Susan B. Anthony, and Georgia O'Keeffe are among the symbolic guests. Each place setting includes a hand-painted china plate, ceramic cutlery and chalice, and a napkin with an embroidered gold edge. Each plate, except the ones corresponding to Sojourner Truth and Ethel Smyth, depicts a brightly colored, elaborately styled vulva form. The settings rest on elaborately embroidered runners, executed in a variety of needlework styles and techniques. The table stands on The Heritage Floor, made up of more than 2,000 white luster-glazed triangular tiles, each inscribed in gold scripts with the name of one of 998 women and one man who have made a mark on history. (The man, Kresilas, was included by mistake, as he was thought to have been a woman called Cresilla.)

appoggiatura

grace note, approached by leap, left by step

kyogen

meaning "mad words" or "wild speech", it is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. Together with Noh, it is part of Nōgaku theatre; it was traditionally performed between two Noh plays, like a Greek satyr play between 2 tragedies. It also featured stock characters, like the Italian comic form of commedia dell'arte, which developed around the same period. These plays are invariably brief - often about 10 minutes, and often contain only two or three roles, which are often stock characters. Notable ones include Tarō kaja (main servant), Jirō kaja (second servant) and the master (shujin). Movements and expressions are exaggerated, plots are kept simple, and all actors are male. Unlike Noh, the only actors that wear masks are those playing animals or gods.

Ganesha

one of the best-known and most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon. Devotion to him is widely diffused and extends to Jains and Buddhists. He is also popular in Japan as Kangiten. He is readily identified by his elephant head. He is widely revered, more specifically, as the remover of obstacles; the patron of arts and sciences; and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rites and ceremonies. He is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Hindu mythology identifies him as the restored son of Parvati and Shiva. In the Ganapatya tradition of Hinduism, he is the supreme deity. The principal texts on him include the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Brahma Purana and Brahmanda Purana

Artemis

the Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon and chastity. The goddess Diana is her Roman equivalent. She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the patron and protector of young girls. She was worshipped as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia. Much like Athena and Hestia, she preferred to remain a maiden and is sworn never to marry. Her temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Her symbols included a bow and arrow, a quiver and hunting knives and the deer and the cypress were sacred to her. Most stories depict her as firstborn, becoming her mother's midwife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. As a virgin, she had interested many gods and men, but only her hunting companion Orion won her heart. Orion was accidentally killed either by herself or by Gaia. Multiple versions of the Actaeon myth survive, though many are fragmentary. The details vary but at the core, they involve the great hunter Actaeon whom she turns into a stag for a transgression, and who is then killed by hunting dogs.

Fortuna

the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Renaissance. The blindfolded depiction of her is still an important figure in many aspects of today's Italian culture, where the dichotomy plays a prominent role in everyday social life, also represented by the common refrain "The goddess of Luck is blind". She is often depicted with a gubernaculum (ship's rudder), a ball or Rota Fortunae (wheel of fortune, first mentioned by Cicero) and a cornucopia (horn of plenty). She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind. She came to represent life's capriciousness.

Dalai Lama

the highest spiritual leader of Tibet, and considered a living Bodhisattva, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. They are also leaders of the Gelug school, which is the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism and was formally headed by the Ganden Tripas. From the time of the 5th to 1959, the central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the position with temporal duties. The current holder of this position is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 1989, and the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2006. Time magazine named him one of the "Children of Mahatma Gandhi" and Gandhi's spiritual heir to nonviolence. The current one, the 14th, is Tenzin Gyatso, and has been since his enthronement in 1940.

The Cherry Orchard

the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by Znaniye. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, though Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. One of the main themes of the play is the effect social change has on people. The play revolves around an aristocratic Russian landowner, Madame Ranyevskaya, who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf, Lopakhin; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down. The first and last scenes of the play open with a view of the estate's nursery. The play ends with the sound of trees being chopped down offstage. The play opens in May, inside the cherry orchard estate; friends, neighbors, and servants are preparing for the long-awaited return of Madame Ranevsky, the mistress of the house, and her daughter Anya. She had been gone to France following the drowning of her son. Lopakhin tells of his own success in contrast with Firs; a serf who is still a servant. Act I introduces many subplots: a romance between the tutor Trophimof and Anya, another hopeful romance between her sister Barbara and wealthy Lopakhin, a love triangle between the servants Dunyasha, Yasha, and Ephikhodof, the debt of the neighbor Pishtchik, the class struggles of Lopakhin and Firs, the isolation of Charlotte, etc. The main intrigue of the play, however, hinges on Madame Ranevsky's debt. On the night of the auction, no solution has arrived. Madame Ranevsky holds a ball. Lopakhin has bought the cherry orchard. Barbara is furious, and Madame Ranevsky is devastated. Act IV shows Madame Ranevsky leaving the cherry orchard for the last time. Lopakhin has bought champagne, but no one except the uppity servant Yasha will drink it. In the last moment, we hear axes cutting down the orchard, and Firs stumbles on to stage, forgotten, locked in the house. He lies down to rest and presumably dies.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

the name of a 1973 musical stage production and cult classic 1975 musical comedy horror film. The film bears a cult following, still running today, while the stage production was far from a broadway success, with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. The film was by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. It is considered a humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. a criminologist tells the story of a newly engaged couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, a self-proclaimed "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania", unveiling his new creation, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man named Rocky, complete "with blond hair and a tan". Among other characters include Eddie (an ex-delivery boy, both Frank's ex-lover and Columbia's current partner, partial brain donor to Rocky who is killed shortly after his introduction, deemed a "mercy killing" by Frank), Columbia, a groupie and Eddie's current partner, and servants Riff Raff and Magenta. Brad and Janet's old high school science teacher, Dr. Everett V. Scott, has come looking for his nephew, Eddie. A lot of weird plot twists happen including a cabaret number, the servants revealing they are aliens, and ends with the survivors crawling in the dirt,the narrator concluding that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface, "lost in time, and lost in space... and meaning".

Avesta

the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism. The texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the Yasna, which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the Yasna text is recited. The most important portion are the 5 Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with 5 other short Old texts that are also part of the Yasna, are in the Old (or 'Gathic') language. The remainder of the Yasna's texts are in Younger, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad and the Visperad.

libretto

the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.

Major General Stanley

the very model of a modern major general in the Pirates of Penzance. He is laden with learned lumber, though a bit behind in his military knowledge. His numerous daughters adore him, and he loves them so much that he tells a lie to save them from the pirates. His conscience torments him. When the pirates learn that he is not an orphan, as he had told them, his life is imperiled, but he is spared, and his daughters marry the pirates, who are all noblemen gone wrong. He is father to Mabel, Edith, Kate and Isabel