Christopher Durang, André Aciman
Der amerikanische Dramatiker und Schauspieler Christopher Durang wurde am 2. Januar 1949 in Montclair, New Jersey, geboren. Nachdem Durang eine katholische Schule besucht hatte, wechselte er auf das Harvard College und später auf die Yale School of Drama. Durangs Werke, in denen er vor allem Kindesmißbrauch, die Dogmen und die Lehren der katholischen Kirche und Homosexualität thematisiert, sind vor allem bei Theaterstudenten und Anhängern des alternativen politischen Theaters beliebt. Einige seiner Stücke wurden auch am Broadway inszeniert. Für seine Arbeit und seine Werke hat Durang diverse Preise und Ehrungen erfahren. So erhielt er zwei Obie Awards und war für den „Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical“ nominiert. Er ist Mitglied der Dramatists Guild of America und an der Juilliard School mit zuständig für das Playwriting Program. 2006 wurde er für Miss Witherspoon für den Pulitzer Preis nominiert.
Aus: 'dentity Crisis
JANE. (at piano) I don't remember taking piano lessons.
SUMMERS. Maybe you've repressed it. My wife gave me the message about your attempting suicide. Why did you do it, Jane?
JANE. I can't stand it. My mother says she's invented cheese and I start to think maybe she has. There's a man living in th ehouse and I'm not sure whether he's my brohter or my father or my grandfather. I can't be sure of anything anymore.
SUMMERS. You're talking quite rationally now. And your self-doubts are a sign of health. The truly crazy person never thinks he's crazy. Now explain to me what led up to your attempted suicide.
JANE. Well, a few days ago I woke up and I heard this voice saying, "It wasn't enough."
SUMMERS. Did you recognize the voice?
JANE. Not at first. But then it started to come back to m e. When I was eight years old, someone brought me to a theatre with lots of other children. We had come to see a production of Peter Pan. And I remember something seemed wrong with the whole production, odd things kept happening. Like when the children would fly, the ropes would keep breaking and the actors would come thumping to the ground and they'd have to be carried off by the stagehands. There seemed to be an unlimited supply of understudies to take the children's places, and then they'd fall to the ground. And then the crocodile that chases Captain Hook seemed to be a real crocodile, it wasn't an actor, and at one point it fell off the stage, crushing several children in the front row.
SUMMERS. What happened to the children?
JANE. Several understudies came and took their places in the audience. And from scene to scene Wendy seemed to get fatter and fatter until finally by the second act she was immobile and had to be moved with a cart.
SUMMERS. Where does the voice fit in?"
Christopher Durang (Montclair, 2. Januar 1949)
Der egyptische Schrifsteller Andre Aciman wurde am 2. Januar 1951 in Alexandria geboren. Er zog mit seiner Familie 1965 zunächst nach Italien, dann nach Frankreich und schließlich nach New York. Er studierte Komparatistik in Harvard, lehrt Französisch am Bard College und schreibt für verschiedene New Yorker Zeitungen. Aciman lebt in Manhattan.
Uit: Letters of Transit
“On a late spring morning in New York City almost two years ago, while walking on Broadway, I suddenly noticed that something terrible had happened to Straus Park. The small park, located just where Broadway intersects West End Avenue on West 106th Street, was being fenced off. A group of workers, wearing orange reflector shins, were manning all kinds of equipment, and next to what must have been some sort of portable comfort station was a large electrical generator. Straus Park was being dismantled, demolished.
Not that Straus Park was such a wonderful place to begin with. Its wooden benches were dirty, rotting, and perennially littered with pigeon droppings. You'd think twice before sitting, and if you did sit you'd want to leave immediately. It had also become a favorite hangout for the homeless, the drunk, and the addicted. Over the years the old cobblestone pavement had turned into an undulating terrain of dents and bulges, mostly cracked, with missing pieces sporadically replaced by tar or cement, the whole thing blanketed by a deep, drab, dirty gray. Finally, the emptied basin of what used to be a fountain had turned into something resembling a septic sandbox. Unlike the fountains of Rome, this one, like the park itself, was a down-and-out affair. Never a drop flowed from it. The fountain had been turned off decades ago.“
André Aciman (Alexandrië, 2. Januar 1951)
Aus: 'dentity Crisis
JANE. (at piano) I don't remember taking piano lessons.
SUMMERS. Maybe you've repressed it. My wife gave me the message about your attempting suicide. Why did you do it, Jane?
JANE. I can't stand it. My mother says she's invented cheese and I start to think maybe she has. There's a man living in th ehouse and I'm not sure whether he's my brohter or my father or my grandfather. I can't be sure of anything anymore.
SUMMERS. You're talking quite rationally now. And your self-doubts are a sign of health. The truly crazy person never thinks he's crazy. Now explain to me what led up to your attempted suicide.
JANE. Well, a few days ago I woke up and I heard this voice saying, "It wasn't enough."
SUMMERS. Did you recognize the voice?
JANE. Not at first. But then it started to come back to m e. When I was eight years old, someone brought me to a theatre with lots of other children. We had come to see a production of Peter Pan. And I remember something seemed wrong with the whole production, odd things kept happening. Like when the children would fly, the ropes would keep breaking and the actors would come thumping to the ground and they'd have to be carried off by the stagehands. There seemed to be an unlimited supply of understudies to take the children's places, and then they'd fall to the ground. And then the crocodile that chases Captain Hook seemed to be a real crocodile, it wasn't an actor, and at one point it fell off the stage, crushing several children in the front row.
SUMMERS. What happened to the children?
JANE. Several understudies came and took their places in the audience. And from scene to scene Wendy seemed to get fatter and fatter until finally by the second act she was immobile and had to be moved with a cart.
SUMMERS. Where does the voice fit in?"
Christopher Durang (Montclair, 2. Januar 1949)
Der egyptische Schrifsteller Andre Aciman wurde am 2. Januar 1951 in Alexandria geboren. Er zog mit seiner Familie 1965 zunächst nach Italien, dann nach Frankreich und schließlich nach New York. Er studierte Komparatistik in Harvard, lehrt Französisch am Bard College und schreibt für verschiedene New Yorker Zeitungen. Aciman lebt in Manhattan.
Uit: Letters of Transit
“On a late spring morning in New York City almost two years ago, while walking on Broadway, I suddenly noticed that something terrible had happened to Straus Park. The small park, located just where Broadway intersects West End Avenue on West 106th Street, was being fenced off. A group of workers, wearing orange reflector shins, were manning all kinds of equipment, and next to what must have been some sort of portable comfort station was a large electrical generator. Straus Park was being dismantled, demolished.
Not that Straus Park was such a wonderful place to begin with. Its wooden benches were dirty, rotting, and perennially littered with pigeon droppings. You'd think twice before sitting, and if you did sit you'd want to leave immediately. It had also become a favorite hangout for the homeless, the drunk, and the addicted. Over the years the old cobblestone pavement had turned into an undulating terrain of dents and bulges, mostly cracked, with missing pieces sporadically replaced by tar or cement, the whole thing blanketed by a deep, drab, dirty gray. Finally, the emptied basin of what used to be a fountain had turned into something resembling a septic sandbox. Unlike the fountains of Rome, this one, like the park itself, was a down-and-out affair. Never a drop flowed from it. The fountain had been turned off decades ago.“
André Aciman (Alexandrië, 2. Januar 1951)
froumen - 2. Jan, 13:50
