Task: Question Answering
Input (English): Context_1 : James Albert Michener ( ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. Michener was known for the popularity of his works; he had numerous bestsellers and works selected for Book of the Month Club. He was also known for his meticulous research behind the books. Context_2 : The Killer (French: Tueur sans gages , sometimes translated "The Killer without Reason" or "The Killer without Cause") is a play written by Eugène Ionesco in 1958. It is the first of Ionesco's Berenger plays, the others being "Rhinocéros" (1959), "Exit the King" (1962), and "A Stroll in the Air" (1963). Context_3 : La Cantatrice Chauve — translated from French as The Bald Soprano or The Bald Prima Donna — is the first play written by Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco. Context_4 : The New Tenant (French: "Le Nouveau Locataire" ) is a play written by Eugène Ionesco in 1955. The central image is common to many Ionesco plays: something accumulates on stage and overwhelms the characters. In this case its furniture. The main characters are a gentleman, a caretaker, and two movers. The caretaker talks as the gentleman, the "new tenant" of the title, directs the two movers who continuously bring in furniture. Context_5 : Exit the King (French: Le Roi se meurt ) is an absurdist drama by Eugène Ionesco that premiered in 1962. It is the third in Ionesco's "Berenger Cycle", preceded by "The Killer" (1958) and "Rhinocéros" (1959), and followed by "A Stroll in the Air" (1963). Context_6 : Eugène Ionesco (born Eugen Ionescu, ] ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, Ionesco's plays depict the solitude and insignificance of human existence in a tangible way. Context_7 : Jerzy Marian Grotowski (] ; 11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was an innovative Polish theatre director and theorist whose approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rzeszów, in South-eastern Poland in 1933 and studied acting and directing at the Ludwik Solski Academy of Dramatic Arts in Kraków and Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow. He debuted as a director in 1959 in Kraków with Eugène Ionesco's play "Chairs" and shortly afterwards founded a small Laboratory Theatre in 1959 in the town of Opole in Poland. During the 1960s, the company began to tour internationally and his work attracted increasing interest. As his work gained wider acclaim and recognition, Grotowski was invited to work in the United States and he left Poland in 1982. Although the company he founded in Poland closed a few years later in 1984, he continued to teach and direct productions in Europe and America. However, Grotowski became increasingly uncomfortable with the adoption and adaptation of his ideas and practices, particularly in the US. So, at what seemed to be the height of his public profile, he left America and moved to Italy where he established the Grotowski Workcenter in 1985 in Pontedera, near Pisa. At this centre he continued his theatre experimentation and practice and it was here that he continued to direct training and private theatrical events almost in secret for the last twenty years of his life. Suffering from leukemia and a heart condition, he died in 1999 at his home in Pontedera. Context_8 : Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an influential editor, publisher, and translator of contemporary American literature. He is perhaps best known for his project "The New American Poetry 1945-1960" (1960), among the several important anthologies of contemporary American innovative writing he made available to the public. Allen began his working life as a Japanese translator within the US military, serving in WWII. After his military service, Allen became an editor at Grove Press, where he worked for sixteen years. He was one of the first translators of the Romanian-French Absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco, and Allen's 1958 volume "Four Plays of Eugène Ionesco" helped to introduce the playwright to American audiences in the 1960s. Context_9 : Victims of Duty (French: Victimes du Devoir ) is a one-act play written in 1953 by French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco. An early work, it has not received the notoriety of his other works. The play is in the Theatre of the Absurd style, of which Ionesco was a pioneer. Context_10 : The Lesson (French: "La Leçon" ) is a one-act play by French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco. It was first performed in 1951 in a production directed by Marcel Cuvelier (who also played the Professor). Since 1957 it has been in permanent showing at Paris' Théâtre de la Huchette, on an Ionesco double-bill with The Bald Soprano. The play is regarded as an important work in the "Theatre of the Absurd". fact_1 : Eugène Ionesco (born Eugen Ionescu, ] ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and one of the foremost figures of the French Avant-garde theatre. fact_2 : James Albert Michener ( ; February 3, 1907 – October 16, 1997) was an American author of more than 40 books, most of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. Question: Were Eugène Ionesco and James A. Michener from the same country?
Output (English): no