bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Homometric model sets and window covariograms
Authors: Baake Michael , Grimm Uwe
Published: January 2007

Two Delone sets are called homometric when they share the same autocorrelation or Patterson measure. A model set Λ within a given cut and project scheme is a Delone set that is defined through a window W in internal space. The autocorrelation measure of Λ is a pure point measure whose coefficients can be calculated via the so-called covariogram of W. Two windows with the same covariogram thus result in homometric model sets. On the other hand, the inverse problem of determining Λ from its diffraction image ultimately amounts to reconstructing W from its covariogram. This is also known as Matheron’s covariogram problem. It is well studied in convex geometry, where certain uniqueness results have been obtained in recent years. However, for non-convex windows, uniqueness fails in a relevant way, so that interesting applications to the homometry problem emerge. We discuss this in a simple setting and show a planar example of distinct homometric model sets.
Alterations in epigenetic modifications during oocyte growth in mice
Authors: Kageyama Shun-ichiro , Liu Honglin , Kaneko Naoto , Ooga Masatoshi , Nagata Masao , Aoki Fugaku
Published: January 2007

During oocyte growth, chromatin structure is altered globally and gene expression is silenced. To investigate the involvement of epigenetic modifications in the regulation of these phenomena, changes in global DNA methylation and in various histone modifications, i.e. acetylation of H3K9, H3K18, H4K5, and H4K12, and methylation of H3K4 and H3K9, were examined during the growth of mouse oocytes. Immunocytochemical analysis revealed that the signal intensities of all these modifications increased during growth and that fully grown, germinal vesicle (GV)-stage oocytes showed the most modifications. Since acetylation of most of the lysine residues on histones and methylation of H3K4 are associated with active gene expression, the increased levels of these modifications do not seem to be associated with gene silencing in GV-stage oocytes. Given that there are two types of GV-stage oocytes with different chromatin configurations and transcriptional activities, the epigenetic modification statuses of these two types were compared. The levels of all the epigenetic modifications examined were higher in the SN(surrounded nucleolus)-type oocytes, in which highly condensed chromatin is concentrated in the area around the nucleolus and gene expression is silenced than in the NSN(not surrounded nucleolus)-type oocytes, in which less-condensed chromatin does not surround the nucleolus and gene expression is active. In addition, the expression levels of various enzymes that catalyze histone modifications were shown by RT-PCR to increase with oocyte growth. Taken together, the results show that all of the epigenetic modifications increased in a concerted manner during oocyte growth, and suggest that these increases are not associated with gene expression.
Full-scale reinforced embankment on deep jet mixing improved ground
Authors: Lai Y. P. , Bergado D. T. , Lorenzo G. A. , Duangchan T.
Published: January 2007

A 6 m high reinforced embankment constructed on deep-mixing improved soft Bangkok clay is presented. The jet mixing method with cement slurry employing a jet pressure of 20 MPa was utilised in the installation of deep mixing piles. Surface settlements and lateral movements were monitored during and after construction. The deep mixing improvement has effectively reduced the settlement by as much as 70%. The differential settlement between pile and soil ranged from 8 to 20% of the average settlement. Moreover, the back analysis confirmed the laboratory investigation that the soil–cement pile installed by jet mixing can have a higher after-curing void ratio and, consequently, higher permeability and coefficient of consolidation. Finally, the higher permeability ratios, Kv,p/Kv,c, of 30 and 40 were confirmed from numerical and analytical back analyses, respectively.

Une berge renforcée de 6 m de hauteur, construite sur une argile tendre de Bangkok améliorée par mixage profond fait l'objet de cette étude. Nous avons utilisé la méthode de mixage par injection de ciment liquide, sous une pression de 20 MPa, dans l'installation de piles à mixage profond. Les affaissements de surface et les mouvements latéraux ont été suivis pendant et après la construction. L'amélioration par mixage profond a effectivement réduit de 70% l'affaissement. L'affaissement différentiel entre pile et sol représente 8 à 20% de l'affaissement moyen. De plus, la rétro-analyse a confirmé l'étude en laboratoire montrant que la pile sol-ciment installée par mixage à injection peut avoir un taux de pore plus élevé après cuisson et, en conséquence, une perméabilité et un coefficient de consolidation plus élevés. Enfin, des taux plus élevés de perméabilité, Kv;p/Kv;c, de 30 et 40, ont été confirmés par les rétro analyses numériques et analytiques respectivement.
Stabilisation of granular media and formation soil using geosynthetics with special reference to railway engineering
Authors: Indraratna B. , Shahin M. A. , Salim W.
Published: January 2007

Railway ballast breaks down and deteriorates progressively under train cyclic loading, and soft formation soil fails due to repetitive stress, leading to costly rail track maintenance. Using geosynthetics, track conditions can be improved and maintenance costs can be reduced. This paper addresses the potential use of geosynthetics for improving the deformation characteristics of rail ballast and formation soil. The prospective use of different types of geosynthetics was investigated using a large-scale prismoidal triaxial rig, and a plane strain finite element analysis (PLAXIS) of the rig was carried out to obtain the optimum location of geosynthetics in rail track substructure. A large-scale consolidometer was also employed to determine the effect of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) in optimising the accelerated primary consolidation of track soft formation. This paper also includes a section where recommendations are made on how to prepare the stability of rail tracks on surface formation soils considerably disturbed/remoulded by the Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka. The research findings reveal that geosynthetics have a good potential for resilient track construction and for reducing the cost of track maintenance.

Le ballast d'infrastructure ferroviaire se fracture et se détériore progressivement sous le chargement cyclique des trains et le sol de formation molle se fracture en raison de la charge répétée. Ces dégradations sont à l'origine d'une maintenance coûteuse des voies ferrées. Les conditions de ces infrastructures peuvent s'améliorer et le coût de leur maintenance diminuer grâce à l'utilisation de la géosynthétique. Cet article illustre l'application potentielle de la géosynthétique pour l'amélioration des caractéristiques de déformation du ballast des voies ferroviaires et du sol de formation. L'utilisation prospective de différents types de géosynthétique est étudiée au moyen d'un montage triaxial prismoïde et une analyse en éléments finis en déformation plane (PLAXIS) du montage est réalisée pour obtenir l'emplacement optimal de la géosynthétique au niveau de la sous-structure de la voie ferrée. Un consolidomètre de grande échelle a également permis de déterminer le role des drains verticaux préfabriqués (DVP) dans l'optimisation de la consolidation primaire accélérée de la formation molle de la voie. L'article présente également une section comportant des recommandations sur les moyens de préparer la stabilité des voies ferrées sur le sols de formation en surface considérablement perturbés / remodelés par le tsunami asiatique qui a touché le Sri Lanka. Les résultats de ces travaux indiquent que la géosynthétique se révèle prometteuse en termes de construction de voies ferrées é lastiques et de réduction des coûts de maintenance des voies.
How Does Plant Population Density Affect the Yield, Quality, and Canopy of Native Bluestem (Andropogon spp.) Forage?
Authors: Springer T. L. , Gillen R. L.
Published: January 2007

The density at which a crop is grown is known to affect its growth and quality, but little is known about how plant density affects the growth of native perennial forage grasses. The objectives were to investigate the effects of plant population density on the forage yield, forage quality, and plant canopy structure of two native bluestem species. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman) and sand bluestem (A. hallii Hack.) were established at six plant densities (1.2, 1.8, 2.7, 3.6, 5.4, and 10.8 plants m−2) in a split plot experiment with whole plots in four randomized blocks. Plant density was the main plot and bluestem species was the split plot. Data were analyzed with a mixed model analysis of variance with blocks within year as random effects and year as a repeated measure. The optimum plant density for forage production was between 3.6 and 5.4 plants m−2 However, the optimum for crude protein (CP) concentration occurred at 1.2 and 10.8 plants m−2 and followed a quadratic response as plant density increased. The greatest leaf area index (LAI; leaf area per square meter) was at 10.8 plants m−2 At 10.8 plants m−2, the average yield loss from maximum was about 8.5% dry matter (DM). Also, the CP concentration was 8.5% greater for plants grown at 10.8 plants m−2 than for those grown at 3.6 to 5.4 plants m−2 A plant density of 10.8 plants m−2 would produce high quality forage with only slight reductions in DM yield as compared with plants grown at 3.6 to 5.4 plants m−2
QTL Associated with Yield in Three Backcross‐Derived Populations of Soybean
Authors: Guzman P. S. , Diers B. W. , Neece D. J. , St. Martin S. K. , LeRoy A. R. , Grau C. R. , Hughes T. J. , Nelson R. L.
Published: January 2007

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] plant introductions (PIs) are potential sources of useful genes for breeding. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) for yield and other agronomic traits, and determined QTL × environment (QTL × E) and epistatic interactions for yield in three backcross (BC) populations. The populations were developed using PIs as donor parents and ‘Beeson 80’, ‘Kenwood’, and ‘Lawrence’ as recurrent parents (RP). Sixty‐eight BC2F5‐derived lines in the Beeson 80 population, 74 BC1F5‐derived lines in the Kenwood population, and 94 BC3F2‐derived lines in the Lawrence population were tested along with the RP and checks in 2003 and 2004. Nineteen QTL for three other agronomic traits were identified, as well as 13 yield QTL. The yield‐increasing allele was from the PI parent for eight yield QTL. Yield‐increasing alleles were associated with delayed maturity for three yield QTL, and one allele was associated with increased lodging and plant height. All yield QTL mapped to regions where yield QTL have been reported previously. The significant QTL × E interaction was due to undetectable or weak QTL effects in some environments. Nine digenic interactions for yield were detected in the Kenwood population, and were mostly between loci exhibiting epistatic effects only. Our results support previous findings that the current elite North American soybean gene pool is more diverse than would have been predicted by the number of contributing ancestors.
Genetic Analysis of Corn Kernel Chemical Composition in the Random Mated 7 Generation of the Cross of Generations 70 of IHP × ILP
Authors: Dudley J. W. , Clark Darryl , Rocheford Torbert R. , LeDeaux John R.
Published: January 2007

To identify and characterize quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting kernel weight and concentrations of protein, oil, and starch in the corn (Zea mays L.) kernel, plants from generations 70 of the Illinois High Protein (IHP) and Illinois Low Protein (ILP) strains, previously developed by divergent selection for kernel protein concentration, were crossed. The cross was random mated (RM) seven generations and selfed twice to develop 500 F1RM7S2 lines. The lines per se were evaluated at three locations with two replications for 2 yr and testcrosses were evaluated at three locations in 1 yr. Genotypes were evaluated using 499 SNP markers on DNA from a bulk of leaf tissue from each line. As the parent plants used to make the original cross were not available for genotyping, previously reported multivariable and modified simple interval mapping (SIM) procedures were used. SIM identified more significant regions for all traits than did single marker analysis. Correlations and signs of QTL effects suggest development of high protein–high starch lines would be difficult but that it should be possible to develop high protein–high oil lines with minimal effects on kernel weight. The identification of a large number of QTL (at least 40 each for oil, protein, starch, and kernel weight) with small effects agrees in general with earlier estimates based on quantitative genetic theory and has implications for breeding strategies for improved corn kernel quality traits.
Gene Flow and Genetic Structure in the Wild–Weedy–Domesticated Complex of Phaseolus lunatus L. in its Mesoamerican Center of Domestication and Diversity
Authors: Martínez-Castillo Jaime , Zizumbo-Villarreal Daniel , Gepts Paul , Colunga-GarcíaMarín Patricia
Published: January 2007

The role of gene flow in autogamous domesticated species diversity and their wild relatives is an issue that requires more field data. Using nine microsatellite loci, an analysis was done of the magnitude and direction of gene flow in the wild–weedy–domesticated complex of Phaseolus lunatus L. under traditional agricultural conditions in four regions on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, its center of domestication and diversity in Mesoamerica. Two complementary methods were used. The Bayesian genotype assignment approach showed that recent gene flow was low at both the intraregional and interregional levels. The same was found with the frequency method for long‐term gene flow (Nm intraregional from 0.31 to 0.51, and Nm interregional = 0.44). In addition, the gene flow from domesticate to wild populations was three times higher than in the opposite direction. This asymmetry can be explained by regional agricultural practices and seed selection criteria. Domesticate alleles were shown to be entering wild populations of different agricultural regions, suggesting exchange of domesticated seed between farmers of different regions. These results are very important because they show that P. lunatus on the Yucatan Peninsula has a predominantly domesticate to wild gene flow. This situation may lead to genetic assimilation of wild lima bean by its domesticated counterpart and may lead to the possible escape of transgenes in this center of origin and diversity.
Genetic Mapping Forage Yield, Plant Height, and Regrowth at Multiple Harvests in Tetraploid Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)
Authors: Robins Joseph G. , Bauchan Gary R. , Brummer E. Charles
Published: January 2007

Hybrids between Medicago sativa subsp. falcata and M. sativa subsp. sativa can result in high levels of heterosis for alfalfa forage production. However, commercially viable alfalfa cultivars also must have acceptable performance for other agronomic traits, including regrowth following harvest and appropriate autumn dormancy. In this study, we characterized an F1 population derived from the cross of the two subspecies for the genetics of forage production, forage height, and forage regrowth at three harvests in two Iowa locations for 1 yr. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling these traits were mapped on a genetic linkage map developed from this population. Broad‐sense heritabilities and genetic correlations among the traits were high. Marker alleles associated with QTLs for these traits were contributed by each parental genome, suggesting that both subspecies of cultivated alfalfa may contribute to the improvement of these traits. Multiple regression models accounted for between 11 and 44% of the trait variation. The most marker–trait associations were detected during the first harvest. Marker effects were generally similar across harvests. Markers associated with autumn regrowth tended to be different from those associated with regrowth earlier in the season, suggestive of the identification of autumn dormancy effects. The winter hardiness gene MsaciB is a candidate locus for yield and regrowth, being associated with yield across three harvests and with autumn regrowth. A subset of alleles was associated with more than one of the traits. Major alleles for the three traits appear to reside primarily on linkage groups (LGs) 3, 4, 5, and 7.
Characterization of Soybean Exhibiting High Expression of a SyntheticBacillus thuringiensis cry1ATransgene That Confers a High Degree of Resistance to Lepidopteran Pests
Authors: Miklos John A. , Alibhai Murtaza F. , Bledig Stefan A. , Connor-Ward Dannette C. , Gao Ai -Guo , Holmes Beth A. , Kolacz Kathryn H. , Kabuye Victor T. , MacRae Ted C. , Paradise Mark S. , Toedebusch Andrea S. , Harrison Leslie A.
Published: January 2007

We report the generation of transgenic soybean [Glycine max(L.) Merr.] viaAgrobacterium‐mediated gene transfers of acry1Agene (tic107) fromBacillus thuringiensis(Bt) that exhibits a high degree of resistance against the lepidopteran pestsPseudoplusia includens(Walker) (soybean looper),Helicoverpa zea(Boddie) (soybean podworm), andAnticarsia gemmatalisHübner (velvetbean caterpillar). Three transgenic soybean lines (862, 726, and 781) were evaluated for expression, molecular composition, efficacy against target pests, and agronomic characteristics. We have designed and tested an expression cassette that consistently and reproducibly generates transgenic soybeans that accumulate the tic107 protein at levels as high as 6.12 μg mg−1of total extractable protein. Expression levels of this magnitude of aBtinsecticidal protein have never been reported in soybean. Previous reports have indicated expression levels 100‐fold lower in the highest‐expressing lines. In addition, the phenotypes of these high‐expressing lines were indistinguishable from their negative segregant and the transformation parent (Asgrow var. ‘A3237’). Insect bioassay data demonstrate complete protection against soybean looper, soybean podworm, and velvetbean caterpillar when negative controls exhibited defoliation as high as 98%. Unlike previous reports of transgenic soybeans, we report here highly efficacious, single‐copy, and normal phenotypes of transgenic soybean plants containing the highly expressedcry1Agene.
Antioxidant Responses of Creeping Bentgrass Roots to Waterlogging
Authors: Wang Kehua , Jiang Yiwei
Published: January 2007

Antioxidant enzymes protect plant cells from oxidative injury induced by hypoxia. The objective of this study was to identify the responses of antioxidant enzymes to different depths of waterlogging (WL) in creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) roots. ‘Penncross’ and ‘G‐6’ were subjected to 21 d of WL at 1 cm (WL‐1) and 15 cm (WL‐15) below the soil surface, respectively. The turf quality of Penncross was not acceptable under both WL conditions, while G‐6 had an acceptable quality of 6.5 under WL‐15. The activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) increased by 32 and 26% for Penncross and 83 and 44% for G‐6 under WL‐15 and WL‐1, respectively. One isoform of Mn‐SOD and three isoforms of Cu/Zn‐SOD were identified in both cultivars under all treatments. The activity of ascorbate peroxidase (AP) significantly decreased by 46 and 40% for Penncross, while AP activity decreased 25% and increased 9% for G‐6 under WL‐1 and WL‐15, respectively. One isoform of AP was identified with strong intensity in both cultivars under all treatments. The content of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA, 1,1,3,3‐tetramethoxypropane) and the activities of glutathione reductase (GR) and peroxidase (POD) were not affected by WL for both cultivars. These results indicated that SOD and AP were mainly involved in WL‐induced antioxidant responses, and the partial WL could also significantly affect root antioxidant activities, particularly in WL‐sensitive cultivar.
Arthur Miller: Man and His Image
Authors: Weales Gerald
Published: January 2007

Arthur Miller is one of those playwrights, like Thornton Wilder, whose reputation rests on a handful of plays. The quality of that reputation changes from year to year, from critic to critic, but now, five years after the production of his most recent play (the revision of A View from the Bridge), it is generally conceded—even by those who persist in not admiring his work—that Miller is one of the two playwrights of the postwar American theatre who deserve any consideration as major dramatists. Tennessee Williams is the other.

There are many ways of approaching Miller's work. In the late Forties, after All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, popular reviewers tended to embrace him enthusiastically while consciously intellectual critics, displaying the carefulness of their kind, hoped that in explaining him they might explain him away.
The Problem of Judith
Authors: Dirks Mary Douglas
Published: January 2007

Our misery is undeserved—we loved her. Judith created her own; she loved herself.

—Judith, Act III, scene 1

Judith, written by Jean Giraudoux in 1931, and predecessor of Elèctre (1937), Sodome et Gomorrhe (1943), and Pour Lucrèce (1944), is the only one of his plays which Giraudoux himself labeled a tragedy. Critics of the work have not denied him this label, although views of what constitutes the tragedy differ widely. One of Judith’s translators rather frivolously calls it “a fable of sex and God.” A German writer terms it a tragedy of Nature wronged, with God the Worm, destroyer of all things, as the ultimate villain. It has been called “a magnificent tragedy of spoliation,” as well as “the most profound and the most ambiguous of all of Giraudoux’ plays.“ And finally, Mr. Bert M-P. Leefmans regards Judith as the 20th century’s cry of despair from a sink of iniquity, or, as he puts it: “In Judith … the Fall is total, the beasts take over from mankind, and Judith … chooses, or is forced, merely to survive.“
The “Infernal Dialogue” of Giraudoux and Sartre
Authors: Pucciani Oreste F.
Published: January 2007

The professional critic, says Jean-Paul Sartre, too often sees literature as a perpetual conversation between Pascal and Montaigne. Like Joan of Arc he has his voices. Across the ages he hears the clamoring of Voltaire and Rousseau, Heine and Madame de Staël, Gide and Malraux. It is an “infernal dialogue” since it leads nowhere. Its purpose is never to make Pascal and Montaigne come alive, but to kill off Gide and Malraux.

This is brilliant and even true. Yet there is another truth. There is a dialogue, equally infernal, which is action and debate. The dialogue to which Sartre refers is most frequently only a monologue in which the critic has substituted his own voice, his own predetermined unifying point of view, for the opposing voices of two contestants. But the dialogue which is pursued within the rigorous confines of a restrictive truth cannot become a monologue.
Beyond Bourgeois Theatre
Authors: Sartre Jean-Paul
Published: January 2007

The bourgeoisie has been in control of the theatre for about 150 years now First of all, it controls it by the price of land, which rose so sharply in the 19th century that, as you know, the workers left the city, resulting in buildings and entire quarters belonging to the bourgeois the theatres are almost all located in the center of the city. The bourgeoisie controls the theatre by the price of tickets which rose steadily in order to make the theatre a profit making enterprise. In France it also controls it by centralization, so that in just those cities where contact with a varied audience would be possible, plays do not come or come much later on tour. Finally, it controls it through the critics. It is an error to contrast the newspaper critic with the public. The critic is the mirror of his public. If he writes nonsense, it is because the public which reads the news paper will speak nonsense too therefore, it would be futile to oppose one to the other.
Les Séquestrés d' Altona of Jean-Paul Sartre
Authors: Pucciani Oreste F.
Published: January 2007

A new play by Jean-Paul Sartre is always an important and controversial event. At fifty-five Sartre is for many, however prematurely, the “grand old man” of French letters. There are, however, others who see in Sartre the supreme nihilist who has failed of artistic achievement for lack of a unifying faith and there are even some who will go so far as to speak of charlatanism. Perhaps the kindest critical view is that held by many conscientious people who think of Sartre as essentially “negative,” a well-meaning but misled philosopher whose ideas have been swept away by the flux of history. They point out that the political world as it exists today is scarcely the place for the “engaged literature” of 1940-45 with its requirements of personal commitment and anonymous heroism. Young people in France are not reading Being and Nothingness.
Jean-Paul Sartre: Philosopher as Dramatist
Authors: Wreszin Michael
Published: January 2007

I walked in a desert.And I cried,“Ah, God, take me from this place!”A voice said, “It is no desert.”I cried, “Well, but—The sand, the heat, the vacant horizon.”A voice said, “It is no desert.”Stephen Crane

One of die most interesting and provocative questions facing the student of the modern theatre is, to what extent the professional philosopher is capable of creating effective drama? Can a man steeped in the technical and systematic discipline of philosophical inquiry create a drama that is more than an abstract working out of a thesis? Can he create characters or situations that have the action and vitality necessary for dramatic presentation? The contemporary French philosopher, writer and essayist, Jean-Paul Sartre, provides the most rewarding study to those interested in the role of the philosopher as dramatist.
Webster's Italian Tragedies
Authors: Ribner Irving
Published: January 2007

When we consider John Webster's achievement as a dramatist we are struck by a general mediocrity, suddenly relieved in the middle of his career by two plays, written in quick succession, of a brilliance and power virtually unequalled in his age. The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi were composed in 1612 and 1613, following a period of uninspired collaboration with Dekker, Heywood and others; they were followed by some further independent work and by renewed collaboration with Middleton, Heywood and Rowley, but never again, working either alone or with others, did Webster approach the aesthetic range of his two Italian tragedies. They seem to represent the artist's concentrated attempt to express a tragic vision which he imperfectly perceived in The White Devil, but realized fully in The Duchess of Malfi, after which his career could only culminate in anti-climax. He had nothing more to say.
Trends in Canadian Theatre
Authors: Hendry Thomas B.
Published: January 2007

During the past ten years, a theatre modelled more on European patterns than on anything to be found in North America has arisen in Canada and has established itself in the principal cities—Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax—from coast to coast.

This European look is not surprising: of 11 Canadian Artistic Directors, five are European by birth, three are French-Canadians whose first influences in professional theatre came from France, and only three are English-speaking Canadians whose first experiences in theatre were “North American”—of these, one has been strongly influenced by observation of the English repertory system and a second by the work of the Berliner Ensemble; the third is a rugged individualist who runs Canada's only frankly profit-seeking producing organization. All the other theatres are non-profit organizations administered by professionals under the guidance of volunteer Community Boards of Governors.
University Theatre: Embarrassing Riches
Authors: Levy Richard
Published: January 2007

Recently, while touring with a New York road company, I performed at a number of universities across the country. I saw splendid, expensive facilities at schools which are doing little either to train students for theatre work or to nurture future audiences. And I saw ambitious and active departments making do with whatever was around when they began their programs years ago. There is little correlation between the money spent on theatre programs and the uses to which facilities are put.

At the South Bend Campus of Indiana University, where theatrical activity is limited and where few students attend what productions there are, our road company played in an exquisite theatre with a costly lighting system so complex that the head of the theatre department confessed he had difficulty making use of it.
Lear Log
Authors: Marowitz Charles
Published: January 2007

For Brook, Lear is a series of intellectual strands which only performance can tie together. Far from being an “unactable play,” he believes its full meaning can only be comprehended existentially—on a stage. He sees it mainly as a play about sight and blindness.

Gloucester, who does not see Edmund's villainy, loses his eyes. Edgar, who does not see his brother's covetousness, loses his freedom. Lear, who does not see the corruption and rancor that see the within his family and state, loses his senses and ultimately his life. Everywhere one looks, one sees only the facades and emblems of a world and, ironically, as characters acquire sight, it enables them to see only into a void.

Fable: A blind man, resolved to die, is led up a steep mountainside by one he takes to be a naked lunatic. The steep mountainside is, in reality, a flat field; the naked lunatic, his son.
Sixteen Years of the Piccolo Teatro
Authors: Grassi Paolo , Strehler Giorgio
Published: January 2007

The Piccolo Teatro of the city of Milan, now entering its seventeenth year, represents both the result of a historical movement for the renewal of the Italian theatre and an entirely new phenomenon whose methods and orientations have served as a model for many similar organizations. Historical precedents can be found in the sustained efforts of persons like Eduardo Boutet, Eleonora Duse, Luigi Pirandello, and Silvio D'Amico; it was they who encouraged the Italian theatre to organize in permanent companies and to improve its technical and aesthetic levels, thus putting it on a par with the theatres of leading foreign countries.

When the Piccolo Teatro began in 1947, the Italian theatre was characterized by two traditions: the star, and the traveling company. Throughout Europe the day of the great director (Stanislavski, Reinhardt, Copeau, etc.) had ended; but in Italy it had not yet begun.
Mendoza, Lesage, Beaumarchais
Authors: Bardon Maurice , E.B.
Published: January 2007

The original idea of Crispin, Rival of his Master does not belong to Lesage, but to the Spaniard Hurtado de Mendoza. In Los Empeños del mentir Mendoza depicts the cunning of an adventurer who, after having saved a gentleman from the clutches of three brigands, tries to marry the gentlemen’s sister by passing himself off as her expected fiancé.

Similarly, in Lesage, Crispin will try to marry Angélique under the very beard, one might say, of her suitor Valére. But the resemblance remains superficial. Angélique and Valere are not the principal objects of the scheme the valet Crispin and his double, the valet La Branche, are concocting. The object is the sizable dowry of the young girl: 20,000 écus. And they very nearly make off with this dowry. Their knavery fails only because of a chance revelatory meeting. But this accident is not surprising; it is foreseen because the author has duly prepared it.
Stanislavski and Shakespeare
Authors: St.-Denis Michel
Published: January 2007

I first saw Stanislavski’s work in 1922, when the Moscow Art Theatre presented in Paris The Lower Depths, The Brothers Kammazov, and The Cherry Orchard. I was carried away with admiration for The Cherry Orchard. The play is written in an impressionistic style that leaves room for silence and long pauses. Although it was bathed in a profusion of naturalistic detail, the production grew into a brilliant, comic, and moving spectacle. I felt that this was poetry—poetry without rhetoric, theatricality, or lyricism. Solely through the skill of the actors, everything became as true as life.
Scribe's “Bertrand et Raton“: A Well-Made Play
Authors: Stanton Stephen S.
Published: January 2007

Bertrand et Raton, ou L'Art de Conspirer, anonymously translated in 1840 as “The School for Politicians,” was the first of the 374 plays of Augustin-Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) to arouse serious interest in the theatre. Given its première at the Théatre Français on November 14, 1833, this popular comedy of manners presented vigorous characters and a clever plot, amusingly sustained and fresh in treatment. The characters and situations, because of their animation, still awaken curiosity; the dramatic craftsmanship and comic originality of the play make it one of Scribe's masterpieces. Though his technical resourcefulness was one of the most important contributions to French drama in the nineteenth century, and though the genre of the “well-made” play (pièce bien faite), of which Scribe is the acknowledged father, has certainly “paid off” in the modern theatre, his plays, almost without exception, have been neglected.
The Art of Acting
Authors: Schyberg Frederik
Published: January 2007

In a famous speech about actors in 1928, Max Reinhardt called the art of theatre “the oldest, most powerful, most immediate of the arts, combining the many in one.” The statement may appear exaggerated, but it is only a weak echo of statements which great minds in the past have been inspired to make. Voltaire called the theatre “the noblest and most useful thing invented by the human mind,” and Victor Hugo designated the drama, in his well-known manifesto, the preface to Cromwell, as “complete poetry,” the “ocean” into which all the other streams of poetry flow. But I do not intend to speak of the theatre in general, only of the art of acting; partly because it seems to me that problems in the art of acting have had a profound effect upon the current as well as the eternal state of the art of theatre (does not the contemporary drama and film owe much to actors?), and partly because this distinctive art form has virtually never been the subject for scholarly analysis.
Strindberg and the Theatre
Authors: Lamm Martin
Published: January 2007

Strindberg's never-abandoned plans for having an “experimental theatre” at his disposal were at the point of fulfillment early in 1907 when, after a long pause, he again began to write plays. During the previous autumn he had become acquainted with the young director August Falck, and they had agreed to found a theatre. It was in anticipation of its opening that Strindberg, during the first half of 1907 wrote the four chamber plays which more than any other of his works have established his reputation as a revolutionary spirit in the art of the drama.

In the beginning this was not his purpose. The name chamber play had been taken from Reinhardt's Kammerspielhaus about which he had read articles in German periodicals, later found, with passages marked, in his library. His basic idea was to create an intimate theatre for which he imagined a repertoire in a subdued naturalistic style.
The Tragedy of Language How an English Primer Became My First Play
Authors: Ionesco Eugène
Published: January 2007

In 1948, before writing my first play, The Bald Soprano, I had no idea of becoming a playwright. My only ambition, quite simply, was to learn English. The study of English does not necessarily lead to playwriting. On the contrary, it was because I had no luck with English that I turned to the stage. Nor did I write these plays to avenge my failure, although some have said that my Bald Soprano was a satire of the English bourgeoisie. If I had wanted to learn Italian, Russian or Turkish and not succeeded, they would have claimed, by the same token, that the play resulting from that futile effort was a satire of Italian, Russian or Turkish society. Perhaps I ought to explain. Here is what happened: nine or ten years ago, in order to learn English conversation, I bought a French-English Primer. I set to work. Conscientiously, I copied whole sentences from my Primer with the purpose of memorizing them.
The Esthetic Fault of Strindberg's "Dream Plays"
Authors: Milton John R.
Published: January 2007

Although August Strindberg is frequently considered to be the father of modern drama, contemporary criticism has not yet approached his expressionistic “Dream plays” with confidence. One group of critics maintains that the difficulty is due to the autobiographical nature of the plays; another asserts that it lies in dealing with a unique talent which cannot be judged according to traditional standards; and a third believes it resides in the esthetic of the dream-art relationship. It is this third category which I wish to examine in an attempt to locate the source of the difficulty and ultimate esthetic failure of the dream plays.

Strindberg, successful in at least two notable instances with the drama of naturalism, abandoned these conventions shortly after his severe mental illness, better known as his “Inferno Experience.” It is easy to suggest that the plays that followed were direct results of this illness and that they are difficult to understand chiefly because they are products of a sick mind.
Notes on Identity
Authors: Rosenberg Harold
Published: January 2007

The Riddles Of Oedipus.

The central intuition of Greek tragedy, as of psychoanalysis, is that there is one, unique fact which each individual anxiously struggles to conceal from himself, and this is the very fact that is the root of his identity. Kierkegaard describes a type of despair in which the self “wills desperately to be itself—with the exception, however, of one particular, with respect to which it wills despairingly not to be itself.” Action is heroic when, in addition to displaying courage, fidelity, etc., it involves an overcoming of this automatic will to ignorance, when it reverses the process that repels the one particular and forces the actor to embrace it.

Tragedy is the willful movement toward the hidden fact by which the hero is identified. The hero does not know what his action will disclose but he is impelled to the disclosure.
The World of Hamlet
Authors: Deming Barbara
Published: January 2007

It is a strange fact that although Hamlet has spoken with unique force to the most diverse audiences for over three centuries, and has been so incorporated into our lives that it is, as the joke goes, a patchwork of quotations, yet the majority of contemporary critics agree with T. S. Eliot in finding it essentially incoherent. Mr. Eliot, says, “Here Shakespeare tackled a problem that was too much for him… Nothing that [he] can do with the plot can express Hamlet for him.” Another critic concurs: “The spirit of the tragedy is … imperfect in its clarity of conception“; and another: “The dramatist never succeeded in finding a dramatic form that could completely express his idea“; another: “What is seen is a series of pictures, vivid, brief, isolated“; another: “No play, doubtless, is so ill constructed … and all efforts to reduce it to unity fail.”
Calderon or Dramatic Action
Authors: Touchard Pierre-Aimé , Howard Richard
Published: January 2007

The opposition of modern technique—or perhaps, more precisely, of modern technique's laziness—to the conception of art during classical periods is explosively evident if we compare Pirandello's Tonight We Improvise with Calderón's play as presented by Charles Dullin at the Théâtre de l'atelier. To say that the modern play is primarily psychological is ah inadequate formulation of the differences in genre. There is a deeply searching psychology in The Surgeon of his Own Honor, but where all the modern dramatist's virtuosity is used in interweaving ideas, and where the modern play's complexity tends increasingly to stay on the intellectual plane, its action so reduced as to be little more than linear, in the classical period—at least in the plays of the Elizabethan and Spanish theatres and in Corneille's early work—it is the action itself which is the object of the dramatist's entire concern.
To Hell With Society
Authors: Adler Henry
Published: January 2007

Both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, the keen discussion about the degree to which the theatre should be socially committed has been confused by the vague, ambiguous, and tendentious use of focal words like “society,” “politics,” “realism,” “humanity.” In England the bid by one group to impose politics on the theatre in a narrow and a party sense under the guise of solicitude for social principles has been made evident on at least two occasions. The first was the shouting in the theatre when The Tenth Chance, an immature first play by a young writer named Stuart Holroyd, was tried out at the Royal Court for a single Sunday night performance. The play dealt with the reactions to persecution in a totalitarian state of three imprisoned men: a rationalist, a religious mystic, and a moronic tough. It shows the tough, lacking in mental resources, breaking first and the mystic, buoyed up by faith in some extra-personal force, outlasting the rationalist who relies unsuccessfully on his vulnerable brain. What Holroyd was getting at was similar to Shaw's aim in Saint Joan and other plays.
Murder of the Director
Authors: Vilar Jean
Published: January 2007

Some artisan’s arguments— Rehearsals à l’italienne—The actor—Blocking—Necessary humility of set, music, lighting—Being able to summarize the play—Being able to detach oneself from it—Knowing each actor—Suggestion, not imposition.

The following notes concern only a particular technique of theatrical art, that of transposing a written work from the imaginary realm of reading to the concrete realm of the stage. To look for anything more than “means of interpretation” in these often deliberately cryptic lines would be vain.

When so many theories, ars poetica and metaphysics have been made up about this art, it is perhaps necessary that one advance, as a preliminary, a few artisan's considerations.

One can never read the play often enough. Actors never read it often enough. They think they understand the play when they follow the plot more or less clearly—a fundamental error.
Green Grow the Lyrics
Authors: Nardin James T.
Published: January 2007

Musical comedy seemed for so long to be nothing but noisily sexy entertainment for an off evening that it is difficult even yet to get anyone to give it a really serious thought. Sophisticated theatergoers who have a taste for it seem to feel they must apologize for that taste as a kind of secret unsophisticated vice—like catsup on French fries—which they somehow never have managed to outgrow. They note by way of justification that in the past fifteen years the orchestras are less brassy, the plots less farcical, the ballets more adult and integral parts of the story, that the lyrics are cleverly sophisticated, that the scores have some catchy tunes. But in so doing, they miss the outstanding development of the musical in the past fifteen years or so—the development of a twentieth century dramatic poetry, a lyricism which appeals to sophisticated and unsophisticated alike, a lyricism which seemed impossible to combine with the realism developed by the 1920’s.
A Farewell to Something
Authors: Moore John R.
Published: January 2007

When Samuel Beckett had his En Attendant Godot produced at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris, he really started something. I saw the play there in 1953, and again in London (1955) and in New York (1956) as Waiting for Godot. Meanwhile it had toured France and Germany and been translated into several other languages. It was a far greater success than any of Beckett's previous works had been—and his first attempt to write for the stage.

The most immediately striking thing about the play was its originality. Obviously avant-garde, it nevertheless retained all the seediness of a down-at-the-heel realism. On the surface it seemed simple almost to the point of idiocy, yet it implied all the complications that human intelligence has been able to create for itself. And it created an image of man's longing for ideal relationships with himself, with other men, with God, only to defile the image by suggesting doubts.
Sean O'Casey: Prelude to Playwriting
Authors: Coston Herbert
Published: January 2007

During his years in Ireland Sean O'Casey's development progressed by a series of rejections. He was born into an ugly, often hostile world, and was precluded from an ordinary education and normal social contacts by weak eyes. He therefore drew into himself, finding in books both a solace and a weapon. Armed with knowledge, he later turned angrily to face the society which had forced the misery and humiliation of poverty upon him, violently rejecting and rebelling against it. At first he identified his grievances with the woes of “poor oul’ Ireland”; but his experience as a laborer and unionist convinced him that the Nationalists, to whom he had given himself, wanted only to redeem Ireland for the middle class. Widened sympathies then led him to reject in turn the cause of “Irish Ireland,” and to embrace the ideals of socialism. But when compromise and mediocrity threatened these ideals, he scorned the Irish labor movement, denouncing its leaders as philistines, and cast his whole hope on the day when the workers, triumphant, would realize a richer life.
Suffering and Punishment in the Theatre of Georges Feydeau
Authors: Shapiro Norman R.
Published: January 2007

The theatre of Georges Feydeau, neglected for over a generation, has known in recent years a rebirth of popularity to which numerous revivals of his comedies (both in France and elsewhere) can attest, as well as increased study by theatrical commentators and critics. No doubt there is in this vogue an element of the snobbery and aesthetic affectation that always accompanies such a “rediscovery.” In Feydeau's case this is paradoxical. Of all writers he would have been the first to ridicule any such pretensions of a would-be intellectual elite to espouse a fashionable cause. Yet there is certainly more to the Feydeau-vogue than mere affectation; and if the popularity of this genial playwright during our own generation is to rival his uncontested success of fifty years ago, it will, for the most part, be motivated by a serious appreciation of his production.
Marlowe and the Actors
Authors: Brown John Russell
Published: January 2007

Marlowe wrote his plays before Shakespeare's masterpieces had been conceived; but we read him afterwards and in his successor's light. This causes many critical misapprehensions and theatrical mistakes. We stage Marlowe in a theatre accustomed to Shakespeare, with actors, directors, and designers who have all had experience of his plays: talents have been developed and techniques evolved for Shakespeare's dialogue in all its revolutionary subtlety, for Shakespeare's kind of dramatic action and characterization. A careful dissociation is necessary before reading and performing Marlowe for his own sake.

Marlowe had not been dead ten years before these difficulties arose. By the end of the century, Pistol in Henry IV, Part 2, was discharging his “high astounding terms,” which mocked the bragging language of Tamburlaine and other plays of that period.
Friedrich Duerrenmatt and Max Frisch: Two Views of the Drama
Authors: Wellwarth George E.
Published: January 2007

It is an unfortunate fact that the two leading German-speaking dramatists of the present day are all but unknown in the United States. Friedrich Duerrenmatt is known only through The Visit, the success of which has been due mainly to its sensationalism rather than to its more solid dramatic and philosophical qualities; and Max Frisch is not known at all. None of Frisch's plays has been produced in the United States. So far, only one, The Chinese Wall, has appeared in translation. Yet in his best plays (he is far more uneven in quality than Duerrenmatt), Frisch is every bit the equal of his more famous countryman. In this paper I would like to examine the plays of both these Swiss dramatists with a view to showing the significance of their themes and placing them in their proper position in the mainstream of the modern drama.