E ugene gladstone o'neill
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (1888-1953) was the first American dramatist to regard the stage as a literary medium and the only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. His poetically plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
O’Neill was born in a Broadway hotel room in New York City. His father was one of 19th century America’s most popular actors. Young Eugene spent much of his early years on national tours with his father. At the age of 24, he held a job as a reporter of the New London Telegraph. In 1912 he began to write plays. Between 1920 and 1943 he completed 20 long plays.
O’Neill’s career as a playwright consisted of three periods. His early realist plays utilize his own experiences, especially as a seaman. In the 1920s he rejected realism in an effort to capture on the stage the forces behind human life. His expressionistic plays during this period were influenced by the ideas of philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche, psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. During his final period O’Neill returned to realism. These later works, which most critics consider his best, depend on his life experi-ences for their story lines and themes.
O’Neill saw the theatre as a valid forum for the presentation of serious ideas. He aimed for a contemporary drama that had its roots in the most powerful of ancient Greek tragedies – a drama that could rise to the emotional heights of Shakespeare. For more than 20 years he wrote such masterpieces as “Desire Under the Elms”, “Mourning Becomes Electra”, and “The Iceman Cometh”. Nearly all of his plays involve some degree of tragedy.
Words & Expressions:
a valid forum – эффективная площадка
“Desire Under the Elms” – «Любовь под вязами»
“Mourning Becomes Electra” – «Электре подобает траур»
“The Iceman Cometh” – «Разносчик льда грядет»
Tennessee williams
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theatre. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs. His professional career lasted from the mid 1930s until his death in 1983, and saw the creation of many plays that are regarded as classics of the American stage. Williams adapted much of his best known work for the cinema.
Williams received virtually all of the top theat-rical awards for his works of drama, including several New York Drama Critics’ Circle awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the plays “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1948) and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1955). In 1980 he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the President Jimmy Carter and is today acknowledged as one of the most accomplished playwrights in the history of English speaking theatre.
Theatre scholar Charlotte Canning said, “There is no more influential 20th-century American playwright than Tennessee Williams... He inspired future genera-tions of writers and his plays remain among the most produced in the world.”
Words & Expressions:
“A Streetcar Named Desire” – «Трамвай ‘Желание’»
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – «Кошка на раскаленной крыше»
accomplished – успешный
ROBERT BURNS
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) is the great Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He travelled much about Scotland collecting popular songs and wrote his own verses. His poetry was inspired by his deep love for his motherland; for its folklore. His famous poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands” is a hymn to the beauty of Scotland’s nature.
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My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer -
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North The birth place of Valour, the country of Worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.
Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods; Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe; My heart's in the Highlands, whereever I go.
В ГОРАХ МОЕ СЕРДЦЕ (С. Маршак) В горах мое сердце... Доныне я там. По следу оленя лечу по скалам. Гоню я оленя, пугаю козу. В горах мое сердце, а сам я внизу. Прощай, моя родина! Север, прощай,- Отечество славы и доблести край. По белому свету судьбою гоним, Навеки останусь я сыном твоим! Прощайте, вершины под кровлей снегов, Прощайте, долины и скаты лугов, Прощайте, поникшие в бездну леса, Прощайте, потоков лесных голоса. В горах мое сердце... Доныне я там. По следу оленя лечу по скалам. Гоню я оленя, пугаю козу. В горах мое сердце, а сам я внизу!