"I am one and they are all" -- Dostoevsky, Notes

The Possessed, Act One Demons *
Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind. - Notes from the Underground

Summary

Dostoevsky: "The complete atheist stands on the penultimate step to most perfect faith."

Questions

Кто смеет убить себя, тот Бог. (Kirilov)

Notes

Film script at Commedia-Shake
^ The Shrew Film Directing "showcase" ^ Twentieth-century writer and philosopher Albert Camus examined what he considered the tragic inability of human beings to understand and transcend their intolerable conditions. In his work Camus presented an absurd and seemingly unreasonable world in which some people futilely struggle to find meaning and rationality while others simply refuse to care. For example, the main character of The Stranger (1942) kills a man on a beach for no reason and accepts his arrest and punishment with dispassion. In contrast, in The Plague (1947), Camus introduces characters who act with courage in the face of absurdity.

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Devils
The Possessed 2003
Oedipus-UAF

Человеку, кроме счастья, так же точно и совершенно во столько же, необходимо и несчастье! Dostoevsky "He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous," said Jesus, Mathew 5:45

New Life -- Project "Utopia"

teatr.us

2007-2006

use pages 1-2-3-4-5

Demons: Act I

2005: If you read Title, Preface, Intro, you know that this directory was the production of The Possessed at University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2003. Now I am using it for my directing classes as a case study on dealing with adaptations. [mostly for cyber-students]
First, remove the narrator! So, I did. Camus misunderstood the role of the narator in the novel...

Well, when you do your "research" -- you research the original.

The "concept" must be visible.

My pages look evlect, but I post pix not to get them into my show -- to search the future stage images in between -- NYC 9/11, Matrix, Rembrant, Russian photos circa 1900 (not the secknd half of the 19th century), tarot symbols...

How will it come together on stage? Don't worry about the style; you have to work with designers, actors -- you can't talk about the before you mix together the important ingridients.

Tee casting is another step to form the "direction" of the show. You see, the concept of the show is not static, it's a process (as Hegel would say).

Gordin
Misha Gordin (Conceptual Photography); I liked the images -- I was search for how do they look like those tortured souls... To see what we hide. The world of the play, as they say.

How much of historical researsh (a must)?

Not only the period, but the writer and the work itself.

Themes: terrorism, death...

Thoughts:

"In an abstract love for humanity one almost always loves only oneself."

Genre -- tragedy?

Characters -- what are the types and acrhitypes behind?

Prologue: Easter

The story takes place during the Passion Week, sunday to sunday.
Chapter Two. Prince Garry
I -- VIII: Act I, Scene 1 -- Madness ("He is mad!").

Two Stavrogins (the second is Devil?), many. The voices, Captian (drunk, singing) and Maria (laughter) appears (his imagination). And the girl from the past. Yes-No, yes-no, counting...

Chapter IV. Mary
I -- VII: Scene 2 is out, scene 3 starts only with Lebyatkins (p.39) -- save some texts from Kirilov and Shatov (themes of God).
Chaper V. I -- VIII
Cuts in scene 4!

Part II

Chapter I - II: Night

Scene 5 -- Father and son Verhovensky

Scene 6 -- before the duel (Stavrogin, Shatov, Kirilov)

Scene 7 -- Fedka & Stavrogin

Scene 8 -- Lebyatkins (p.86)

Scene 9 -- bridge, Fedka Stavrogin again

Chapter III. Duel
Scene 10 [ IV-IX -- ? ]
intermission
Chapter X. Damn Morning
Scene 11

Part III

Chapter I -- cut?
Chapter II. Fire
Together with Chapter III. Lisa' Death? Cut -- Chaper IV?
Chapter V. Birth
Chapter VI. Killing Shatov
Kilirov' suicide.
Chapter VII. Death of Professor
Death
Chapter VIII. Stavrogin Kills Himself
[ the intermission after scene 10 ]
* Don't force anything. Keep the "directions" (remember what your proffession is about), but take everything in that you get on the way.

Remember the last director, the public. At the end this is their show, their experience, the show lives in them!

What do they want to see?

Change it to "what they want to experience"? It has to be about them, all of them and each of them. That's why I talk about "spectator" (The Book of Spectator) -- a single soul.
NYC6-Title
I know that the first reaction will be -- No! Me? Terrorist? No way! But I lived long enough to know that horror I have in me; it is even worse in them, because they can't express it... This is why they come to the theatre.

Do you still believe that our horror movies are just an entertainment?

Please! Any child can give you a better answer; and we are all children. Forever. The fear never dies -- and it's shouldn't. It lives as long as we live.

Anatoly, but the Devils, the Demons, the Possessed -- who believes in this stuff?
NYC6-Title
Who believes in aliens? Superman? Freud called in "substitution" -- we format our secret worries and desires in forms of fairy-tales. How else? Even in our dreams feelings have faces, images, stories, dialogues. Gime it to them! That's what they pay for!`
Next: act 2
"... Moreover, the beast from "Revelation" has ten horns (Stavrogin's name is constructed around r o g , meaning "horn") and possesses great physical strength ("Revelation, " Chapter 13, Verse 2), which corresponds to Stavrogin's much-mentioned strength. Symbolism such as this enlarges the significance of Petr and Stavrogin, the two main sources of chaos and destruction in the novel. They outgrow their functions as political intriguers and acquire metaphysical characteristics. They are indeed the devils, reaping what is due to them in the spiritual wilderness of nineteenth-century Russia." [ APOCALYPTIC IMAGERY IN "THE IDIOT" AND "THE DEVILS" ] Vrubel Tarot Tarot-lovers Tarot-judge
Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky: 2003 draft
Russian American Theatre Files Rex05 When . . . in the course of all these thousands of years has man ever acted in accordance with his own interests? - Notes from the Underground