Once upon a time there was
a young man named
"Five-act verse play by Henrik Ibsen, published in Norwegian in 1867 and produced in 1876. The title character, based on a legendary Norwegian folk hero, is a rogue who is saved by the love of a woman. Peer Gynt is a charming but arrogant peasant youth who leaves his widowed mother in order to seek his fortune. Confident of success, he has one disastrous adventure after another.
"In one, he attends the wedding of the wealthy young woman he himself might have married. There he meets Solveig, who falls in love with him. He impulsively abducts the bride from her wedding celebration and subsequently abandons her. Peer Gynt embarks on a series of fantastic voyages around the world, finding wealth and fame but never happiness. Finally, as an old, disillusioned man, he returns to Norway, where Solveig, ever faithful, welcomes him lovingly, and he is redeemed."
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature, April 1, 1995, quoted on amazon.com.
In our adaptation, Peer is a young man struggling with both his impulses as a creative artist and his physical desires that distract and threaten to destroy him. He falls in love with a young woman named Solveig, but his unthinking forays into the pleasures of the world steer him away from happiness. He also travels abroad, becomes a successful businessman, passes himself off as a prophet, and escapes a mental institution run by the inmates. Still, it is clear throughout the tale that he has the ability to positively effect those around him, and to create--eventually--a contented life for himself.
Rather than using Ibsen's text, UC theatre director Stephen A. Schrum will be adapting the script, adding contemporary references to the Internet, Alzheimer's, Pamela Anderson, and the current global economy. Some of the roles will also be tailored to students at UC who have expressed interest in auditioning. At the same time, there will be other roles, singing and non-singing, available for members of the community who wish to become involved.
The music comes from several sources:
The first is singer/songwriter Jeremy dePrisco, with whom director Schrum worked on Iphigenia, a music-theatre piece based on plays by Euripides. For that show Schrum wrote the book and lyrics, and dePrisco composed music for the songs. Here, songs that dePrisco has written--that, uncannily, seem to have been written with Peer Gynt in mind--will become a part of the performance.
The second source is Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites, written for Ibsen in the 19th Century. Schrum has written new lyrics, and Musical Director and UC student Jason Wilson is now in the process of arranging the music to fit the rest of the show.
Other music--various instrumental incidental music, as well as a rap song written by Schrum for the asylum scene, will be created as the production comes together.
See a listing of the songs in the show.
Stephen A. Schrum (Director) earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and, over the past twenty years, has worked in every aspect of the theatre. To date he has had several of his own plays produced, including four one-acts and his adaptation of Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris at the Penn State Hazleton Campus. Steve is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor of Speech and Drama at the University of Charleston, WV.
Jeremy dePrisco (Composer) has worked on many theatre productions, including Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at Bloomsburg University (PA) and productions with the Rainbow's End Theatre Company in Central PA, including a complete set of vocal arrangements and songs for The Toys Take Over Christmas. At Penn State Hazleton, Jeremy provided music for numerous shows, including The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shakspr (Abridged) and The Alchemist, before becoming composer for Iphigenia. He is also a member of ASCAP and The North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance, and is a performing singer/songwriter with 150+ original works in his repertoire. He is currently working on his second CD, to be released in May 1999.
Dr. Dianna L. Bourke (Costume Designer), a recent addition to the UC faculty as an Assistant Professor, teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology in the Department of Natural Sciences. Dianna received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and did Postdoctoral work at the University of California, Davis. While at Penn State University as an undergrad, Dianna completed 15 credits in theatre, with a concentration in costume design, and served as costume designer for Dr. Schrum's productions over the last eight years. Dianna has found production meetings much easier since she lives with the director. Incidentally, they are married, but neither changed their last names.
Tim "The Mad Russian" Stefanoski (Set Designer) is a recent graduate of Montclair State University, with a BFA in Theater Production and Design, he has designed lights for both As You Like It and the Student Directed One-Acts at Montclair State University's Studio Theater. He has also done Sound Design for The Mystery of Edwin Drood in Memorial Auditorium at Montclair State, and has spent the last two years as the Assistant Technical Director for the Department of Theater and Dance at MSU. He has done numerous smaller lighting projects for the Theater-In-The-Raw programs that the department has on Friday afternoons. He has also worked as a scenic artist and general technician in summer stock theaters in New Jersey. (View his resume.)
Brandi Hill (Choreographer) [info forthcoming]
I created this collage of Peer Gynt for a directing
class a few years ago. There is the skull, which seems to have
shattered like glass, or like a mirror. If you trace the spiral
of pictures from the point between the eyes outward and clockwise,
you see represented points of Peer's journey. At the relative
center, the eye, is the candle, which burns constantly as Solveig
awaits his return.