In the Next Room was produced by Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, IL from September 9 to October 9, 2011. The production dramaturg was Kristin Leahey.
The three main avenues that Leahey and the production team used of communicating dramaturgical information were lobby displays in the theatre, notes and printed information in the program, and electronic resources on the theatre's website.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Glossary
Here's a glossary of potentially unfamiliar references in the script, with the page numbers on which they first appear in parentheses.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Electricity on Video
Here's a short documentary about Edison’s smear campaign and the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant:
And here's some of Nicola Tesla’s demonstrations as seen in The Prestige:
Race after the Civil War
- In the decades following the Civil War, African Americans struggled to exercise their newly acquired civil rights and obligations. Immediately following the war, these "new" United States citizens asserted their civil rights, participating eagerly in government. Their early gains quickly evaporated in the toxic political climate of Southern Reconstruction. By the end of the 1870s, southern whites had effectively proscribed most blacks from voting or participating in state and local government (the law denied the vote to women of any race).
- Economic opportunities remained limited for most African Americans in the decades following the Civil War. Racism, economic downturns and agricultural crises combined to encourage hundreds of thousands of southern blacks to migrate north in search of a better life. Within a single generation, a distinctly urban lifestyle and culture developed.
- Religion was an especially powerful and unifying force. Like the churches of newly arrived European immigrants, African American churches offered their members far more than a place to worship. Churches promoted cultural solidarity and provided spiritual and community support.
- Even in the North, however, African Americans did not enjoy the same social and economic mobility experienced by millions of European immigrants arriving in the same period. Employers preferred to hire native-born whites and immigrants for higher paying industrial jobs. Many believed that blacks were farmers by nature and were thus ill suited to industrial employment. To make matters worse, most trade unions excluded African Americans, effectively shutting them out of the labor movement. These economic and social conditions limited employment opportunities for black men to the most taxing, dangerous and menial positions. Opportunities for black women were still more restricted, confined mainly to domestic service in white households.
- In the year 1890, the percentage of black women who were gainfully employed more than doubled that of white women. This trend remained up until 1940.
- Interracial relationships did happen but were rare.
- In the 1880s, out of 3,808,334 recorded unions in the U.S. in which the husband was between the ages of 20-40, 3,932 were interracial. That’s barely over 0.1%.
Information from University of Massachusetts.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Victorian Fashion
For Women
As in the previous decade, emphasis remained on the back of the skirt, with fullness gradually rising from behind the knees to just below the waist. The fullness over the bottom was balanced by a fuller, lower chest, achieved by rigid corseting, creating an S-shaped silhouette.
The bustle returned to fashion and reached its greatest proportions circa 1886-1888, extending almost straight out from the back waist to support a profusion of drapery, frills, swags, and ribbons.
Bodices were very tightly fitted as a result of darts and princess seams. In the early 19th century dropped waists were common, creating a very long torso. Most ended in a point just below the waist.
Corsets stressed a woman's sexuality, exaggerating hips and bust by contrast with a tiny waist. Women's ball gowns bared the shoulders and the tops of the breasts. The jersey dresses of the 1880s may have covered the body, but the stretchy novel fabric fitted the body "like a glove."
Day dresses generally had high necklines, and shoulder width was emphasized with tippets or wide collars that rested on the gigot sleeves. Summer afternoon dresses might have wide, low necklines similar to evening gowns, but with long sleeves. Skirts were pleated into the waistband of the bodice, and held out with starched petticoats of linen or cotton.
The usual undergarment was a combination, a camisole with attached knee- or calf-length drawers, worn under the corset, bustle, and petticoat. Woolen combinations were recommended for health, especially when engaging in fashionable sports such as riding or tennis.
For Men
Three piece suits, "ditto suits," consisting of a sack coat with matching waistcoat (U.S. vest) and trousers (called in the UK a "lounge suit") continued as an informal alternative to the contrasting frock coat, waistcoat and trousers.
The cutaway morning coat was still worn for formal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere, with a dress shirt and an ascot tie. The most formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with a winged collar.
Here are some video examples of typical fashion:
As in the previous decade, emphasis remained on the back of the skirt, with fullness gradually rising from behind the knees to just below the waist. The fullness over the bottom was balanced by a fuller, lower chest, achieved by rigid corseting, creating an S-shaped silhouette.
The bustle returned to fashion and reached its greatest proportions circa 1886-1888, extending almost straight out from the back waist to support a profusion of drapery, frills, swags, and ribbons.
Bodices were very tightly fitted as a result of darts and princess seams. In the early 19th century dropped waists were common, creating a very long torso. Most ended in a point just below the waist.
Corsets stressed a woman's sexuality, exaggerating hips and bust by contrast with a tiny waist. Women's ball gowns bared the shoulders and the tops of the breasts. The jersey dresses of the 1880s may have covered the body, but the stretchy novel fabric fitted the body "like a glove."
Day dresses generally had high necklines, and shoulder width was emphasized with tippets or wide collars that rested on the gigot sleeves. Summer afternoon dresses might have wide, low necklines similar to evening gowns, but with long sleeves. Skirts were pleated into the waistband of the bodice, and held out with starched petticoats of linen or cotton.
The usual undergarment was a combination, a camisole with attached knee- or calf-length drawers, worn under the corset, bustle, and petticoat. Woolen combinations were recommended for health, especially when engaging in fashionable sports such as riding or tennis.
For Men
Three piece suits, "ditto suits," consisting of a sack coat with matching waistcoat (U.S. vest) and trousers (called in the UK a "lounge suit") continued as an informal alternative to the contrasting frock coat, waistcoat and trousers.
The cutaway morning coat was still worn for formal day occasions in Europe and major cities elsewhere, with a dress shirt and an ascot tie. The most formal evening dress remained a dark tail coat and trousers with a dark waistcoat. Evening wear was worn with a white bow tie and a shirt with a winged collar.
Here are some video examples of typical fashion:
Gender Roles in the Victorian Era
In the Victorian Era, men were considered the active agents, who expended energy, while women were sedentary, storing and conserving energy. Victorian theories of evolution believed that these feminine and masculine attributes traced back to the lowest forms of life. A dichotomy of temperaments defined feminine and masculine: an anabolic nature, which nurtured, versus a katabolic nature, which released energy, respectively. Such beliefs laid the groundwork for, or rather arose from, the separation of spheres for men and women. According to this model, since men only concerned themselves with fertilization, they could also spend energies in other arenas, allowing for "the male capacity for abstract reason...along with an attachment to the idea of abstract justice...[which] was a sign of highly-evolved life." On the other hand, woman's heavy role in pregnancy, menstruation (considered a time of illness, debilitation, and temporary insanity), and child-rearing left very little energy left for other pursuits. As a result, woman's position in society came from biological evolution--she had to stay at home in order to conserve her energy, while the man could and needed to go out and hunt or forage. This belief let to the theory of "separate spheres," meaning, the women controlled the world of the home and the men controlled the world outside it. Although regarded as a practice which venerated women, in actuality it forced them in to social and economic subservience.
Due to the fact that a woman's place was in the home, motherhood was considered “the crowning achievement of a woman’s life.” Marriage signified a woman's maturity and respectability, but motherhood was confirmation that she had entered the world of womanly virtue and female fulfillment. For a woman not to become a mother meant she was liable to be labeled inadequate, a failure, or in some way abnormal. Motherhood was expected of a married woman, and the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied. She was often encouraged to find work caring for children--as a governess or a nursery maid--presumably to compensate her for her loss.
For further information on marriage and women, check this out!
Sources: The Victorian Web, BBC
Due to the fact that a woman's place was in the home, motherhood was considered “the crowning achievement of a woman’s life.” Marriage signified a woman's maturity and respectability, but motherhood was confirmation that she had entered the world of womanly virtue and female fulfillment. For a woman not to become a mother meant she was liable to be labeled inadequate, a failure, or in some way abnormal. Motherhood was expected of a married woman, and the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied. She was often encouraged to find work caring for children--as a governess or a nursery maid--presumably to compensate her for her loss.
For further information on marriage and women, check this out!
Sources: The Victorian Web, BBC
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Lincoln Center Smarties
Lincoln Center's 2009 production of In the Next Room had some really great dramaturgy. Here's a link to their companion magazine for the play--it's got some beautiful images, and some fascinating perspectives--everything from Emily Dickinson poems to an article by Annie Sprinkle, porn-star-turned-Ph.D.
Coincidental...
For fun...here's the trailer for Hysteria, a 2011 film that premiered at Toronto Film Festival, set in London in 1880--billed as "a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator."
Despite sharing the same historical moment as jumping-off point, Hysteria seems to bear very little resemblance to In the Next Room. In a way, it's the play that Sarah Ruhl didn't want to write--you might call it, "The Vibrator Movie."
Despite sharing the same historical moment as jumping-off point, Hysteria seems to bear very little resemblance to In the Next Room. In a way, it's the play that Sarah Ruhl didn't want to write--you might call it, "The Vibrator Movie."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Victorian Ladies and Gents
Here's some period image research for some of the characters.
Source: How to Be a Retronaut
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| I love this image for Elizabeth and baby Lotty! Pretty remarkable that this was an actual photograph from the time. |
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| This jaunty fellow reminds me of Mr. Irving |
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| A lady taking off her clothes to be in nature! Sounds familiar... |
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| And here are some Victorian portraits of married couples--shows you the formality that characterized the relationship |
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| This picture is good for the setting of the Givings' living room, but I also love the expression on this woman's face! Like she just heard or shared a delightfully naughty secret... |
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| This is a lovely image that reminds me of Mrs. Givings--waiting, ladylike, in the next room. |
Source: How to Be a Retronaut
Vintage Vibrator Ads
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| An alternative to the vibrator (designed to produce a similar effect...) |
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| An early 1900s vibrator unit |
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| The 1902 retail vibrator set |
Medicine, Hysteria, and Vibrators (oh my!)
Women’s bodies and women’s health
Throughout history, men used images of the female body and the female mind that proved women belonged at home making babies.
In the late 19th century, the main medical and biological theories about gender could be summed up by "separate bodies, separate roles." Male doctors argued that women were frailer than men--their skulls were smaller, and their muscles more delicate. But their key argument, a new invention of this era, was the following: from puberty to menopause, the entire female body and mind was controlled by the reproductive apparatus. As they put it:
Medical practitioners thought of the human body as an engine, operating on a fixed amount of energy. If you applied a lot of energy to one bodily system, they believed, you would deprive others of energy. So for example, women who went to college would use too much energy on their brain and hence would become sterile or produce neurotic children.
When things went wrong...
Since the very first physicians practiced medicine in ancient Greece, women were frequently diagnosed with "hysteria"--a cluster of emotional symptoms that were thought to result from diseases of the female sexual and reproductive organs ("hysteria" comes from the Greek word hystera, meaning "womb"). Neurasthenia was a new medical diagnosis invented by George Beard in the 1870s--a variation of essentially the same thing. Understood as exhaustion of the nervous system because of a lack of nervous energy, neurasthenia was the name for vague, chronic complaints in adult women, including anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, erotic fantasies, and moisture inside the vagina (though hysteria/neurasthenia was usually applied to women, it was occasionally diagnosed in men--as we see in In the Next Room with the character of Leo Irving).
One famous treatment for hysteria was the so-called "rest cure," made famous by Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Under this treatment, women patients were ordered to spend months in bed, were not allowed to read, write, or exercise, they were force fed until they were fat--essentially creating an artificial pregnancy (because this was a woman's ultimate purpose and destiny anyway). The rest cure was usually pretty counter-productive--Perkins Gilman herself endured it, to no avail, and ultimately found herself cured of her post-partum depression only when she began a regimen of work on her writing and physical exercise. In In the Next Room, Mrs. Daldry makes reference to having attempted the rest cure to little success--"I do nothing but rest!" she says when Dr. Givings inquires about whether she has tried the "usual remedies" (pg. 12).
"Pelvic Massage"
Besides the rest cure, for centuries doctors had been treating women for hysteria by focusing on the uterus directly. The "pelvic massage" was intended to provide hysterical women sudden, dramatic relief through "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm). However, this was time-consuming and hard work for the doctors.
In 1883, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the first electromechanical vibrator. It was an immediate hit--it produced paroxysm quickly, safely, reliably, and inexpensively.
In 1902, the American company Hamilton Beach patented the first electric vibrator available for retail sale, making the vibrator the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified, after the sewing machine, fan, tea kettle, and toaster, and about a decade before the vacuum cleaner and electric iron. Advertisements appeared in such magazines as "Women's Home Companion" and the the "Sears & Roebuck Catalogue." The vibrators were not seen as sexual because men believed that women were incapable of sexual desire and pleasure. Women were socialized to believe that "ladies" had no sex drive, and were merely passive receptacles for men's unbridled lust, which they had to endure to hang on to their husbands and have children: Queen Victoria herself supposedly advised her daughter on her wedding night to "lie back and think of England."
However, with the invention of motion pictures, vibrators started turning up in pornography and gained an unsavory reputation. By the 1920s, they had become socially unacceptable. Vibrator ads disappeared from the consumer media. From the late 1920s until the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, they were difficult to find.
Sources: Lecture notes from "Medicine in American Society" course (Northwestern University, Spring 2011), the Vibrator Museum, Wikipedia, "The Astonishing History of Vibrators"
Throughout history, men used images of the female body and the female mind that proved women belonged at home making babies.
In the late 19th century, the main medical and biological theories about gender could be summed up by "separate bodies, separate roles." Male doctors argued that women were frailer than men--their skulls were smaller, and their muscles more delicate. But their key argument, a new invention of this era, was the following: from puberty to menopause, the entire female body and mind was controlled by the reproductive apparatus. As they put it:
"Woman is a moral, a sexual, a germiferous, a gestative, and a parturient creature."Or:
"It is as if the Almighty, in creating the female sex, has taken the uterus and built up a woman around it."Hence, whatever happened in the central nervous system had direct implications on the health of uterus, and vice versa--whatever happened (or failed to happen) in the uterus had immediate reverberations in the central nervous system.
Medical practitioners thought of the human body as an engine, operating on a fixed amount of energy. If you applied a lot of energy to one bodily system, they believed, you would deprive others of energy. So for example, women who went to college would use too much energy on their brain and hence would become sterile or produce neurotic children.
When things went wrong...
Since the very first physicians practiced medicine in ancient Greece, women were frequently diagnosed with "hysteria"--a cluster of emotional symptoms that were thought to result from diseases of the female sexual and reproductive organs ("hysteria" comes from the Greek word hystera, meaning "womb"). Neurasthenia was a new medical diagnosis invented by George Beard in the 1870s--a variation of essentially the same thing. Understood as exhaustion of the nervous system because of a lack of nervous energy, neurasthenia was the name for vague, chronic complaints in adult women, including anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, erotic fantasies, and moisture inside the vagina (though hysteria/neurasthenia was usually applied to women, it was occasionally diagnosed in men--as we see in In the Next Room with the character of Leo Irving).
One famous treatment for hysteria was the so-called "rest cure," made famous by Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Under this treatment, women patients were ordered to spend months in bed, were not allowed to read, write, or exercise, they were force fed until they were fat--essentially creating an artificial pregnancy (because this was a woman's ultimate purpose and destiny anyway). The rest cure was usually pretty counter-productive--Perkins Gilman herself endured it, to no avail, and ultimately found herself cured of her post-partum depression only when she began a regimen of work on her writing and physical exercise. In In the Next Room, Mrs. Daldry makes reference to having attempted the rest cure to little success--"I do nothing but rest!" she says when Dr. Givings inquires about whether she has tried the "usual remedies" (pg. 12).
"Pelvic Massage"
Besides the rest cure, for centuries doctors had been treating women for hysteria by focusing on the uterus directly. The "pelvic massage" was intended to provide hysterical women sudden, dramatic relief through "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm). However, this was time-consuming and hard work for the doctors.
In 1883, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the first electromechanical vibrator. It was an immediate hit--it produced paroxysm quickly, safely, reliably, and inexpensively.
In 1902, the American company Hamilton Beach patented the first electric vibrator available for retail sale, making the vibrator the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified, after the sewing machine, fan, tea kettle, and toaster, and about a decade before the vacuum cleaner and electric iron. Advertisements appeared in such magazines as "Women's Home Companion" and the the "Sears & Roebuck Catalogue." The vibrators were not seen as sexual because men believed that women were incapable of sexual desire and pleasure. Women were socialized to believe that "ladies" had no sex drive, and were merely passive receptacles for men's unbridled lust, which they had to endure to hang on to their husbands and have children: Queen Victoria herself supposedly advised her daughter on her wedding night to "lie back and think of England."
However, with the invention of motion pictures, vibrators started turning up in pornography and gained an unsavory reputation. By the 1920s, they had become socially unacceptable. Vibrator ads disappeared from the consumer media. From the late 1920s until the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, they were difficult to find.
Sources: Lecture notes from "Medicine in American Society" course (Northwestern University, Spring 2011), the Vibrator Museum, Wikipedia, "The Astonishing History of Vibrators"
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