Bernard Pomerance and the Elephant Man
Bernard Pomerance was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended college at the University of Chicago, where he received a degree in English. In the 1970's Pomerance moved to London, England to become a novelist. He was unsuccessful and then decided to try his hand as a dramatist. He quickly got involved with several left-wing fringe groups, which where at the time thriving in England. Then, along with director Ronald Rees, he founded the Foco Nove Theater group. Throughout Pomeranc's career nearly all of his plays were at one time preformed at his Foco Novo theater..
Pomerance became fairly successful as a play write. His first play, High in Vietnam Hot Damn, was first produced by the Foco Novo Theater group in 1971 in London. Hospital and Thanksgiving Before Detroit where also produced by the Foco Novo Theater group in 1971. In 1972 a play called Foco Novo was produced by the Foco Novo Theater group. In 1974 Someone Else is Still Someone was produced. A adaption of a play by Brecht, A Man's a Man, was produced in 1975. The Elephant Man, Pomerance's only really popular piece of work came out in 1979. It was first produced at the Hempstead Theater in London. It was then produced off Broadway at the Theater of St. Peters church, and on Broadway at the Booth Theater in New York City. After The Elephant Man Pomerance produced Faber in 1981 and Melons in 1985, but neither became popular like The Elephant Man. During Pomerance's career he also published one novel called We Need to Dream All This Again, but it was unsuccessful. Most of Pomerance's plays were reasonably liked, but none were recognized and praised like The Elephant Man. The Elephant man received a Tony, the Drama Des...
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...Thanksgiving Before Detroit
-Foco Novo
-Someone Else is Still Someone
-A Mans a Man
-The Elephant Man
- Faber
-Melons
The Elephant man was Pomerance's most popular play and it won Many awards
-Tony
-Drama Desk Award
-New York drama Critics Award
-Obi
Made into movie in 1980 staring John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Wendy Hiller, and Anne Bancraft. Preformed by David Bowie the rock singer in 1979
True story of John Merrick who lived from 1863 to 1890. He was deformed and had a head that was 36' in circumference.
John Merrick and Dr. Treves are used metophoricly. John represents people and his deformities their uniqueness. Dr. Treves represents rules and conformity.
Themes
-the arbitrariness of existence, posed against a hunger for design.
-the simple theme of miss judging people buy their appearance.
The first whale to ever be captured was Moby Doll. The capture of Moby Doll was an accident; the purpose of getting this whale was so a sculptor named Samuel Burich could make a life size model for the British Columbia Hall Aquarium. Moby Doll was shot numerous times, but would not die. Since the whale would not die they decided to keep the whale and put it on display. There was little information on how to take care of the whale. Moby Doll did not eat for fifty-five days while being held captive. They were giving the whale the wrong food and when they finally figured it out the whale killed itself a month later. “Stories of Killer Captive Whales”.
Paul Farmer was a kind, devoted doctor who sacrificed his life to help those in need in Haiti. His work involved curing sick people from tuberculosis (TB), making sure the disease did not spread, and making the towns in Haiti a better, cleaner place to live in. There were and still are many social injustices that Haiti is still struggling with today. For example, they have TB outbreaks because there’s no healthcare in the country for the poor. This has increased the outbreak of TB and many other diseases. Also, their poor living conditions aren’t sanitary thus increasing the probability for diseases to spread. There are many more social injustices in Haiti.
Many great authors that study human nature stood out the most during the period of time between the Imperialism and World War II. Among these authors were George Orwell and Virginia Woolf. Their study of the human nature is especially visible in certain short stories that each author respectively did. Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” and Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth.” In either of these stories the respective author uses animals to depict their complex ideas about the nature of life, men, and the whole world.
The film is based on a short story written by Stephen King. It originally appeared in his 1999 audiobook entitle...
Joseph Carey Merrick, who died 120 years ago, was an individual with extreme disfigurements that could cause any person to run in fear, or even become ill, at the sight of him. Joseph Merrick was an inspiration to many, whether it was to people who saw him in sideshows, in the hospital, or to doctors who were baffled by his condition. Many questions were asked about Merrick; many refused to believe that he was even a human. Some thought he was alien, some thought animal, or, in the case of Frederick Treves, just a misunderstood man with nowhere to turn.
1980. Warner Bros. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Music by Wendy Carlos and Rcachel Elkind. Cinematography by John Alcott. Editing by Ray Lovejoy. With Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd.
writing was weak during grade school, but his great pieces came his senior year at Harvard. He became editor for the Harvard Lampoon, which is the school’s newspaper.
George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant,” was written as an attack on British imperialism and totalitarianism. Orwell recounts an experience of shooting an escaped elephant from his time as a policeman in Burma during the British Raj, utilizing a remorseful, reflective tone. He observes that “When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys” (14), and that “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it” (14). Orwell is not only correct in his assertion that totalitarianism is harmful, he further explains how it is detrimental to all those that are umbrellaed under it.
Apocalypse Now. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Pro. Francis Ford Coppola. American Zoetrope, August 15, 1979.
and work as a journalist. One of his most famous play is "A View from
People of different worth and status have their perspective displayed so that every detail of a situation is covered. Even if these characters seem fictional they are actually based on real and living people that Andy Mulligan has encountered
in 1979, based on his own life. It is set in Liverpool and depicts the
Coppola, Frances Ford. Apocalypse Now. Metro Goldwyn Mayer/ United Artists. Video: Prarmount Home Video. 1979.
Overall, Shaw’s childhood was an unhappy one. By the age of fifteen, his parents had split up. His mom deserted her husband and left for England to live with her two daughters. In order to support himself, Shaw left school and got a job working as a clerk and cashier for a firm of land agents for nearly found and a half years. During this time, George Bernard took it upon himself to read and visit the theatre as much as possible.
He wrote his first play klaas and the devil.(1956) He there after wrote No-Good Friday (1958) ,the cell (1957) and nongogo (1959) which was his first ever play to be produced abroad in Sheffield, England and in New York, USA. In the years 1958-1961 Fugard worked with the Union Artists in Johannesburg. (The Union of South African Artists, known as Union Artists, was formed in the 1950s to protect black artists from being discriminated against). Around about 1959 Fugard moves to London to avoid conflict with the national government as his plays were going against the regime of the time where he writes the blood knot in 1960. This play was performed once in Johannesburg in 1961 before being banned by the government. In 1961 Fugards daughter Lisa Fugard is born, but unfortunately his father dies later that year, that same year Fugard joins the fight against apartheid and writes a play called the coat (1966) which is produced that in 1966 in South Africa. In 1967 Fugard returned to ...