What is GRAND GUIGNOL ? As used today, the term Grand Guignol refers to any dramatic entertainment that deals with macabre subject matter and features “over-­‐‑the-­‐‑top” graphic violence. It is derived from Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol, the name of the Parisian theatre that horrified audiences for over sixty years. The theatre was founded in 1897 by Oscar Méténier. A typical evening at the Grand Guignol Theatre might consist of five or six short plays, ranging from suspenseful crime dramas to bawdy sex farces. But the staple of the Grand Guignol repertoire was the terror play, which inevitably featured eye-­‐‑gouging, throat-­‐‑slashing, acid-­‐‑throwing, or some other equally grisly climax. Over the years, and under the direction of several different managers, the Grand Guignol theatre flourished, becoming one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris. By the early 1960s, however, the Grand Guignol’s formula no longer had the same impact with audiences, and in 1962, it closed its doors. Despite the fact that the Grand Guignol has fallen into relative obscurity, it has had a profound influence on the art of horror performance and special effects. Excerpted from: www.grandguignol.com/ Both of this evening’s plays premiered at the Théâtre du Grand-­‐‑
Guignol -­‐‑ the Système in 1913 and the Laboratoire in 1916 – where André de Lorde (1869-­‐‑1942) was something of a house playwright for the first four decades of the 20th century. The Comédiens Carolingiens 2015 have opted to perform them in an updated version of classic radio mystery theatre, incorporating sound effects, original and borrowed graphics, and dozens of original black & white silent clips filmed and edited over the course of the semester. The resulting multi-­‐‑media mélange is highly unusual and original, and the Comédiens hope you will find it as compelling as they do. Son & lumière. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Séquences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affiche & publicité . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Répétiteur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A performance to die for…
Les Comédiens Carolingiens 2015
présentent
Une soirée de théâtre radiophonique
suivi
de
Jeff PERSELS & Kat LEEHONG Kat LEEHONG & les Comédiens Klara MILOJKOVIC Kaitlin DALEY Erik SINGLETON Rachel ODZER Brian BOOMHOWER Nous remercions vivement le Département de langues et son chef indulgent,
Nicholas VAZSONYI, Brigitte GUILLEMIN PERSELS, Dee Dee COLEMAN,
Bill FAIRCHILD, Amanda DALOLA et Ryan STEVENS. En hommage au professeur Bill MOULD, homme de théâtre et fondateur des Comédiens Carolingiens
le vendredi 10 & le samedi 11 avril
19h
Gambrell Auditorium
USC -Columbia
Le Système du docteur Goudron
et du professeur Plume
Le Laboratoire des hallucinations
(par ordre de prise de parole) (par ordre de prise de parole)
HENRI, rédacteur au Petit Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JEAN, son collègue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DOCTEUR GOUDRON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PROFESSEUR PLUME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MME JOYEUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MLLE EUGENIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ROBERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GARDIEN-­‐‑CHEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1ER GARDIEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2E GARDIEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nicholas SCHAUDER Richard WOJAN Kat LEEHONG Rachel ODZER Lynn MURPHY Grace ZIMMERMANN Erik SINGLETON Laura KANE Andres SOTO Klara MILOJKOVIC SONIA GORLITZ, la femme du docteur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . TANIA KARTOVA, la cousine de Sonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . MARITZA, la bonne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MITCHINN, l’assistant du docteur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GORLITZ, docteur & directeur de la maison . . . . . . . . . M. DE MORA, l’amant de Sonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LA MALADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STICH, le chauffeur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MME IRMA, l’infirmière . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Emission présentée par . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Le cabinet de travail d’un médecin aliéniste. Kaitlin DALEY
ENGLISH SYNOPSIS Adapted from a short story of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845), this one-­‐‑act stages the visit of two investigative journalists, Henri and Jean, to an asylum noted for its unusually enlightened and humane treatment of its inmates. They encounter a man who presents himself as the director and proceeds to regale them with an account of his “system of soothing,” which achieves miraculous results by encouraging the patient in his or her madness rather than trying to correct it. As the interview progresses, however, the journalists note the increasingly odd behavior of the director and his associates until a thunderstorm that has been brewing finally strikes, sending the director into a murderous frenzy. Henri and Jean are rescued in the nick of time by the asylum staff, who themselves have only managed to escape their cells. Prior to the journalists’ arrival, the patients, led by fake director “Dr.” Goudron, the asylum’s most notorious inmate, had taken advantage of the relative freedom the “system of soothing” afforded them to revolt, imprisoning their custodians and exacting “soothing” the real director, Dr. Maillard… Brianne LUCOT Klara MILOJKOVIC Kaitlin DALEY Erik SINGLETON Alistair JONES Andres SOTO Savannah GRUNEWALD Laura KANE Grace ZIMMERMANN Emission présentée par . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rachel ODZER
Scène Ière. Le salon du docteur GORLITZ Scène II. Le laboratoire du docteur GORLITZ Scène III. Le salon du docteur GORLITZ ENGLISH SYNOPSIS Setting: an isolated sanatorium, where unorthodox scientific experiments are performed on unwilling patients by a violently cruel doctor in an unhappy marriage. Sonia Gorlitz, abetted by her cousin Tania, wants to escape this house of horrors by running away with her lover, M. de Mora. She has written him a letter telling him so and prepares to go on an outing alone with him to plan their flight. Her husband, the evil Dr. Gorlitz, suspects her betrayal but is obsessed with his surgical experiments, reluctantly aided by the unfortunate Mitchinn, his maimed assistant with a dark past. There is an auto accident: the car Sonia and her lover have borrowed from Dr. Gorlitz inexplicably veers off a treacherous road. M. de Mora suffers severe brain damage. In his delirium, he mentions Sonia’s letter, and a furious Dr. Gorlitz avenges himself by operating on M. de Mora, saving his life but deliberately turning him into something close to a zombie, condemned to live in perpetual pain and suffering from terrifying hallucinations. But he and Dr. Gorlitz’s other victims will have, perhaps, their own revenge…