Posted in events, tagged Shakespeare's Sister Company, Virginia Woolf on Saturday 14 February 2015| Leave a Comment »
This charming graphic comes to us from Shakespeare’s Sister Company, the New York theater company that presents productions, classes, webinars and more.
Among its offerings is “How To Write A Compelling Ten-Minute Stageplay,” an online and live four-week class that is part of the Woolf Series, now in its second season.
Shakespeare’s Sister, led by Kris Lundberg, will also launch a new website later this month.
Posted in films, London, London scene, tagged Claude Friese-Greene, St. Ives, The London Scene, Virginia Woolf on Wednesday 11 February 2015| 1 Comment »
He ended his 840-mile road trip in London, the subject of Virginia Woolf’s six essays included in The London Scene, originally published in Good Housekeeping magazine beginning in December 1931 and published as a collection in 1981.
In the capitol city, Claude Friese-Greene filmed some stunning images using a unique experimental color process developed with his father. His plan was to produce a series of 26 ten-minute British travelogues, to be shown before the feature film at cinemas. After just a few screenings at trade fairs, though, Friese-Greene abandoned the project.
After his death in 1943, his footage for The Open Road, shot between 1924 and 1926, was donated to the National Film and Television Archive. It was later revived and restored by the BFI. The BBC then used it to produce a three-part documentary with the BFI titled The Lost World of Friese-Greene. News of Friese-Greene’s beautiful footage went viral early last year.
Now videographer Simon Smith has attempted to capture all of Friese-Green’s London shots by standing in his footsteps and using modern equipment. His personal study reveals how little London has changed. Special thanks to @sideshow_val for sending Blogging Woolf the tip about the 2013 version of the London footage.
And here is a 19-second clip of Friese-Greene’s footage filmed in Woolf’s beloved St. Ives, Cornwall.
Posted in feminism, tagged A Room of One's Own, feminism, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, The Years, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf on Tuesday 10 February 2015| 2 Comments »
Over the years, I dipped into more Woolf — To the Lighthouse, A Room of One’s Own, Orlando — all just for fun. It wasn’t until I enrolled in a master’s program and made Woolf my focus that I truly took an in-depth approach to her and her writing.
But that doesn’t mean Woolf can’t be instructive for the common reader, as evidenced by my own experiences and those indicated by three recent pieces I found online. An article in Bustle, “18 Books Every Woman Should Read When She’s 18 (Because I Sure Wish I Had),” argues that every 18-year-old woman should read To the Lighthouse. And in Sydney’s Daily Life piece, “The Truth About Feminism,” Annabel Crabb cites A Room of One’s Own as an explicitly feminist piece she read as an 18-year-old, while a current-day college students cites the book as a feminist classic as well.
Posted in Virginia Woolf, tagged A Room of One's Own, Leonard, Sarah Seltzer, Virginia Woolf, Woolf on Wednesday 4 February 2015| 2 Comments »
Eighty-five years after its publication, Virginia Woolf’s book-length essay A Room of One’s Own continues to inspire women and offer a framework for confronting contemporary challenges. The evidence of this continued influence comes in the form of a recent article about women as writers.
Without a doubt, time to create and dream is the “room of one’s own” of the 21st century. And there’s a sacred myth of pursuing any art form, that contains some truths in a time-strapped world: You do have to give something up, or cut back. Sometimes it’s a career of your own, or financial independence vis-a-vis your life partner, or sleep, or time with family and friends. Sometimes it’s stability, sometimes it’s the inspiration that comes from instability. So yes, an artistic pursuit works well when there’s someone else near you filling in the gaps of whatever it is you give up, as sort of mini collective enterprise of two.
Leonard and Virginia, 1925
Although she highlights lack of time as the major barrier to writing, Seltzer also states that financial support systems are so necessary for writers to succeed that many writers are “sponsored” by spouses who generate the family income. The author references Leonard Woolf as Virginia’s support system, and wonders if modern women can pursue their creativity:
But as someone said on Twitter, it’s also sort of sad to think that these little units of two are orbiting around in space by themselves, embarking on the collectivist mission of creating art and supporting an artist in an indifferent world. Not everyone can find a Vera Nabokov or a Leonard Woolf, nor should they. What if both spouses have creative ambitions? At least in my mind, this strain of thought comes down to the exact same problem as the discussion we have about balancing family and work these days: today’s families are so, so alone. Someone has to sacrifice, the common line goes. We (particularly women) can’t have it all.
Read the full article here.
Posted in events, films, tagged Jean Luc-Godard, King Lear, University of Wisconsin Cinematheque, Virginia Woolf, Woody Allen on Tuesday 3 February 2015| Leave a Comment »
Jean Luc-Godard’s modern Shakespeare adaptation of King Lear (1987) includes references to Virginia Woolf. The rare arthouse classic will be presented at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 by the University of Wisconsin Cinematheque as part of its Cannon Canon series this semester.
