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Recorded | Molière Then and Now with Dr. Felicia Londré – Spring 2022

Previously recorded class.

 

You will be sent the link to a private playlist of all recorded sessions of this class.

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Molière Then and Now

March 23 April  27  (6 weeks) | Wednesdays, 1:30 3:30

As theatres all over the world celebrate the 400th anniversary of Molière’s 1622 birth with productions of his ever-popular comedies, Kansas City boasts a three-year build-up to the birthdate with play productions, lectures, videos, a coloring book, and even a pastry named The Molière.  This course covers highlights from Molière’s life and work in the context of his time, the reign of the “Sun King” Louis XIV, when the arts encompassed both the Baroque and the neoclassical.

Week 1:  March 23

Introduction. KC MOlière: 400 in 2022. Overview of Molière’s comedies and his place in world theatre.  French theatre before Molière.  Scripts will be provided for reading The Flying Doctor during the session.

Week 2:  March 30

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin before he was Molière.  Molière’s early career.  Madeleine Béjart.  The salons of Paris.  Scripts will be provided for reading a scene from Two Precious Maidens (Les Précieuses ridicules).

Week 3:  April 6

Nicolas Fouquet & Vaux le Vicomte. Court ballet and comédie-ballet. Molière and Louis XIV.  Scripts will be provided for reading a scene from The Pests (Les Fâcheux).

Week 4:  April 13

Molière’s marriage to Armande Béjart. The School for Wives. Pleasures of the Enchanted Isle at Versailles. Molière’s 5-year battle for Tartuffe. Scripts will be provided for reading a scene from Tartuffe.

Week 5:  April 20

Jean Racine. The Misanthrope. Dom Juan. Molière’s friends: Boileau, Chapelle. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Scripts will be provided for reading scenes from Phèdre and from The Bourgeois Gentleman during the session.

Week 6:  April 27

The Learned Ladies. The Hypochondriac. Molière’s death. The founding of the Comédie Française (C-F).  Preparation for the Kansas City performance of Le M de Molière by C-F sociétaire Jérôme Pouly on 30 April. Scripts will be provided for reading a scene from The Learned Ladies.

Instructor:  Dr. Felicia Londré is the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Theatre Emerita, UMKC, a theater historian, Dean Emerita of The College of Fellows of the American Theatre, and president of KC MOlière: 400 in 2022.

 

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