Call for chapter proposals: Eleonora Duse

[Paul Fryer]

Dear Colleagues,
The editors, MariaPia Pagani and Paul Fryer are still seeking chapter proposals for a major new book about the distinguished Italian actor, Eleonora Duse, currently under consideration by an American academic publisher.


The Silence of Eleonora Duse
Edited by Maria Pia Pagani (University of Pavia, Italy) and Paul Fryer (Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, UK).
With an introduction by Antonio Attisani
Contributors include: Sharon Marie Carnicke, Paul Fryer, Nuccio Lodato, Maria Pia Pagani.

Summary:
The silent film Cenere (Ashes, Italy 1916) is the only “expression” of Eleonora Duse, the greatest Italian actress, in the motion-picture industry. After her retirement from the stage, at the beginning of 1909, her artistic ‘silence’ was broken by Cenere. During the filmung, she wrote to her daughter: «The realization of a film is a spiritual problem». In fact, Duse considered cinema “l’art du silence”.
Adapted from the novel by Grazia Deledda, Cenere is the highest proof of Duse’s silence and of her spiritual meditation as actress: on the screen, she remembered all of the mother-roles created for the theatre, and used them to create a new performance. Duse’s acting emphasizes Rosalia as an old mother and sinner, because she is a woman who abandoned her son in childhood to escape with her lover. But the consequences of this rejection are too heavy, and the final sacrifice of her life becomes a form of late reparation for her contempt of the gift of motherhood.
The expression of all these contrasting feelings is problematic in a silent film. The audience could not hear the cries of desperation of Rosalia, and Duse’s acting had to balance the absence of technical reproduction of the human voice. For the actress, silence and sorrow are two faces of the same character, Rosalia. But recording Duse was not simple.
Konstantin Stanislavski always identified Eleonora Duse as an actor who exemplified his own goals. This collection of essays analyses Duse’s performance in order to identify those aspects of her acting that best suggest links to Stanislavski’s System. There is a specific examination of Duse’s bodily and facial expressions, hand gestures, and rhythms of motion as evidence of her character’s unspoken and silent thoughts. These details of her performance exactly mirror Stanislavski’s “inner monologue”, a technique that became central to his System.
Unlike Stanislavski, who articulated a now globally famous System of acting, Duse refused to discuss how she worked. Probably, the secret of her art finds a better explanation in the poet Federico García Lorca and his theory of duende.
Duende is a divine gift. It is silent and strong. It has no age. This sort of sacred fire, burns only in few elected artists. Eleonora Duse was one on them.

Writers might consider the following areas of investigation:  Duse as movie star, -Duse in the film industry of her period, - the reception of Cenere/Ashes internationally, Duse from theatre to film industry, photographic realisations of Duse.

Proposals of approximately 500 words, should be sent to paul.fryer at bruford.ac.uk<mailto:paul.fryer at bruford.ac.uk>

The deadline for receipt of the proposal is 31st March, 2015.

Dr Paul Fryer
Associate Director of Research
Head of The Stanislavski Centre
Editor, Stanislavski Studies (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance (UK)




Paul Fryer
Assoc. Dir of Research


[Rose Bruford College]<http://www.bruford.ac.uk>


________________________________


Rose Bruford College
Lamorbey Park Campus
Burnt Oak Lane
Sidcup
Kent. DA15 9DF. UK


tel +44(0)20 8308 2600 | fax +44(0)20 8308 0542


ddi +44(0)20 8308 2633 |




Rose Bruford College accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed in writing. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20150319/f579657a/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: imagea6f1df.GIF
Type: image/gif
Size: 6041 bytes
Desc: imagea6f1df.GIF
URL: <http://artsservices.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/candrama/attachments/20150319/f579657a/attachment.gif>