Academic literature on the topic 'Woyzeck'

This essay is a sequel to a recent discussion in these pages (vol 8, no 2, Fall 1987) of the great popularity of Büchner's Woyzeck in the Canadian theatre. The author discusses his own 1985 production of the play, using a new translation prepared for the production, which was aimed at realizing the play as epic theatre in the round, emphasizing the cyclical and mythic nature of Woyzeck's dilemma.

Woyzeck 91, was staged by the Itim Ensemble and the Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv, in 1991. The production was adapted from Büchner's Woyzeck and directed by Rina Yerushalmi. The adaptation expands Büchner's play text mainly through the addition of scientific lectures, mostly about human physiology, which present the human being as a biological organism: heart, sex organs, reproducing cells, nervous system as the source of feelings. These additional scenes focus attention on Woyzeck's body as an experimental model, along with other performative devices (slides of body parts, and a skeleton). The juxtaposition of the human body (human subject) with its scientific and technological fragmentation reflects the performance's central theme: it objectifies the human subjects in our modern world of genetic experiments, technological innovations and socio-political reactions, which threaten the destruction of humanity.

This master thesis of scenography is a study on the play Woyzeck written in 1836 by the German author Georg Büchner. My intention is to examine how the engaging story of a drama written in the 19th century, set into a military background, can be reinterpreted today in our society. The aim of my researches is the elaboration of a contemporary mise en scène of the play set into an ideological factory as the ideal scenario for the developing of the dramatic situations of Woyzeck. My final scenography proposal for the drama is a site-specific project in the Prada Foundation of Milan; an ex-factory of an Italian distillery society, now turned in one of the main art centres of the city. I am starting the thesis with a research about the historical background of the play through a short biography of the author. In this part, I am aiming to explain how the social context, the relationship with his family and a few of actual events happened at the time of Büchner, have inspired him to write, perhaps, his greatest work. I continue by writing an analysis of the dramaturgical structure of the text, of the main themes and situations within the play and the characters. I am highlighting the themes of the play that in the 21th century are extremely contemporary. In parallel, I analyse how the characters behave in different dramatic situations and precisely I try to reveal their real way of being instead of what appear only on the surfaces. Moreover, I write about a few of the greatest reinterpretations of the play that supported my studies and researches. Here, I mainly focus on the directing and dramaturgical aspects of each production that enriched my vision of the play helping me to develop my final version. The last part of my thesis is about my own reinterpretation of Woyzeck. I am explaining which are the aspects and the themes of the play that I find still very connected with our society. I write about my creative process and about how exactly my research led to the final proposal of the comparison between the military system, of two centuries ago, and the factory system of today. Afterward, I take in exam a few of the artworks that encouraged over my personal reinterpretation of directing and dramaturgical aspects. I write about how elements from these artworks inspired me concretely for the realization of my final work. Finally, I explain in details the directing and dramaturgical choices for the disposition of the storyboard as the final result of my personal research.

This paper describes and discusses the lighting, video, and scenery design of MK Woyzeck, presented at the Frederic Wood Theatre from October 1st to 10th 2009. The design will be presented primarily through a series of photographs taken by various photographers at several points during the design, cueing, and performance phases of the production. Emphasis will be placed on the use of digital projectors to provide full illumination of the actors, referred to as Digital Video Illumination (DVI), as well as the role of the projection/set/lighting designer as an active deviser within the rehearsal process. Chapter 1 will provide a brief overview of the production concept for the piece and it’s impact on design strategies. Chapter 2 illustrates the overall execution of the design through a collection of photographs with accompanying captions describing the intention behind each of the cues depicted. In a similar fashion, Chapter 3 describes some of the advantages and challenges inherent within the DVI system and the particular projection instruments employed in this production. Chapter 4 is devoted to the actual mechanics of DVI cue construction. These are illustrated through the description of five sample cues representative of the major ways in which DVI was applied to this production. Chapter 5 summarizes the outcomes of this experimental design process through a brief conclusion.

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

Orientador: Mário Fernando Bolognesi
Banca: Wagner Francisco Araújo Cintra
Banca: Plínio Santos Fontenelle
Resumo: O presente trabalho propõe reflexões sobre o fenômeno do grotesco, que se define a partir de alguns aspectos como: estranho, bizarro, disforme, ridículo, híbrido, monstruoso, extravagante, cômico, trágico e tragicômico, trazendo como foco para esta discussão sua capacidade de dialogar elementos aparentemente contraditórios. Estas oposições que identificam tal fenômeno manifestam-se a partir de seu aspecto tragicômico. Soma-se a esta reflexão, aspectos característicos da linguagem do palhaço, em que o grotesco tragicômico é apontado como um dos importantes elementos constituintes dessa figura cômica, conforme exemplificados na dupla de palhaços, Branco e o Augusto. Toda esta discussão nos leva ao principal objetivo deste trabalho que é estabelecer uma analogia entre o grotesco tragicômico no palhaço e as personagens Doutor, Capitão e Woyzeck da obra Woyzeck de Georg Büchner. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa mostra-se importante na medida em que, propõe a discussão sobre o fenômeno estético do grotesco tragicômico, de forte influência em inúmeras produções artísticas e dramatúrgicas, ampliando nossa compreensão sobre o homem moderno, fortemente caracterizado por suas contradições. Além disso, aliar essa reflexão ao palhaço, nos ajuda a compreender os aspectos cômicos dessa figura, expandindo nossa forma de conceber o riso naturalmente atrelado à figura do palhaço, na sua capacidade de buscar no trágico da vida inspiração para suscitar o cômico. É a partir dessa reflexão, que buscamos uma aproximação entre esses aspectos do palhaço com algumas personagens da obra Woyzeck mantendo vivos um autor e uma obra de grandes contribuições para a história da dramaturgia moderna e contemporânea
Abstract: This work proposes reflections on the grotesque phenomenon, which is defined from some aspects such as: strange, bizarre, shapless, ridiculous, hybrid, horrendous, extravagant, funny and tragicomic, bringing as focus to this discussion it's ability to dialogue seemingly contradictory elements. These oppositions that identify this phenomenon manifested from it's tragicomic aspect. Added to this reflection, characteristic features of the clown language, in which the tragicomic grotesque is pointed out as one of the important constituents of this comic figure, as exemplified in the pair of clowns, Branco and Augusto. All of this discussion leads us to the main goal of this work, which is to establish an analogy between the tragicomic grotesque on the clown and the characters Doctor, Captain and Woyzeck of the artwork 'Woyzeck' by Georg Büchner. In this way, the research shows itself important as far as proposes a debate of the aesthetic phenomenon of tragicomic grotesque, strong influence in many artistic and dramaturgical productions, expanding our understanding of modern man, strongly characterized by its contradictions. Also, combine this reflection to the clown, helps us to understand the comedic aspects of this character, expanding our way of conceiving the laughter naturally, linked to the clown character, in their ability to seek the tragic aspect of life, inspiration to raise the comic. It is from this reflection, we seek an approach between these aspects of the clown with some characters of Woyzeck work keeping alive an author and an artwork of great contributions to the history of modern and contemporary dramatic art
Mestre

En 1878 Karl Emil Franzos appose sur le manuscrit pas encore nommé Woyzeck une solution de souffre et d’ammoniaque. Le traitement doit permettre de dévoiler les parties illisibles du texte et de faire apparaître derrière les ratures des parties nécessaires à la compréhension de la dramaturgie. En 1837, les feuillets récupérés à la mort de l’auteur furent jugés vulgaires et ne parurent pas dans la première édition des œuvres complètes en 1850. Pour l’édition de 1878, Karl Emil Franzos entend mettre au jour cette pièce laissée inachevée. Pendant un moment le précipité semble opérer. L’encre remonte à la surface du papier. Les lettres prennent en épaisseur, des mots apparaissent. Les passages écrits trop vite avec une plume sèche et les restes d’un encrier se dévoilent. Pendant un moment du moins. Très rapidement l’encre remontée en excès à la surface du papier sèche. Des croûtes de pigments se forment à l’endroit des mots. En l’absence de fixateur, ces petits tas de poussières se dispersèrent au moment de l’expiration du lecteur. La première apparition du manuscrit consista en sa disparition partielle. Des pattes de mouches et des biffures il ne reste par endroit plus que le pli laissé par la pointe sur le papier. Le personnage de Johann Woyzeck, tel que relaté dans la pièce, advient dans les conditions du manuscrit. Georg Büchner opère une réduction du personnage à sa condition d’apparaître. Au fur et à mesure des lignes les abréviations et les ponctuations font émerger sa figure. Le texte le vêtit par addition de lambeaux et de débris. Comme l’homme invisible qui ne devient perceptible qu’une fois habillé, Johann Woyzeck se pare d’un costume et advient dans les mailles d’un langage rapiécé. Ainsi affublé d’un telle tunique le personnage prend les allures d’un arlequin. Il y a alors une tunique qui fait personnage et qui n’est faite que de morceaux empruntés. Il est débiteur de sa propre peau et sa malice lui permet de toujours déjouer les conditions de son baptême. Et il y a un être de papier qui s’aliène dans les dissociations qui lui sont imposées jusqu’à en perdre la possibilité de dire « Je ». Par surimpression il s’agit de faire apparaître ici le Woyzeck comme une arlequinade. Le montage valant tout autant pour l’histoire que pour la forme du manuscrit. Les quatre feuillets assemblés par la recherche philologique prennent valeur de canevas, à l’image de ceux utilisés par les compagnies de commedia dell’arte et qui servaient de situation de départ au travail d’improvisation. Pris dans ce maillage le drame devient une farce noire où un arlequin, sommé de s’enregistrer à l’état civil et de rendre compte de la provenance de ses morceaux, se fragmente. C’est tout son être que la question « Qui es tu ? » vient à démettre. La perte du « Je » engage alors la langue vers sa dissolution dans les blancs de la page. Cette figure et ce manuscrit deviennent dans cette recherche un paradigme. Les œuvres sculpturales, numériques et photographiques travaillent dans leurs modes de conception et dans leurs formes ce maillage. Elles s’annoncent sur une analogie entre langage et encodage. La mise en espace tend alors à mettre en scène des modes de figurations du monde qui se représentent plus eux-même qu’ils ne représentent les objets qu’ils se proposent de signifier. C’est cette tension que vient scénographier l’exposition Un Puzzle Blanc qui constitue la première partie de cette recherche. L’espace devient le lieu d’une mise en scène où l’exposition devient scène. La deuxième partie de cette thèse est une traduction de l’accrochage sous la forme d’un film. Il documente les œuvres et transcrit dans une durée et dans un montage les motifs et les principes de travail de cette recherche. À partir de ces éléments, le mémoire de thèse est une mise en texte de la lecture du drame faites par cette recherche. Il argumente en quoi le personnage de Johann Woyzeck est une survivance de la figure de l’arlequin
In 1878 Karl Emil Franzos affixed on the manuscript not yet named Woyzeck a solution of sulfur and ammonia. The treatment must reveal the illegible parts of the text and to make appear behind the erasures some parts necessary to the comprehension of the dramaturgy. In 1837, the sheets recovered at the death of the author were considered vulgar and did not appear in the first edition of the complete works in 1850. For the edition of 1878, Karl Emil Franzos intends to unearth this piece left unfinished. For a moment the precipitate seems to operate. The ink rises to the surface of the paper. Letters take in thick, words appear. The passages written too quickly with a feather and the remains of an inkwell are revealed. For a moment at least. Very quickly the ink raised in excess on the surface of the dry paper. Crusts of pigments are formed at the place of words. In the absence of fixative, these small piles of dust dispersed at the moment of the expiration of the reader. The first appearance of the manuscript consisted in its partial disappearance. Flies of flies and scratches there remains in place only the fold left by the tip on the paper.The character of Johann Woyzeck, as recounted in the play, occurs under the conditions of the manuscript. Georg Büchner makes a reduction of the character to his condition to appear. As the lines and abbreviations and punctuations emerge his face. The text clad him by adding flaps and debris. Like the invisible man who only becomes perceptible once dressed, Johann Woyzeck adorns himself with a costume and comes into the meshes of a patchwork language. Thus decked out in such a tunic, the character takes on the appearance of a harlequin.There is then a tunic that is a character and that is made only borrowed pieces. He is a debtor of his own skin and his mischief allows him to always thwart the conditions of his baptism. And there is a being of paper who alienates himself in the dissociations which are imposed on him until losing the possibility of saying "I". By overprinting it is to make appear here the Woyzeck like a harlequinade. The editing is as much for the story as for the form of the manuscript. The four leaflets assembled by philological research take the form of canvases, like those used by the commedia dell'arte companies and which served as a starting point for the improvisation work. Taken in this mesh the drama becomes a black joke where a harlequin, summoned to register in the civil status and to report the provenance of its pieces, is fragmented. It is all his being that the question "Who are you?" Comes to resign. The loss of the "I" then engages the language towards its dissolution in the whites of the page.This figure and this manuscript become in this research a paradigm. The sculptural, digital and photographic works work in their modes of design and in their forms this mesh. They announce themselves on an analogy between language and encoding. The setting in space then tends to stage modes of figurations of the world which represent themselves more than they represent the objects that they propose to signify. It is this tension that comes to stage the exhibition A White Puzzle which constitutes the first part of this research. The space becomes the place of a staging where the exhibition becomes a scene. The second part of this thesis is a translation of the clash in the form of a film. He documents the works and transcribes in a duration and a montage the motives and principles of work of this research. From these elements, the dissertation is a setting in text of the reading of the drama made by this research. He argues how Johann Woyzeck's character is a survival of the harlequin's figure

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
O presente trabalho propõe reflexões sobre o fenômeno do grotesco, que se define a partir de alguns aspectos como: estranho, bizarro, disforme, ridículo, híbrido, monstruoso, extravagante, cômico, trágico e tragicômico, trazendo como foco para esta discussão sua capacidade de dialogar elementos aparentemente contraditórios. Estas oposições que identificam tal fenômeno manifestam-se a partir de seu aspecto tragicômico. Soma-se a esta reflexão, aspectos característicos da linguagem do palhaço, em que o grotesco tragicômico é apontado como um dos importantes elementos constituintes dessa figura cômica, conforme exemplificados na dupla de palhaços, Branco e o Augusto. Toda esta discussão nos leva ao principal objetivo deste trabalho que é estabelecer uma analogia entre o grotesco tragicômico no palhaço e as personagens Doutor, Capitão e Woyzeck da obra Woyzeck de Georg Büchner. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa mostra-se importante na medida em que, propõe a discussão sobre o fenômeno estético do grotesco tragicômico, de forte influência em inúmeras produções artísticas e dramatúrgicas, ampliando nossa compreensão sobre o homem moderno, fortemente caracterizado por suas contradições. Além disso, aliar essa reflexão ao palhaço, nos ajuda a compreender os aspectos cômicos dessa figura, expandindo nossa forma de conceber o riso naturalmente atrelado à figura do palhaço, na sua capacidade de buscar no trágico da vida inspiração para suscitar o cômico. É a partir dessa reflexão, que buscamos uma aproximação entre esses aspectos do palhaço com algumas personagens da obra Woyzeck mantendo vivos um autor e uma obra de grandes contribuições para a história da dramaturgia moderna e contemporânea.
This work proposes reflections on the grotesque phenomenon, which is defined from some aspects such as: strange, bizarre, shapless, ridiculous, hybrid, horrendous, extravagant , funny and tragicomic, bringing as focus to this discussion it’s ability to dialogue seemingly contradictory elements. These oppositions that identify this phenomenon manifested from it’s tragicomic aspect. Added to this reflection, characteristic features of the clown language, in which the tragicomic grotesque is pointed out as one of the important constituents of this comic figure, as exemplified in the pair of clowns, Branco and Augusto. All of this discussion leads us to the main goal of this work, which is to establish an analogy between the tragicomic grotesque on the clown and the characters Doctor, Captain and Woyzeck of the artwork ‘Woyzeck’ by Georg Büchner. In this way, the research shows itself important as far as proposes a debate of the aesthetic phenomenon of tragicomic grotesque, strong influence in many artistic and dramaturgical productions, expanding our understanding of modern man, strongly characterized by its contradictions. Also, combine this reflection to the clown, helps us to understand the comedic aspects of this character, expanding our way of conceiving the laughter naturally, linked to the clown character, in their ability to seek the tragic aspect of life, inspiration to raise the comic. It is from this reflection, we seek an approach between these aspects of the clown with some characters of Woyzeck work keeping alive an author and an artwork of great contributions to the history of modern and contemporary dramatic art.

This chapter focuses on Georg Büchner's Woyzeck (1837), which, based on an early case of legal responsibility, expounds the problem of judgment in the medical-legal context by staging the case as a dramatic ensemble of scenes of observation. The procedures leading up to the confirmation of the murderer Johann Christian Woyzeck's death sentence shape what was to be known as the Woyzeck case. By commissioning Dr. Clarus as a medical expert, the legal case, which was about the societal sanction of a criminal act, became a case of quite a different nature. The question that Dr. Clarus attempts to answer is not about the deed and its particular circumstances, but about the personality of the perpetrator and his motives. The document to which Büchner's Woyzeck refers verbatim is the second report that Dr. Clarus provided and that he published twice within only one year. The chapter argues that the canonical drama Woyzeck, based on the Woyzeck of the Clarus report, is essentially about the making of the case.