FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Verne Moberg Tel.: 212-854-7859; Fax: 212-854-5381 E-mail: [email protected]
COLUMBIA’S SWEDISH PROGRAM ANNOUNCES SPRING PROGRAMS
BERGMAN IN THEATER, GARBO IN FILM, AND A NEW DOCUMENTARY AND PLAY
The Swedish Program at Columbia University will present four new programs during the spring semester including two lectures on theater and film history, a screening of a documentary by a prize-winning filmmaker, and a staged reading of a recent play by a top Swedish playwright. The public is invited, and admission is free. The first events will be lectures scheduled for Feb. 22 and 27 by a distinguished Swedish theater and film historian.
LEIF JANZON LECTURES ON BERGMAN AND GARBO AT COLUMBIA’S DEUTSCHES HAUS FEB. 22 AND 27
The first talk, given by Leif Janzon, will get underway at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22, and is entitled “Exorcising Onstage: Ingmar Bergman's Theater.” Since 1942, Bergman's stage work in Sweden has been both controversial and celebrated. First seen at major theaters outside Stockholm, from the 1960s at the Royal Dramatic Theater and at the Royal Opera in Sweden’s capital city, his productions have since the 1980s also visited the United States. Mr. Janzon has followed the director’s work closely for several decades and will discuss the continuous interaction between his theater and his films and TV productions, with "the Bergman actors" as an important common denominator. Bergman's work will also be considered in its cultural, social, and biographical context. Mr. Janzon’s second lecture, “The Smile of Garbo: The Emigrant,” will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27. One of the most fascinating and elusive film stars of our times, Greta Garbo acquired cult status at an early age. Born on the impoverished South Side of Stockholm, Greta Gustafson--like many Swedes before her--became a U.S. immigrant. To most Swedes, she is not primarily a mystery but an individual who lived out an easily understandable Swedish destiny, one individual among hundreds of thousands of compatriots, who out of poverty, ambitions, and dreams, were forced to leave their country. Her life is seen by Mr. Janzon as being representative of Sweden's social transformation since the late 19th century. Leif Janzon is the author of many opera librettos and books. Among these are “Trädgården” (The Garden), an opera based on a novel by Magnus Florin and with music Jonas Forssell, done at the Stockholm’s Drottningholm Court Theater in 1999. According to the Financial Times, it was one of the world's six best opera productions that year, in all categories. Mr. Janzon is also the author of ”Kejsarinnan” (The Empress), a musical based on a Selma Lagerlöf novel and with music and lyrics Mikael Wiehe; it was performed at Folkteatern in Gothenburg in 1999-2000 and at Det Norske Teatret in Oslo in 2000-2001. "Garbo: The Musical" will have its world premiere in September 2002 at Oscars Theater in Stockholm with music by Jim Steinman/Michael Reed and book and lyrics by Warner Brown. The play is based on an original concept by Leif Janzon. The author is now writing book and lyrics for a musical entitled “Häxskogen” (Witches' Wood), based on a 1920 short story by Finno-Swedish writer Runar Schildt and scheduled to open at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in 2003. Books written by Leif Janzon include ”Theatre in Sweden,” written in English with ClaesEnglund (Svenska Institutet, 1997); and ”Sju decennier--svensk teater under 1900-talet” (Seven Decades--Swedish Theatre in the 20th Century) written with P. G. Engel (Forum, 1974). The lecturer is currently at work on a history entitled ”Svensk dramatik från renässans till nutid” (Swedish Drama - from the Renaissance to the Present) with P. G. Engel. Leif Janzon has also published criticism, reviews, and essays on theater, musical theater, film, and literature in various newspapers and magazines and for radio and television. In addition, he has translated into Swedish some 60 books, 15 plays, and 3 musicals plus poems, lyrics, and essays from English, German, French, Italian, and Finnish. Among the writers translated are Norman Mailer, Seamus Heaney (Nobel Laureate, 1995), William Faulkner,George Tabori, Arthur Koestler/Sidney Kingsley, James Purdy, Peter Handke, Jean Genet, Bernard-Marie Koltès, Antonin Artaud, and Roland Barthes. Mr. Janzon has taught and lectured since 1970 at the Department of Drama and Film at Stockholm University, the Institute of Dramatic Arts, the University College of Opera, and the State College of Acting, all in Stockholm; the State Colleges of Music in Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg, Sweden; and the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga.
ALSO ON GARBO
Another program on Garbo will be offered by the Swedish Program at 12 noon on Friday, March 1, in 717 Hamilton Hall on the Columbia campus, with the screening of a Swedish TV documentary entitled “Loving Greta Garbo: A Portrait of the Swedish actress through the Letters of Mercedes de Acosta.” Using recently released letters, biographies, De Acosta's poems and autobiography, prize-winning producer Lena Einhorn has made a documentary portrait of the very private Greta Garbo. Mercedes de Acosta, who knew her for thirty years--until 1960 when the Swedish star broke all contact—is a central figure in this film, following the movie star’s life--from her childhood in Stockholm to glamorous but hated Hollywood, to exile in New York. (Mercedes de Acosta was also a love interest for Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, and Eva le Gallienne.) The film is in color with English narration, and running time is 58 minutes.
A NEW LUGN PLAY WITH MUSIC LATER THIS SPRING
On Wednesday, April 10, the Swedish Program will also present a staged reading of a new work entitled “Stolen Jewels,” by leading Swedish playwright Kristina Lugn. The drama, translated from the Swedish by Verne Moberg with Anne Seale, features songs by Matti Bye and will be directed by Robert Greer. The story is a kind of modern-day dream play, revealing what happens when acclaimed poet and Sylvia Plath Award Winner Margo Adair St. Clair has sex with her psychoanalyst, one Rudy Newlander. She interprets his response as love while he believes that the rape he has administered was part of her therapy. But this Don Juan of a doctor is loved by many for whom the psychiatrist has taken the place of the preacher, and his demonic powers involve a yearning not only for his late wife but also for Margo’s very young daughter. The characters, including five women and two men, will be played by professional New York actors. The world premiere of “Stolen Jewels” was at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater in the autumn of 2000, and the English translation was prepared especially for this program. The play will be presented at 7 p.m. in Deutsches Haus, at 420 W. 116th St. (between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive) in New York City.
The lectures by Leif Janzon, the screening of the film on Garbo by Lena Einhorn, and the reading of the play by Kristina Lugn are being sponsored by the Swedish Program together with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Institute for the Study of Europe at Columbia University together with the Swedish Institute. For information: Tel.: 212-854-7859; E-mail: [email protected].
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