BRECHT, BertholtABAA
The Good Woman of Setzuan. 5 original costume designs in watercolor by noted American artist Robert Perdziola born 1961 each titled signed and dated April 1983 by the artist in pencil
réf. 39919Executed on quality watercolor paper all but one with fabric swatches attached. Sheet size 380 x 275 mm. Depicting characters in the play including Mrs Shin Wang Mrs Yang God and Shen Te. Some minor browning. In very good condition overall. "The Good Woman of Setzuan drama a "parable in 10 scenes" by Bertolt Brecht produced in 1943 and published in 1953 as Der gute Mensch von Sezuan. The title has many English-language variants including The Good Person of Szechwan and The Good Soul of Szechuan. "The play is set in China between World War I and World War II. The title character Shen Te is a poor but warmhearted prostitute. Because she alone was willing to shelter three gods they have favoured her with a gift of money. She purchases a tobacco shop but finds that her kinsfolk and other customers take advantage of her kindness. To save her business Shen Te adopts an alter ego; dressing as a man and acting the role of her tough pragmatic cousin Shui Ta she is able to exact just payment. She is forced to assume this role so often that as Shui Ta she is accused of murdering Shen Te. In the climactic trial scene Shui Ta reveals that he and Shen Te are the same person. Bertolt Brecht . was a German poet playwright and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes." Britannica Online "Coming of age during the Weimar Republic Brecht had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924 where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Elisabeth Hauptmann & Kurt Weill and began a life-long collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler. Immersed in Marxist thought during this period he wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became a leading theoretician of epic theatre which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre" and the Verfremdungseffekt. During the Nazi Germany period Brecht fled his home country first to Scandinavia and during World War II to the United States where he was surveilled by the FBI.3 After the war he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Returning to East Berlin after the war he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator actress Helene Weigel." Wikipedia Perdziola an internationally-recognized set and costume designer for theater opera and ballet has worked extensively throughout the United States at such venues as the Metropolitan Opera San Francisco Opera Santa Fe Opera Lyric Theatre of Chicago American Ballet Theater Shakespeare Theater in Washington Boston Ballet and Miami Ballet as well as for various Broadway productions. He has also worked internationally for productions at the Monte Carlo Opera the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester in Hannover the Garsington Opera in the United Kingdom the Finnish National Ballet the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan and the Sydney Opera House. The artist has received three Helen Hayes awards and a Helpmann award; he has also been nominated for numerous additional awards. unknown books
