1.
Samuel Beckett
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Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century, Becketts work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour, and became increasingly minimalist in his later career. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and he was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. The Becketts were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland, the family home, Cooldrinagh in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, was a large house and garden complete with tennis court built in 1903 by Samuels father, William. Samuel Beckett was born on Good Friday,13 April 1906, to William Frank Beckett, a quantity surveyor and descendant of the Huguenots, and Maria Jones Roe, a nurse, Beckett had one older brother, Frank Edward Beckett. At the age of five, Beckett attended a local playschool, where he started to learn music, in 1919, Beckett went to Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. A natural athlete, Beckett excelled at cricket as a left-handed batsman, later, he was to play for Dublin University and played two first-class games against Northamptonshire. As a result, he became the only Nobel literature laureate to have played first class cricket, Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927. He was elected a Scholar in Modern Languages in 1926, Beckett graduated with a BA and, after teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast, took up the post of lecteur danglais at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris from November 1928 to 1930. While there, he was introduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy and this meeting had a profound effect on the young man. Beckett assisted Joyce in various ways, one of which was research towards the book that became Finnegans Wake, in 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay entitled Dante. Becketts close relationship with Joyce and his family cooled, however, Becketts first short story, Assumption, was published in Jolass periodical transition. In 1930, Beckett returned to Trinity College as a lecturer, in November 1930, he presented a paper in French to the Modern Languages Society of Trinity on the Toulouse poet Jean du Chas, founder of a movement called le Concentrisme. It was a parody, for Beckett had in fact invented the poet and his movement that claimed to be at odds with all that is clear. Beckett later insisted that he had not intended to fool his audience, when Beckett resigned from Trinity at the end of 1931, his brief academic career was at an end. He spent some time in London, where in 1931 he published Proust, two years later, following his fathers death, he began two years treatment with Tavistock Clinic psychoanalyst Dr. Wilfred Bion. Aspects of it became evident in Becketts later works, such as Watt, in 1932, he wrote his first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, but after many rejections from publishers decided to abandon it
2.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
3.
Mime artist
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A mime or mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer, miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch. The performance of mime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece, in Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface, Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dellarte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods, however, the twentieth century also brought a new medium into widespread usage, the motion picture. The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue and this often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent of talkies, the mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect in German Expressionist film. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best-documented mime in history, tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them. Mime has been performed on stage, with Marcel Marceau and his character Bip being the most famous, Mime is also a popular art form in street theatre and busking. Traditionally, these sorts of performances involve the actor/actress wearing tight black, however, contemporary mimes often perform without whiteface. Similarly, while traditional mimes have been silent, contemporary mimes, while refraining from speaking. Mime acts are often comical, but some can be very serious, canadian author Michael Jacots first novel, The Last Butterfly, tells the story of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Europe who is forced by his oppressors to perform for a team of Red Cross observers. Nobel laureate Heinrich Bölls The Clown relates the downfall of a mime artist, Hans Schneir, jacob Appels Pushcart short-listed story, Coulrophobia, depicts the tragedy of a landlord whose marriage slowly collapses after he rents a spare apartment to an intrusive mime artist. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia, comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria. The Roman emperor Trajan banished mime artists, Caligula favored them, nero himself acted as a mime. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany the performance, the Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise on theatre by Bharata Muni, mentions silent performance, or mukabhinaya. In Kathakali, stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals, performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song. Butoh, though referred to as a dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well
4.
Boise, Idaho
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Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U. S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, the population of Boise at the 2010 Census was 205,671 and its estimated population in 2013 was 214,237. The Boise-Nampa metropolitan area, also known as the Treasure Valley, includes five counties with a population of 664,422. It contains the three largest cities, Boise, Nampa, and Meridian. Boise is the third most populous area in the United States Pacific Northwest region, behind Seattle. Accounts differ about the origin of the name, Bonneville of the U. S. Army as its source. After trekking for weeks through dry and rough terrain, his party reached an overlook with a view of the Boise River Valley. The place where they stood is called Bonneville Point, located on the Oregon Trail east of the city, according to the story, a French-speaking guide, overwhelmed by the sight of the verdant river, yelled Les bois. Les bois. —and the name stuck, the name may instead derive from earlier mountain men, who named the river that flows through it. In the 1820s, French Canadian fur trappers set trap lines in the vicinity, set in a high-desert area, the tree-lined valley of the Boise River became a distinct landmark, an oasis dominated by cottonwood trees. They called this La rivière boisée, which means the wooded river, the area was called Boise long before the establishment of Fort Boise by the federal government. The original Fort Boise was 40 miles west, near Parma and this private sector defense was erected by the Hudsons Bay Company in the 1830s. It was abandoned in the 1850s, but massacres along the Oregon Trail prompted the U. S. Army to re-establish a fort in the area in 1863 during the U. S. Civil War. The new location was selected because it was near the intersection of the Oregon Trail with a road connecting the Boise Basin. During the mid-1860s, Idaho City was the largest city in the Northwest, the original territory was larger than Texas. Mullett, the U. S. Assay Office at 210 Main Street was built in 1871, natives and longtime residents use the pronunciation /ˈbɔɪsiː/, as given on the citys website. The pronunciation is used as a shibboleth, as outsiders tend to pronounce the citys name as /ˈbɔɪziː/. Boise is located in southwestern Idaho, about 41 miles east of the Oregon border, the downtown areas elevation is 2,704 feet above sea level
5.
Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
6.
Stage (theatre)
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In theatre and performing arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance of productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a point for the members of the audience. As an architectural feature, the stage may consist of a platform or series of platforms, in some cases, these may be temporary or adjustable but in theaters and other buildings devoted to such productions, the stage is often a permanent feature. There are several types of stages that vary as to the usage, the most common form found in the West is the proscenium stage. In this type, the audience is located on one side of the stage with the remaining sides hidden and used by the performers and technicians. Thrust stages may be similar to proscenium stages but with a platform or performance area that extends into the space so that the audience is located on three sides. In theatre in the round, the audience is located on all four sides of the stage, the fourth type of stage incorporates created and found stages which may be constructed specifically for a performance or may involve a space that is adapted as a stage. Since the Italian Renaissance, the most common used in the West has been the proscenium stage which may also be referred to as a picture frame stage. The primary feature is an opening known as the proscenium arch through which the audience views the performance. The audience directly faces the stage—which is typically raised several feet above front row audience level—and views only one side of the scene and this one side is commonly known as the invisible fourth wall of the scene. The proscenium arch evolved from the proskenium in Ancient Greek theaters and this was the space in front of the skênê or backdrop where the actors actually played. Stage floors were raked upward slightly from front to back in order to contribute to the illusion and also to make actors more visible to audiences. Subsequently, audience seating was raked, and balconies were added to give audiences a fuller view, by the end of the 19th century most stages had level floors, and much of the audience looked down on, rather than up to, the stage. The competition among royals to produce elegant and elaborate entertainments fueled and financed the expansion of European court theatres, the proscenium—which often was extremely decorative in the manner of a triumphal arch—framed the prospective picture. A wood grid above the stage supported pulleys from which wooden battens, the weight of heavy pieces was counterbalanced by sandbags. This system required the creation of a stage house or loft that was usually as high or higher than the proscenium itself. Theatres using these systems, which are manually operated by stage hands, are known as hemp houses. They have been supplanted by counterweight fly systems
7.
Arecaceae
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The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial climbers, shrubs, acaules and trees commonly known as palm trees. They are flowering plants, a family in the monocot order Arecales, currently 181 genera with around 2600 species are known, most of them restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, however, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families and they have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are widely used in landscaping, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, for inhabitants of cooler climates today, palms symbolize the tropics and vacations. Whether as shrubs, trees, or vines, palms have two methods of growth, solitary or clustered, the common representation is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea. Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters, the trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud, exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans, Guihaia, and Rhapis. Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members, Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters, and vice versa. These aberrations suggest the habit operates on a single gene, Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately or pinnately compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The leaves have a sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity, the flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each, and may be distinct or joined at the base, the stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe but some genera may contain two or more seeds in each fruit, like all monocots, palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem via the same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants. This explains the shape of the trunk that is often seen in palms. The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, Ceroxylon quindiuense, Colombias national tree, is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 m tall
8.
Caricature
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A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. The term is derived from the Italian caricare—to charge or load, an early definition occurs in the English doctor Thomas Brownes Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, with the footnote, When Mens faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the Italians call it, to be drawn in Caricatura Thus, the word caricature essentially means a loaded portrait. Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Caricature took a road to its first successes in the aristocratic circles of France and Italy. These caricatures were the work of Brig. -Gen, george Townshend whose caricatures of British General James Wolfe, depicted as Deformed and crass and hideous, were drawn to amuse fellow officers. Elsewhere, two great practitioners of the art of caricature in 18th-century Britain were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, Rowlandson was more of an artist and his work took its inspiration mostly from the public at large. Gillray was more concerned with the vicious visual satirisation of political life and they were, however, great friends and caroused together in the pubs of London. In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature, the British caricaturist Ted Harrison said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the subject with an effective caricature. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art can be employed to make a social or political point. A caricaturist draws on the characteristics of the subject, the acquired characteristics. Sir Max Beerbohm, created and published caricatures of the men of his own time. His style of single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings was established by 1896 and his published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Poets Corner, and Rossetti and His Circle. He published widely in magazines of the time, and his works were exhibited regularly in London at the Carfax Gallery. George Cruikshank created political prints that attacked the family and leading politicians. He went on to create caricatures of British life for popular publications such as The Comic Almanack
9.
Tree of life
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The concept of a tree of life is a widespread mytheme or archetype in the worlds mythologies, related to the concept of sacred tree more generally, and hence in religious and philosophical tradition. The expression Tree of Life was used as a metaphor for the tree of common descent in the evolutionary sense in a famous passage by Charles Darwin. Various trees of life are recounted in folklore, culture and fiction and they had their origin in religious symbolism. The Eternal Banyan Tree is located on the bank of the Yamuna inside the courtyard of Allahabad Fort near the confluence of the Yamuna, the eternal and divine nature of this tree has been documented at length in the scriptures. During the cyclic destruction of creation when the earth was enveloped by waters. It is on the leaves of tree that Lord Krishna rested in the form of a baby when land was no longer visible. And it is here that the sage, Markandeya, received the cosmic vision of the Lord. It is under this tree that Buddha meditates eternally, legend also has it that the Bodi tree at Gaya is a manifestation of this tree. In pre-Islamic Persian mythology, the Gaokerena world tree is a large, ahriman created a frog to invade the tree and destroy it, aiming to prevent all trees from growing on the earth. As a reaction, God created two kar fish staring at the frog to guard the tree, the two fishes are always staring at the frog and stay ready to react to it. The sacred plant haoma and the drink made from it, the preparation of the drink from the plant by pounding and the drinking of it are central features of Zoroastrian ritual. Haoma is also personified as a divinity and it bestows essential vital qualities—health, fertility, husbands for maidens, even immortality. The source of the haoma plant is a shining white tree that grows on a paradisiacal mountain. Sprigs of this white haoma were brought to earth by divine birds, Haoma is the Avestan form of the Sanskrit soma. The near identity of the two in ritual significance is considered by scholars to point to a salient feature of an Indo-Iranian religion antedating Zoroastrianism. Another related issue in ancient mythology of Iran is the myth of Mashyа and Mashyane and this myth can be considered as a prototype for the creation myth where living beings are created by Gods. To the Ancient Egyptians, the Tree of Life represented the hierarchical chain of events that brought everything into existence, the spheres of the Tree of Life demonstrate the order, process, and method of creation. In Egyptian mythology, in the Ennead system of Heliopolis, the first couple, apart from Shu and Tefnut and Geb and Nut, are Isis and Osiris
10.
Fly system
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Systems are typically designed to fly components between clear view of the audience and out of view, into the large opening, fly loft, above the stage. Fly systems are used in conjunction with other theatre systems, such as scenery wagons, stage lifts and stage turntables. Theatrical rigging is most prevalent in proscenium theatres with stage houses designed specifically to handle the significant dead, building, occupational safety, and fire codes limit the types and quantity of rigging permitted in a theatre based on stage configuration. Theatrical rigging standards are developed and maintained by such as USITT. The line set is the machine of a typical fly system. The function of a line set is to fly a slender beam known as a batten by hoisting it with lift lines. By hanging scenery, lighting, or other equipment to a batten, a batten is said to be flying in when it is being lowered toward the stage, and flying out when it is being raised into the fly space. Battens may be just a few feet in length or may extend from one wing of the stage to the other, a batten is suspended from above by at least two lift lines, but long battens may require six or more lift lines. In manual rigging, a line set’s lift lines support weights opposite their connections to the batten in order to balance the weight of the batten and whatever it carries. The lift lines are reeved through a series of pulleys, known as blocks, an operating line allows riggers on the fly crew to raise and lower the batten. Automated rigging sometimes uses weights to help balance line set loads in a similar to manual counterweight rigging. Otherwise it relies solely on the power of an electric hoist to fly a line set. Together, a series of line sets regularly spaced up and down stage, commonly at 6 in,8 in, or 9 in centers. Theatrical rigging systems are made up of hemp, counterweight and/or automated line sets able to serve various functions, Line sets are typically general purpose in function, meaning they can perform any number of functions which vary depending upon the requirements of a particular theatre production. For example, a general purpose line set can usually be quickly transformed into a drapery or scenery line set, when a line set has a predetermined, relatively permanent, function it is known as a dedicated line set. Line sets are sometimes dedicated to particular draperies, such as the curtain and main border that mask the proscenium opening. Scenery line set In many stage productions, theatrical scenery is mounted to line sets in order to be flown in, for example, painted soft and hard flats and are commonly used to depict settings. Also, three-dimensional sets may be flown, Electrical line set Electrical line sets, commonly called electrics, are used to suspend and control lighting instruments and, in many cases, microphones and special effects equipment as well
