Boston College Theatre Arts Department
and
Arts and Sciences Honors Program

Oleanna on stage and on film

What I am most interested in has to
do with the ways in which the audience's understanding of the story changes
with the media in which the text is presented.  Dan Brunet

Humanities House Conservatory
Oleanna Images (December 1, 2000)

Oleanna on stage and on film: witness and response

Name: 

 Electronic Mail Address: @bc.edu

Have you read the play? If so, when? 

 Did you attend the fall, 2001 performances of Oleanna here? 

 Have you seen the film version of Oleanna (1994) starring William H. Macy and Debra Eisenstadt (Screenplay by David Mamet himself)? 
 
 

 April 7, 2001, 8:00 p.m. in the Jenks Library in Gasson Hall of Boston College. After witnessing Act ii on stage tonight and viewing the videotape of Act ii immediately after, kindly enter reactions to the following prompts and reflections on related topics... 
 You have watched two different productions.  However, the two include the same actor and actress, same space, same preparation, and same direction.  What single new element would you suggest appeared in the film version.  Be specific.
 John and Carol may have caused you to align with one or the other.  If so, was that alignment altered in the film version?  Increased?  Weakened?  Comment.
 Oleanna at one level explores the issue of sexual harassment at the university in Act ii.  For some this is what the play is about.  For others the play is about power.  The harassment issue is an occasion to explore relationships and communication in situations of strength and weakness.   Is the performance of Act ii different from the videotape of Act ii in this regard?  Comment.
 The issues brought up in the play may have upset you.  More in one version than in the other?  Comment?
 Did your connection to the play change in any way, especially other ways not reached in your earlier comments, from the performed version to the filmed version of Act ii?

Discuss where you were seated and what you could see for the performance and what you could see in the film. 

Describe the theatre space used in the film.
 
 

 Comment freely here.  What did you make of this experiment?

 


 

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Copyright 2001 - The Trustees of Boston College
Copyleft, 2001 - Prof. Tim Duket and Arts and Sciences Honors Program
This document may be borrowed and copied if attribution to this institution and to authors is made. Distribution for sale is of course forbidden.