An Introduction to Scuba Diving

Climate Change And Human Causation - 2880 Words

Despite the widely agreed upon consensus of climate change and human causation in the scientific community, the general public is still out to lunch on the subject, influenced by politics and societal ideals. The most important thing about climate change is the effects it directly has on our planet and its direct effect on species. Demonstrating a specific occurrence of the direct effects of climate change is Coral reefs. Impacted by warming and ocean acidification, Coral is facing great distress and the future of coral reefs is ugly, scientists unsure but doubtful that they will be able to keep up with the rapid change. The important thing to see from climate change and the point that needs to be understood by the public is that the evidence and the effects on species all over the world are real, and earth and its systems and creatures account for one hundred percent of our resources, directly or indirectly. The health of our planet is our responsibility, and this report examines th e ramifications of human life and a closer look at Coral reefs, a key ecosystem facing the heat. The Controversy over Anthropogenic Climate Change When examining climate change, it’s important to understand human’s roles. This includes not only our greenhouse gas emissions and the practices that currently and historically produces them, but also our public understanding of the science of climate change and our effects on it. By this I mean that it is essentially important for all people toShow MoreRelatedThe Debate Over Global Warming1063 Words   |  5 PagesThe climate change debate has been ongoing for nearly thirty years now, the debate is over the causation(s) of global warming. Temperatures on earth have increased approximately 2.0 °F since the early 20th century. Levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have drastically increased within the atmosphere. 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John F. Kennedy in Vietnam Essay Summary Example For Students

John F. Kennedy in Vietnam Essay Summary JOHN F. KENNEDY IN VIETNAM There are many critical questions surrounding United States involvement in Vietnam. American entry to Vietnam was a series of many choices made by five successive presidents during these years of 1945-1975. The policies of John F. Kennedy during the years of 1961-1963 were ones of military action, diplomacy, and liberalism. Each of his decision was on its merits at the time the decision was made. The belief that Vietnam was a test of the Americas ability to defeat communists in Vietnam lay at the center of Kennedys policy. Kennedy promised in his inaugural address, Let every nation knowthat we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. From the 1880s until World War II, France governed Vietnam as part of French Indochina, which also included Cambodia and Laos. The country was under the formal control of an emperor, Bao Dai. From 1946 until 1954, the Vietnamese st ruggled for their independence from France during the first Indochina War. At the end of this war, the country was temporarily divided into North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam came under the control of the Vietnamese Communists who had opposed France and aimed for a unified Vietnam under Communist rule. Vietnamese who had collaborated with the French controlled the South. For this reason the United States became involved in Vietnam because it believed that if all of the country fell under a Communist government, Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia and further. This belief was known as the domino theory. The decision to enter Vietnam reflected Americas idea of its global role-U.S. could not recoil from world leadership. The U.S. government supported the South Vietnamese government. The U.S. government wanted to establish the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), which extended protection to South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in case of Communist subversion. SEATO , which came into force in 1955, became the way which Washington justified its support for South Vietnam; this support eventually became direct involvement of U.S. troops. In 1955, the United States picked Ngo Dinh Diem to replace Bao Dai as head of the anti-Communist regime in South Vietnam. Eisenhower chose to support Ngo Dinh Diem. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 29, 1917. Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and joined the Navy the next year. After recovering from a war-aggravated spinal injury, Kennedy entered politics in 1946 and was elected to Congress. After a hard primary battle, Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot at the 1960 Los Angeles convention. With a majority of 118,574 votes, he won the election over Vice President Richard M. Nixon and became the first Roman Catholic president. Kennedy was inaugurated January 20, 1961. January 19, 1961 was President Eisenhower last full day in office. He me t with President elect Kennedy to lay out pressing national issues he would have to face. Tensions between the United States and the USSR had mounted after World War II, resulting in the Cold War. JFK would have to deal with that problem. There was an intense discussion about Laos and Vietnam between Kennedy and Eisenhower. Another problem JFK had inherited was Diem from Eisenhower. Kennedys cabinet members were made up of many different thinkers. Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State believed that there was a communist plot to take over the world and it must be stopped. Walt Rostow, the presidential advisor believes that we should use military force to cut off supplies to the Vietcong, have large scale bombings of North Vietnam and accelerate modernization in South Vietnam. General Maxwell Taylor criticized Eisenhowers conventional training efforts. McGeorge Bundy, the NSC advisor wanted to attack the Vietcong and North Vietnam if necessary. George Ball believed that Diem regime was co rrupt and to create democracy in Vietnam was impossible. Kennedy first role as president was to focus on issue involving the dangerous crisis over Berlin, on Cuba, and on the future of Laos. JFK first sends advisors to Vietnam to recommend a course of action during May 1961. Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice-President, visits South Vietnam and recommends strong commitment. In June 1961, the State Department report had three objectives: ? provide military protection to peasants ? convince Diem to implement social and economic reforms ? create a self-sustaining economy in South Vietnam That same year in December, the State Department claims in a public report that Vietnam is threatened by a clear and present danger, of communist aggression. Kennedy also during that year sent a cable to Robert McNamera and General Maxwell Taylor for a proposed visit to talk to Diem in about Vietnam and Laos. Taylor and McNamara were sent on a series of trips during 1961-1963 to Vietnam. The Taylor- McNamara repo rt recommended ? the use of 8,000 US combat troops ? a 5,000 man combat engineering group JFK was personally convinced that ground troops shouldnt go in but his experts said otherwise. The Laotian Crisis occurred during 1961. People saw this as a direct link to the expansion of US activism in Vietnam. JFKs first decision about Vietnam was a counterinsurgency plan. On January 28, 1961 JFK approves the plan. In April of 1961 the first of 16,000 Green Beret advisors was sent to Vietnam. Kennedy sends 500 military advisors, a total of 1,400. A problem of this plan was the military was unable to stop communism. By the end of 1961 Kennedy was devoting a lot of resources to the Vietnam problem as well as the entire Southeast Asian region. Kennedy and administration believed that losing Laos would probably mean the loss of all South East Asia. It was also apparent to Kennedy that a communist victory in Laos would pose a threat to the United States. Dec. 1961 JFK implemented the Strategic Ha mlet Program. Which was rural pacification. Which was a newer version of Agroville Program under Eisenhower. This program fortified villages surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers to keep the VC out of schools, community center small hospital, and homes for peasants. In 1962, Kennedys expanded intervention policy in South Vietnam received extreme bad press. NY Times ran very critical articles on rising intevension on a remote corner of the world. They began to question the accuracy of ARVN reports. They began to focus on US participation and direction instead of support and training. All this made the US look imperialist as if we were in control, which was not so yet. The civil rights movement created the climate for protest. As of January 1962, the total military personal in South Vietnam reached a total of 2,646. During this strenuous time for JFK the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs in October, 1962. The Laos negotiation and the Cuban Missile Crisis raised strong doubts about Kenn edys leadership ability. At the end of 1962 total military personal in South Vietnam reaches heights of 11,300 people. President Kennedys did a television interviews on Vietnam September 2 and 9, 1963 on CBS. President Kennedy was asked about what he thinks about Vietnam. I dont think that unless a greater effort is made by the Government to win popular support that the war can be won out there. In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win itthe people of Viet-Namagainst the Communists. JFKs third decision and most far-reaching Vietnam decision was to replace Diem in 1963. The new US ambassador to Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge favored Diems removal. During this time McNamera tried to convince JFK of necessity of deploying a combat force to S. Vietnam, not only to boost morale but to defend them against Vietcong in the field. But South Vietnamese troops are defeated by a much smaller Vietcong force despite U.S. assistance. In November 1, 1963, Ngo Diem regime came to an end when he died of and unclear cause. It is speculated that he was overthrown and then assassinated by ARVN leaders. US became responsible for the chaos afterward, which led to an increased commitment of US troops. By this time Kennedy was thinking ahead to the presidential campaign of 1964. Unfortunately Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, TX. Despite trauma of the assassination of the president the nation lied without him. Succeeding to the presidency after Kennedys assassination was Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson had inherited a more dangerous crisis than Eisenhower and Kennedy. And contrary to popular belief Johnson was not oblivious to Vietnam when he became president. LBJ inherited JFK plans and vowed to continue his policies. He also felt he had to take a forceful position on Vietnam so that other Communist countries woul d not think that the United States lacked purpose. Kennedy had begun to consider the possibility of withdrawal from Vietnam and had even ordered the removal of 1000 advisers shortly before he was assassinated, but Johnson increased the number of U.S. advisers to 27,000 by mid-1964. The Kennedy advisors viewed JFK as an effective leader of South Vietnam. Some opposition to JFK say he made some critical mistakes in regard to Vietnam. For example, he had a poor strategy. There were multiple options military could not decide how to win and they disagreed on what to do. In North Vietnam, there was no front line to stop the influx of supplies. The neutralization to stop supplies in Laos failed. And we definitely underestimated the enemy. North Vietnam more determined that we thought. There has been much speculation on what JFK would have done in Vietnam had he not been assassinated. Presidential aide Walt Rostow, says that Kennedy intend to withdrawal American military from Vietnam after 1964 election. Dean Rusk on the other hand believed Kennedy would have eventually brought US into war with Vietnam. Robert McNamera having reviewed everything believes that if JFK had lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam. Although many disagree with what McNamara says. And in the fiction movie JFK, by Oliver Stone his version of the Kennedy assassination was that Kennedy had already decided to pull out of Vietnam, and was killed for that reason. So would Kennedy have fallen into the Vietnam War as Johnson did? No one can be sure, and Kennedy supporters can certainly believe that he would have avoided Johnsons massive commitment -even though he had the same advisors as Johnson and the same desire to prevent a Communist takeover. We will never know for sure what President Kennedy intended to do in Vietnam. All the general public has to go on is speculation from close to JFK. Bibliography Bibliography Dudley, William. The Vietnam War: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhave n Press, 1998. Gardner, Lloyd C. , and Ted Gittinger. Vietnam: The Early Decisions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: The War Nobody Won. New York: The Viking Press, 1983. Kimball, Jeffery. To Reason Why. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. Lomperis, Timothy. The War Everybody Lost and Won. 2nd ed. revised. Washington: D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1993. McNamera, Robert. In Retrospect , The Tragedy in Vietnam. New York: Dell Publishing Group, 1996. Olson, James S. The Vietnam War. London: Greenwood Press, 1993. Rowe, John, and Rick Berg. The Vietnam War and American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. Rust, William J. Kennedy in Vietnam. New York: U.S. News ; World Report, Inc., 1985. Schwab, Orrin. Defending the Free World: John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. London: Praeger Publishers, 1998. .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .postImageUrl , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:hover , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:visited , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:active { border:0!important; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:active , .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8c0bd09659048abcb676479f05a63fcc:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Day on the Trail with My Dirt Bike Essay

The redemption of W.B. Yeats Essay Example For Students

The redemption of W.B. Yeats Essay When the clerk in a Dublin bookstore discovered I was interested in William Butler Yeasts plays, she confessed that she didnt think much of the man. Americans, she said, are more fond of him than we are. But when she learned that James W. Flannerys festival at the Abbey offered all five Cuchulain plays on a single bill, she allowed she might go see them because it was good value for money. Her comments are iffy on both counts. The man himself may be acceptable on this side of the Atlantic, but its not uncommon to hear American theatre professionals and academics alike dismiss Yeasts plays as unstageable. Nobody, they charge, could sit through even one of those things and like it; five would extend the torture. So how could a Yeats festival be good value for money? We will write a custom essay on The redemption of W.B. Yeats specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Maybe it took an American director as brash as Jim Flannery, untainted by slow-to-heal Irish political grudges, to give W.B. Yeats the audience he secured for others but never for himself. Its not just that Flannery props up Yeats with lectures, art shows, poetry readings, rock concerts and the like. Under his direction, Yeatss words come to life on the stage, and an often surprised begins to realize theres good value in the plays after all. Flannery, whose home base is Theater Emory in Atlanta, concedes he doesnt cater to old-school academic audiences or the drawing-room crowd in search of 19th-century poetic drama. Im interested in the legacy of Yeats being picked up by the young people of Ireland, he says, but Im also deeply committed to the international reputation of Yeats and to developing an audience which shares his understanding of life. To this end, he has at times, as columnist Fintan OToole put it, reduced the Great Poet to the level of showbiz. Flannery admits, for example that his Cuchulains costume and mannerisms were based on rock artist Bono of U2. But it it Yeats? Backed by a generous grant from Coca-Cola Atlantic, Flannerys productions deliver pyrotechnics Yeats only achieved once when the gels caught fire. Theres music the tin-eared Yeats could never hum, costumes and sets his abbey couldnt afford, and movement and dance that would dry the spit in the old mans mouth. After attending a performance of her fathers work at the first of these festivals, Anne Yeats said; Its a wonderful night in the theatre, but is it Yeats? She wasnt the only one in the house to pose that question. For nothing, it seemed too musical for Yeats. But music is the key to the Flannery Yeats, and composer Bill Whelan typifies the Flannery touch. Whelan has produced music by the Dubliners, Van Morrison and U2, orchestrated Gilbert and Sullivan for Noel Pearson, and composed Irish myth based scores for the National Symphony Orchestra. He admits, though, that he hadnt even read Yeatss plays until Flannery recruited him to do the Cuchulain Cycle. I had to go out and buy a copy of the Collected Plays, Whelan told me. Totally unfamiliar with any of the music written for these plays in the past, Whelan sat in on rehearsals, listened to the spoken words, watched movement director Sarah-Jane Scaifes drills where chorus and cast members writhed into sensual, slow-twisting, ever-fluid shapes, then went backto his studio to compose music that emphasized the mood Flannery was drawing out of the text. A singer from childhood, Flannery surrounds himself with lyric talent. He listens for melodic qualities in peoples voices. Once, while rehearsing John Olohan as the Old Man in Purgatory, Flannery took the veteran actor aside for an hour to work with him on drawing one specific primal sound as if from the depths of his bowels to capture the emotion of the plays final moment. Puppets, strobes and nudity What happened at that rehearsal it is impossible to say, Olohan recalls, except that Jim made me feel at ease with the physical attributes of a bitter, tortured old man which married with the text. From then on the staging hit the right mark. .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .postImageUrl , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:hover , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:visited , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:active { border:0!important; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:active , .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uba72945d81b2da5dd92cf9cadfa4c7cb:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Atomic circus EssayStill, with an American director working in an Irish theatre, misunderstandings are inevitable. Its not just that Yeats isnt accepted there the way Joyce, Beckett, OCaseyor even the once-controversial Synge are. Despite the studied good manners of most of its people, this is a country emerging from 700 years of oppression. Foreigners are suspect My strength, Flannery claims, is that Im not Irish. Yeats, he explains is to Ireland what Sophocles, Moliere, and Shakespeare are to their national theratres. Each of these figures begins in his own culture then explode into global magnitude. Flannerys expressed intention with this festival is to help restore Yeatss dramatic work to the repertoire of his beloved Abbey theatre. That sounds more than a tad presumptuous, but Flannery has won the respect of those who work most closely with him. It hasnt been easy, and it hasnt happened all at once. Over the first three summer festivals, Flannery has staged 11 of Yeatss 26 plays. Public support has not been universalsome nights even the 106-seat Peacock doesnt fill-but Flannery prodcutions have drawn greater acclaim than Yeatss literary drama has known before. In the first years five-play Cuchulain Cycle, Flannery used bizarre gargantuan puppets to heighten the mystical elements, assaulted his audience with a barrage of mythopoeic grunts, huffs and screams as well as blinding strobes and flashes, and added explicity sensuous movement that would have set the old articers blood boiling. But he never once violated Yealtss mose sacred dictum, that the words not be drowned by stage devices. Still, the Cuchulain Cycle was pretty much off-the rack. Flannery didnt have to make decisions about which works best suited his Poet with a Thousand Faces theme of multicultural heroes and their masks. In the second year, dubbed Masks of Transformation, Flannery wanted to weld the intellectual freedom he found in Yeats to the momentous changes taking place in Eastern Europe and around the globe. He chose Cathleen ni Houlihan, The Dreaming of the Bones and Purgatory, and used four principal devices to turn these seemingly disparate works into a unified manifestation of his transformation theme: Whelans music, a chorus, an expresionistic set and multiple-role casting. Spectral, gray-costumed choric figures writhed and twisted across a desolate stage into the opening of Cathleen. Designer Bronwen Casson threw out the traditional cottage set, covered the stage with sand and scattered around five black Z-shaped wrought-iron forms, which transformed into table and chairs as the principals emerged from the chorus. Their movements evolved out of Sarah-Jane Scaifes daily butoh sessions: Everything had to be fluid, from the pelvis; head, arm and leg motion seemed guided by invisible strings. The chorus became part of the set. In Purgaroty, two of their number represented a symbolic tree, while the others formed the ruined house and the window from which the naked lovers, the groom and the mother, appear. Although Senator Michael Yeats protested that Flannerys use of nudity was out of keeping with the times in which his fathers play was setwhen even a married couple would not appear unclothed before each other, he saidthese nude ghosts, bathed n red light, unseeing but seen witnesses to murder unleashed meanings central to the conlifcts and transformations not only Purgatory, but of the entire program. By casting powerful-voiced Olwen Fouere as Cathleen, then Dervogilla and finally the vision of the mother, and by using Conor Mullen in the successive roles of Michael in Cathleen, the young rebel in Bones and the Boy in Purgatory Flannery established the connections from one character to the next and among the plays distinct manifestation of Irelands past, present and future. In 1991, Flannery took Sacred Mysteries: The Celtic Way of Sexuality as his theme and enlisted Bly and Betty Friedan as lecturers. He said he intended to celebrate sex as an essential aspect of human wholeness and show how the laws and customs of ancient Celtic society reflect an equality and harmony between men and women. .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .postImageUrl , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:hover , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:visited , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:active { border:0!important; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:active , .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958 .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ucaae55936327eb22a06b17ea97dff958:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Lights! Candelabras! Liberace! EssayFlannery selected Deirdre, A full Moon in March and The Shadowy Waters because each play focuses on a transformational act in which there is a mutual exchange and absorption of male and female energiesand in each, he said, the heroine makes the decisive choice that brings into being a new order of the heart and mind. As Flannerys plans for an international Yeats workshop continued to take shape, production-assistant interns arrived from American universities, trainee director Karin McCully joined the company on an award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and New York-based puppeteer Roman Paska joined the company to co-direct The Shadowy Waters. And though there was some grousing on the part of abbey regulars that there were too many foreigners about, when Flannery pointed out that he was a foreigner, set designer Casson lept immediately to his defense: Oh, no. Not you, James. You dont count. Youre one of us. Much as Jean Anouilh found 20th-century applicability in Antigone, Flannery drew contemporary relevance from one of the most oft-told tales in Celtic literature, the conflict between Deirdre and Conchubar, king of the ancient Red Branch. Joan OHara, an actress with the Abbey since 1948, expressed to me her sense of consternation that the Abbey had those wonderful plays all these years and never knew what to do with them. Flannery had convinced her that Yeats was neither airy-fairy) in his early plays, nor blasphemous and sexually perverted in the later work, much less untheatrical across the board which, shed said, had long been responsible for the prevailing semi-dismissive attitude of the Abbey toward its founders work. The Shadowy Waters, oe of Yeatss most difficult plays to produce because of its overriding romanticism, demanded the seasons closest attention. Flannery and Paska decided to augment Yeatss dramatic text with passage from the reading version included in his Collected Poems. Throughout the play, actors and puppets moved in and out of the roles, but this was no Punch and Judy show. Puppets were used more like masks, creating an alienation effect that kept the audience from being suduced into the romantic goo of the subject matter. Flannery sees strong mythic elements at work in yeatss plays and has often expressed the idea that there must be conscious audience input into any production. Yeatss theatre is ritualistic, and the audience must get emotionally and intellectually involved, much in the way onlookers are expected to take part in a religious service. This years festival may be the last in which all events take place at the Abbey. Flannery plans to reestablish the Abbey School of Acting in association with Trinity College, Dublin, with Yeats at the core of the curriculum. Yeats is an extraordinary training device, Flannery insists. His plays offer the entire range of theatre needed to be a total actor. We proved that in the first three years of the festival. At Trinity well be able to deal more thoroughly with Yeats on the intellectual level, to relate the work to international ideas. With The Countess Cathleen as its centerpiece staged by Yale Repertory Theatre artistic director Stan Wojewodskithis summers festival, scheduled Aug. 25-Sept. 18, will explore multiculturalism from Irish, American and European perspectives. Flannery has lined up Conor Cruise OBrien to lecture on Irelands cultural role in the new world order, Jung specialist James Hillman to address theh aesthetic dimension of international culture, and poets Joseph Brodsky and Derek Walcott to read from their works. Flannery concedes that maybe the crowd that never liked Yeats never will. But he insists that he has brought Yeats back to the audience he originally set out to reach the young Irish and a growing fold of believes who perceive this playwright as a major voice in world drama rather than a parochial curiosity left over from a misguided age. Fred Lapisardi teaches modern drama and journalism at California University of Pennsylvania, and served as literary adviser to the second and third annual Yeats festivals.