Reading Plays Aloud: Ibsen
Class | Registration opens 7/21/2025 9:00 AM
NOTE: Because this is a collaborative and participatory class, where readings will be assigned for some classes, attendance is critical. If you know ahead of time that you will miss two or more classes, it would be best to take the course another time.
Henrik Ibsen rightfully claims the title of the Father of Realism and Modern Theatre. We will read aloud three of his major plays, half a play each class, and explore how a writer from 19th century Norway could change the world of European and American theatre. Discussions will focus on the social and political issues that consumed his characters, the complexity of his characterization, his use of both realistic and poetic language, and his ability to confront a dramatically changing society. This is not an acting class. Reading dramatic texts aloud allows readers and listeners to more fully engage with the play.
Format: No class presentations are required, although all are expected to participate in discussions. Outside of class, participants are expected to read the play and the assigned articles and play reviews. Discussions will focus on style, action, characterization, language, and contemporary parallels to each play.
Resources/Expenses: Do not buy the plays. Wendy will distribute scripts to class members well ahead of class time at $17 per student, paid to Wendy. We will read: An Enemy of the People, A Doll’s House, and The Wild Duck. Since it is essential that we all read the same translation, Wendy has purchased the collections ahead of time.
Wendy Salkind
Wendy Salkind is a Professor Emerita of Theatre at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. As an actor, she performed in the plays of Beckett, Pinter, Shakespeare and Chekov, among others, and collaborated with a composer on solo performances based on writings of Gertrude Stein. This will be her sixth time coordinating a Reading Plays Aloud course.