Coger Literary Salon presented Online
Sunday, November 8 at 3:00 (CST)
Join us for a celebration of the mystical Emerald Isle and the birth of a Literary Renaissance in our next Dr. Greta McCormick Coger Literary Salon on Sunday, November 8 at 3pm (CST).
The sixth Salon of nine during our 13th season, From Dublin to the Sea: John M. Synge is curated and directed by TSC’s Stephanie Shine. It will be simulcast online.
The Salon will run approximately one hour and is presented in honor of stalwart TSC Board members and ardent fans of Ireland: Pat and Ernest Kelly.
In addition to Shine (an Irish citizen, and playwright of I Am of Ireland), the acting company includes Dan McCleary, Lauren Gunn, Carmen-maria Mandley, Jasmine Robertson, Simmery Branch, John Ross Graham, and Blake Currie. (All artist bios may be found in TSC’s digital playbill at www.tnshakespeare.org)
Interspersed with conversation about Mr. Synge and the creation of his works, the Salon will feature his “perfect” one-act play Riders to the Sea (1904), his playwrighting masterwork that shocked his native land The Playboy of the Western World (1907), his first inspiration The Aran Islands (1907), his friend William B. Yeats’ Synge and the Ireland of His Time (1911), and personal correspondence between the two literary titans.
“Young John M. Synge, with the heart of a respectful naturalist,” says Shine, “used his uncanny skill of observation to, as Yeats said, ‘give expression to the expressionless.’ His plays brought the Irish peasantry to the stage for the first time, showcasing their humor and dignity as they forged an existence in deep relationship to both the natural and mystical world. In his short life, Synge’s collaboration with W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory ignited the Irish Literary Renaissance. His deep humanity resonates in all of his writings, making them especially welcome today.”
J.M. Synge (1871-1909) was born in Rathfarnham, outside Dublin, Ireland, and he died just short of his 38th birthday. His literary output was modest, but he is regarded as the leader of Ireland’s Renaissance with a continuing impact on audiences, readers, writers, and the island’s culture. The youngest of five children, he studied music and languages in Germany, Paris, and Italy. When he was 25 in Paris, he met Yeats, who persuaded Synge to move to Ireland’s Aran Islands and write. Though his first book written in 1901, The Aran Islands, would not be published for six years, it was the experience of living on the western islands that inspired what was to come. Sensitive to the people of the land and now awakened to the world’s universal myths, though controversial to put on stage at the time, he penned his first plays with female characters at the fore: When the Moon Has Set, Riders to the Sea, In the Shadow of the Glen, and The Tinker’s Wedding. His first three-act play followed with The Well of the Saints in 1903, and then, having fallen in love with an actress much younger than him, he created his masterwork: The Playboy of the Western World. The play, with its breaks from social mores, created violent opposition and controversy among patrons in the theatre. However, the play had passionate defenders in theatre critics, Yeats, and benefactor Lady Gregory. As Synge’s suffering from Hodgkin’s Disease worsened, he constructed the first draft of what Yeats believed would have been his finest play: Deirdre of the Sorrows. He died before he could hear it, and before he could be married.
Box Office
Purchase tickets online at www.tnshakespeare.org or by calling (901) 759-0604 Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. The Salon will be available to patrons as a digital online experience.
The online presentation will show only once via a one-camera setup on TSC’s website with a time-stamped, specific password provided to patrons on the day of the Salon. The digital waiting room opens 15 minutes prior to curtain. All digital online tickets are $15.
Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Schedule subject to change with notice. There are no refunds/exchanges.
Season 13 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors and partners of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include International Paper, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Independent Bank, Evans|Petree, P.C., Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, The Sims Family Foundation, Nancy R. Copp, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, Dr. Greta McCormick Coger, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, University of Memphis’ Department of Theatre & Dance, Shelby County Schools, Collierville Municipal School District, Memphis Juvenile Justice System, the Memphis V.A. Hospital, and the Benjamin Hooks Library Friends. TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.
