Appendix 6

1. A) Read the article about Sarah Bernhardt and pay special attention to how much her unconventional behaviour helped the career of this great French actress both on and off the stage.

SARAH BERNHARDT

Many people believe that Sarah Bernhardt was the greatest actress in the history of the theatre. She fascinated audiences around the world. People adored her and called her ‘the Divine Sarah.' Her performances were very dramatic and so was her life.

Sarah was born in 1844 in a poor neighbourhood in Paris. Her mother Julie Bernhardt was a beautiful woman who had many boyfriends. But she wasn’t married. [1 - …]. Julie loved to travel and there was no place in her life for Sarah. So, Sarah grew up feeling unwanted.

Friends and family members helped care for Sarah. Mostly she lived with her nurse in a small, dark room in a poor, dirty neighbourhood. She was thin, pale, and

sick-looking. [2 - …]. When Sarah was about five years old, she threw herself out a window when her aunt refused to take her home with her. Sarah was badly hurt and she couldn't walk.

Sarah had a bad temper and loved to break the rules. The boarding school didn't want her, so her mother sent her to a Catholic convent school where the teachers were nuns. Sarah needed to be disciplined and educated. This wasn't easy because Sarah had a lot of energy and passion. She tried to use her energy in a good way. She started studying to become a nun. This didn't work because Sarah was still very rebellious. [3 - …]. Sarah's family had to think of something else to do with their wild child.

When Sarah was about 16, a friend of her mother's suggested that she should study acting. Sarah wasn't sure about it, but everyone else thought it was a wonderful idea. She chose a scene to perform for the examination to enter the French government's acting school, the Paris Conservatoire. She studied very hard. When she began the scene, the judges stopped her. [4 - …]. But Sarah had practised alone, so she refused. The judges were shocked, but they offered to let Sarah perform something else. She chose to tell a story she knew. This was very unusual because the judges wanted her to act, not tell a story. But Sarah insisted. She told the story with such brilliance that she was accepted even before she finished.

Sarah studied at the Conservatoire for several years and made her first stage appearance at the national theatre company, the Comedie Fransçaise, when she was 17.

[5 - …]. But Sarah's debut was a failure. When she heard what people thought about her, she swallowed poison and almost died. 'Life is useless,' she said to her friends. She wanted to see what death was like. Sarah continued to act without much success. She finally left the company after she slapped the face of their oldest and most respected actress.

Sarah Bernhardt had a terrible temper. But she also had charm, passion, and a strong personality. She had friends and boyfriends all over Europe. Around this time, she gave birth to her only child, Maurice. [6 - …]. Bernhardt wanted to be free to do whatever she wanted. She was 22 now and determined to succeed. She joined the Odeon Theatre and studied very hard for the next six years. She performed with all her energy and passion and became a well-respected actress.

In 1869, Bernhardt had her first great success. She acted in a play called Le Passant (The Passerby), which played for over 100 nights. She was on her way to a brilliant career. But the Franco-German War interrupted her life for a while. Paris was under attack. In 1870, Bernhardt organized a military hospital in the theatre. After the war ended in 1871 the Odeon began to produce plays again, and she returned to acting. The audiences loved her and the critics went wild. The Comedie Fransçaise asked her to come back to them. She gave unforgettable performances. Her fans called her 'the Divine Sarah.'

People began to tell stories about Bernhardt. Some were true, some were not so true. [7 - …]. Because she was thin and played male roles, some people said she was a boy dressed up in women's clothes. Sarah loved the publicity and lived a life as wild, exciting, and bizarre as the stories about her.

Sarah Bernhardt worked hard and didn't rest. Her doctors told her that if she didn't rest, she would die at a young age. She was always fascinated by death. No one played a death scene like Sarah Bernhardt. She liked to walk around in cemeteries. She always kept a special coffin and placed it beside her bed so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up. Sometimes she slept in it. Sometimes she served tea to her friends on it. She brought the coffin with her wherever she went. Bernhardt was pretty wild, so it isn't surprising that she had a few wild pets, including a wildcat, two young lions, and a young tiger. She took them with her to the theatre and kept them in her dressing room during her performances. Sarah Bernhardt became the leading actress of the Comedie Fransçaise. When the company travelled to London, thousands of people came to see her and not the Comedie Fransçaise. After her last performance in the United States, 50,000 people came to the stage door to say goodbye to her. But the management didn't like her temper or her strange lifestyle. [8 - …]. She called it the Sarah Bernhardt theatre. She played many important parts. In fact, she was one of the first women to play Hamlet. By then she was 36 years old. She travelled around the world and became an international celebrity. There was no actor or actress in the world like Sarah Bernhardt.

Bernhardt was not like other actresses; age didn't hurt her career. [9 - …]. It seemed that nothing could stop her. She worked 14–15 hours a day and played the most difficult roles. When she was 64 years old, she shocked audiences when she played 19-year-old Joan of Arc. Around this time, Bernhardt hurt her leg during a performance. [10- …]. In 1915, her leg had to be cut off, so Sarah began to play her parts sitting in a wheelchair. The following year, during World War I, she still entertained the soldiers. When she was 79, she worked on a film for an American producer. But she was too ill to leave her house, so he filmed her in her living room. When she could no longer sit in a chair she said, 'Film me in bed.' Then Sarah Bernhardt died. She was buried in the coffin she always took with her.

b) Return to the article again and fill in the missing sentences A–J. Do it in figures and letters.

A. In the end, the convent couldn't handle Sarah and the nuns asked her to leave.

B. Sarah never knew her father.

C. It was the most prestigious theatre in Europe.

D. She was also very unhappy.

E. When the managers told her this, she left the company and formed her own.

F. They wanted her to choose a boy to act in the scene with her.

G. But like her mother, she didn't marry his father, who was a prince.

H. They said she smoked cigars and acted like a man.

I. The leg never healed properly, and she suffered with pain for many years.

J. She became more brilliant as she got older.

c) Below are your peers’ thoughts about Sarah. Do you agree with them? Comment on your viewpoint. Each time write 2-3 sentences to present it.

1. Oliver: If Sarah had been calmer, she would have had more success.

2. Jenifer: Sarah would have overplayed any famous actress except for her strange lifestyle.

3. John: But for her unsuccessful debut she would have joined the Odeon Theatre at the age of 17.

4. Alicia: Even if Sarah hadn’t given unforgettable performances in the Odeon Theatre, her fans would have called her ‘the Divine Sarah’.

5. Tomas: If Sarah hadn’t played many important parts, she wouldn’t have become an international celebrity.

6. Julia: Sarah's debut was a failure. But she would have returned to acting in any case.

7. Evelyn: Except for her fascination for death and wilderness she wouldn’t have kept wild animals in her dressing room.

8. Gloria: Even though Sarah hadn’t been filmed at the age of 79 in a wheelchair people would consider her to be a strong, bizarre personality.

9. Jessica: If there were any extravagant actress in the world, she couldn’t play a death scene like Sarah Bernhardt.

10. Gilbert: Two big lions and a tiger wouldn’t have been walking around Sarah’s place if she had been afraid of death.

2. a) Read the text about what Ukrainian people think about the theatre and pay attention to the difference between classical and modern art.

MODERN THEATRE

A…………………………..

Today we usually refer to the modern art with a commonplace, brutal phrase “it doesn’t really exist”. We prefer calling it “kitsch” and reproach for the lack of feeling and deep ideas as well as for the low artistic quality. But I personally would put it the other way: it’s not the art that is guilty for the deteriorating of its prosperity and high quality, but the people with an underdeveloped esthetic taste. If one wants to enjoy art nowadays, one should be able to distinguish between rotten “pop” and genuine art and definitely cherish the sparkling pearls rarely but still found in the shell of the artistic bohemia.

B ……………………………

We are all taught to believe that classical art is out of comparison. Nobody should doubt it. But if somebody claimed it in front of me, I would passionately argue the idea. Indeed, the classical theatrical performance inclines high quality rendering and as the matter of the fact forgives no flaws either in colour of the voice or in costume design. The actor with artificial gestures and words overemphasized wouldn’t have been a success. Being squeezed into the tight brackets of what is known as “splendid” and “rotten” performance; classical theatre has less freedom to experiment and thus is less expressive.

C ……………………….

The situation with the modern theatre is totally different. It’s just awfully outstanding. First of all, the ability of the actors to keep the audience in suspense is worth receiving an acclamation. One can never predict the outcome of the next scene. The action on the stage seems to hypnotise and spiritualise one’s age. The actors play with conviction and passion and this can be a decent excuse if some understudy should fall short with his part.

D ………………………..

The interior of the modern theatre is also impressive. It would remind you of the fireside performances rather than of great openings, yet it doesn’t decrease the scene of beauty the young actors create. Some modern theatres require you to take your shoes off, it might be found a little weird by the “outsider”, but still, it makes the performance so personal, so private, and so real.

E ………………………..

The most promising modern drama company is “Kiev Modern Ballet” troupe directed by the Italian producer Radu Policaru. They venture to the most original and freaky interpretations of the classics and put up some outstanding original play written both by Ukrainian and Italian playwrights. That’s where the international cooperation starts! If you should go to this kind of ballet for the first time you will be taken aback by the plot told in the most expressive body-language of the young and passionate dancing cast as well you will be definitely impressed with the weirdest but still involving jest of the performance. What is more, Radu Policaru dares combine “pointe” dance, which has conquered the wide recognition on stage and proved to become “classics” of the ballet now and then, with R&B, modern step and gymnastic elements. So to enjoy the play to the fullest you might want to book for the balcony seat, otherwise the “picture” of the dance production won’t be observed as a whole. Usually due to the intensive rendering each scene never exceeds 40 minutes in time and as a rule two scenes are separated with the interval during which the audience can visit the cafeteria, to saunter around the lobby and exchange opinions on what is going on. The second scene is oftentimes perceived as being much shorter and so involving that you sometimes forget to breathe. When the last curtain falls the audience encores the cast and shows their appreciation by giving the extraordinary turmoil of applause.

F …………………………….

The most terrific productions of the “Kiev Modern Ballet” are “Force of Destiny”, “Carmen TV” and “Shakeaspearements”. “Force of Destiny” is a dynamic play based on the original libretto by choreographer Radu Policaru and the music from “Le Forze del Destino”. Nine actors-dancers take part in this choreographed play with the leading role taken by the young opera singer Alyona Hrebenyuk whose wonderful voice compels the action along with the contemporary music, but it is the dancers who are the driving force behind the drama and it is their stunning movements that comment, sympathise and sometimes provoke the destiny of the heroine. ”Verona Myth: Shakespearements” is a brilliant story told in the language of the contemporary choreography. If you watched it, you’d be satisfied. This ballet is based on Shakespeare’s sonnets and the famous “Romeo & Juliet” tragedy in which we come face to face with a world full of drama and inner turmoil. Having decided to play the parts of the Verona sweethearts, the dancers become something more than simply actors and seem to get to the very heart and passion of Shakespeare’s world, bringing it to life.

Actually, these are the most impressive productions of “Kiev Modern Ballet”. If you watched all of them, you would understand an important thing. The strength of their expressivity is not even closely limited to it, because it goes far beyond the imagination of the hackneyed trivial homo sapience.

b) Match the headings (1–6) given below to the correct paragraphs (A–F) of the text. Do it in figures and letters.

1. Classical theater

2. Modern theatre

3. The interior of modern theatre

4. “Kyiv Modern Ballet” company

5. Modern art

6. “Kyiv Modern Ballet” production

3. a) Read the text about Peter Ustinov and pay attention to what his friends think of him.

PETER USTINOV

Peter Ustinov is the most international person you could find. He speaks English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian. One of his great-grandfathers was a musician in Venice. Another was a teacher in a village school outside Paris. A third was a Swiss businessman. A fourth was a country gentle­man living on the River Volga in Russia. And a fifth was an adventurer in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

For most people, Peter Ustinov is a face on the cinema screen. They have seen him as Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile, and in films like Spartacus, Topkapi. He is the man with a hundred faces, old, young, wise, foolish, happy and sad. Probably few people know that Peter Ustinov is one of the eight actors in the world to win more than one Oscar.

Few people also know that writing means more to Peter than acting. He wrote his first successful play House of Regrets when he was only nineteen years old. Later plays and films, like Romanoff and Juliet, Private Angelo and The Unknown Soldier and his Wife, have given him a big name as a writer. In 1977 his autobio­graphy, Dear Me, was a great success.

The world knows him as an actor and a writer, but Peter Ustinov’s friends say that his greatest work of art is himself. “Nothing he creates is as funny as himself,” says one friend. “One hour of him is better than two hours of his work.” And yet, like many funny men, Peter can be serious even while he laughs. “Peter’s a reformer,” says another friend. “He’d like to change the world.” Perhaps that is why he does so much work for the United Nations, especially UNICEF (the United Nations Chil­dren’s Fund).

Peter Ustinov’s private life has not always been happy. His first two marriages ended in divorce. His four children, grown ups now, saw little of their father because of his work. But now, in his sixties, he has been happily married for more than twelve years to a Frenchwoman, Helene. They have a house in Switzerland and a flat in Paris, but making films keeps Peter on the move. He has worked in every part of America and in Egypt, Australia, Benin, Israel, and Kenya and all over Europe, including Lenin­grad, Warsaw and Budapest. After all, what else can you expect from a man with such international great-grandfathers?

b) Do the multiple choice test given below in figures and letters.

1. Peter Ustinov speaks … foreign languages.

a) three b) five c) two

2. Peter Ustinov is a …

a) a writer and actor b) a musician c) a ballet dancer

3. Peter Ustinov is one of the eight actors in the world who …

a) started to act at the age of 19 b) has written 5 plays c) has more than one Oscar

4. His first successful play was …

a) House of Regrets b) The Unknown Soldier and his Wife c) Private Angelo

5. In 1977 his … was a great success.

a) film ‘Spartacus’ b) autobio­graphy ‘Dear Me’ c) play ‘House of Regrets’

6. Peter’s … children are grown up now.

a) two b) three c) four