Frank Wedekind

On our lesson with Mr. Evans on Monday, we started with some recap on Meisner and a little exercise that forces us to go with the "impulse." The one word at a time story, where we pass an item and each time you get it you have to say a word and pass it on, creating a story together.

Then to get an introduction to Frank Wedekind, we were to spend 10 minutes researching on any facts about this playwright.
Here's some facts about him:

- He was a german playwright, born in 1864 and died in 1918.
- He criticized bourgeois attitudes, especially sexual behaviors.
- He seemed to have a major influence in epic theatre (Brecht's theatre)
- Brecht attended his funeral.

We then took a look at his a scene of one of his most successful plays, Spring Awakening.
The scene was when a mother found out that her daughter, Wendla, who's 14, was pregnant. The interesting part was, that Wendla did not understand how she got pregnant, which evokes sympathy in the audience. Wendla kept on repeating "but we just lay in the hay," showing her ignorance of the situation.
"But how can that be? I'm not married!" Wendla says, indicating her innocence in the situation since she is ignorant of the fact that she can get pregnant even if she is not married.
The mother, of course, is horrified because Wendla is not even married, yet she was going to have a baby, and so she calls in an abortionist. This abortion is what caused Wendla's death.
Wedekind criticizes the fact that the adults do not educate their children about important things such as pregnancy. If Wendla knew about sexual intercourse and pregnancy, she would not have needed an abortion, and thus she would be alive for longer.