Imaginary Invalid by Moliere adapted by Masquers
DRAMAFEST IS CURRENTLY POSTPONED
North Reading Hosts
Semi-Final Round (we host regardless of what happens during prelims)
|
Please note not all of these links have been updated. They will be ready Monday, January 6 when files from school can be accessed and uploaded for your convenience.
|
Form for Parent & Alumni VolunteersIn order to run Dramafest, we need all hands on deck. Parents, alumni and Masquers members are asked to sign up and join us for a great day of theatre!
|
FOODFood for all student volunteers who are NOT already in the cast and crew.
Lunch is free for NR students who are participating in the show. Please bring money with you Lunch is $7 and you can pick from a salad bar or burgers/chicken patty or black bean sandwhich Dinner is pizza ($5) and water and dessert. Please bring money with you |
Cast and Crew Medical FormsMETG requires all students to register their medical information via family id. This is an online sign up. ALL NRHS students need to fill in the link below. Please fill in all necessary information. Alumni and volunteers NOT attending NRHS do not need to do this.
|
Signup Genius for Food Donations for all Masquers membersWe ask all Masquers members, including those not involved in this show, to help out by donating food items for our volunteers and for concessions to help defray costs. Sign up for as much or as little as you'd like - but please sign up for something.
|
Summary:The Imaginary Invalid (1673), by the great comedic playwright Molière (whose full name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), is a satire or a COMEDY OF MANNERS about the 17th-century medical profession. Its intended audience was the French aristocracy, primarily King Louis XIV (known as “the Sun King”). Molière played the lead character, Argan the hypochondriac, and in an ironic turn of events, would end up dying from tuberculosis just hours after the last performance. In Molière’s classic, The Imaginary Invalid, Argan--the eponymous hypochondriac--makes everyone in his life miserable with his melodramatic suffering and endless, unnecessary curative treatments. His doctor and apothecary are bleeding him dry--literally and figuratively. His duplicitous second wife schemes to inherit his whole estate. His daughter, Angélique, is in love with Cléante, but Argan engages her to an oafish medical student Claude, so as to secure more physicians for himself. Argan’s foolish and unshakable devotion to medicine is out of control, and it is up to Toinette, the family’s faithful servant, to set the household to rights again. It is also a superb character study of a hypochondriac, or a patient obsessed with being ill, and it contains a brilliant social and political commentary on Paris in the 1670s. Many critics have even found a subtle but powerful philosophical strain in the work, and it is an excellent example of the stylized comedy-ballet popular in Louis XIV's courtly theater. Molière himself played the main role of the hypochondriac Argan, and famously coughed up blood during his fourth performance, dying later that evening in what came to be known as a bitter irony, given the play's subject of imaginary illness.
Moliere's writings lend themselves to timely social commentary that is very relate-able today.
Moliere's writings lend themselves to timely social commentary that is very relate-able today.
Questions
What Is Imaginary Invalid Like? This production is classified as Comedy of Manners. This is low comedy. a comedy that satirizes behavior in a particular social group, especially the upper classes. Comedy of Manners, witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. A comedy of manners often sacrifices the plot, which usually centers on some scandal, to witty dialogue and sharp social commentary.
Is The Imaginary Invalid good for Kids?
Moliere wrote for a more adult audience. While many of the double meanings will go over younger students heads, they are there along with the occasional mild inappropriate word or phrases.
What Is Imaginary Invalid Like? This production is classified as Comedy of Manners. This is low comedy. a comedy that satirizes behavior in a particular social group, especially the upper classes. Comedy of Manners, witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. A comedy of manners often sacrifices the plot, which usually centers on some scandal, to witty dialogue and sharp social commentary.
Is The Imaginary Invalid good for Kids?
Moliere wrote for a more adult audience. While many of the double meanings will go over younger students heads, they are there along with the occasional mild inappropriate word or phrases.
Transportation
We will take a bus on Thursday, March 28 and Friday Mach 29. This will be paid for through the funds we raise Tuesday, March 21. So no out of pocket cost. If we don't have enough drivers for Saturday, we will need to take a bus and there might be cost. Please fill in the permission slip and return it no later than Friday, March 16. |
Tickets go on sale to the public March 14 at 12:00am
|
Thank you to everyone who auditioned. Tomorrow there will be a read-through and all members of the cast are expected to be there. Please refer to the Rehearsal Schedule for further information. Congratulations!
|
|
Preliminary Round (At St Johns Prep)
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Tickets are $15
7:30-45 Schools Arrive
8:00 Directors meeting in MS cafe for all directors
8:50 Greetings/ Opening Ceremonies
9:00 Show #1 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Swampscott
10:00 Show #2 Villanelle - Bradford Christian Academy
10:40 - 11:15 BREAK
11:30 Show #3 - The Imaginary Invalid - North Reading
12:30 Show #4 - Lipstick Stains and Undead Brains - Charlestown
1-1:50 LUNCH (pre-ordered)
1:50 Greetings back from Lunch
2:00 Show #5 Gross Indecency:The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde -St Johns Prep
3:00 Show #6 A Midsummer Night's Dream - Essex Tech
3:40 - 4:15 BREAK
4:30 Show #7 - Gossamer - TYA - The Academy at Penguin Hall
5:30 Show #8 - The Door - Ipswich
6:30 Town hall discussion in theatre - not open to the public
7:00 Pizza Dinner in the cafe - not open to the public
7:30 Dance in the theater- not open to the public
8:30 Awards (will probably not start on time) - open to the public
8:00 Directors meeting in MS cafe for all directors
8:50 Greetings/ Opening Ceremonies
9:00 Show #1 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Swampscott
10:00 Show #2 Villanelle - Bradford Christian Academy
10:40 - 11:15 BREAK
11:30 Show #3 - The Imaginary Invalid - North Reading
12:30 Show #4 - Lipstick Stains and Undead Brains - Charlestown
1-1:50 LUNCH (pre-ordered)
1:50 Greetings back from Lunch
2:00 Show #5 Gross Indecency:The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde -St Johns Prep
3:00 Show #6 A Midsummer Night's Dream - Essex Tech
3:40 - 4:15 BREAK
4:30 Show #7 - Gossamer - TYA - The Academy at Penguin Hall
5:30 Show #8 - The Door - Ipswich
6:30 Town hall discussion in theatre - not open to the public
7:00 Pizza Dinner in the cafe - not open to the public
7:30 Dance in the theater- not open to the public
8:30 Awards (will probably not start on time) - open to the public