Proposal+C


 * About the author**

Sally Clark is a playwright, filmmaker and painter. She is the author of several plays, which include //Moo//, //The Trial of Judith K.//, //Jehanne of the Witches// and //Life Without Instruction//. Her plays have received a Chalmers Award, two Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations and a Governor General’s Award nomination. She attended the University of British Columbia, York University, and Toronto’s New School of Art, earning her a B.A. in Fine Arts. She uses her background in art history to great effect in //Life Without Instruction//, using her painting experience to explore greater depths in Artemesia Gentileschi’s works, some of which are featured in the play. Clark often includes powerful female roles in her works, using the archetype of the victimized female and transforming her difficulties to overcome the adversity she is faced with, creating them as heroines. “Life Without Instruction” is a revenge comedy based on the true story and real trial of Artemisia Gentileschi, the seventeenth-century Italian painter who, with the backing of her father (another real-life painter, Orazio Gentileschi), charged her teacher, Agostino Tassi, with rape. By interweaving the Biblical story of Judith with the historical story, Clark creates a mirror effect in her characters that allows for more pronounced character growth and understanding.

//Life Without Instruction// first premiered August 2, 1991, in Toronto with the Theatre Plus Toronto company. It was directed by Glynis Leyshon. Another well-known production of the play was with the University of British Columbia with the Frederic Wood Theatre from September 19 to October 9, 1999. That production was directed by Robert Metcalfe.


 * Some character background...**

//Life Without Instruction// is based on historically accurate figures. Artemisia Gentileschi was born in 1593, and is seen as a highly popular and successful Italian Baroque painter. Her father, Orazio Gentileschi, did in fact commission his friend, Argostino Tassi, to teach Artemisia the art of painting and perspective. She was raped by Tassi, and he did propose marriage. Orazio found out about the rape in 1611, and petitioned Pope Paul V to have Tassi charged with rape and charged for stealing one of his paintings. Artemisia supported the charge of rape, and stated that she agreed to continue their relations once he proposed marriage. The rape trial actually took place, beginning on March 18th, 1612 and ended on May 16th of the same year. Tassi denied the charges, claiming that Artemisia had the reputation of sleeping around, and that he had never had relations with her. Artemisia was interrogated and tortured. The method of torture used against her in the play is also historically accurate, and court transcripts of the trial still exist. Tassi was convicted and sentenced in November of 1612, but was released in April 1613 after another long trial. Artemisia went on to marry, and moved to Florence. She had four children, and was soon establishing a career as a successful painter with many famous patrons and was making commission. She separated from her husband in 1622, but continued to support her children via her own means. She eventually moved to Naples where she continued to establish her role as a famous painter until her death in 1652-53.


 * Biblical references**

//Life Without Instruction// introduces the audience to a biblical figure that captures the attention of Italian painters in the 1600s, and in the context of this play, more specifically Artemesia and Caravaggio. The story of Judith can be found in the Apocryphal version of the scriptures that incorporates more historical books than the “canonized” version that seems to be more commonly used in the Protestant faith. Judith is a heroic figure in the Jewish tradition, and as the story goes, saved her people from the capture and destruction of an enemy people group called the Assyrians. The setting for this story takes place in a city called Bethulia where Jewish people had gathered and settled. Their enemy, the Assyrians, cut off their water supply in order to capture the city and claim it for their own. Judith, a woman who lived in Bethulia had gained the trust of the Assyrian captain, Holofernes, and somehow manages to get him alone, drunk and brutally decapitates him. Judith then becomes a heroine, whose name is passed down through the form of household storytelling. The names and events in the book of the Judith account are not necessarily as historians understand them to be and therefore not viewed as a historical event.

 Carravaggio (Micheal Angelo Amerigida) was born at the castle of Carravaggio in Milanese, in 1569. His father was a mason who worked with the fresco painters in Milan; and it was through them that he acquired a taste for the same Art. Nature was his only study and he captured it without selection of deviation. It was in Venice he succeeded in gaining his sweet and agreeable tone of coloring that he become so well known for. After a short stay in Venice he traveled to Rome. Carravagio at length opened a work-shop and school of his own in Rome; and quitting his first manner of painting, adopted one consisting of his strong contrasts of light and shade. All the established painters leagued against him, and justly reproached him for want of grace, elevation, invention, and higher parts of the Art; yet he had fashion oh his side, and even his rivals were for a time obliged to fallow into his technique and manner. He succeeded best in portraits and half lengths, and his power of imitation was such as to leave nothing to desire. Soon he was determined to travel to Malta, and be received as a Knight-servitor. He arrived in Malta, where his reputation caused him to be employed by the Grand Master. An insult which he offered a Knight of distinction however caused him to be put into prison. He escaped and made his way to Sicily, Naples, and Rome. After several unpleasant adventures he was once again imprisoned by mistake. He died of a fever in 1609. The principle works of this painter are in Rome, Naples, and Malta.
 * Art influences of the time**

Kylee French Meghan Jagoe Tyler MacLennan Ang Moore
 * Compiled by:**