This is my fourth year at UAF and I'm a junior.  I'm double majoring in Performance Theatre and German with a minor in Film.  I was last seen as Speed in Two Gentlemen of Verona and will next be in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as Ophelia. 

Previous acting credits include Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, Tweedle Dee in Alice in Wonderland, Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, Lillian in Reliquary, Bridgit in All Dressed in White, Puffin, Fog Woman, and Mountain Goat Shaman in the Chilkat Dancing and Storytelling Legends, Nephew's Wife in Scrooge, Haberdasher in Taming of the Shrew, a Chorus Member in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, King Island Christmas, and Oedipus Rex.  I'm Stage Managing Split right now and have spent two summers volunteering as an acting coach for the Lynn Canal Community Player's Conservatory. 

The Theatre classes I've taken so far are: Fundamentals, Intermediate, and Advanced Acting, Acting for the Camera, Basic Stagecraft, Scene Design, Lighting Design, Voice and Diction for the Theatre, Movement for the Actor, Fundamentals of Film and Stage Direction, Makeup for Theatre, Introduction to Theatrical Design, Film and Video Directing,  Let's Make a Movie, Movies and Films: Watching and Analyzing, and Dramatic Literature.  Currently I'm taking Let's Make a Movie: Post-Production, Lighting Design II, and Directing for Theatre.

I've worked on two pilot episodes in the last year as well as a documentary about Tlingit legends which is in post right now.  The more I study film the more I like it and although I love acting, I believe having other skills within the theatrical field will help me get jobs after I graduate. 

Favorite plays include Equus, Gaslight, Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet, and many others.  

For my Midterm Scene I will be directing the last four pages of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.  I love the character transformation Nora goes through from being a girl into a woman.  Even in present day I think the audience can sympathize with her situation.  Most people I know have lied to someone they love for one reason or another.  I'm positive that when the truth was finally told some of the reactions were similar to Torvald's.   I think this play has survived with such popularity because the writing is brilliant.  The tension grows through each scene with Nora starting out as a victim and her change into an independent human being.

In class I've cast Katie as Nora and Adam as Torvald. 

Since I don't have time to type out the pages I will be directing, I found this translated page on the internet.  These aren't exactly the same as those in our book, but it's similar enough so we all understand exactly which scene we're talking about.  

I found this at:  http://academics.triton.edu/uc/files/dollshse.html

Another helpful website to look at is: http://vtheatre.net/script/ibsen.html

I changed my concept from modern day to 1920.  I did this for two reasons.  I love period pieces and the more research I've done about modern day laws regarding forgery and blackmail, it just doesn't seem like Nora and Torvald's situation is believable when comparing it to laws from the early 1800's and 1900's. Although, in the news lately there have been reports of college students committing suicide because they racked up too much outstanding debt on credit cards.  I was considering going in this direction but quite a lot of young women of today are so much more independent and take equality for granted (even though we can probably all agree than gender equality still isn't equal, a prominent example of this is in the work force)  Anyway, my second major reason for changing is that since we have a small class and the majority of the scenes will be directed in modern day, I'd rather do something different.  I feel like I'm in a bad place though right now, because the more ideas I get for my 1920's scene, the more ideas I have for my 2008 take on it which I like just as much or even better.  The Woman's Suffrage movement and finally gaining the national right to vote in 1920 was a huge step forward.  It also complements Nora's plight and supports her choices even though it still wasn't popular then.

Costume inspiration for Nora.

 Costume inspiration for Torvald.

NEW:  I'VE CUT THESE FIRST LINES THAT ARE MARKED IN RED!  I did this because after the audience hears Torvald's monologue, they realize that how he views his relationship is screwed up.  By cutting these lines, when Nora enters and Torvald is confused asking her why she changed her clothes--the audience is confused as well.  We are caught up and understand after the next dialog.  The audience perception of Torvald at the beginning should be sympathetic (or if not sympathetic, at least no hard feelings towards him)  In this way, as the scene progresses, the character transformations changes the audience opinion as well.  The audience feels betrayed by Torvald and sides with Nora.  At least that is what I am going for.  Hopefully my few blocking notes have helped for this effect as well.  THOUGHTS/SUGGESTIONS???

Thanks!

HELMER. No, stay-! [Looking through the doorway.] What are you

     going to do?      

   NORA. [Inside.] To take off my masquerade dress.

   HELMER. [In the doorway.] Yes, do, dear. Try to calm down, and

     recover your balance, my scared little song-bird. You may rest

     secure. I have broad wings to shield you. [Walking up and down

     near the door.] Oh, how lovely- how cosy our home is, Nora! Here

     you are safe; here I can shelter you like a hunted dove whom I

     have saved from the claws of the hawk. I shall soon bring your

     poor beating heart to rest; believe me, Nora, very soon.

     To-morrow all this will seem quite different- everything will 

     be as before. I shall not need to tell you again that I forgive 

     you; you will feel for yourself that it is true. How could you

     think I could find it in my heart to drive you away, or even so 

     much as to reproach you? Oh, you don't know a true man's heart, 

     Nora. There is something indescribably sweet and soothing to a

     man in having forgiven his wife- honestly forgiven her, from the

     bottom of his heart. She becomes his property in a double sense.

     She is as though born again; she has become, so to speak, at once 

     his wife and his child. That is what you shall henceforth be to 

     me, my bewildered, helpless darling. Don't be troubled about

     anything, Nora; only open your heart to me, and I will be both

     will and conscience to you. [NORA enters in everyday dress.] Why, 

     what's this? Not gone to bed You have changed your dress? 

   NORA. Yes, Torvald; now I have changed my dress.

   HELMER. But why now, so late-?

   NORA. I shall not sleep to-night. 

   HELMER. But, Nora dear- 

   NORA. [Looking at her watch.] It's not so late yet. Sit down, 

     Torvald; you and I have much to say to each other.

                                  [She sits at one side of the table.

   HELMER. Nora- what does this mean? Your cold, set face- 

   NORA. Sit down. It will take some time. I have much to talk over

     with you.         

                         [HELMER sits at the other side of the table.

   HELMER. You alarm me, Nora. I don't understand you. 

   NORA. No, that is just it. You don't understand me; and I have

     never understood you- till to-night. No, don't interrupt. Only

     listen to what I say.- We must come to a final settlement,

     Torvald.          

   HELMER. How do you mean?

   NORA. [After a short silence.] Does not one thing strike you as we

     sit here?         

   HELMER. What should strike me?

   NORA. We have been married eight years. Does it not strike you that 

     this is the first time we two, you and I, man and wife, have

     talked together seriously?

   HELMER. Seriously! What do you call seriously?

   NORA. During eight whole years, and more- ever since the day we 

     first met- we have never exchanged one serious word about serious 

     things.           

   HELMER. Was I always to trouble you with the cares you could not

     help me to bear?  

   NORA. I am not talking of cares. I say that we have never yet set 

     ourselves seriously to get to the bottom of anything. 

   HELMER. Why, my dearest Nora, what have you to do with serious

     things?           

   NORA. There we have it! You have never understood me.- I have had 

     great injustice done me, Torvald; first by father, and then by

     you.              

   HELMER. What! By your father and me?- By us, who have loved you 

     more than all the world?

   NORA. [Shaking her head.] You have never loved me. You only thought 

     it amusing to be in love with me. 

   HELMER. Why, Nora, what a thing to say! 

   NORA. Yes, it is so, Torvald. While I was at home with father, he 

     used to tell me all his opinions, and I held the same opinions. 

     If I had others I said nothing about them, because he wouldn't

     have liked it. He used to call me his doll-child, and played with 

     me as I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house-

   HELMER. What an expression to use about our marriage! 

   NORA. [Undisturbed.] I mean I passed from father's hands into 

     yours. You arranged everything according to your taste; and I got 

     the same tastes as you; or I pretended to- I don't know which-

     both ways, perhaps; sometimes one and sometimes the other. When I 

     look back on it now, I seem to have been living here like a 

     beggar, from hand to mouth. I lived by performing tricks for you, 

     Torvald. But you would have it so. You and father have done me a

     great wrong. It is your fault that my life has come to nothing. 

   HELMER. Why, Nora, how unreasonable and ungrateful you are! Have

     you not been happy here?

   NORA. No, never. I thought I was; but I never was.

   HELMER. Not- not happy! 

   NORA. No; only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But 

     our house has been nothing but a play-room. Here I have been your 

     doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa's doll-child. And

     the children, in their turn, have been my dolls. I thought it fun 

     when you played with me, just as the children did when I played 

     with them. That has been our marriage, Torvald. 

   HELMER. There is some truth in what you say, exaggerated and

     overstrained though it be. But henceforth it shall be different.

     Play-time is over; now comes the time for education.

   NORA. Whose education? Mine, or the children's? 

   HELMER. Both, my dear Nora. 

   NORA. Oh, Torvald, you are not the man to teach me to be a fit wife 

     for you.          

   HELMER. And you can say that? 

   NORA. And I- how have I prepared myself to educate the children?

   HELMER. Nora!       

   NORA. Did you not say yourself, a few minutes ago, you dared not

     trust them to me? 

   HELMER. In the excitement of the moment! Why should you dwell upon

     that?             

   NORA. No- you were perfectly right. That problem is beyond me.

     There is another to be solved first- I must try to educate

     myself. You are not the man to help me in that. I must set about

     it alone. And that is why I am leaving you. 

   HELMER. [Jumping up.] What- do you mean to say-?

   NORA. I must stand quite alone if I am ever to know myself and my 

     surroundings; so I cannot stay with you.

   HELMER. Nora! Nora! 

   NORA. I am going at once. I daresay Christina will take me in for 

     to-night-         

   HELMER. You are mad! I shall not allow it! I forbid it! 

   NORA. It is of no use your forbidding me anything now. I shall take 

     with me what belongs to me. From you I will accept nothing, 

     either now or afterwards. 

   HELMER. What madness this is! 

   NORA. To-morrow I shall go home- I mean to what was my home. It 

     will be easier for me to find some opening there. 

   HELMER. Oh, in your blind inexperience- 

   NORA. I must try to gain experience, Torvald. 

   HELMER. To forsake your home, your husband, and your children! And

     you don't consider what the world will say. 

   NORA. I can pay no heed to that. I only know that I must do it. 

   HELMER. This is monstrous! Can you forsake your holiest duties in 

     this way?         

   NORA. What do you consider my holiest duties? 

   HELMER. Do I need to tell you that? Your duties to your husband and 

     your children.    

   NORA. I have other duties equally sacred. 

   HELMER. Impossible! What duties do you mean?

   NORA. My duties towards myself. 

   HELMER. Before all else you are a wife and a mother.

   NORA. That I no longer believe. I believe that before all else I am 

     a human being, just as much as you are- or at least that I should 

     try to become one. I know that most people agree with you,

     Torvald, and that they say so in books. But henceforth I can't be 

     satisfied with what most people say, and what is in books. I must 

     think things out for myself, and try to get clear about them. 

   HELMER. Are you not clear about your place in your own home? Have 

     you not an infallible guide in questions like these? Have you not 

     religion?         

   NORA. Oh, Torvald, I don't really know what religion is.

   HELMER. What do you mean? 

   NORA. I know nothing but what Pastor Hansen told me when I was

     confirmed. He explained that religion was this and that. When I 

     get away from all this and stand alone, I will look into that 

     matter too. I will see whether what he taught me is right, or, at 

     any rate, whether it is right for me. 

   HELMER. Oh, this is unheard of! And from so young a woman! But if 

     religion cannot keep you right, let me appeal to your conscience- 

     for I suppose you have some moral feeling? Or, answer me: perhaps 

     you have none?    

   NORA. Well, Torvald, it's not easy to say. I really don't know- I 

     am all at sea about these things. I only know that I think quite

     differently from you about them. I hear, too, that the laws are 

     different from what I thought: but I can't believe that they can

     be right. It appears that a woman has no right to spare her dying 

     father, or to save her husband's life! I don't believe that.

   HELMER. You talk like a child. You don't understand the society in

     which you live.   

   NORA. No, I do not. But now I shall try to learn. I must make up my 

     mind which is right- society or I.

   HELMER. Nora, you are ill; you are feverish; I almost think you are 

     out of your senses. 

   NORA. I have never felt so much clearness and certainty as

     to-night.         

   HELMER. You are clear and certain enough to forsake husband and 

     children?         

   NORA. Yes, I am.    

   HELMER. Then there is only one explanation possible.

   NORA. What is that? 

   HELMER. You no longer love me.

   NORA. No; that is just it.

   HELMER. Nora!- Can you say so!

   NORA. Oh, I'm so sorry, Torvald; for you've always been so kind to

     me. But I can't help it. I do not love you any longer.

   HELMER. [Mastering himself with difficulty.] Are you clear and

     certain on this point too?

   NORA. Yes, quite. That is why I will not stay here any longer.

   HELMER. And can you also make clear to me how I have forfeited your 

     love?             

   NORA. Yes, I can. It was this evening, when the miracle did not 

     happen; for then I saw you were not the man I had imagined. 

   HELMER. Explain yourself more clearly; I don't understand 

   NORA. I have waited so patiently all these eight years. for of

     course I saw clearly enough that miracles don't happen every day. 

     When this crushing blow threatened me, I said to myself so

     confidently, "Now comes the miracle!" When Krogstad's letter lay

     in the box, it never for a moment occurred to me that you would 

     think of submitting to that man's conditions. I was convinced 

     that you would say to him, "Make it known to all the world"; and

     that then-        

   HELMER. Well? When I had given my own wife's name up to disgrace

     and shame-?       

   NORA. Then I firmly believed that you would come forward, take

     everything upon yourself, and say, "I am the guilty one." 

   HELMER. Nora-!      

   NORA. You mean I would never have accepted such a sacrifice? No,

     certainly not. But what would my assertions have been worth in

     opposition to yours?- That was the miracle that I hoped for and 

     dreaded. And it was to hinder that that I wanted to die.

   HELMER. I would gladly work for you day and night, Nora- bear 

     sorrow and want for your sake. But no man sacrifices his honour,

     even for one he loves.

   NORA. Millions of women have done so. 

   HELMER. Oh, you think and talk like a silly child.

   NORA. Very likely. But you neither think nor talk like the man I

     can share my life with. When your terror was over- not for what 

     threatened me, but for yourself- when there was nothing more to 

     fear- then it seemed to you as though nothing had happened. I was 

     your lark again, your doll, just as before- whom you would take 

     twice as much care of in future, because she was so weak and

     fragile. [Stands up.] Torvald- in that moment it burst upon me

     that I had been living here these eight years with a strange man, 

     and had borne him three children.- Oh, I can't bear to think of 

     it! I could tear myself to pieces!

   HELMER. [Sadly.] I see it, I see it; an abyss has opened between

     us.- But, Nora, can it never be filled up?

   NORA. As I now am, I am no wife for you.

   HELMER. I have strength to become another man.

   NORA. Perhaps- when your doll is taken away from you. 

   HELMER. To part- to part from you! No, Nora, no; I can't grasp the

     thought.          

   NORA. [Going into room on the right.] The more reason for the thing 

     to happen.        

               [She comes back with out-door things and a small

                travelling-bag, which she places on a chair. 

   HELMER. Nora, Nora, not now! Wait till to-morrow. 

   NORA. [Putting on cloak.] I can't spend the night in a strange

     man's house.      

   HELMER. But can we not live here, as brother and sister-? 

   NORA. [Fastening her hat.] You know very well that wouldn't last

     long. [Puts on the shawl.] Good-bye, Torvald. No. I won't go to 

     the children. I know they are in better hands than mine. As I now 

     am, I can be nothing to them. 

   HELMER. But some time, Nora- some time-?

   NORA. How can I tell? I have no idea what will become of me.

   HELMER. But you are my wife, now and always!

   NORA. Listen, Torvald- when a wife leaves her husband's house, as I 

     am doing, I have heard that in the eyes of the law he is free 

     from all duties towards her. At any rate, I release you from all

     duties. You must not feel yourself bound, any more than I shall.

     There must be perfect freedom on both sides. There, I give you

     back your ring. Give me mine. 

   HELMER. That too?   

   NORA. That too.     

   HELMER. Here it is. 

   NORA. Very well. Now it is all over. I lay the keys here. The 

     servants know about everything in the house- better than I do.

     To-morrow, when I have started, Christina will come to pack up

     the things I brought with me from home. I will have them sent 

     after me.         

   HELMER. All over! all over! Nora, will you never think of me again? 

   NORA. Oh, I shall often think of you, and the children, and this

     house. 

   HELMER. May I write to you, Nora? 

   NORA. No- never. You must not.

   HELMER. But I must send you-

   NORA. Nothing, nothing. 

   HELMER. I must help you if you need it. 

   NORA. No, I say. I take nothing from strangers. 

   HELMER. Nora- can I never be more than a stranger to you? 

   NORA. [Taking her travelling-bag.] Oh, Torvald, then the miracle of

     miracles would have to happen-

   HELMER. What is the miracle of miracles?

   NORA. Both of us would have to change so that- Oh, Torvald, I no

     longer believe in miracles.

   HELMER. But I will believe. Tell me! We must so change that-? 

   NORA. That communion between us shall be a marriage. Good-bye.

                                      [She goes out by the hall door.

   HELMER. [Sinks into a chair by the door with his face in his

     hands.] Nora! Nora! [He looks round and rises.] Empty. She is

     gone. [A hope springs up in him.] Ah! The miracle of miracles-?!

               [From below is heard the reverberation of a heavy door

                closing. 

THE END

Here is my set in the 9 square format.  Torvald's area is SR, Nora's is C, and the Children's is SL.  I envision the room to be in the studio style large square space.  At first I thought Torvald would have a private office in his own home, but then decided that as a character, he doesn't think Nora has the ability to understand all the work he does.  So it wouldn't bother him if she was sitting at the couch while he was working at his desk, (as long as it would be quiet.)  I was torn to have the children's area, but then decided that even though they aren't in this scene, it is important to establish that they are there.  The decisions Nora makes are partially inspired by them, so there needs to be constant reminders of 

that someone has to be accountable for them.