Inside A.C.T.

In the ancient Greek tradition, Venus was called Aphrodite, and she was a goddess born out of revenge. Uranus, primeval god of the sky and father of the Titans, cast his insurgent sons, the Cyclopses, deep into the Underworld. In retribution, the mother goddess, Gaia, persuaded Cronus, youngest of the Titans, to attack his father. While Uranus slept, Cronus castrated him and threw the dismembered parts down to earth. Where the flesh landed in the Mediterranean Sea, the water began to foam. Soon after, Aphrodite emerged. The Birth of Venus (1483–85), by Sandro Botticelli When Aphrodite entered the assembly of the Olympian gods on Mount Olympus, it was immediately clear that she would be trouble. In a room of divine beauties, all eyes were on her. “Each one of [the gods] prayed that he might lead her home to be his wedded wife, so greatly were they amazed at [her] beauty,” sings an ancient Homeric hymn. Assessing the situation, Zeus quickly married off his adopted daughter to th...

The Venus in Fur symposium discussion with Race Bannon, Founder of Kink Aware Professionals and author of Learning The Ropes: A Basic Guide to Safe and Fun SM Lovemaking, and Monika Greenleaf, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University.  Click below to watch the recording. Click here to buy tickets and learn more about  Venus in Fur .

By Shannon Stockwell In Sacher-Masoch’s novel Venus in Furs —which David Ives adapted into his play Venus in Fur —Severin von Kushemski uses as a bookmark Titian’s painting Venus with a Mirror . Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) was born around 1490 in the Italian Alps and moved to Venice when he was just a boy to learn the art of painting. His teacher was Giovanni Bellini, the official painter of Venice. By 1510, Titian had established himself, and after Bellini’s death he took his place as the official painter of the Venetian Republic. He became internationally famous, painting portraits of such members of nobility as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Francis I of France, and Pope Paul III. A master of many genres of painting, from portraits to nudes to mythological and religious scenes, he died in 1576. Venus with a Mirror, 1555, by Titian Venus with a Mirror , completed in 1555, is one of Titian’s more famous paintings. Venus adheres to Renaissance standards of ...

Director Casey Stangl and A.C.T. dramaturg Michael Paller discuss Venus in Fur on March 25, for the InterACT prologue discussion.  Click below to watch the recording. Click here to buy tickets and learn more about  Venus in Fur .

by Venus in Fur sound designer  Will McCandless Will McCandless As a sound designer, it is my job to produce the sound and music for a production. At A.C.T., I designed the sound for Venus in Fur , Napoli! , 4000 Miles , and Higher , as well as numerous Conservatory shows. With each new production, my entryway into a play relies on clues in the script. My preparation begins with reading the script several times, allowing my mind to imagine what the world of the play sounds like: natural soundscapes, sound effects and musical textures that might support the play. Every once in a while, however, the playwright gives music clues that transcend setting and music and reach into the characters. Venus in Fur, we are introduced to Thomas, a playwright and first-time director holding an audition for a stage adaptation he has written based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Fur . He has decided to direct the show himself (“within an inch of its life”) since his previous pl...

By Shannon Stockwell It was Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing who coined the term “masochism” in his 1886 masterwork, Psychopathia Sexualis . Often hailed as the father of sexology, he was the first to classify psychosexual “disorders.” He took the name from his fellow countryman, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs . Krafft-Ebing defined masochism as: A peculiar perversion of the psychical vita sexualis [sexual life] in which the individual affected, in sexual feeling and thought, is controlled by the idea of being completely and unconditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex; of being abused. This idea is colored by lustful feeling; the masochist lives in fancies, in which he creates situations of this kind and often attempts to realize them. Psychopathia Sexualis is a collection of descriptions of Krafft-Ebing’s patients who had what he considered abnormal sexual fantasies, which also included homosexuality, pedophilia, fe...