1:00PM Free Portion: Our panel discussion will explore the work of Jon Fosse, with opportunity for audience participation. Panelists include performers Kristin Franklin and Dolph Paulsen, and Dr. Kyle Korynta of the University of Minnesota. This event will be free and open to the public, no registration necessary.
2:30PM Ticketed Portion: Following intermission, registered visitors are invited to return for a staged reading of Jon Fosse’s Winter, followed by a Q&A with the translator and performers.
About Jon Fosse’s Work
Jon Olav Fosse (b. 1959), Norwegian author, translator, and playwright, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." Fosse has written over seventy novels, poems, children's books, essays, and plays, which have been translated into over fifty languages. Fosse is the most performed Norwegian playwright after Henrik Ibsen and one of the most performed contemporary playwrights globally. His minimalist and deeply introspective plays, with poetic and lyrical language, can be said to represent a modern continuation of the dramatic tradition established by Henrik Ibsen in the 19th century.
About Winter
In Winter, an ordinary businessman on a work trip meets a fascinating, disheveled, and unpredictable woman in the park. This chance encounter between people of two vastly different walks of life is mixed with compassion, desires, and mistaken meanings.
Through his use of poetic language, Fosse depicts an encounter which develops into a unique love story of two people who long for, and fear, letting themselves be swept away, which leads to enduring consequences for the strangers.
*This material contains some adult language which may not be appropriate for all*
SCHEDULE
1:00PM
Panel Discussion on Jon Fosse’s Work (Free and open to the public)
No ticket necessary
2:00PM
Intermission
2:30PM
Staged Reading of Fosse’s Winter
Ticketed event
3:30PM
Post-reading Q&A
TICKETS
General Admission
$8
Norway House Member Admission
$4
Dr. Kyle Korynta
In his dissertation, University of Minnesota Lecturer and Jon Fosse scholar, Dr. Kyle Korynta compared selected plays of Jon Fosse and Henrik Ibsen. He has also published the article “Altering Henrik Ibsen’s Aura: Jon Fosse’s Suzannah” concerning Fosse's play on Henrik Ibsen's wife Suzannah. Dr. Korynta has also translated Jon Fosse's plays A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream, and Winter, which were performed in 2013 by Akvavit Theatre in Chicago.
Kirstin Franklin
Kirstin Franklin has been performing and producing theater in Chicago for over a decade. She is the former Co-Artistic Director of Akvavit Theater, Chicago’s premiere theater company for producing contemporary Nordic Plays in translation. In addition to producing over a dozen U.S. premieres of contemporary Nordic plays, Akvavit produced 3 world premiere translations of Jon Fosse’s plays in 2013 which were commissioned translations by Kyle Korynta. Ms. Franklin has performed and collaborated at theaters across the country including: The Guthrie, Pangea World Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Asolo Rep, Urbanite Theater, Northlight Theater and more. Kirstin holds an MFA in acting from the FSU/Asolo conservatory and a B.A. from St. Olaf College. This spring, Kirstin will be directing the U.S. premier of The Danish Play with Three Crows theater in Chicago.
Dolph Paulsen
Dolph Paulsen is an artist-educator originally from Boston, MA, recently transplanted to Chicago. He has performed onstage with companies in Massachusetts (Hovey Players, Wax Wings Theater, Hampshire Shakespeare Co), in Florida (Asolo Theater), and in Los Angeles (Independent Shakespeare Co). In addition to stage work, Dolph has directed and acted in Film and TV (Actor: One Tree Hill, The Message, Fear Not, When I Was King, Stories for Dinner—Director: Stories for Dinner, On The Count Of...). Dolph is also a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist and Reading Specialist, and has authored and illustrated an instructional metalinguistic science-fiction novel for young adults, WHIRDZ. Dolph holds an MFA in Acting from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory and an MS in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. This spring, Dolph will be performing in the U.S. premiere of The Danish Play with Three Crows theater in Chicago.
This event is made possible by the support of GNSD (Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch) and CGES (Center for German & European Studies).