MONA
TOBIN HOUSTON
RESUME & CREDENTIALS
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Yale University
(1964), Thesis: Critical and Theoretical Writings on the Theater in France:
1607-1637; University of Paris (1958-59); A.B. Barnard College (1956).
Preparatory Department of the Juilliard School; High School of Music
and Art, New York City.
EMPLOYMENT
Indiana University,
Department of French and Italian, Bloomington, IN.: 1962-1999.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
FRENCH: Native fluency,
spoken and written.
ITALIAN: Near native fluency, spoken and written.
GERMAN: Good fluency.
SPECIAL AREAS
OF TEACHING EXPERTISE AND COURSES TAUGHT
17th-CENTURY THEATER
UNDERGRADUATE: Tragédie classique; Comédie classique;
Colloquium in French Studies: Page to Stage: Comedy in the 17th Century;
The Other Genres: Non-Classical Theater in the 17th Century; Molière
and the Stage.
GRADUATE: Studies in 17th-Century Literature; Seminars on The Other
Genres: Non-Classical Theater in the 17th Century; Dramatic Theory and
Practice of the 17th Century; Neo-Classical Dramatic Theory and Practice--Pléiade
to D'Aubignac; Corneille (multiple times); Molière.
FRENCH THEATER HISTORY
UNDERGRADUATE: Nineteenth-Century Drama.
GRADUATE: Seminar in French Literature; History of French Theater; Middle
Ages to 20th Century.
ADVANCED TRANSLATION COURSES
UNDERGRADUATE and GRADUATE.
PHONETICS AND PRONUNCIATION
FRENCH FOR SINGERS
TRANSLATIONS AND
RELATED ACTIVITIES
LITERATURE
French Symbolist Poetry: An Anthology. Selected and Translated
with John Porter Houston (Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 1980). Introduction to above reprinted in Nineteenth-Century
Literary Criticism, vol. 20. Ed. J. Mullane and R. Wilson.
THEATER
Performed
The Flying Doctor (Le Médecin volant), farce, and The
Painter Named Love (Le sicilien ou l'Amour peintre), comédie-ballet
of Molière with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Performed May 1996
at the John Waldron Arts Center
as part of the Bloomington Early Music
Festival.
La Bête sur la Lune, translation into French of Beast
on the Moon, by Richard Kalinoski. Semi-staged reading for invited
theater public. Théâtre de l'Odéon, Théâtre
de l'Europe, Paris.
Completed
Mr. Porkingham Goes to Paris (Monsieur de Pourceaugnac), comédie-ballet
by Molière with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Failed Dialogues: Mr. Pirandello Is Wanted on the Telephone and
The Pressure of Time, two one-act plays by Antonio Tabucchi, (Dialoghi
mancati: Il signor Pirandello è domandato al telefono e Il
tempo stringe).
In Progress
The Shotgun Wedding [Working title] (Le Mariage forcé],
comédie-ballet by Molière with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
The Power of Blood [Working title] (La force du Sang),
tragicomedy by Alexandre Hardy (ca. 1618, performed 1622).
Dr. Love (L'Amour Médecin), comédie-ballet by Molière
with music by Jean Baptiste Lully.
THEATER RELATED
EXPERIENCE
GRANT: LILLY ENDOWMENT
OPEN TO FACULTY FELLOWSHIP, 1989-90: This is a year long grant awarded to
mid-career faculty at Indiana colleges and universities to pursue an interest
not in their usual academic research area. Received to observe the rehearsal
process in professional theaters at the following houses: THÉATRE
DE L'EUROPE, Giorgio Strehler, director. Dialoghi Mancati of AntonioTabucchi,
directed by Henning Brockhaus, May-June 1989; CENTER STAGE, Man and Superman,
deirected by Stan Wojewodski, Sept.-Oct. 1989; THÉATRE DU CHÂTELET,
Fidelio, directed by Giorgio Strehler, October-November, 1989; COMÉDIE
-FRANÇAISE, Comme il vous plaira (As You Like It),
directed by Lluis Pasqual, October-December 1989; ARENA STAGE, A Doll
House, directed by Zelda Fichandler, January-March, 1990; STUDIO THEATRE,
Washington, D.C., Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, directed
by Joy Zinoman and Michael Russotto, March-May 1990.
DRAMATURGY
ROUND HOUSE THEATER,
Silver Spring, MD. Tony Kushner, The Illusion, freely adapted from
Pierre Corneille's Illusion comique, directed by Edward Morgan, Spring
1991.
PERFORMANCE
RECITER TO MUSIC:
Witch of Endor in Le Roi David, Arthur Honegger, 9 December 1998,
Susan Swaney, conductor; An Evening of Melodramas: Works for Reciter
and Instruments with Jan Harrington, Gary Arvin and Others; winner of
a Fran Snygg Grant for Artistic Collaboration, 11 November 1998.
SINGING AND CONDUCTING: H.M.S. Pinafore (Buttercup), Gondoliers,
Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore.
ACTING: Kennedy's Children, (Wanda) 1994; Bakkhai (Agave)
1987; Night of the Iguana (Maxine) 1984; Blithe Spirit (Mme.
Arcati) 1982; Madwoman of Chaillot (Aurora), 1981.
DIRECTING: Bloomington Town Theater: Iolanthe; Gondoliers;
John Mortimer: Mill Hill, Marble Arch, Bermondsey.
HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE: Indiana University Early Music Institute and
Teatro Antico, L'amfiparnaso, A Madrigal Comedy in Three Acts (Hortensia)
by Orazio Vecchi (1597), 1986.
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