{"id":90,"date":"2020-11-10T15:43:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T15:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/?page_id=90"},"modified":"2020-11-11T05:34:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T05:34:38","slug":"r-u-r-on-stage-screen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/r-u-r-on-stage-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"R.U.R. on Stage & Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). From Act I of the play by Karel \u010capek, produced by Theatre Guild. On the left: Helena Glory, played by Kathlene MacDonell. On the right Harry Domin, played by Basil Sydney. Photograph by Francis Bruguiere. Source: Karel \u010capek, R. U. R.<\/em>, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923<\/a><\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At one hundred years old R.U.R.<\/em> has had a long history on stage and screen. \u00a0The script was first published in its author\u2019s native Czech in 1920 and premiered the following year in Hradec Kr\u00e1lov\u00e9. It debuted in the United States in 1922 (that production was actor Spencer Tracey\u2019s first Broadway role) in an English translation by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair. (For our production, we merged that translation with a Google Translate-assisted version of \u010capek\u2019s original.) During the Great Depression the show enjoyed popularity as part of the repertoire of various regional units of the Federal Theatre Project, including Cleveland, Ohio, and Jacksonville, Florida, publicity material from which is shown below. The FTP\u2019s Marionette Theatre, under the direction of puppeteer Remo Bufano, was slated to produce a version of the play, but production was stopped before its scheduled opening in November 1937 in a move that led to Bufano\u2019s resignation from his post.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with many greats of the genre it helped to create, R.U.R.<\/em> was swiftly adapted to other media. On February 11, 1938, just two years after its inception, the BBC broadcast a version of the play that some scholars flag as the first science fiction television program.[2]<\/a> More recently the show made history again with a 2015 production at the Gallery of the National Technical Library in Prague featuring a cast entirely composed of robots constructed from LEGO Mindstorms programming kits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> \u201cBufano Quits WPA Unit: Head of Marionette Group Scores ‘Obstructive Policies.’\u201d The New York Times<\/em> 15 November 1937. p.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Lewis, Danny. \u201c78 Years Ago Today, BBC Aired the First Science Fiction Television Program.\u201d SmithsonianMag.com<\/em>. 11 February 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u010capek, Karel. R.U.R<\/em>. Jacksonville,FL, March 20-24, 1939. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov\/item\/musftpplaybills.200221419\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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R.U.R. 36 Photographs<\/em>. [193-] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov\/item\/musftpnegatives.12300223\/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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BBC Archive, “#OnThisDay<\/a> 1938: The first attempt at science fiction on television aired – a BBC adaptation of Karel \u010capek’s Rossum\u2019s Universal Robots.” Twitter, 11 February 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cafe Neu Romance 2015: RUR-Team (CZE): R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) Play https:\/\/www.flickriver.com\/photos\/vive-les-robots\/23480202804\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At one hundred years old R.U.R. has had a long history on stage and screen. \u00a0The script was first published in its author\u2019s native Czech in 1920 and premiered the following year in Hradec Kr\u00e1lov\u00e9. It debuted in the United States in 1922 (that production was actor Spencer Tracey\u2019s first Broadway role) in an English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-90","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/90\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/theaterarts_remoterepertory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}