In one of their creative adaptations in the fall 2015 seminar on German Enlightenment to Post-Classical Drama (GERM 421), students transformed the Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer’s gothic play Die Ahnfrau (The Ancestress) into a silent film. The play was first performed on the Viennese popular stage in 1817; the silent movie version from our course was posted on YouTube in 2015. Then it was blocked for a while due to a copyright claim. The copyrighted music has since been removed from the video, and now it is back. Enjoy the return of the founding mother, transposed from her crumbling Bohemian castle to the neo-gothic UW dorms, and the acting talents of three members of this year’s graduating class. Gothic revival has never been more fun! With special thanks to Carter Packard, Esther Purcell, and Charles Woldorff.
The Return of Grillparzer: http://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/wissen/radiowissen/deutsch-und-literatur/grillparzer-franz-dichter-links-literatur-100.html