Chaney Moore

Educators Packet

Play Info
The White Rose was written by Lillian Garrett-Groag and premiered in 1991 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Calif. The play chronicles the arrest, interrogation and eventual execution of a group of University of Munich students who protested the Nazi regime at the height of World War II. The students assigned to themselves the name White Rose.
Publication Info- DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC,.440 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016
Licensing and Rights- Must have written permission from DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE and pay the requisite fee. All other questions on right need to be addressed to The Gersh Agency, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10036.

Plot
The White Rose is set in Germany in between 1942 and 1943. It is based on true events and real people. Students from the University of Munich are spotted throwing illegal pamphlets on the campus. They are brought into interrogation. The play consists of two time periods, past a present; before the arrest and after. Through a thorough investigation the students are found guilty and sentenced to death.

Character List
Sophie Sholl- Female. She is a young girl of 21. She attends college alongside her brother, Hans. Her features are ordinary allowing her to blend in with society. She worked as a youth leader for the Nazi party until she realized the horror it imposed on human life.

Hans Scholl- Male. Like Sophie he attends college. Once a soldier in the Nazi army he turned his life around and dedicated it to bringing down the régime itself.

Christopher Probst- Male. His mother was Jewish. Medical student.

Wilhelm Graf- Male. He studied medicine and worked as a medical orderly for various war deployments.

Alexander Schmorell- Male. His father was a German Doctor. Born in Russia then moved to Germany at a young age. Spoke both German and Russian. Was part of the military. Meet the Scholls and Graf at the University.

Robert Mohr- Male. Head of the Munich Gestapo an interrogation specialist. He upheld the law no matter who passed them. He has a son around Sophie’s age that was sent to the Eastern Front just prior to the arrest and interrogation to the Scholls.

Anton Mahler. Male. Gestapo investigator

Bauer- Mohr’s adjutant

Author-
Lillian Garrett- Groag is an actor/playwrite. Her other works include The Magic Fire and The Lady of the Camellias

History and Reviews
The Play opened in 1991 at The Old Globe Theater then moved the WPA the same year. It featured at the Birmingham Theater Festival in 2008. The play is not commonly produced and most reviews are not keen on the play itself despite the acting.

Lillian Garrett-Groag's "The White Rose" has its heart in the right place. But virtually everything else about this Nazi-era drama, now being presented at Evanston's Northlight Theatre, feels distinctly off-center
Chicago Sun-Times-March 18, 1993Author: Hedy Weiss

In dramatizing the facts of the incident, however, the playwright falls back on cliche situations and characters of melodrama/docudrama…. And a final plot twist, meant to be hopeful and joyous, comes off simply as facile and false.
Chicago Tribune-March 14, 1993Author: Richard Christiansen, Chief critic.

There's nothing jokey or superficial about Lillian Garret-Groag's script, an off-Broadway entry a few years ago. It's just that it's a throwback - the kind of clunky, conventional, people-talking-in-rooms drama that used to come and go like hat styles in the middle part of the 20th century.
The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution-March 4, 1994Author: Hulbert, Dan :Staff

Q&A
1. How can is this play relevant in todays society?
2. Is the transition from past to present choppy or fluid? Is it due to the writing or direction?
3. Does the content of the show over power the play itself?
4. Does the play writes focus on the historical facts deny the characters of truly being able to connect with the audience? Do they have time for character development?
5. Being college students, how does the play effect you? For example, The students were executed from the ages 20 to 25, does that resinate with you?

Online Research

Lillian Garrett-Groag - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Garrett-Groag- Lillian Garrett-Groag's Biography including her written plays and her life story.

Sophie Scholl : Nazi Germany www.spartacus.school.net.co.uk/GERschollS.htm -Sophie Scholls bio is on this page it also gives access to other relevant cites involving Hitler, Nazi's and more.

Hitler's SS: Private Army of the Third Reich www.larouchepub.com/other/.../3313nazu_private_army.html – This gives an indication of Hitlers Army and what a nazi is.

World War II- 1942 www.wwiiguns.com/world_warii_1942/world_warii_1942.html -The cite provides a time line of all the happenings in 1942 regarding World War II.

White Rose www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007188 -Brief history of the white rose and the resistance movement. Also trial of the students and arrest of their professor

Program Notes

The White Rose written by Lillian Garrett- Groag is based off of true events occurring in Germany 1942 to 1943. The White Rose were pamphlets written by college students as a resistance movement against Hitler and his army. The play begins with the students in the Gestapo headquarters of interrogation. They were seen throwing leaflets around the college campus by a janitor who then turned them in. The scenes jump from past to present. The past shows the students before the arrests. It provides the progression of the groups unity and ideals. They discuss music, literature and politics. Sophie Scholl is the sister of Hans Scholl who was one of the creators and writers of the white rose. Sophie was not originally associated with the resistance. Hans and the other boys in the show viewed her female fragility as something that could compromise the operation. In other words, she simply was not strong enough or brave enough to handle the pressure. That is not to mention the safety concern they expressed. When Sophie discovers the truth about the leaflets she immediately joins in with out any hesitation or reserve. The Scholls and a few of the other student were one affiliated with Hitlers movement. Sophie was a Hitler youth councilor while Hans and the others were in his army. It wasn't until they took a philosophy class in college that their eyes were opened to the faults of the war. Chaos
surround Germany, bombs lit up the sky in the night hours. The city of Munich crumbled as Hitlers reign continued. The gestapo, Hitlers police, filled the street searching for those involved in any sort of resistance movement. With that the present scenes begin. Mohr the Head Investigator focuses his interrogation on Sophie. He sees her as a sweet and innocent bystander, who if anything is tainted by association but not guilty of the crime itself. Meanwhile the others are also asked questions to which they deny any dealings with the pamphlets. Lillian Garrett- Groag touches lightly on the lives of each character, her main focus is on the situation itself. She takes the audience on a journey through the days leading up to the arrest and the few days of incarceration. These days provide a glimpse into the relationships between the characters and the characters themselves. Through the interrogation process and as tempers are getting short, stories begin to fall apart creating gaps within the students lies. Suspicions rise until there is no longer any doubt of their treason and guilt. The students are judged and
sentences to death by guillotine. The guillotine, a machine with a single blade used to decapitate a felon
was the execution method of choice in that time. At the end of the show after the death of the students
a new group of resistance members are brought in for questioning. Over one thousand people were executed of involvement with a resistance throughout the war.

Chaney Moore

1. Based on real events and people

Author-

Lillian Garrett-Groag.

Language-

English

Play Structure-

2 Acts, 3 Scenes

Cast-

Sophie Scholl, 21.

Hans Scholl, 25.

Alexander Schmorell, 25.

Christopher Probst, 24.

Wilhelm Graf, 25.

Robert Mohr, 50’s Head of the Munich Gestapo

Anton Mahler, 30’s Gestapo investigator

Run Time- 2hr. 5min.

Genre Identification- Chamber Play, Drama

Bio- The White Rose was written by Lillian Garrett-Groag and premiered in 1991 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Calif. The play chronicles the arrest, interrogation and eventual execution of a group of University of Munich students who protested the Nazi regime at the height of World War II. The students assigned to themselves the name White Rose.
The play has roles for seven males and one female. The strongest roles belong to Robert Mohr, the head of the Munich Gestapo, and Sophie Scholl, one of the students. Mohr, moved by Scholl's passion (and mindful that she is German, but not Jewish), attempts to save her by giving her a chance to recant, but she refuses. The play ends with a spotlight on Scholl snapping off, symbolizing her beheading, and Mohr musing, "The most we can hope for is to get by. Heroes and ... (carefully) demagogues will always shake things up for a while, but if we're clever, we'll still be here when they're gone." At which point, a Gestapo investigator attempts to be encouraging, noting that people like Mohr "are of enormous use to the Reich." Thus concludes the theme of the play, that people, not monsters, are responsible for great communal disasters, and each of those people had a "moment of choice," according to Garrett-Groag in her Forward. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Garrett-Groag

Publication Info- DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC,.440 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016

Licensing and Rights- Must have written permission from DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE and pay the requisite fee. All other questions on right need to be addressed to The Gersh Agency, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10036.


Exegesis-

Gestapo- the secret state police in Nazi Germany; known for its terrorist methodswww.wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Frederick the Great- skillfully employed the limited Prussian resources to make his kingdom the most powerful German state during the seven Years War (1756-63).
www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/people.../frederick.html
Charlatan- also called swindler or mountebank, is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretence or deception.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlatan

Anteroom- an outer room that leads to another room and that is often used as a waiting room. Bing Learn more about "anteroom" ...www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anteroom

Geobbels- Joseph Geobbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of German dictator Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels

Goering- Hermann Goering was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor, and commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Göring

Stalin- The man who turned the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower at unimaginable human cost.
www.pbs.org/redfiles/bios/all_bio_joseph_stalin.htm

Assize Court- is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of major felonies or indictable offences.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cour_d'assises

Reich-is a German word cognate with the English rich, but used most often to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is "(imperial,) sovereign state."
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich

Guillotine- A wooden machine with a single blade used to behead criminals

Alpinist- a mountain climber
www.yourdictionary.com/alpinist



Fable

In the early 1940’s when Hitler régime was the dominant power over Germany a group of college students fought his power in hopes to end the regime forever. Sophie, a regular young girl without any true understanding of the destruction that prevailed upon Germany was quickly awaked by her brother Hans’s radical ideas. Together they and their friend Alexander, with whom Sophie has a slight love affair, and another friend Christopher joined together contemplating how they pass on their thoughts and create a movement which targeted Hitler and his army. After considering their options they wrote and dispersed a pamphlet named “The White Rose”. The papers contained their opinions and asked that others considered their thoughts and with that overthrow the regime and silence Hitler forever.
Meanwhile, Mohr the head investigator of the Gestapo sought out anyone who would defy the laws and arrest those who ventured to begin radical movements. Once word leaked of The White Rose, Mohr was determined to capture the culprits. However, although they were discrete in distributing the letters, they were cited and arrested. Mohr, interrogated the students, but it was his superior Mohler that forced him into coercing them to confess. They found guilty and sentence to death. All four students were beheaded for their actions but left behind a legacy of bravery.
In the end Mohr contemplates the reality of his situation and takes into account what he has done and for what cause.

Plot Summary-


Characters-

Sophie Sholl- Female. She is a young girl of 21. She attends college alongside her brother, Hans. Her features are ordinary allowing her to blend in with society. She worked as a youth leader for the Nazi party until she realized the horror it imposed on human life.

Hans Scholl- Male. Like Sophie he attends college. Once a soldier in the Nazi army he turned his life around and dedicated it to bringing down the régime itself.

Christopher Probst- Male. His mother was Jewish. Medical student.

Wilhelm Graf- Male. He studied medicine and worked as a medical orderly for various war deployments.

Alexander Schmorell- Male. His father was a German Doctor. Born in Russia then moved to Germany at a young age. Spoke both German and Russian. Was part of the military. Meet the Scholls and Graf at the University.

Robert Mohr- Male. Head of the Munich Gestapo

Anton Mahler. Male. Gestapo investigator

Bauer- Mohr’s adjutant.


Characters and Casting-

The White Rose is set in a specific time and place. In the 1940’s in Germany the war took over the country. The only way to be sure to be safe was to blend in with the masses. When casting this show it is important to seek out an all white cast. Non- traditional casting as well as color blind casting will only take away from the production in that it will add an additional distracting layer that is both unnecessary and inaccurate for the setting. Sophie should not be an extraordinarily attractive woman. She is regular in many aspects. Pictures can be found of some of the characters which should give a clearer idea as to the physical appearance that should be attained. Color blind casting would also be a major problem due to how Hitler viewed them. Since he found himself and all blond, white Germans superior it would be unrealistic to cast an actor of a different color. Race especially of Jewish decent can be cast, however, if they look Jewish the play would lose some credibility. If, for example, the White Rose authors looked Jewish they would be accused and sentenced immediately. To create the full effect the investigators should look as Germany as possible. It is also important that the actors are the appropriate age for each character. The investigators should be older than the students to insure that they seem stronger more powerful and that the students are more naive and innocent.

Definition of Dramaturgy

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

1. Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturg, to adapt a work for the stage.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy

2. The art of writing and producing plays. wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

3. The craft or the techniques of dramatic composition. www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/dramaturgy