Coordinates	55°47′″N49°10′″N
name	Arena Stage
artisticdirector	Molly Smith
formed	1950
location	1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington DC
homepage	www.arenastage.org
genre	American Plays & Playwrights }}

Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission

"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals. Our focus is on theater of the Americas; we produce American classics, premieres of new plays and contemporary stories. Our Arena is a forum, a coliseum, a place for audiences to argue, discuss and meet each other over the theatrical divide. At the center is art; all other programs thrive in concentric circles supporting the art."

In the 60 years since its formation, its productions have received numerous local and national awards, including the Tony Award for best regional theater.

History

The theatre company was founded in 1950. Its first home was the Hippodrome Theatre, a former movie house. In 1956, the company moved into the gymnasium of the old Heurich Brewery in Foggy Bottom, which was demolished to make way for the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and the Kennedy Center. In 1960, they moved into their current location. The theater company's home is on the Washington, D.C. waterfront, at 1101 Sixth Street, SW.

One of the founders, Zelda Fichandler, was its artistic director from its founding through the 1990/91 season. Douglas C. Wager succeeded her for the 1991/92 through 1997/98 seasons. The current artistic director, Molly Smith, assumed those duties beginning with the 1998/99 season.

Arena Stage was one of the first not-for-profit theaters in the United States and was a pioneer of the regional theater movement. Arena was the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway when ''The Great White Hope'', which opened at Arena Stage in 1967, went on to Broadway with its original cast, including James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. In 1973, it was also the first invited by the U.S. State Department to tour behind the Iron Curtain. In 1976, Arena Stage became the second theater outside of New York to receive a special Tony Award for theatrical excellence. (The first went to Robert Porterfield of the Barter Theatre in 1948.)

Renovation 2008 - 2010

A major renovation of the facility was undertaken from 2008 through 2010. The designer is Bing Thom Architects of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. These renovations leave the Fichandler Stage and Kreeger Theater largely untouched, but involved demolition of the theaters' connecting structures, including lobbies and offices. The two remaining stages are surrounded by a glass curtain wall and incorporated into a larger building. This also contains a new smaller theater, called "The Kogod Cradle," intended for debuting experimental pieces. This new "black box theater" seats 200. The new building also includes an expansive central lobby and Next Stage, a cafe run by D.C. chef José Andrés.

The entire complex has been re-named "Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater" in honor of supporters Gilbert and Jaylee Mead. Beginning in October 2010, the company is performing at the Mead Center for American Theater a more-than $125 million, buildingon the DC waterfront. The Mead Center resulted from a renovation of the prior Arena Stage complex with the removal of the "Old Vat Room" performance space and offices. The Mead Center has three theaters:

The Fichandler Stage, a theater in the round seating 680.

The Kreeger Theater, a modified thrust stage theater seating 514.

The Kogod Cradle, an intimate theater with basket-weave permeable walls seating 200.

The three theaters are connected by a large central lobby, and the Center includes restaurants, rehearal rooms, classrooms and offices.

The new, three stage, $125 million, theater complex is now the second largest performing arts center in Washington, DC after the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Notable Performers

Jane Alexander

Debbie Allen

Stanley Anderson

Angela Bassett

Ned Beatty

Blair Brown

Hume Cronyn

Ruby Dee

Jill Eikenberry

Robert Foxworth

Morgan Freeman

Victor Garber

John Glover

ME Hart

Samuel L. Jackson

James Earl Jones

Raul Julia

Kevin Kline

Robert Prosky

Phylicia Rashad

Pernell Roberts

Roy Scheider

Stephen Schnetzer

Yeardley Smith

Jean Stapleton

Jessica Tandy

Rip Torn

Kathleen Turner

Jon Voight

Dianne Wiest

Alfre Woodard

See also

Theater in Washington D.C.

References

External links

Arena Stage official website

Category:1950 establishments in the United States Category:Regional theatre in the United States Category:League of Resident Theatres Category:League of Washington Theatres Category:Members of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington Category:Theatres in Washington, D.C. Category:Tony Award winners Category:Performing groups established in 1950

Coordinates	55°47′″N49°10′″N
name	Virginia Woolf
birth name	Adeline Virginia Stephen
birth date	January 25, 1882
birth place	London, England, UK
death date	March 28, 1941
death place	near Lewes, East Sussex, England
spouse	Leonard Woolf (1912–1941)
notableworks	''To the Lighthouse'', ''Mrs Dalloway'', ''Orlando: A Biography'', ''A Room of One's Own''
occupation	Novelist, Essayist, Publisher, Critic
influences	William Shakespeare, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Anton Chekhov, Emily Bronte, Daniel Defoe, E. M. Forster }}

Adeline Virginia Woolf (; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels ''Mrs Dalloway'' (1925), ''To the Lighthouse'' (1927) and ''Orlando'' (1928), and the book-length essay ''A Room of One's Own'' (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Early life

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London in 1882 to Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Stephen (née Jackson). Julia (1846–1895) was a renowned beauty, born in India to Dr. John and Maria Pattle Jackson. She and her mother later moved to England, and Julia served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones. Virginia's father, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), was a notable historian, author, critic and mountaineer. He was the editor of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', a work which would influence Woolf's later experimental biographies.

Woolf was educated by her parents in their literate and well-connected household at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. Her parents had each been married previously and been widowed, and, consequently, the household contained the children of three marriages. Julia had three children by her first husband, Herbert Duckworth: George, Stella, and Gerald Duckworth. Leslie first married Harriet Marian (Minny) Thackeray (1840–1875), and they had one daughter: Laura Makepeace Stephen, who was declared mentally disabled and lived with the family until she was institutionalised in 1891. Leslie and Julia had four children together: Vanessa Stephen (1879), Thoby Stephen (1880), Virginia (1882), and Adrian Stephen (1883).

Sir Leslie Stephen's eminence as an editor, critic, and biographer, and his connection to William Thackeray (the father of his first wife), meant that his children were raised in an environment filled with the influences of Victorian literary society. Henry James, George Henry Lewes, Julia Margaret Cameron (an aunt of Julia Stephen), and James Russell Lowell, who was made Virginia's honorary godfather, were among the visitors to the house. Julia Stephen was equally well connected. Descended from an attendant of Marie Antoinette, she came from a family of renowned beauties who left their mark on Victorian society as models for Pre-Raphaelite artists and early photographers. Supplementing these influences was the immense library at the Stephens' house, from which Virginia and Vanessa were taught the classics and English literature. Unlike the girls, Adrian and Thoby were formally educated and sent to Cambridge, a difference which Virginia would regret. The sisters did, however, benefit indirectly from their brothers' Cambridge contacts, as the boys brought their new intellectual friends home to the Stephens' drawing room.

According to Woolf's memoirs, her most vivid childhood memories, however, were not of London but of St. Ives in Cornwall, where the family spent every summer until 1895. The Stephens' summer home, Talland House, looked out over Porthminster Bay, and is still standing today, though somewhat altered. Memories of these family holidays and impressions of the landscape, especially the Godrevy Lighthouse, informed the fiction Woolf wrote in later years, most notably ''To the Lighthouse''.

The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was 13, and that of her half-sister Stella two years later, led to the first of Virginia's several nervous breakdowns. She was, however, able to take courses of study (some at degree level) in Greek, Latin, German and history at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London between 1897 and 1901, and this brought her into contact with some of the early reformers of women’s higher education such as Clara Pater, George Warr and Lilian Faithfull (Principal of the King’s Ladies’ Department and noted as one of the Steamboat ladies). Her sister Vanessa also studied Latin, Italian, art and architecture at King’s Ladies’ Department.

The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly institutionalised. Her breakdowns and subsequent recurring depressive periods, modern scholars (including her nephew and biographer, Quentin Bell) have suggested, were also influenced by the sexual abuse she and Vanessa were subjected to by their half-brothers George and Gerald Duckworth (which Woolf recalls in her autobiographical essays ''A Sketch of the Past'' and ''22 Hyde Park Gate'').

Throughout her life, Woolf was plagued by periodic mood swings and associated illnesses. Though this instability often affected her social life, her literary productivity continued with few breaks throughout her life.

Bloomsbury

After the death of their father and Virginia's second nervous breakdown, Vanessa and Adrian sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and bought a house at 46 Gordon Square in Bloomsbury.

Woolf came to know Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Rupert Brooke, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Duncan Grant, Leonard Woolf and Roger Fry, who together formed the nucleus of the intellectual circle of writers and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group. Several members of the group attained notoriety in 1910 with the Dreadnought hoax, which Virginia participated in disguised as a male Abyssinian royal. Her complete 1940 talk on the Hoax was discovered and is published in the memoirs collected in the expanded edition of ''The Platform of Time'' (2008). In 1907 Vanessa married Clive Bell, and the couple's interest in avant garde art would have an important influence on Woolf's development as an author.

Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. Despite his low material status (Woolf referring to Leonard during their engagement as a "penniless Jew") the couple shared a close bond. Indeed, in 1937, Woolf wrote in her diary: "Love-making – after 25 years can’t bear to be separate ... you see it is enormous pleasure being wanted: a wife. And our marriage so complete." The two also collaborated professionally, in 1917 founding the Hogarth Press, which subsequently published Virginia's novels along with works by T.S. Eliot, Laurens van der Post, and others. The Press also commissioned works by contemporary artists, including Dora Carrington and Vanessa Bell. The ethos of the Bloomsbury group encouraged a liberal approach to sexuality, and in 1922 she met the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, wife of Harold Nicolson. After a tentative start, they began a sexual relationship, which, according to Sackville- West, was only twice consummated. In 1928, Woolf presented Sackville-West with ''Orlando'', a fantastical biography in which the eponymous hero's life spans three centuries and both genders. Nigel Nicolson, Vita Sackville-West's son, wrote "The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in ''Orlando'', the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita, weaves her in and out of the centuries, tosses her from one sex to the other, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her, drops a veil of mist around her". After their affair ended, the two women remained friends until Woolf's death in 1941. Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving siblings, Adrian and Vanessa; Thoby had died of an illness at the age of 26.

Work

Woolf began writing professionally in 1900, initially for the ''Times Literary Supplement'' with a journalistic piece about Haworth, home of the Brontë family. Her first novel, ''The Voyage Out'', was published in 1915 by her half-brother's imprint, Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd. This novel was originally entitled ''Melymbrosia'', but Woolf repeatedly changed the draft. An earlier version of ''The Voyage Out'' has been reconstructed by Woolf scholar Louise DeSalvo and is now available to the public under the intended title. DeSalvo argues that many of the changes Woolf made in the text were in response to changes in her own life. Woolf went on to publish novels and essays as a public intellectual to both critical and popular success. Much of her work was self-published through the Hogarth Press. She has been hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and one of the foremost modernists.

Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. Woolf's reputation declined sharply after World War II, but her eminence was re-established with the surge of Feminist criticism in the 1970s.

Woolf's work was criticised for epitomising the narrow world of the upper-middle class English intelligentsia. Some critics judged it to be lacking in universality and depth, without the power to communicate anything of emotional or ethical relevance to the disillusioned common reader, weary of the 1920s ''aesthetes''. She was also criticised by some as an anti-semite, despite her being happily married to a Jewish man. This anti-semitism is drawn from the fact that she often wrote of Jewish characters in stereotypical archetypes and generalisations, including describing some of her Jewish characters as physically repulsive and dirty. The overwhelming and rising 1920s and 30s anti-semitism possibly influenced Virginia Woolf. She wrote in her diary, "I do not like the Jewish voice; I do not like the Jewish laugh." However, in a 1930 letter to the composer, Ethel Smyth, quoted in Nigel Nicolson's biography,''Virginia Woolf,'' she recollects her boasts of Leonard's Jewishness confirming her snobbish tendencies, "How I hated marrying a Jew- What a snob I was, for they have immense vitality." In another letter to her dear friend Ethel Smyth, Virginia gives a scathing denunciation of Christianity, seeing it as self-righteous "egotism" and stating "my Jew has more religion in one toe nail—more human love, in one hair." Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf actually hated and feared 1930s fascism with its anti-semitism knowing they were on Hitler's blacklist. Her 1938 book ''Three Guineas'' was an indictment of fascism.

Virginia Woolf's peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength: Woolf is arguably the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted—and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters' receptive consciousness. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions.

The intensity of Virginia Woolf's poetic vision elevates the ordinary, sometimes banal settings – often wartime environments – of most of her novels. For example, ''Mrs Dalloway'' (1925) centres on the efforts of Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged society woman, to organise a party, even as her life is paralleled with that of Septimus Warren Smith, a working-class veteran who has returned from the First World War bearing deep psychological scars.

''To the Lighthouse'' (1927) is set on two days ten years apart. The plot centres around the Ramsay family's anticipation of and reflection upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familial tensions. One of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative process that beset painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon the lives of a nation's inhabitants in the midst of war, and of the people left behind. It also explores the passage of time, and how women are forced by society to allow men to take emotional strength from them.

''Orlando'' (1928) is one of Virginia Woolf's lightest novels. A parodic biography of a young nobleman who lives for three centuries without aging much past thirty (but who does abruptly turn into a woman), the book is in part a portrait of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West. It was meant to console Vita for the loss of her ancestral home, though it is also a satirical treatment of Vita and her work. In Orlando the techniques of historical biographers are being ridiculed; the character of a pompous biographer is being assumed in order for it to be mocked.

''The Waves'' (1931) presents a group of six friends whose reflections, which are closer to recitatives than to interior monologues proper, create a wave-like atmosphere that is more akin to a prose poem than to a plot-centered novel.

"Flush: A Biography" (1933) is a part fiction, part biography of the cocker spaniel owned by Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The book is written from the dog's point of view. Woolf was inspired to write this book from the success of the Rudolf Besier play, The Barretts of Wimpole Street. In the play, Flush is on stage for much of the action. The play was produced for the first time in 1932 by actress Katharine Cornell.

Her last work, ''Between the Acts'' (1941) sums up and magnifies Woolf's chief preoccupations: the transformation of life through art, sexual ambivalence, and meditation on the themes of flux of time and life, presented simultaneously as corrosion and rejuvenation—all set in a highly imaginative and symbolic narrative encompassing almost all of English history. This book is the most lyrical of all her works, not only in feeling but in style, being chiefly written in verse. While Woolf's work can be understood as consistently in dialogue with Bloomsbury, particularly its tendency (informed by G.E. Moore, among others) towards doctrinaire rationalism, it is not a simple recapitulation of the coterie's ideals.

Her works have been translated into over 50 languages, by writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Marguerite Yourcenar.

Death

After completing the manuscript of her last (posthumously published) novel, ''Between the Acts'', Woolf fell into a depression similar to that which she had earlier experienced. The onset of World War II, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz, and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work. On 28 March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse near her home and drowned herself. Woolf's body was not found until 18 April 1941. Her husband buried her cremated remains under an elm in the garden of Monk's House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex.

In her last note to her husband she wrote: }}'''

Modern scholarship and interpretations

Recently, studies of Virginia Woolf have focused on feminist and lesbian themes in her work, such as in the 1997 collection of critical essays, ''Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings'', edited by Eileen Barrett and Patricia Cramer. Controversially, Louise A. DeSalvo reads most of Woolf's life and career through the lens of the incestuous sexual abuse Woolf suffered as a young woman in her 1989 book ''Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on her Life and Work''.

Woolf's fiction is also studied for its insight into shell shock, war, class and modern British society. Her best-known nonfiction works, ''A Room of One's Own'' (1929) and ''Three Guineas'' (1938), examine the difficulties female writers and intellectuals face because men hold disproportionate legal and economic power and the future of women in education and society.

Irene Coates's book ''Who's Afraid of Leonard Woolf: A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf'' holds that Leonard Woolf's treatment of his wife encouraged her ill health and ultimately was responsible for her death. This is not accepted by Leonard's family but is extensively researched and fills in some of the gaps in the traditional account of Virginia Woolf's life. Victoria Glendinning's book ''Leonard Woolf: A Biography'', which is even more extensively researched and supported by contemporaneous writings, argues that Leonard Woolf was not only supportive of his wife but enabled her to live as long as she did by providing her with the life and atmosphere she needed to live and write. Virginia's own diaries support this view of the Woolfs' marriage.

Though at least one biography of Virginia Woolf appeared in her lifetime, the first authoritative study of her life was published in 1972 by her nephew Quentin Bell.

In 1992, Thomas Caramagno published the book ''The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf's Art and Manic-Depressive Illness."

Hermione Lee's 1996 biography ''Virginia Woolf'' provides a thorough and authoritative examination of Woolf's life and work.

In 2001 Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell A. Leaska edited ''The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf''. Julia Briggs's ''Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life'', published in 2005 is the most recent examination of Woolf's life. It focuses on Woolf's writing, including her novels and her commentary on the creative process, to illuminate her life. Thomas Szasz's book ''My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf'' (ISBN 0-7658-0321-6) was published in 2006.

Rita Martin’s play ''Flores no me pongan'' (2006) considers Woolf's last minutes of life in order to debate polemical issues such as bisexuality, Jewishness and war. Written in Spanish, the play was performed in Miami under the direction of actress Miriam Bermudez.

Depictions

Michael Cunningham's 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, ''The Hours'', focused on three generations of women affected by Woolf's novel ''Mrs Dalloway''. In 2002, a film version of the novel was released starring Nicole Kidman as Woolf, a role for which she won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also starred Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep and was scored with an also award winning soundtrack by American composer Philip Glass. Susan Sellers' novel ''Vanessa and Virginia'' (2008) explores the close sibling relationship between Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell. It was adapted for the stage by Elizabeth Wright in 2010 and first performed by Moving Stories Theatre Company.

Bibliography

Novels

''The Voyage Out'' (1915)

''Night and Day'' (1919)

''Jacob's Room'' (1922)

''Mrs Dalloway'' (1925)

''To the Lighthouse'' (1927)

''Orlando'' (1928)

''The Waves'' (1931)

''The Years'' (1937)

''Between the Acts'' (1941)

Short story collections

''Monday or Tuesday'' (1921)

''A Haunted House and Other Short Stories'' (1944)

''Mrs Dalloway's Party'' (1973)

''The Complete Shorter Fiction'' (1985)

"Biographies"

Virginia Woolf published three books to which she gave the subtitle "A Biography":

''Orlando: A Biography'' (1928, usually characterised ''Novel'', inspired by the life of Vita Sackville-West)

''Flush: A Biography'' (1933, more explicitly cross-genre: ''fiction'' as "stream of consciousness" tale by Flush, a dog; ''non-fiction'' in the sense of telling the story of the owner of the dog, Elizabeth Barrett Browning), reprinted in 2005 by Persephone Books

''Roger Fry: A Biography'' (1940, usually characterised ''non-fiction'', however: "[Woolf's] novelistic skills worked against her talent as a biographer, for her impressionistic observations jostled uncomfortably with the simultaneous need to marshal a multitude of facts.")

Non-fiction books

''Modern Fiction'' (1919)

''The Common Reader'' (1925)

''A Room of One's Own'' (1929)

''On Being Ill'' (1930)

''The London Scene'' (1931)

''The Common Reader: Second Series'' (1932)

''Three Guineas'' (1938)

''The Death of the Moth and Other Essays'' (1942)

''The Moment and Other Essays'' (1947)

''The Captain's Death Bed And Other Essays'' (1950)

''Granite and Rainbow'' (1958)

''Books and Portraits'' (1978)

''Women And Writing'' (1979)

''Collected Essays'' (four volumes)

Drama

''Freshwater: A Comedy'' (performed in 1923, revised in 1935, and published in 1976)

Autobiographical writings and diaries

''A Writer’s Diary'' (1953) – Extracts from the complete diary

''Moments of Being'' (1976)

''A Moment's Liberty: the shorter diary'' (1990)

''The Diary of Virginia Woolf'' (five volumes) – Diary of Virginia Woolf from 1915 to 1941

''Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897–1909'' (1990)

''Travels With Virginia Woolf'' (1993) – Greek travel diary of Virginia Woolf, edited by Jan Morris

''The Platform of Time: Memoirs of Family and Friends'', Expanded Edition, edited by S. P. Rosenbaum (London, Hesperus, 2008)

Letters

''Congenial Spirits: The Selected Letters'' (1993)

''The Letters of Virginia Woolf 1888–1941'' (six volumes, 1975–1980)

''Paper Darts: The Illustrated Letters of Virginia Woolf'' (1991)

Prefaces, contributions

''Selections Autobiographical and Imaginative from the Works of George Gissing'' ed. Alfred C. Gissing, with an introduction by Virginia Woolf (London & New York, 1929)

Biographies

''Virginia Woolf'' by Nigel Nicolson. New York, Penguin Group. 2000

''Virginia Woolf: A Biography'' by Quentin Bell. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972; Revised editions 1990, 1996

"Vanessa and Virginia" by Susan Sellers (Two Ravens, 2008; Harcourt 2009) [Fictional biography of Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell]

''The Unknown Virginia Woolf'' by Roger Poole. Cambridge UP, 1978.

''The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship'' by Ellen Bayuk Rosenman. Louisiana State University Press, 1986.

''Virginia Woolf and the politics of style'', by Pamela J. Transue. SUNY Press, 1986. ISBN 0887062865.

''The Victorian heritage of Virginia Woolf: the external world in her novels'', by Janis M. Paul. Pilgrim Books, 1987. ISBN 0937664731.

''Virginia Woolf's To the lighthouse'', by Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, 1988. ISBN 1555460348.

''Virginia Woolf: the frames of art and life'', by C. Ruth Miller. Macmillan, 1988. ISBN 0333448804.

''Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work'' by Louise DeSalvo. Boston: Little Brown, 1989

''A Virginia Woolf Chronology'' by Edward Bishop. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1989.

''A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf'' by Jane Dunn. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990

''Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life'' by Lyndall Gordon. New York: Norton, 1984; 1991.

''Virginia Woolf and war'', by Mark Hussey. Syracuse University Press, 1991. ISBN 0815625375.

''The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf's Art and Manic-Depressive Illness'' by Thomas D. Caramago. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1992

''Virginia Woolf'' by James King. NY: W.W. Norton, 1994.

''Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf'' by Panthea Reid. New York: Oxford UP, 1996.

''Virginia Woolf'' by Hermione Lee. New York: Knopf, 1997.

''Granite and Rainbow: The Hidden Life of Virginia Woolf'' by Mitchell Leaska. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

''The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf'', by Jane Goldman. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521794587.

''Virginia Woolf and the nineteenth-century domestic novel'', by Emily Blair. SUNY Press, 2002. ISBN 0791471195.

''Virginia Woolf: becoming a writer'', by Katherine Dalsimer. Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300092083.

''Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman'' by Ruth Gruber. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005

''My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf'' by Thomas Szasz, 2006

''Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life'', by Julia Briggs. Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 0156032295.

''The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury'' by Sarah M. Hall, Continuum Publishing, 2007

''Virginia Woolf and the Visible World'', by Emily Dalgarno. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521033608,.

''A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf'' by Ilana Simons, New York: Penguin Press, 2007

''Sudden Endings: 13 Profiles in Depth of Famous Suicides'' by M. J. Meaker, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964, pp. 250–269: "The Fatal Game: Virginia Woolf".

Notes

External links

Biography of Virginia Woolf on the Yale Modernism Lab

Listen to Virginia Woolf's BBC Broadcast (29 April 1937) 'Words Fail Me'

Rare recordings of Virginia Woolf, Conan Doyle, and others

Monk's House information at the National Trust

The Virginia Woolf Collection at the Victoria University Library Special Collections

''The Legacy'', full text and audio file

''The Searchlight'', full text and audio file

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Coordinates	55°47′″N49°10′″N
name	Lisa Kron
birth date	May 20, 1961
birth place	Ann Arbor, Michigan }}

Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron (born May 20, 1961) is an American actress and playwright.

Biography

Kron was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She jokes in one of her plays that her life began on her parents’ trip to Europe: “I was conceived in Venice, you know. (Well, not actually in Venice, but in the nearby town of Mestra where hotels are a lot cheaper.)”

Her mother is Ann Kron, born in 1932. Ann is a former antiques dealer and community activist. In the 1960s she founded the Westside Neighborhood Organization in Lansing, Michigan. In a time when neighborhood segregation was the norm, the WNO helped to bring people from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds together. Ann converted to Judaism when she married Lisa’s father Walter Kron.

Her father is Walter Kron, a retired lawyer born in Germany in 1922. He is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor. In 1937 as the Nazi persecution of the Jews escalated, his parents sent him out of Germany via the Kindertransport program. He went back to Germany after World War II, serving as a US army interrogator of Nazi war criminals. In the 1990s Lisa and her father visited Auschwitz where his parents were murdered by the Nazis in the 1940s.

Her brother is David Kron, born in 1964. He is a sound engineer and is married with a son. He says of his sister: "She is very funny, with a very sharp wit...And she always had her own way of looking at things."

In her play ''Well'' Lisa says that she felt like an outsider even in her own family because she, her parents and her brother David were the only Jews. Her maternal family is Christian and none of her Jewish paternal family survived the Holocaust. Her play ''2.5 Minute Ride'' describes this contradiction as she recalls her mother asking her to come home for the holidays: “...she asks me every year, 'Are you going to make it home for Christmas this year?' And I say ‘ I don’t come home for Christmas Mom. I have never come home for Christmas. We are not Christians. Stop trying to trick me!"

Lisa’s family moved to Lansing, Michigan in 1965. One of the main story lines in her play ''Well'' recounts her experiences attending a predominantly African American elementary school in that city. Lisa’s parents sent her to the school in an effort to help integrate it. Lansing began mandatory racial integration in its schools three years later.

Lisa became interested in theatre at an early age. She traces her acting roots to the Purim plays that she performed as a child at her synagogue in Lansing. In junior high she was determined to be the funniest girl that people knew. “Her avenue for that was telling humorous stories, something that everyone in her family did…”

She graduated from Everett High School (Michigan) as a valedictorian in 1979. In her senior year she attended special theater classes at Lansing School District's Academic Interest Center. An early mentor was her theater teacher at the Center, the late Robert L. Burpee.

She attended Kalamazoo College, where she majored in theatre. At Kalamazoo College theater professor Lowry Marshall mentored her and helped her land a role with a national touring theater company.

She furthered her studies at Chautauqua Professional Actors Studio and the British European Studies Group in London.

Major works

Lisa Kron's major works to date are ''2.5 Minute Ride'' and Well. Both are critically acclaimed autobiographical plays. ''2.5 Minute Ride'' blends a trip she took with her father Walter to Auschwitz, the scene of his parents extermination by the Nazis and her family’s annual trip to an amusement park in Ohio. Lisa says in the introduction to her play: “Humor and horror are juxtaposed and you might not know for a second whether you are at Auschwitz or at the amusement park. The show does not tell you when to laugh and when to be solemn. The response is up to you.”

The play recounts her father's remarkable experiences: "When my father… heard that his parents had been sent to Auschwitz, he immediately tried to order a ham sandwich, to distance himself from Judaism. But he couldn't. He'd say to the waitress, 'Um . . . tuna fish.' " Kron also reflects on looking at a poem on exhibit during their trip to Auschwitz: “I repeat the words that have undone me.’ People burn people here.’ ” One of the most memorable scenes in the play is when her father tells her about the death of her grandparents at Auschwitz:

''Well'' explores her mother Ann’s experiences with social activism and illness, The play uses physical illness as a metaphor for social “illnesses” such as racism. Lisa’s description of Well: “A multicharacter theatrical exploration of issues of health and illness both in the individual and in a community.” Lisa describes her mother:

Both works have been very well received, ''2.5 Minute Ride'' won an Obie award among others. ''Well'' was anthologized in ''Best Plays of 2003-2004,'' listed among the year's best plays by the ''New York Times'' and received two Tony Award nominations. Ben Brantley says of ''2.5 Minute Ride:'' “(it)… puts Ms. Kron on a level with sterling monologists like Spalding Gray, autobiographers who combine novelistic complexity with stage-smart impudence.” Michael Sommers says of ''Well'': “Truly a beautiful play in many ways, ''Well'' paints a mother-and-daughter picture of rich, unusual artistry.”

The first college performance of ''Well'' occurred in the winter of 2008 at Kalamazoo College, Lisa's alma mater. It starred a group of students as well as local professional actress Sharon Williams. Lisa traveled to Kalamazoo for the week of the run, participating in "Lisa Kron Week in Kalamazoo" which, besides ''Well'', included a performance of the Five Lesbian Brothers' "The Secretaries" as well as a public reading in which she read excerpts from all three of her works in addition to one of the pieces she is currently working on.

The world premiere of Lisa's play ''In the Wake'' opened at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles March 28, 2010. Leigh Silverman (who also directed "Well") directed. The play is about a family gathering set just after the presidential election of 2000. The main protagonist Ellen deals with the political turmoil as well as upheaval in her personal life. Charlotte Stoudt describes ''In the Wake'': "Kron's comedy of deprecation and provocative social critique is part Sedaris, part Kushner, yet utterly her own."

Career in Theatre

Lisa’s works are humorous and poignant looks at life by someone who has often described herself an outsider. Her experiences as a Jewish woman living in a predominantly Christian Midwestern city or life as a lesbian working in traditional theatre provide rich material for her plays. Her reflections from the outside looking in are insightful but not bitter. The critic Ben Brantley says of her: “…there is never condescension in her humor. It is simply a crucial part of her navigational equipment in finding her way through life’s absurd course of non sequiturs.”

She describes her creative process in her usual humorous and self deprecating way: “I wish I had more of a technique for constructing these things. I keep banging my head against the wall until it pops through on the other side…”

She arrived in New York City in 1984. She worked as an office temp and various other jobs while pursuing an acting career. Some of her adventures during her early days in New York are chronicled in her play ''101 Humiliating Stories''. She was soon performing at the WOW Cafe, a creative venue for women in the performing arts in the East Village, Manhattan.

In 1989 Lisa, Maureen Angelos, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey and Babs Davy founded the theater company The Five Lesbian Brothers. The group writes and performs witty satiric works from a feminist and lesbian perspective. "Five Lesbian Brothers was chosen, in part, to refute the perception of lesbian theatre as combative and didactic." Their plays have been produced by the New York Theatre Workshop, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the WOW Cafe Theatre and others. The Brothers have also toured all over the United States. The Brothers have won the Obie Award as well as other awards and have published ''The Five Lesbian Brothers' Guide to Life'' and ''Five Lesbian Brothers Four Plays''

Lisa developed stories about her family into autobiographical plays and performed them in New York and London. Her work was critically well received. ''New York Times'' critic Ben Brantley said in his review: "…Fans of that beleaguered literary form, the memoir, can breathe a little more easily this morning. Lisa Kron's sparkling autobiographical play ''Well'' has arrived on Broadway…to restore the honor of a genre that was slipping into disgrace... ''Well'' opened on Broadway March 10, 2006, to critical acclaim and received two Tony nominations. Lisa was nominated for Actress in a Play and Jayne Houdyshell was nominated for Featured Actress in a Play. In spite of good reviews, ''Well'' had low attendance and closed on May 14, 2006. It has since been performed in Boston in 2007.

Personal life

Lisa has lived in New York City since 1984 and is a full time actress. She also teaches playwriting part-time at Yale University.

Selected Theatre Performances

''All My Hopes and Dreams'' Performance Space 122 New York 1989-91

''Voyage to Lesbos'' WOW Café New York 1990

''Brave Smiles'' WOW Café New York 1991

''Facing Life’s Problems'' Performance Space 122 New York 1991

''101 Humiliating Stories'' Performance Space 122; Serious Fun! at Lincoln Center New York 1993-95

''The Secretaries'' Theatre Rhinoceros, New York Theatre Workshop 1994

''Brides of the Moon'' Theatre Rhinoceros, New York Theatre Workshop 1996

''2.5 Minute Ride'' La Jolla Playhouse, (premiere)1996

''2.5 Minute Ride'' The Barbican Theatre London, 1998

''2.5 Minute Ride'' American Repertory Theatre, Boston, 1998

''2.5 Minute Ride'' Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York City, 1999

''Well'' Public Theater, New York City, Spring 2004

''Well'' Longacre Theater on Broadway, New York City 2006

''2.5 Minute Ride'' Anchorage 2006

''Well'' The Huntington Theatre Boston 2007

''Spain'' MCC Theater New York City October 2007

''Time is the Mercy of Eternity'' West End Theater New York City April 2008

Selected works

''The Five Lesbian Brothers' Guide to Life'' by the Five Lesbian Brothers, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 978-0684813844

''2.5 Minute Ride and 101 Humiliating Stories'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2001. ISBN 978-1559361811

''Voyage to Lesbos'' in ''Five Lesbian Brothers Four Plays'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2000. ISBN 1559361662

''Well'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2006. ISBN 978-1559362535

Selected Anthologies

''Brave Smiles'' by the Five Lesbian Brothers, ''The Actor's Book of Gay and Lesbian Plays'', Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, eds. New York: Penguin, 1995 ISBN 978-0140245523

''Cast Out : Queer Lives In Theater'' Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press 2006 ISBN 9780472099337

''Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century'' New York: Theatre Communications Group 2000 ISBN 1559361557

''Out Of Character : Rants, Raves, And Monologues From Today's Top Performance Artists'' New York : Bantam Books 1997 ISBN 0553374850 9780553374858

''2.5 Minute Ride'' in ''Talk to Me : Monologue Plays'' New York : Vintage Books 2004 ISBN 9781400076154

''Voyage to Lesbos'' in ''Five Lesbian Brothers Four Plays'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2000 ISBN 1559361662

''Well'' In The ''Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2003-2004'' New York : Limelight Editions, c2005. ISBN 9780879103156

Articles Written

''Lithe I'm Not. And Trained I'm Not. But I Danced.''''New York Times'', December 12, 1999.

Audiobooks

''2.5 Minute Ride'' [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD) New Millennium Audio; Abridged edition 2001 ISBN 978-1931056250

Awards and Fellowships Won

''2.5 Minute Ride''

Los Angeles Dramalogue Award

Obie Award

2000 GLAAD Media Award

''Well''

Listed among the year's best plays by the ''New York Times'', the Associated Press, the ''Newark Star Ledger'', ''Backstage'' and the ''Advocate''

Part of the 2004 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab

Other

1993 New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) with The Five Lesbian Brothers

1994 Robert Chesley Gay and Lesbian Playwriting Award

1994 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in playwriting

1995 Obie Award for The Secretaries with The Five Lesbian Brothers

1997 Cal Arts/Alpert Award

2000 Creative Capital Foundation Grant

2000 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights

2000 NEA/TCG playwriting fellowship

2003 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Kalamazoo College

2004 New York Foundation for the Arts grant

2005 Guggenheim Fellowship

2007 The Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrighting Fellowship

2008 Chosen to participate in the 2008 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab

2008 Lark Play Development Center Fellowship

Awards Nominated

''101 Humiliating Stories''

Drama Desk nomination in solo performance

''2.5 Minute Ride''

Outer Critics Circle Award

L.A. Drama-Logue Award

Drama Desk nomination in solo performance

Outer Critics Circle nomination in solo performance

1999 New York Press Award for Best Autobiographical Solo Show

''Well''

Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award Best Actress-Play

Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award Best Featured Actress-Play

2004 Drama League Nomination

2004 Outer Critics Circle Best Play nomination

Other

1994 Nomination for Drama Desk Award in Solo Performance

Television and Movie Performances

''Cater-Waiter'' 1996

''Law and Order: Atonement'' 1996 CSU Warren

''Law and Order: Disciple'' 1999 CSU Technician Andrews

''Law and Order: Trophy'' 1996 CSU Warren

''Strong Medicine: Family History'' 2002 Nooch

''Stay'' 2005 Paramedic #2

''Deception'' 2008 Receptionist

''Sex and the City'' 2008 Junior's Waitress

News

''Well'' will be performed in London's West End Theatre at the Apollo Theatre from December 29, 2008 to January 24, 2009. The production features Sarah Miles as Ann Kron and Natalie Casey as Lisa Kron.

Quotes

“Bizarre Murder!! Lesbian Forces Blind Holocaust Victim on Roller Coaster!”. ''2.5 Minute Ride And 101 Humiliating Stories''

“…Judaism, you know, is viewed in the Midwest as kind of an accessory that you wear on top of your Christianity.” ''Well''

“I come from a family with a deep distrust of the body. I believe my family would have their bodies surgically removed from their heads if they could figure out a way to still get to the mall.” ''Lithe I'm Not. And Trained I'm Not. But I Danced.''

Notes

References

Blank, Matthew. ''Photo Call: Lisa Kron's The Wake Opens in Los Angeles'' Playbill March 30, 2010

Brantley, Ben. ''Laughter And Horror In a Journey Of the Heart''. The New York Times March 29, 1999

Brantley, Ben. ''Lisa Kron's 'Well' Opens on Broadway, With Mom Keeping Watch.'' The New York Times. March 31, 2006

Drukman, Steven. ''70 Minutes on an Emotional Roller-Coaster: A Solo Journey From Ohio to Auschwitz.'' New York Times March 28, 1999

Five Lesbian Brothers. ''The Five Lesbian Brothers' Guide to Life'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 978-0684813844

Five Lesbian Brothers. ''Four Plays'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2000. ISBN 1559361662

Hughes, Mike. ''Westside Stories''. ''Lansing State Journal'' April 27, 2004

Kron, Lisa. ''2.5 Minute Ride And 101 Humiliating Stories'' New York : Theatre Communications Group, 2001. ISBN 978-1559361811

Kron, Lisa. ''Well'' New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2006. ISBN 1-55936-253-7

Lester, Gideon. ''Journey of a Lifetime''.

Miller, Stuart. ''Playwright Draws from a Personal 'Well'.'' The Star-Ledger, Newark: New Jersey March 26, 2006

Sommers, Michael. ''“Well” Written, “Well” Staged, “Well” Acted.'' The Star-Ledger, Newark: NJ March 31, 2006

Stoudt, Charlotte. ''Lisa Kron's "The Wake" Revisits the 2000 Presidential Election and Sept. 11'' Los Angeles Times March 14, 2010

Weisman, Wendy. ''The Importance of Being Lisa Kron: In Well, She Plays Herself Writing A Play About Herself. Will Broadway Get It? '' ''American Theatre'' March 2006

WOW Café

Further reading

Glickman, Ken. ''Theater Review: Well''. ''Lansing State Journal'' April 27, 2006

Green, Jesse. ''One-Woman Show Learns to Share''. ''New York Times'' March 21, 2004

Nightingale, Benedict. ''Story Tells Vivid Picture.'' ''The Times'' London July 23, 1998

External links

Lisa Kron's official site

''Well'' in the Internet Broadway Database

Category:1961 births Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Jewish dramatists and playwrights Category:Living people Category:Lambda Literary Award winners Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights

Coordinates	55°47′″N49°10′″N
name	Justin Bieber
background	solo_singer
birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
birth date	March 01, 1994
birth place	London, Ontario, Canada
origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, trumpet
genre	Pop, R&B;, teen pop
occupation	Singer, rapper, musician, actor
years active	2008–present
label	Island, RBMG
associated acts	Usher
website	justinbiebermusic.com }}

Justin Drew Bieber ( , born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop/R&B; singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. Bieber's debut single, "One Time", was released in 2009 and peaked in the top twenty in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut album, the seven-track EP ''My World'', followed in November 2009, and was soon certified platinum in the United States. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Bieber's first full-length studio album, ''My World 2.0'', was released in March 2010. It debuted at number one or within the top ten in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby". The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video. Bieber followed-up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums ''My Worlds Acoustic'' and ''Never Say Never – The Remixes'', and the 3D biopic-concert film ''Justin Bieber: Never Say Never'' – which had an opening weekend gross that nearly matched the record for the biggest opening weekend for a concert-film. Bieber released his second studio album, ''Under the Mistletoe'' in November 2011, which debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200. Bieber has received numerous awards, including Artist of the Year at the 2010 American Music Awards — and has been nominated for numerous awards, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. To date Bieber has sold more than 8 million albums worldwide.

Life and career

1994–2007: Childhood and youth

Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario in St Joseph's Hospital, and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. Bieber's mother, Patricia Lynn "Pattie" Mallette, was 18 years old when she became pregnant. Mallette, originally from Stratford, raised her son with the help of her parents, Bruce and Diane. Mallette worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a single mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Jeremy Jack Bieber, who married another woman and had two children. Bieber's paternal great-grandfather was a German immigrant to Canada. Bieber's mother's ancestry is French Canadian. Bieber attended a French immersion school called the Stratford school Jean Sauve.

During his childhood, Bieber was interested in hockey, soccer, and chess; he often kept his musical aspirations to himself. As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B; songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew. Chris Hicks, Bieber's A&R; at Island/Def Jam, explained the young artist's huge online following to HitQuarters by saying:

"He was doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B; hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more."

2008–09: Discovery and ''My World''

While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def, clicked on one of Bieber's 2007 videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down the theater Bieber was performing in, located Bieber's school, and finally contacted Mallette. Mallette was reluctant because of Braun's Jewish religion; she remembered praying, "God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label! ... you don’t want this Jewish kid to be Justin’s man, do you?" However, after praying with her church elders and receiving their encouragement, she permitted Braun to fly Bieber, then 13, to Atlanta, Georgia, to record demo tapes. A week after arriving, Bieber sang for R&B; singer/songwriter Usher. Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher. Justin Timberlake was also reportedly in the running to sign Bieber, but lost the bidding war to Usher. Usher then sought assistance in finding a label home for the artist from then manager Chris Hicks, who helped engineer an audition with his contact Antonio L.A. Reid of Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid signed Bieber to Island Records in October 2008 (resulting in a joint venture between RBMG and Island Records) and appointed Hicks as executive Vice-President of Def Jam where he would be able manage Bieber's career at the label. At that point, Bieber and his mother moved to Atlanta temporarily, also the home of Usher and Braun, to record and get counseling from Braun. Braun became Bieber's manager.

Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009, and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009 it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. Bieber's first release, an extended play entitled ''My World'', was released on November 17, 2009. The album's second single, "One Less Lonely Girl", and two promo singles, "Love Me", and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100. "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the US, being certified Gold in the latter. ''My World'' was eventually certified Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in both Canada and the UK. To promote the album, Bieber performed on several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program ''The Dome'', YTV's ''The Next Star'', ''The Today Show'', ''The Wendy Williams Show'', ''Lopez Tonight'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', ''It's On with Alexa Chung'', ''Good Morning America'', ''Chelsea Lately'', and BET's ''106 & Park'' with Rihanna. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of ''True Jackson, VP'' in late 2009.

Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for ''Christmas in Washington'', which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on U.S. television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was also one of the performers at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2009. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of We Are The World (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version. On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines.

2010−11: ''My World 2.0'' and ''Never Say Never'' film

"Baby", the lead single from his debut album, ''My World 2.0'', which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and became his biggest hit thus far, charting at number five in the U.S. and reaching the top ten in seven other countries. Two promo singles "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received "generally favorable reviews". It debuted at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963. ''My World 2.0'' also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries. To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including ''The View'', the 2010 Kids Choice Awards, ''Nightline'', ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', ''The Dome'' and ''106 and Park''. Bieber collaborated with Sean Kingston on his single "Eenie Meenie" which also appeared on Bieber's debut album. The song reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the top-twenty of most other markets. thumb|left|Bieber performing at the Conseco Fieldhouse, in August 2010 On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on ''Saturday Night Live''. On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City. The second single from ''My World 2.0'', "Somebody to Love", was released in April 2010, and a remix was released featuring Bieber's mentor Usher. The single reached number ten in Canada, number fifteen in the United States, and the top twenty in multiple international countries.

On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, the My World Tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote ''My World'' and ''My World 2.0''. In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet. That same month his music video, "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to become the most viewed, and most disliked YouTube video ever. In September 2010, it was reported that Bieber accounted for three percent of all traffic on Twitter, according to an employee of the social-networking site.

Bieber began recording his second album in July 2010 in New York City. At this point, because of puberty, his voice was deeper than it was when he recorded his first album. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit anymore. We have to lower the key when I sing live."

Bieber guest-starred in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', which aired on September 23, 2010. He played a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother", who is also a serial bomber. Bieber was also in a subsequent episode which aired on February 17, 2011, in which his character is killed. Bieber performed a medley of "U Smile", "Baby", and "Somebody to Love" and briefly played the drums at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Bieber announced in October 2010 that he would release an acoustic album, called ''My Worlds Acoustic''. It was released on Black Friday in the United States and featured acoustic versions of songs from his previous albums, and accompanied the release of a completely new song titled "Pray".

A 3-D part-biopic, part-concert film starring Bieber entitled ''Justin Bieber: Never Say Never'', was released on February 11, 2011, directed by ''Step Up 3D'' director Jon Chu. It topped the box office with an estimated grossing of $12.4 million on its opening day from 3,105 theaters. It grossed $30.3 million for the weekend and was narrowly beaten by the romantic comedy ''Just Go With It'', which grossed $31 million. ''Never Say Never'' is said to have exceeded industry expectations, nearly matching the $31.1 million grossed by Miley Cyrus's 2008 3-D concert film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, which holds the record for the top debut for a music-documentary. The film is accompanied by his second remix album, ''Never Say Never – The Remixes'', released February 14, 2011, and features remixes of songs from his debut album, with guest appearances from Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, among others.

2011–present: ''Under The Mistletoe'' and ''Believe''

On February 27, 2011, Bieber attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with American actress and singer Selena Gomez, confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair.

In June 2011, Bieber was ranked number 2 on the Forbes list of Best-Paid Celebrities under 30. He is the youngest star and 1 of 7 musicians on the list raking in with $53 million earned in a 12 month period. On November 1, 2011, Bieber released ''Under the Mistletoe'', his second studio album. It debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 210,000 copies in its first week of release.

In late 2011, Bieber began recording his third studio album, entitled ''Believe''. Kanye West and Drake are confirmed to be featured on the album. On February 22, 2012, Bieber announced via Twitter that the first single off ''Believe'' will be released in March 2012. The following week, Bieber appeared on ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' to announce that the first single will be called "Boyfriend" and was released on March 26, 2012. The song was co-written by Mike Posner.

On March 31, 2012, Bieber reportedly took an interest of making a duet with singer and actress, Demi Lovato.

Image

Justin Bieber has a higher score on the Klout online "influence" scale than Barack Obama or The Dalai Lama. According to Jan Hoffman of ''The New York Times'', part of Bieber's appeal stems from his YouTube channel. Long before he released his EP, ''My World'', in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views. Braun recognized the appeal. Prior to flying him to Atlanta, Braun wanted to "build him up more on YouTube first" and had Bieber record more home videos for the channel. "I said: 'Justin, sing like there’s no one in the room. But let's not use expensive cameras.' We'll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it's theirs", recalled Braun. Bieber continues to upload videos to the same channel and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly; his account was reported in November 2010 to have over 6 million followers. Since then he has been consistently gaining followers at an average of 24,000 per day. The accounts also serve marketing purposes; for example, Bieber's music video for "One Time" only began selling quickly after it was uploaded to YouTube. Usher comments that while he and Bieber were both signed at the same age, "I had the chance to ramp up my success, where this has happened to Bieber abruptly." As a result, Usher, Braun, Bieber's bodyguard Kenny, and other adults surrounding Bieber constantly coach him on handling fame and his public image. After signing Bieber, Usher appointed one of his former assistants, Ryan Good, to be Bieber's road manager and stylist. Good, once nicknamed Bieber's "swagger coach", created a "streetwise look" for the singer which consisted of baseball caps, hoodies, dog chains and flashy sneakers. Amy Kaufman of ''The Los Angeles Times'' comments, "Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in Stratford, Ontario, Bieber's manner of dress and speech ("Wassup man, how you doin'?" or "It's like, you know, whateva' ") suggest he's mimicking his favorite rappers."

Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as ''Tiger Beat'', and has been labeled as a "teen hearthrob". Bieber has released a collection of nail varnishes to raise awareness for charity. Wax statues of Bieber are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York, Amsterdam and London. His change of hairstyle in 2010, and the consequent alterations to Bieber products, led to it being called 'the most expensive musical haircut of all time; one company spent $100,000 to fix its dolls for the 2011 Christmas season.

Bieber has been criticized for looking and sounding younger than his age, his teen-pop music, image, and frequent media attention. He has been a frequent target of Internet bloggers and message board posters, notably by users of Internet message board 4chan and users of YouTube. Nick Collins of ''The Daily Telegraph'' speculated that "Bieber's character also appears to strike a particularly sour note with his Internet critics, with many remarks commenting on his youthful appearance, his teen-pop songs, his image as a heart-throb to young teenage girls and his manner of speech".

Personal views

Bieber is a Christian, and said he has a relationship with Jesus, talks to him and that "he's the reason I'm here".

Bieber's comments in a February 2011 profile in ''Rolling Stone'' sparked controversy. Asked about abstinence, Bieber responded, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." He said he does not "believe in abortion" and that it is "like killing a baby". He described sexual orientation as "everyone's own decision." Bieber has contributed to the It Gets Better Project, which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.

Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining United States citizenship, praising Canada as being "the best country in the world", citing its health care system as an example.

Discography

''My World 2.0'' (2010)

''Under the Mistletoe'' (2011)

''Believe'' (2012)

Tours

2009: Urban Behavior Tour

2010–2011: My World Tour

Filmography

rowspan="4" ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' Himself

Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
rowspan="2"	2009	''True Jackson, VP''	>rowspan="3"| Guest star
''My Date With...''
	Silent Library (MTV series)>Silent Library''
''School Gyrls (film)	School Gyrls''	Cameo
''Saturday Night Live''
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''	Jason McCann
''Hubworld''	Guest star
''The X Factor (UK)''	Performer
rowspan="9"	2011	|	Guest star
''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''	Jason McCann
''Khloé & Lamar''	|Episode:The Father In Law (uncredited) Himself playing the NBA Celebrity All Star Game
''Saturday Night Live''
''Justin Bieber: Never Say Never''	Himself
''Dancing With The Stars''	Guest star
''So Random!''	Himself
''Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade''	Guest star
''The X Factor (UK)''	Performer

Awards and nominations

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1994 births Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian Christians Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of German descent Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Child pop musicians Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Living people

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