Week 4 is done! Yesterday, we presented our exploded version of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. An exploded version of a play is a production in which relevant outside texts or historical information is inserted into the script in order to make a more comprehensive, educational show. It's a little bit like writing a research paper in show form. In our case, we inserted a short scene from Iphigenia in Aulis, another Greek tragedy that ties in with the Agamemnon story. We also added short, documentary style blurbs about various elements of Greek society. We explained the mythological time line and backstory to the play as well as addressing how the play would have been performed in ancient Athens. We even began the show with the same rituals and speeches that would have proceeded the play at its premiere in 458 BC.
Overall, the experience was very positive. It was a lot of hard work over the past three weeks, and there were points when rehearsal was a drag and the challenge of playing 4 parts (chorus, Calchas the Seer, Herald, Cassandra) was almost too much to handle. At the end, though, our audience of our professors really loved it. They said that they were impressed with our level of focus (next door to our classroom performance space, people were loudly rehearsing Sondheim songs) and commitment to the work. Our movement teacher, Vanessa Mildenberg, congratulated Bridgette and me on the way we physically echoed each other in our dual interpretations of Cassandra.
It feels good to be done with our first time mark and our first show. Monday, we begin rehearsing The Knight of the Burning Pestle. I know NOTHING about it except that it was written approximately when Shakespeare was writing plays. Our scene study professor, Vivian Munn, will be our director on this next project. He has been a great teacher, and I am very excited to begin.
Overall, the experience was very positive. It was a lot of hard work over the past three weeks, and there were points when rehearsal was a drag and the challenge of playing 4 parts (chorus, Calchas the Seer, Herald, Cassandra) was almost too much to handle. At the end, though, our audience of our professors really loved it. They said that they were impressed with our level of focus (next door to our classroom performance space, people were loudly rehearsing Sondheim songs) and commitment to the work. Our movement teacher, Vanessa Mildenberg, congratulated Bridgette and me on the way we physically echoed each other in our dual interpretations of Cassandra.
It feels good to be done with our first time mark and our first show. Monday, we begin rehearsing The Knight of the Burning Pestle. I know NOTHING about it except that it was written approximately when Shakespeare was writing plays. Our scene study professor, Vivian Munn, will be our director on this next project. He has been a great teacher, and I am very excited to begin.