媒体/美狄亚:上演现代希腊悲剧

彩排正在进行中 媒体/美狄亚改编自欧里庇得斯的希腊悲剧 美狄亚从黑人的角度重新展望21世纪.

15名学生演员, this is not only a chance to perform in the premiere of a play by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright James Ijames—of 脂肪含 fame—it’s also an opportunity to interact with peers from a different educational setting. Half of the students in the production are from Bryn Mawr and 哈弗福德学院s and half are from Community College of Philadelphia (CCP).

这出戏的舞台, 定于4月中旬开业, 是希腊戏剧/黑人生活的一部分, 两个机构之间为期一年的大规模合作, 由戏剧系和古典学系赞助 在布林茅尔. As Classics Professor Catherine Conybeare, who is principal investigator for the 美国学术学会理事会资助 这就是项目的资金来源, 解释了, a key goal of Greek Drama/Black Lives is to strengthen the connections between CCP and Bryn Mawr and also to shine a light on what we can learn today from the classics, 用戏剧作为发现的领域.

这出戏是由推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜的戏剧项目制作的, 由联合pi和艺术主席Catharine Slusar领导, 是谁让詹姆斯作为剧作家加入这个项目的. “剧院, 分享观点的能力, 是作为人类的核心吗,Slusar说. “This project uses theater to draw a line from the classics to the present, 一路上挑战着我们.”

除了这部剧，希腊戏剧/黑人生活项目还包括一部 剧本创作类这是一个与E.M. 在南费城的斯坦顿学校，进行了理论和经验的结合 研究生研讨会.

在更换 美狄亚 在现代环境下， Ijames, 维拉诺瓦大学戏剧系副教授, 从流行文化中寻找灵感, imagining how the implosion of a celebrity couple might affect their children, 在这个过程中，种族和家庭冲突的问题也随之出现.

合唱团, 希腊悲剧的支柱, 仍然起着主导作用, 但这一次，他们成了社交媒体谣言工厂的一部分. For the character of 美狄亚, Ijames was inspired by Norma Desmond, the protagonist of 日落大道和来自 《推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜》.

这部改编作品在学生演员中引起了深刻的共鸣. “I was not surprised that it was brilliant and insightful and imaginative,奎因·伊莱说, 中国共产党戏剧课程协调员, 谁认识詹姆斯十多年了. “And I wasn’t surprised that James was able to find strategies organic to the original text that will really resonate with contemporary audiences because those elements are there in 美狄亚.”

无论是在古希腊还是在现代美国，某些主题都经久不衰. “When you're talking about the impact of revenge and betrayal and dislocation on a family,伊莱说, “who among us can’t easily imagine the impact that that would have on our own family. And then you add the element of social media and that kind of cultural scrutiny, 你得到了一些持续产生共鸣的东西.”

中共戏剧系学生迈克尔·麦克劳克林(Michael McLaughlin)对此表示赞同. “I responded immediately with such excitement because he has th真的是 interesting way of writing very simple language that says so much. 很高兴能看到和我来自同一个领域的人, 尤其是从黑人的角度来看, 并且能够真正懂得如何在没有很多词语的情况下说很多话.”

对Regan Riehl来说， 主修英语，辅修戏剧; 与 媒体/美狄亚 with the rest of the cast has been a fascinating process of investigation. “你读得越多, 有更多的东西可以从中抽出来看,Riehl说, 谁玩青光眼?, 伊阿宋为了她抛弃美狄亚的公主. “Part of our work is going back to the original text and finding the parallels there, but a lot of it is looking at the work where it is and trying to reimagine these characters who we have some understanding of but who are existing in this new way.”

Internationally known director Raelle Myrick-Hodges, who founded Philadelphia’s 阿祖卡剧团, 要开始排练了吗, which alternate between CCP’s Black Box 剧院 and BMC’s Goodhart 剧院. “每次一群人开始研究一个全新的东西, 它是神奇的,她说。, adding that what makes this especially magical is the collaboration between the two institutions.

“To watch these students from each institution be challenged by each other, 互相庆祝, 真的是, 非常激动人心,她说。. “And what they're bringing to the table is a new understanding of an author’s work, 因为你有15个人，他们都有不同的想法.”

首席美术师阿基姆·戴维斯, a Barrymore- and Haas Award-winning actor who has taught at both CCP and BMC and plays the part of Jason, 是否同样因合作而振奋. “I think the students recognize that they have had very different college experiences to this point, and so the process is a lot of them learning that their lives may be very different and also not that different and being able to appreciate both.”

回到一月份, 在排练开始之前, Slusar worked with the cast for two weeks teaching a series of acting techniques, giving everyone a similar set of tools and fostering an early sense of community. “最好的艺术来自合作. We do not create in a vacuum but through rigorous and intentional practice. We worked to lay a foundation of shared technique on which the play could be built,Slusar说.

The actors were also able to sit down to a table read with Ijames (via Zoom, 因为他当时在纽约准备百老汇的首演 脂肪含). “To have the blessing of being in the room with him and being able to ask what he was thinking about in terms of a certain character was so cool,24岁的Bethany Wisdom说, 谁扮演喀耳刻, 美狄亚的姑姑. “James is very down-to-earth and he gave us a lot of encouragement and was just excited to see us run with it and create our own bird.”

离首演还有将近六周的时间， 媒体/美狄亚 开始成形了吗. “我们不再只是谈论和思考了,麦克劳克林说, 谁扮演合唱队队长的角色. “我们起身行动，做出决定，试图解决问题. It's my favorite part of any process because you find out things about yourself that you never knew.”

在最近的一个晚上, CCP’s black box was filled with activity as the cast ran through their scenes—trying out different approaches, 找出他们应该在舞台上的位置, taking in Raelle’s notes to speak louder or bring more urgency to the dialogue.

The coming weeks will add polish and depth and resolve dramatic conundrums, 但已经, 伊莱说, “If you only evaluate this in terms of how it’s bringing students together in a creative enterprise, 它已经非常成功了.”

观察过程, 他说, you start to realize how integral dialogue and interaction are to basic human understanding. “Once you get two groups talking about something that they each care about, it’s amazing how they find the common ground and the consensus that’s missing in so many other parts of our lives. 观看是一种乐趣.”