Students, Teacher Find They Like ‘Tragedy’
March 1, 2017 at 8:29 p.m.
Students, Teacher Find They Like ‘Tragedy’
By David [email protected]
This year, it’s not only the Warsaw Community High School Drama Department’s spring play, but it’s also serving as a history lesson to the 29 cast and six crew members.
On March 10 and 11, the students will present a modern translation of the play about a royal family torn by war on the Performing Arts Center stage at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.
“I’ve never done a play like this. I’ve never done a tragedy, or even anything Shakespearean,” drama teacher and director Dana McAfee said in an interview Tuesday evening.
“As I was thinking about what show to do, and I realized this is a pretty good-sized cast for a non-musical, which is always good to do here because we have so many kids involved, which is great, I realized also what a huge part of theater history this play is. Everything that we know about theater started in ancient Greece. Everything we know about it started there.”
Sophocles was one of the first playwrights who started writing plays the way they’re known today, she said.
“We talk about this in my theater history class. We talk about Greek theater, we talk about this play and Sophocles, specifically, so it was also a really good learning tool to do. I feel like every play that I do with my students they learn something, but with this one they’re learning a little bit deeper. They’re learning what it was like to be a part of a play back then,” McAfee said.
The Greek chorus was left in the WCHS play, and it never leaves the stage. The chorus acts as narrators, supplements the story and also becomes citizens in the city.
“They really are an integral part, which was what the Greek chorus was intended to be. They started out strictly as narrators and the actors never said anything, they just acted out what the chorus said. This playwright allowed for actors to act and speak and the chorus to supplement what’s going on,” she explained.
The Greek chorus is a direct correlation with the chorus in a musical. McAfee said the only difference is that a musical chorus doesn’t speak together, it sings together.
“So it’s even a part of musical history if you think about it. It’s kind of how they sort of transferred from the speaking chorus into the singing chorus for the musical,” she said.
Taking all that into account, McAfee said she really wanted to do the play as something different.
“I wanted to do something educational the students could learn from as they were a part of it. I think the audience will connect with it because it really has a modern feel to it. It’s modern language, so they don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s a modern translation,” she said.
The WCHS production is being set in “anytime” in history because it involves a civil war. It looks at what war does to a community and a family.
“They even start out the play referring to very modern cities and places where tragedies have occurred. So it’s intended to be a message of what that does,” she said.
The story in “Antigone” is about two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, who die in a civil war but were fighting on opposite sides. Because Polynices was on the opposite side of what the king, Creon, believes the city wants, Polynices is considered a traitor. The law prohibits Polynices from receiving a proper burial and is thrown out into the field for the birds and animals to feast upon. Antigone believes Polynices deserves a burial as much as her other brother, Eteocles, did because he’s her brother.
“That’s where the whole play comes from. It comes from her desire. (Creon’s) law is that if anyone even touches the body, it’s death. The penalty is death. And she’s saying, ‘I don’t care about the penalty. I’m going to try to get him and bury him properly the way he deserves to be buried. He’s my brother,’” McAfee explained.
Because Creon is Antigone’s uncle, it’s complicated for him because he doesn’t want to kill her as punishment for violating the law, but it’s his law that Antigone broke.
Ismene, Antigone’s sister, doesn’t want to help Antigone because she doesn’t want to get caught. The two sisters fight about it at the beginning, but Ismene won’t go against the edict of the king.
In ancient Greece, their various gods were a huge part of daily life. The king, who felt appointed by the gods, would give a decree, but the priest might tell him the gods don’t agree with his decision.
“Antigone” asks if a person should do what’s right in their own heart and mind, or should they blindly follow the king.
“And, again, that can translate to just about anything politically, anything you’re feeling spiritually, politically, whatever. What do I do? Do I do what it feels like personally and what I feel is right, or do I go with it just because the law says I have to do this?” McAfee said of the questions raised by the play.
“These kids are doing an unbelieveable job with it, the drama of it. And very believably. They’re not overdoing it, they’re making it very real and believable, and the emotions are very real,” McAfee said of how her students are handling the play.
“It has been a really interesting process putting this together, and I am loving it. I knew I was going to like doing it. I just didn’t know with the cast that I have and how amazing they have been with the connection and the lines and the emotion and making it real. I just don’t want audiences to be afraid to come,” she said.
The play is not child friendly. McAfee recommended it is not suitable for elementary students and younger because the ending is pretty brutal.
“There is some blood and there is some death on stage. And it’s not the kind of thing that little kids probably should (see) ... I’m encouraging probably elementary down, no. Middle school and up would be fine. There is nothing else at all inappropriate in the story. There’s no language, there isn’t any inappropriate innuendos, there’s just all that death in the end which can be overwhelming,” McAfee said.
The play is 90 minutes long, has an intermission, but goes fast.
Having done this show, McAfee said she’d tackle another tragedy or Shakespearean play in the future.
She said, “I would be more likely to do a Shakespearean tragedy. Something that people would be a little more familiar with, maybe, but still have that element because, again, Shakespeare is such a huge part of theater history. How the kids have adapted to this and have enjoyed doing it, which I wasn’t sure about how they would feel doing it, but they’re loving doing it. I think they would really get into something like that in the future, too. Maybe not in the next year or two, but I’m not afraid of doing it again at all.”
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This year, it’s not only the Warsaw Community High School Drama Department’s spring play, but it’s also serving as a history lesson to the 29 cast and six crew members.
On March 10 and 11, the students will present a modern translation of the play about a royal family torn by war on the Performing Arts Center stage at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.
“I’ve never done a play like this. I’ve never done a tragedy, or even anything Shakespearean,” drama teacher and director Dana McAfee said in an interview Tuesday evening.
“As I was thinking about what show to do, and I realized this is a pretty good-sized cast for a non-musical, which is always good to do here because we have so many kids involved, which is great, I realized also what a huge part of theater history this play is. Everything that we know about theater started in ancient Greece. Everything we know about it started there.”
Sophocles was one of the first playwrights who started writing plays the way they’re known today, she said.
“We talk about this in my theater history class. We talk about Greek theater, we talk about this play and Sophocles, specifically, so it was also a really good learning tool to do. I feel like every play that I do with my students they learn something, but with this one they’re learning a little bit deeper. They’re learning what it was like to be a part of a play back then,” McAfee said.
The Greek chorus was left in the WCHS play, and it never leaves the stage. The chorus acts as narrators, supplements the story and also becomes citizens in the city.
“They really are an integral part, which was what the Greek chorus was intended to be. They started out strictly as narrators and the actors never said anything, they just acted out what the chorus said. This playwright allowed for actors to act and speak and the chorus to supplement what’s going on,” she explained.
The Greek chorus is a direct correlation with the chorus in a musical. McAfee said the only difference is that a musical chorus doesn’t speak together, it sings together.
“So it’s even a part of musical history if you think about it. It’s kind of how they sort of transferred from the speaking chorus into the singing chorus for the musical,” she said.
Taking all that into account, McAfee said she really wanted to do the play as something different.
“I wanted to do something educational the students could learn from as they were a part of it. I think the audience will connect with it because it really has a modern feel to it. It’s modern language, so they don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s a modern translation,” she said.
The WCHS production is being set in “anytime” in history because it involves a civil war. It looks at what war does to a community and a family.
“They even start out the play referring to very modern cities and places where tragedies have occurred. So it’s intended to be a message of what that does,” she said.
The story in “Antigone” is about two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, who die in a civil war but were fighting on opposite sides. Because Polynices was on the opposite side of what the king, Creon, believes the city wants, Polynices is considered a traitor. The law prohibits Polynices from receiving a proper burial and is thrown out into the field for the birds and animals to feast upon. Antigone believes Polynices deserves a burial as much as her other brother, Eteocles, did because he’s her brother.
“That’s where the whole play comes from. It comes from her desire. (Creon’s) law is that if anyone even touches the body, it’s death. The penalty is death. And she’s saying, ‘I don’t care about the penalty. I’m going to try to get him and bury him properly the way he deserves to be buried. He’s my brother,’” McAfee explained.
Because Creon is Antigone’s uncle, it’s complicated for him because he doesn’t want to kill her as punishment for violating the law, but it’s his law that Antigone broke.
Ismene, Antigone’s sister, doesn’t want to help Antigone because she doesn’t want to get caught. The two sisters fight about it at the beginning, but Ismene won’t go against the edict of the king.
In ancient Greece, their various gods were a huge part of daily life. The king, who felt appointed by the gods, would give a decree, but the priest might tell him the gods don’t agree with his decision.
“Antigone” asks if a person should do what’s right in their own heart and mind, or should they blindly follow the king.
“And, again, that can translate to just about anything politically, anything you’re feeling spiritually, politically, whatever. What do I do? Do I do what it feels like personally and what I feel is right, or do I go with it just because the law says I have to do this?” McAfee said of the questions raised by the play.
“These kids are doing an unbelieveable job with it, the drama of it. And very believably. They’re not overdoing it, they’re making it very real and believable, and the emotions are very real,” McAfee said of how her students are handling the play.
“It has been a really interesting process putting this together, and I am loving it. I knew I was going to like doing it. I just didn’t know with the cast that I have and how amazing they have been with the connection and the lines and the emotion and making it real. I just don’t want audiences to be afraid to come,” she said.
The play is not child friendly. McAfee recommended it is not suitable for elementary students and younger because the ending is pretty brutal.
“There is some blood and there is some death on stage. And it’s not the kind of thing that little kids probably should (see) ... I’m encouraging probably elementary down, no. Middle school and up would be fine. There is nothing else at all inappropriate in the story. There’s no language, there isn’t any inappropriate innuendos, there’s just all that death in the end which can be overwhelming,” McAfee said.
The play is 90 minutes long, has an intermission, but goes fast.
Having done this show, McAfee said she’d tackle another tragedy or Shakespearean play in the future.
She said, “I would be more likely to do a Shakespearean tragedy. Something that people would be a little more familiar with, maybe, but still have that element because, again, Shakespeare is such a huge part of theater history. How the kids have adapted to this and have enjoyed doing it, which I wasn’t sure about how they would feel doing it, but they’re loving doing it. I think they would really get into something like that in the future, too. Maybe not in the next year or two, but I’m not afraid of doing it again at all.”
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