A Morning of Greek Theatre

This is my Historical Narrative from my Theatre History class this semester. I figured I'd continue what I started way back when and post some of my written work.

The University of Utah’s 2010-2011 theatrical season commenced with a musical production of Alcestis, which was written by Euripides in 438 BC. Hugh Hanson directed this production using William Arrowsmith’s fairly modern translation of the original Greek text. Kyle Becker created a unique and fascinating set design, which neatly included a little section for the pianist who played the music composed by Cathy Neff, the musical director. Although the mold of traditional Greek theatre was broken with the transformation of this ancient Greek piece into a musical, Brenda Van der Wiel chose a costume design that was not so far from the original costuming. For the first time in several years of the annual Greek show, masks were used. These half masks and the long robes that accompanied them created a magnificent atmosphere of a time long past.
This morning show at Red Butte Garden was preceded by a discussion with James Svendsen, the producer and dramaturg for the production. The surprisingly large quantity of brave souls who wanted this extra insight into the world of the play they were about to see dragged themselves out of bed early enough to make the 8:30 start time. By the scheduled start time of nine, the lawn in front of the stage was filled with blankets, chairs, and people who were chatting animatedly while they awaited the start of the show. As the first characters appeared on the stage, a hush gradually fell over the audience. The repetitive singing of Apollo, played by Eric McGraw, held people entranced until Kory Kyker ambled onto the stage as death with his amusing mask and gained attention and appreciative laughter. The beginning of the play held the audience as they dove into the journey of discovering what was going on in the story enfolding before them, but as the play progressed, the attention of the audience was lost and never fully regained.
The hot sun beamed down on the audience throughout the performance, which contrary to the normal theatrical lighting, lit the audience rather than the stage. This made truly appreciating the costuming, set design, and Rebecca Crowley’s brilliant choreography for the production an onerous task since it was difficult to see all of these elements. People in the crowd of watchers looked away from the stage to take off jackets or roll up pants. Several of the more inventive audience members put their programs on their heads or shoulders to block the sun. A few people wandered around for a while and many of them fidgeted and changed position frequently. Several of them took the outdoor atmosphere to be one that was much looser than that of an indoor production and texted or otherwise played around with their phones throughout the play.
With the tragic scenes of sorrow towards the end of the piece, several eyes glittered with tears to reveal who had been drawn into the play in spite of the distractions of the world around the viewers. At the end of the curtain call, those who had filled the grass before the stage gathered their belongings and rushed out sooner than those who knew the actors could wander up to the side of the stage to congratulate their friends and comment on various aspects of the play. The mingling that followed at this point had a more jovial air as the actors basked in the completion of another performance and the theatre folk, family, and friends chatted in the bright sunshine and beautiful atmosphere of Red Butte before leaving to commence the next activities in their busy lives.