Alfredo Aparicio/Staff Writer
The University’s Department of Theatre will offer various performances for students to enjoy this semester.
It begins with musical “Songs for a New World”, directed by Associate Professor of Theatre & Dance, Lesley Timlick, and continues with Euripides’ “Medea”, directed by Marilyn Skow, chair and artistic director of the Department of Theatre.
“Songs for a New World” — music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown — tells of a group of friends who get together and sing about their experiences. The songs, which Brown had written for other shows and venues, were brought together so that the piece is neither a musical play nor a revue.
“Every other year, we try to do a musical but they can get to be expensive so we have to be careful during our selection,” explained Skow. “‘Songs for a New World’ keeps costs down because it’s small and intimate; it is the first musical we do in the Black Box Theater.”
The production will also allow the student actors to fully engage with the music instead of having their attention divided between their lines and the music.
The proposed set will be a New York apartment where the back wall will be a façade that can take on the character of the song and change depending on the experience told through the music, accompanied by a piano bass and box drum.
“It’s going to be a different kind of experience than one would expect of musical theatre. The set, which is going to be neutral and allow for free movement, will be very intimate and personal as opposed to a huge production and audience,” said Skow.
Euripides’ “Medea”, which will be based on an adaptation by Skow herself, will close the Fall semester. “It’s something that I’ve been pushing to do for a while. I’ve done translations and children’s play but never an adaption of this scope. It’s proven to be a really interesting process,” shared Skow.
When approaching the adaptation, Skow has remained faithful to the original source material, not changing any details but making the play itself a more visual experience, as well as employing the use of various special effects in certain scenes, such as when Medea escapes after murdering her children with the help of the Gods and an incantation scene.
“I’m changing the structure from the Greek, which is mostly exposition and then one key action scene toward the end of the play; I want to take those descriptions and stage them, rather than having the audience listen to what happened,” Skow said.
Skow is also working on making Medea more accessible and empathic to the audience, despite her extremist actions. Her research has also helped her develop the character psychologically by looking at psychology, real court cases in which the mother has murdered her children, and the history and daily lives of Corinth, in which the play is set.
“I’m trying to help the audience understand what’s going on in her head,” explained Skow. I don’t want to excuse her actions, but Medea has very specific reasons; it’s based on her sense of utter betrayal by her husband, Jason, and her desire for him to have everything taken away much like she left everything for him and exiled herself to a foreign land after having killed her brother and betrayed her father for him.”
“Songs for a New World” premieres on Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. and Medea on Nov. 2 at 8 p.m.
–alfredo.aparicio@fiusm.com