Performing a Greek tragedy for the first time, theatre students will be performing The Bacchae Nov. 15-18, centered around Dionysys, the god of wine, who challenges King Pentheus of Thebes because King Pentheus refuses to worship Dionysus.
Although producing a play in ten weeks time is normal for student actors and designers, the novelty of The Bacchae has led cast members to take new approaches to how they prepare for performances.
Senior theatre major Anna Spivey The Bacchae sound designer and chorus member describes the play as stepping into unknown territory.
“I had the hardest time memorizing my lines,” Spivey admitted. “It’s easy to remember lines when they have direct meaning, but in this play they are poetic without rhyme, which makes the process difficult.”
According to Spivey, Greek tragedies follow a single form and contain a unique poetic language, similar to Shakespearean plays, but without rhyme or meter.
Generally, the rhyme and meter aid in the memorization process for actors, but The Bacchae script provides no such help.
Despite the script’s difficulty, Spivey reassured this translation of the play should be easy for the audience to understand.
One common element of Greek tragedies is the chorus.
In The Bacchae, the chorus is a group of 11 women that follow Dionysus.
This group of women acts as a collective unit and must speak in unison.
For the first time, student actors, including Spivey, had to hold meetings to develop their characters.
“We have never had to collectively meet as a group to figure out character work,” Spivey said. “We had to figure out collectively as a group why we were saying this particular line, and what was the impact of the line on the other characters.
The stage design for the play also incorporates features unique to Greek tragedies.
Covered in shrubs, vines and trees, and varying levels of green landscape for actors to transverse, the stage is reminiscent of a lush forest, with the middle of the stage seemingly paved in stone.
A circular portion of the stone center is raised to become the thymele, a common set piece in Greek tragedies.
“The thymele acts as an altar to the gods where worship takes place,” Spivey said. “Anytime we [the chorus] are around the thymele, we’re calling to the gods.”
Behind the thymele lies a gate that consists of two enormous wooden doors. The gate is a focal point on the stage and reaches nearly twenty feet in height. On either side of the doors are what appear to be stone walls and trees, but are actually painted drapes. In addition to an exotic set, audiences can expect some new special effects in the show.
“The script calls for a severed head,” Spivey said, “The makeup designers created a cast of the actor’s head using silicon and made it look exactly like him. It’s really, really awesome.”
Spivey said although the play is violent, it is Greek tradition to have most of the violence take place off stage. However, the fight sequences on stage will entertain the audience.
Senior theatre major Kristi Mills designed the majority of the props in the show, including the weapons for the fight scenes. Mills also acts as the King’s mother, Agave.
She said she has spent much of the past five weeks designing spears for the actors in the play.
“I carved 7-foot spears out of wood for the guards,” Mills said. “Right now I’m doing last-minute touches on them.”
For Mills, the biggest challenge for designing the props was doing the proper historical research.
“We did Bandersnatch last year, and the props were designed for a made up world,” Mills said. “This world is purely Greek, so we had to do a lot more research to make our props historically accurate.”
Historical accuracy was also important in the costume design.
Spivey said the play is inspired by Greek tradition and most of the costumes are Greek, but there are elements of different civilizations in each of the costumes, such as barbarians and Romans.
Not only have the department and drama students had to adjust to their first Greek tragedy, but The Bacchae is also the first play directed by new associate theatre professor John Dement.
In response to his directing style, actors like Spivey and Mills said they were encouraged to take a more independent approach to their roles than in the past.
“Some directors may hold your hand more through the process, but we had to practice starting out the process on our own,” Spivey said. “It was more like professional theatre in that way.”
For all the challenges the show has presented, Spivey said the cast and crew feel that the show has come together well.
“The whole time there’ve been nerves about the show,” said Spivey, “but I think collectively we’ve worked really well on this project.”
Spivey and Mills expressed excitement for the play’s opening this Thursday.
Mills said the play will be bittersweet.
“This is my last show here, so I’m nostalgic and sad,” she said. “This is my last goodbye.”