Students in Art 11/12: Acting, Directing and Playwriting read an article by Lauren Gunderson entitled “God is in the Stage Directions.” In the article she states “that the climax of a play ramps up to a character-revealing choice followed by a character-defining action. That action is often contained in a stage direction.” Students were then given the task of brainstorming as many stage directions as possible and then carefully choosing the ones that felt the most compelling. They were then tasked with writing a short play or scene with stage directions as the guide. Below are a few examples of the work:

Zoe K

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Navah G

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Oliver E

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Project by: Oliver Eig (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Joan Jubett
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Daniel Li

Description:

I used to be  obsessed with Greek mythology and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. Last summer, I took a philosophy class and we read some of Plato’s dialogues. I found myself surprised by how clear and engaging the writing felt, even through translation and a large cultural barrier. This experience rekindled my interest in ancient Greek culture. Also, being interested in theatre and acting, reading, analyzing, and performing Antigone by Sophocles with Joan felt like a natural next step to continue exploring these interests. I hope to develop my acting skills by performing a monologue, and I also hope to enjoy reading and thinking about the story.

Monologue:

This monologue is by Teresias, an old, blind seer. He is talking to Creon, the ruler of Thebes and uncle to Antigone. At this point in the play, Creon has left Antigone’s brother, Polynices, to rot in the sun and Antigone herself exiled in a cave in the wilderness.  Creon was rude to Teresias right before this monologue, so Teresias shoots an arrow of prophecy into Creon, which subsequently leads to Creon changing his ways–though, this change may have come too late…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qUV3V3fs5ntXVVEyD34gbP6rONzpNoOw/view?usp=sharing

Final Reflection on Learning:

During this honors project I have analyzed, enjoyed, and performed Antigone. I have learned a lot about myself as a thinker and performer, most prominently my ability to do so much and to go so deep into a character with only a tiny amount of time. I’ve definitely improved my ability to interpret and read higher text as well. From the literary side of things, I’ve demonstrated to myself how I can find motifs running throughout a text, along with how I can develop a coherent understanding of a character while also holding certain action-value contradictions and missing pieces from the text in mind. I believe that this demonstration was not the result of skills I’ve learned/developed during or before this project, but was the process of learning itself.

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

1/21/21: In our first meeting, Joan and I talked about the reading and stuff related to it. We talked about the myth of Oedipus and all the drama with Thebes in order to give context to the play, and we solved the insane puzzle of trying to map out the family tree. We went over the reading and made sure we were on the same page with the plot, noticing that, which Joan told me is typical when reading higher text, the plot action isn’t actually that complicated, but how they say it and the cultural references/context can make it difficult to read; she gave the tip that when reading stuff like this, it is important to focus on the visuals the reading gives you, especially as an actor! We had fun puzzling over stuff like that, trying to figure out what each character meant by each line. Here are some examples of the above; the next logs will be more of the same. We talked about Antigone and her relationship to Ismene, along with their differences in character (basically opposites). We also raised the question of whether or not Antigone supported Argives when her brother tried to take over Thebes with them, being in Thebes herself with her other brother defending it; maybe we will find later on. We discussed the cultural significance of funerals in Ancient Greek culture, and discovered the meaning of Antigone doing the bare minimum to illicitly honor her dead brother in funeral (and why that was the case), throwing some “thirsty” and “light” dust over her. Joan told me that Oscar Isaac did a reading of Antigone over zoom, with him playing Creon(Theban ruler and uncle/great uncle to Oedipus’s kids), in something called Theatre of War. We/I may possibly look at that in the future. This is just the tip of the iceberg of our conversation and I have a feeling that will be the case for future logs, but for now, ten more pages!

1/28/21: This meeting we started off by pinpointing why the guard is such a comedic character- he talks to Creon, the country’s ruler, as if he cares about him, meeting him with witty wordplay. Joan mentioned that my translation (Wyckoff) formats the lines so that the syllables line up in a Shakespearian way (though there are multiple), which creates a cool effect when read aloud…As we went over the reading, Creon’s paranoia and insecurity as a ruler and man became increasingly clear. One example was when he projected his fears (not for the last time) onto the mysterious honoring of Polyneices’ grave, suspecting disgruntled citizens of bribing the guards to do the deed with the effect of undermining Creon’s authority. The tension between the values of family and state through Creon and Antigone was also apparent in their dialogue. It is interesting that Creon values the state over his own family in light of his family issues-his brother in law is also his nephew, and that Creon and Antigone both believe that they are pleasing the Gods with their actions. We will keep on picking up on how these themes manifest in the text as we read further. We saw a cool connection to modern ideas of civil disobedience such as that of Thoreau and the Civil Rights Movement when Antigone said that citizens or people around (unclear, she left it at “all these”) would say that they supported her act of honoring her brothers’ grave if they weren’t so afraid of Creon (though he did threaten to stone those who bury or mourn him). We noticed Ismene’s character change when she was caught on suspicion of association because she was visibly fretting about her sister’s fate, as she unnecessarily self-sacrificed, taking Antigone’s Romanticism a bit too far, an overcompensation from the previously icily rational Ismene. We were curious about whether or not she actually changed before her life was threatened, or if in the face of death the change was just forced out of her. It was clear that Ismene loved her sister, but couldn’t back that up with action at the crucial moment, as Antigone coolly pointed out. Joan told me about the production Antigone in Ferguson, which is a modern adaptation of Antigone inspired by Michael Brown’s murder, as the playwright saw a parallel in the unjust (supporting Antigone’s point of view, in her brother’s case) treatment of Polyneices’ and Browns’ corpses. We might explore that some more if time allows. Time to close with a sick line by Antigone to Creon: “And if you think my acts are foolishness \n the foolishness may be in a fool’s eye,” (lines 469-70, Sophocles, Wyckoff)

2/4/21

This third week we continued reflecting on the plot, and marked out a monologue I like. We started in the midst of the action we left off with before including Ismene, Antigone, and Creon. We saw how Ismene felt hurt and hopeless, and how Antigone responded with some dark humor at the expense of Ismene, followed by an acknowledgment of her care for Ismene. In reference to that, Joan brought up how even tragedies can have their comedic moments. Looking back on our meeting, this is also an important moment because it was on this page that Ismene expresses her loyalty to Antigone, which gives weight to the prediction I made at the end of our meeting that Ismene will find Antigone’s dead body and perform the funeral rite so that Antigone would get to be reunited with Polyneices in the afterlife. We continued solving some puzzles of phrasing, such as this line from Creon: “one of these girls has shown her lack of sense just now. The other had it from her birth.” We were confused about whether he was talking about Antigone as the former and Ismene as the latter, or the reverse. We settled upon the latter interpretation, as Antigone had a lack of sense, not that she had sense (which was our original reading). We continued with analyzing the story, which I will try to not get into too much; here is the brief synopsis. We saw Creon at his best (as an unappealing character), as he argued with his son in an extremely intense scene about Antigone and what to do with her (Antigone is betrothed to Haemon, Creon’s son). Creon showed how narrow-minded, paranoid, sexist, valuing absolute obedience (to him) and frankly childish he truly was through this dialogue. It was especially interesting since Haemon’s primordial value of family loyalty conflict with Creon’s value of state obedience through their argument (ironically). Joan and I noticed a bunch of mic-drop lines from Haemon in this scene, and a bunch of jaw-dropping “wow that’s really what your thinking right now” lines from Creon-we noticed that these lines tend to come up in heated moments, as seen in the tense scenes with Antigone and the one with the Messenger. We also saw the comedic potential of the chorus leader through his apparent neutrality and embodiment of the audience’s point of view-this was especially apparent in his interaction with Creon. Again, we saw some alliterations in the strophes and antistrophes, appreciating their cadence. I saw a connection to Plato’s Socrates through Haemon and Creon’s argument when Haemon talked about wisdom and learning from others. A very important part happened at the end of the reading-Creon explained his decision for how to execute Antigone, being taking her to a very isolated area into a cave and leaving her there with a tiny bit of food to starve. Here we saw Creon’s concern for the city through his decision to take her far away from the city who wants Antigone to live), and how he wants to clear the city from guilt by giving her food. This was the point in which I made the prediction mentioned earlier. Again, there is so much more we talked about-its so hard to choose what to say! The monologue I mentioned earlier that I chose from this reading was from the dialogue between Haemon and Creon, with the monologue being Haemon’s. I liked it because I recognized the emotive power and the significance to the plot it has-I also liked the metaphors and visuals I got from it, along with the larger message of the importance of listening to others.  I like this monologue the most out of the ones I have seen so far, so it is definitely a contender to be the monologue I end up performing. These first three weeks have been a blast with Joan, the reading and discussions have been wonderful, and it has been great to learn more about ancient theatre and everything else I have through this project so far.

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

2/11/21

This meeting we started off by looking at the songs at the beginning of the reading. Here, we tried to piece together what the initial chorus strophe and antistrophe were trying to say in reference to the plot through their flowery language, seeing Haemon as a possibility, as his motivation for standing up for Antigone against Creon may also have to do with his love for her and not just following the gods and doing the right thing. This felt complicated and contradictory, as Antigone never really seemed that in love with Haemon and Haemon alluded to her replaceability in previous lines, but we also saw earlier when he refused to see her die in front of him as threatened by Creon that he seems to care for Antigone.  This, along with Creon’s uncharacteristic concern for guilt about exiling and basically killing Antigone, were examples for how multidimensional these characters are-they have mixed feelings and struggle with living up to their values. Joan brought up how in most any play where characters struggle with large themes there will be a large amount of complexity necessary in those characters. We are excited to go back once we finish the play and see if any of the mysterious parts of the songs are filled. We talked about catharsis, as it derives from a Greek term meaning to cleanse, purge, release, in terms of Antigone’s singing along with the chorus. Generally, catharsis releases emotions of pity and fear, which Joan and I saw directly reflected in Antigone’s singing about dying friendless, young, etc. It felt very ritualistic and repetitive, notable as it emphasizes the emotions and action and significance to the Ancient thousand-person audience. This was also an interesting moment as we saw the Chorus comparing Antigone to a variety of mythical figures who found themselves in similar situations, which Joan and I saw as them trying to rationalize and make sense of Antigone’s doomed fate. We also saw a bit of foreshadowing in the line where Antigone said that she would meet her punishment if she offended the gods in disobeying Creon by honoring her brother’s grave, but that she wishes the same punishment she would face-and nothing more-upon those who offended the gods instead of her. To me this felt like foreshadowing, a curse almost as Joan pointed out, some sort of divine punishment for Creon in the future. When Teiresias, the prophet/seer, came to talk to Creon, we saw parallels to when Creon talked to his son. Teiresias, being blind, brought a “boy servant” to guide him to Creon, and even was informed by him about the failing of rites and sacrifices (probably the gods’ vengeance!)-this seems like a simple example where a wise person is not so stubborn as to resist learning from younger people, unlike how Creon was with his son. We talked about this monologue and its poetic language, along with the powerful and significant line “Why has this sickness struck against the state?\nThrough your decision.       “(line 1015).  Joan informed me that the question mark ending the rhythmic line might indicate a pause, and that the space after the line, along with the cadence, might also indicate an additional pause there as well, marking out this line as extremely important, which we both thought it was as it is a clear message to Creon about his misjudgment from an esteemed seer who even helped guide Creon to rule Thebes in the past to great success. From here, Teiresias has another monologue which we didn’t have time to get to-both of his monologues are possibilities for the performance at his point, along with Haemon’s. Creon didn’t let the seer’s words enter into his reality, and just said he was corrupt and money hungry (arguably qualities of his own which he’s projecting) and Teiresias replied with some mic drop lines, culminating with the awesome monologue we will go over next week having finished the play.

2/18/21

And we are done with the reading. Here is, again, a rough recap of what we talked about. Teiresias’s monologue was powerful, as he (SPOILER!!!!!!) poetically prophesized Creon’s son’s death and his own doom, describing the divine wrath that awaits him. There will be many more spoilers from here on out. Here is a great line from the monologue: “For you’ve confused the upper and lower worlds.” This was so thematic for me, as I noticed this idea popping up throughout the play with Creon. Creon has always seemed to be nearsighted and worldly in character(and judgments), while Antigone for example seems to bear the larger picture of the gods and the afterlife in mind. This analysis connects to something we saw on the last few pages-moralizing. Joan and I talked for a bit about this, along with the importance of respecting dead bodies and our modern disconnection from that. We talked about how older plays, and media for that matter, seem to have more instructive aims as artistic works, something that is not very common for modern society, generally speaking. Teiresias’s monologue was so powerful that it was perhaps he who spurred Creon’s rapid, unfortunately late, character shift, as he took Teiresias’s words to heart despite his apparent suspicions of him being bribed. Creon turned into a desperate character who listened to the Chorus Leader to yield and do what is wise, though it was too late, as the messenger tells the tale of what happened.  There is no reason for me to get into the details, but suffice to say, it was extremely dramatic, tragic, and reminded me a lot of the ending of Romeo and Juliet. Let me just say that my doubts about Haemon’s love for Antigone have vanished. Further tragedy struck, some more mic-drop/moralizing lines and awkward-repetitive-lines-intended-for-large-ancient-audience lines occurred, and we finished the play. I really enjoyed it. Also, near the end, Creon began to sing, just like Antigone did in her last appearance. Our theory for this being a ritualistic vehicle for passionate, emphatic, meaningful, emotional theatre seems to stand. We connected this to something from Joan’s theatre class, which I take. This connection was the observation that vowels are usually more conducive to feelings, and consonants thoughts; singing uses more vowels than consonants, so it tends to communicate feelings better (this also kind of connects to a tweet I saw today which said something like you can only describe words with other words). This singing from Creon also coincided with the peak of the tragedy, which the play ended on. Looking at the ending once more, it seems my prediction that Ismene would return was wrong.  Oh well. For the next meeting my job is to look at monologue prospects and choose. Joan also told me about this really cool production of The Trojan Women by Euripedes, directed by Andrei Serban for La Mama Experimental Theatre Club. It uses a made-up language which combines Greek, Nahuatl, Latin, and Navajo, which Joan pointed out connects to our ideas about language, emotions and singing in the context of Greek theatre and expressing the human condition. I might check it out over the weekend.

2/25/21

This week I came in with one of Teresias’ monologues as my choice. We talked about my reasoning for the choice, and about thinking on how I want to portray a mythical blind seer(ironic) from Ancient Greece. I love the language of this monologue along with its vivid imagery, and I also love how dynamic Teiresias’ relationship to the person he is speaking to (Creon) is throughout the monologue, something I didn’t quite get from the others. We also talked about how I’m gonna have to balance learning this monologue along with the one for drama class. We decided I would focus more heavily on the latter for the moment as the Antigone monologue is due later.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

3/4/21

This week we worked on the monologue again. I rehearsed the bit at the beginning that I had memorized, and Joan really helped guide me there as we dug into the intentions of each line by finding a verb that represents what Teiresias is doing to Creon by saying this or that to him. This was really interesting, and we gonna continue to try doing that with the rest of the monologue as well. It also might help with memorization since it links each line to an intention. The language is difficult which makes it difficult to estimate the beginning of most lines, but the cadence of five groups of two syllables for each line sort of helps with that, which Joan brought up. Joan and I also saw that certain lines broke that pattern, which means that those lines are especially distinct from the rest-perhaps they are to be spoken slower, with a certain strong emotion, etc. It was a good rehearsal and from here I’m gonna keep on chugging along with my memorization while keeping my lines’ intentions in mind.

3/11/21

This week I came in with more of the monologue memorized and with my verbs/intentions chosen. We found that when I stopped self-editing and just tried things out and committed to them, it ended up working as I was able to get into the flow of the text and immerse myself in the scene. I have a sticking point with the ‘you settled a living person without honor in a tomb’ line, as I kept on skipping it, so that will be something I give extra attention to when memorizing. We toyed around with using a walking stick as a prop, which was interesting. I think for the recording at home I’m gonna mime it, but we’ll see. We drilled my lines really heavily, working a lot on understanding and conveying my intention with each line – I experimented a lot. We talked about some things about acting in general, like how acting and particularly rehearsing is an iterative, organic process instead of a perfectionistic-get it right once and move on process. I feel like I really hit a tipping point in my mental/emotional investment in the monologue during this rehearsal. Till next week!

3/18/21

This week we ran my monologue a couple times. I was completely memorized! We worked on embodying the character’s wise, blind old man shtick. I will be recording the monologue over break. We also talked about how I am basically at the point where I can stop thinking about the lines and sort of “re-see” the lines, which can open up new possibilities and make my performance more powerful and immersive since my mind has more energy which isn’t being zapped away for preparing what I am going to say next. I’ve had such a great time with Joan on this honors project, and I am so excited to share this monologue with you.