Elise Stone plays the title role in "Medea" at
Jean Cocteau Repertory, directed by Eve
Adamson. (Photo: Jonathan Slaff)

Hello again!

So I was researching other productions of "Medea" and I came across this review for a production at the Bouwerie Lane Theatre. The director, Eve Adamson, had directed the Anouilh version (which I am enarmoured with) and, when approaching the Euripides version, found it so dark that she was "almost afraid to go there." I can understand that trepidation. On the surface, it is a horrifying story of easily unlikable inhuman-seeming characters. It takes a degree of choice and subtly to make the story approachable. Anouilh seems to have made his version all about the maelstrom of love; Medea and Jason may be terrible people, but their humanity is revealed in their heartbreak. Euripides' however doesn't give you that entry point in quite the same way. He seems to resolve the horrible action with the deus ex machina convention--Medea essentially assumes her holy get-out-of-jail-free-card as well as a chariot and dragons and says that it was divine justice for oath-breaking. One of the things that Adamson and Elise Stone (who played Medea) talk about in the review is the idea that there are continued options for happy endings, and each time something goes just wrong enough. I think there is something to that. Creon, Jason, and Medea all have multiple roads before them and it is their collective emotional choices that lead to the ultimate terror. Of course, Medea is still responsible in a larger she-was-the-one-with-the-knife kind of way. I am reminded of Anouilh's version where Medea will be silent for a moment and then start screaming. There is an invitation to play the choice; that moment where she is thinking and weighing. And then of course she explodes.

Anyway if you're interested, check out the review here: http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/medea00.htm

Cheers!

Matt

Happy Monday everyone!

We've been having meetings at least once every two weeks to gear up toward proposal day. We have about one week left until that day, and we're all so anxious! I am not the best writer. I've actually discovered that I love to make big complex, run on sentences, so editing my proposal has been a bit of a process. But with a little help from my friends, it's been coming along. For my proposal, I am focusing on exploring the 5 stages of grief and the process in which Medea travels through each stage. I couldn't agree with Alexis more when she says after each meeting, we get more and more excited about this project. I almost can't believe it's really happening. I remember during one of our first meetings, Matt was telling us about how much responsibilities and producing aspects we were going to take on and if we were ready for it. We said yes, of course, but we just couldn't believe it was happening. Well, that's it from me for today.

Thanks for reading!

Sierra

Smiling into the storm

I would like to begin this one off saying, after each meeting my cast, director and I are more and more hyped to be a part of this project! Where we sit currently is making final adjusts to our project proposals to, hopefully in less than two weeks, have faculty approval. The challenge ahead may seem daunting but I firmly believe that my cast and crew are not only ready to take on the hardships but happy to do so. I am very eager to get out there in the world, and so are they. We are really lucky to have a director that is a living the dream, working on projects he wants to and not starving, to keep us grounded in reality but able to see all the opportunities that lay ahead if we are successful in our venture.

Alexis

Greetings all!

      My name is Sierra Taylor and as of August 26th 2012, I will be a junior at the University of La Verne. So, first I just wanna say that this is really cool! This is the first time I've blogged about anything so I'm pretty excited :D. Just a quick little "about me": I teach dance to little kids in San Dimas at the Via Verde Dance Center. I've been dancing hiphop, jazz, tap, modern, and have dipped my feet into soem other styles for 9 years. I also sing, I am in a rock/alternative band called Intrinsic and we like to jam. I came to the University of La Verne with hopes that I would be a full ride scholarship recipient, which luckly, I became and am thankful for every day. I have acted in La Verne productions for the past three years and have choreographed three shows (A Lonely Business, Baltimore Waltz, and Three Penny Opera).

     I have known Alexis and Cody since high school (South Hills) and take full credit of their conversion to being in the Theatre department (evil laugh). Well...maybe not full credit with Alexis, but full credit with Cody definitely! Alexis and I were taking David Flatens Theatre History class fall of 2011 when we first discovered Medea. Zoe Caldwell was playing Medea and I absolutely fell in love with the pain, scorn, and spite. Qualities I connect with on a deep level that I have never really experienced on stage.  As Matt was saying, (thanks Matt) I usually do get cast as "the waif" or youngin, so in a normal world, I would not be cast as this part. But hey, a senior project is suppose to be a fantasy sort of thing anyway right? Well, I'm still going to keep that perspective. I asked her if she was interested in making the show her stage managment thesis so we could team up on the project, and she said yes. Cody kinda jumped on board as things were rolling. I was not sure who I wanted to direct the project, but I knew it had to either be Melody Rahbari or Matt Hill. Both are alumni and amazing people at what they do. Whatever the outcome was, I had wanted both on board in some way. I had asked Melody first (sorry Matt) because I knew it was a production she had always wanted to direct, so obviously my first instinct was- perfect! why not!? What I didn't know what that there was a possibility of Mel moving away this year, which was depressing. So knowing that, I decided to ask Matt and he was definitely interested. I knew I had picked right when we were talking about music (the day in spring we talked about Medea) and he asked me if I like Vitamin String Quartet and Tool. So now we're off! And have been off on an amazingly, scary new process of trying to make this baby come to life. We've already had meetings for timelines and script swaping and it's been the most awesome time so far. Our next big step is proposing it to the faculty, which a lot of this upcoming week will deal with. We're doing our first mock proposal Wednesday so we'll see how it goes. so thats what it's like to write a blog...haha okay well I'll try not to type a novel next time!

Thank you for your interest!!

Sierra Taylor

Hi there

It feels insane to actually start writing on this thing. I suppose this all started last fall in Theatre History I, taught by David Flaten at University of La Verne. Sierra had talked on and on about how much she really enjoyed Medea and at some point during the year she asked if I would be interested in stage managing it if we were able to get a team going for a senior project. I said yes and I didn't hear about it for awhile, then one day in June I think, she told me she thought Matthew Hill would be on board to help with it, which is huge being that he's a very successful alumni of ULV and has been an integral part of two shows I really enjoyed, The Dumbwaitor and Fool For Love at the Fringe Festival and has designed shows I had both been apart of and seen at ULV. Cody Goss had gone to South Hills High School with Sierra and I, and I actually can't remember how exactly we asked him to become apart of this project but as it sits we are all preparing to propose it as our senior projects. I am very excited to be a producer and stage manager of this production, and am thrilled to say that if we are approved, then we will become the first senior project, in recent years at least, to be attempting to put up a show at an outside venue. Although the production would not be directly associated with the University of La Verne, I believe it is an excellent opportunity to show the LA area the multitalented and dedicated students that the theatre department produces.

I'm really not able to explain how excited I am for this production and as we get into the next stage of pre-production, which will be script weaving from different adaptations I will be sure to keep you posted on our progress.

Alexis Robles

The Journey Begins!

Hello!

My name is Matthew Hill and I am serving as the shepard of this flock. I am pleased to be serving as the director of this production as well as a producer of sorts. Having brought several shows to the Hollywood Fringe already (The Dumb Waiter in 2011, Fool for Love in 2012, and D is for Dog with the Rogue Artists Ensemble also in 2012), my experience will hopefully prove useful as we prepare this production.

   I admit that I am a little unsure as to what to write to start us off, so I suppose I should just say how I got involved. It seems as good a place as any to start. I graduated from the University of La Verne back in '08 and since then I have been returning on a professional basis to design for them. Last year I was thrilled to be asked to teach. I co-taught an 'intro to design' class with my mentor, David Flaten, and taught an advanced 'CAD design' course. Through my continued work with ULV and their talent, I met Sierra, Alexis, and Cody. (I already knew Mike Roche and in fact introduced him to La Verne).
   Sierra became interested in doing "Medea" for her senior acting thesis (something I hope she will write about here) and asked myself and our friend Melody (the grad assistant at the time) if either of us would be interested in directing it. We both were and left the decision to Sierra (again, something I hope she will write about as I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mel's directing [and in fact Mel is the more experienced in the director's chair]). Sierra and I spoke on day late last Spring about what my take on "Medea" might be; I explain that my interests align with the hyper-theatre of the Rogue Artists Ensemble and that I would love to use elements of puppetry, projection, song, and masks to create a mythic telling. Alexis, Cody, and a few others were brought into the conversation; some were interested and stayed and some moved on. We spoke off and on throughout the Summer. The other faculty (whose approval is needed to mount this production) feels that Sierra is better suited to Antigone (which if we were type casting would certainly be true; her youth brands her more sister than mother). But undiscouraged, Sierra has moved forward with the challenge of breaking her type. To this end, we began discussing adapting Medea to suit her age/look/disposition--a conversation that has since led us to make some bold choices with regards to the telling of the story and the characters of Medea and Jason. And that brings us up to now, more or less. We are a week from the start of the semester and preparing to pitch the production to the department.

I think that is all I have for now. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Matt