FIRST REHEARSAL
7:30-10pm, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21
in STUDENT CENTER 417
Once again, the Montclair State University Department of Classics and General Humanities will be sponsoring a Greek play to be performed outdoors, in Kasser Amphitheater, in April 2016! This yearʻs play is Euripidesʻ quirky and oddly modern play about the aftermath of the Trojan War and its discontents, ANDROMACHE. This will be the world stage premiere of Diane Arnson Svarlien’s translation of Euripides’ play! For a list of the characters, click here.
Contact Jeri to join the cast & crew! Dr. Jeri Fogel, fogelj@mail.montclair.edu
All levels of experience welcome!
Performances will be free and open to the public (not just the campus community). The performance will include, as did last year’s production of Euripidesʻ Bacchae, original choreography and dance, and original music settings of the play’s choruses.
Andromache, set a generation after the Trojan War but still under its shadow, shows us the warʻs messy aftermath in Phthia, homeland of Achilles and his family: characters include HERMIONE (the impetuous, Sparta-educated daughter of the infamous Helen of Troy, now wife of Achillesʻ son, Neoptolemus), ANDROMACHE herself (now the concubine of the same Neoptolemus), the aged hero PELEUS (father of Achilles, and so grandfather-in-law of Andromache), bad guy MENELAUS (husband of Helen, father of Hermione), ORESTES (yes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, matricide, and – as it turns out – former suitor of Hermione), and the sea
goddess THETIS (Nereid mother of Achilles and wife of Peleus). The CHORUS represents the WOMEN OF PHTHIA, but also, in our production, embody the sea-nymphs or NEREIDS that accompany THETIS, and are sent by her eventually to bring her beloved PELEUS back to her… or so she says…
Auditions will take place in December, and the performances are planned for mid- to late April 2016, with a possible reprise performance at the very beginning of May. Stay tuned!
The play is proudly sponsored by the MSU Department of Classics and General Humanities, as well as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is produced with the generous help of Kasser Theater staff.