At Arkansas Governor's School this summer, my teacher partner, Christina Riggins, and I challenged ourselves and our students. We began by exploring acting technique through Sanford Meisner's teachings--something neither of us had thoroughly engaged before. The students really connected with Meisner's emphasis in "doing" and the present moment. As we turned our attention to devising, we researched several physical theatre companies and performances. The Off-Balance Theatre Company's production of Robin Hood particularly intrigued us. The entire story is performed by six actors on a small, rectangular piece of plywood. They use creative stage pictures and vocals to create all the settings. It is one of the most interesting pieces of theatre I've seen. We decided to incorporate their limitations into our devised piece. We limited our playing space for most of the performance to a small circle on the Hendrix stage. All twenty-six actors had to be on stage the entire time creating stage pictures and vocals. We explored classical myths. As with last year's work at AGS, I pieced together the script from student writings. One of the additions that increased the production value of this piece was that the AGS choir provided live choral music for three critical moments. Their contributions were beautiful and added so much to our work. This was one of the hardest and most rewarding theatre experiences I've had, and this group of students was one of the easiest, most open, engaging group of students I've had. What a privilege it is to teach drama at Arkansas Governor's School.
We used the Pandora myth as our frame. Above we see Pandora about to open the box.
Once the box is opened, a snake of destruction is released and Zeus revels in Pandora's weakness.
Here Prometheus looks on the plight of humanity with pity.
In the midst of destruction, Eurydice and Orpheus fall in love.
Prometheus begs Zeus for fire on behalf of the people.
Hera encases Echo in stone.
Eurydice is bitten by a snake and taken to the Underworld on her wedding day, and Orpheus begs Hades to let him bring her back.
Prometheus gets fire for the people. Behind him, you get a good idea of the style of our piece as the other students morphed from the trees, water, and stone Prometheus struggles through.
In our version, Medusa throws herself on Perseus' knife.
In our version, Epinetheus rats Prometheus out to Zeus. Here, Epinetheus begs forgiveness from Prometheus bound to the rocks.
Hope is the last thing that leaves Pandora's box. In the end of our piece, we see that hope in the form of butterflies dropped from the ceiling and these words from Pandora:
I saw no reason to stay ignorant
Zeus gave the box to me. I decided
I am the mistress of its destiny.
So I opened it.
But after the horrors were unleashed into the world,
Something unexpected happened.
What Zeus forgot is that when encaged by darkness,
Humans will seek the light.
Sometimes we discover it.
Sometimes we reveal it.
Sometimes we steal it.
And sometimes we create it.
But we always know there is light.
Let there be light.
I saw no reason to stay ignorant
Zeus gave the box to me. I decided
I am the mistress of its destiny.
So I opened it.
But after the horrors were unleashed into the world,
Something unexpected happened.
What Zeus forgot is that when encaged by darkness,
Humans will seek the light.
Sometimes we discover it.
Sometimes we reveal it.
Sometimes we steal it.
And sometimes we create it.
But we always know there is light.
Let there be light.
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