Treasured tradition: Randolph’s Greek Play takes center stage in the Dell

《det365亚洲版》, right, starred as both title characters in Randolph’s 2021 Greek Play, “赫拉克勒斯 & Deianeira.”

合唱围绕着黛阿内拉, one of the title characters in Randolph College’s 2021 Greek Play, 哀叹丈夫多久了, 赫拉克勒斯, 已经消失了.

“黛安内拉的心渴望着他,他们唱着, 包围着他们的情妇, 在今年秋天的一次演出中. “She never lays her worry to bed/Her eyes never dry from tears/She always sleeps with fear of disaster.”

事实上，灾难确实会袭来 赫拉克勒斯 & Deianeira传统上被称为 索福克勒斯的《det365亚洲版》, when a misunderstanding between the titular married couple causes 赫拉克勒斯 to become very ill.

该剧于10月在365亚洲版的梅布尔K剧院上演. Whiteside Greek Theatre, after a nearly two-year journey that began with Zoom的虚拟演示 去年秋天.

在这两部作品之间，演员来来去去. 导演艾米·R. 科恩介绍了索福克勒斯文本的新译本, and everyone involved dove deep into a beloved College tradition.

The Greek Play rehearsal process is always special and keeps cast members like Jaelyn 埃文斯 ’22 coming back.

“这只是工作量的问题, on so many levels—the masks; the Dell, which is a beast in itself; a whole new way of acting; and long speeches,埃文斯说。, who portrayed the same two characters in both the online and live productions. “做这件事的人真的很喜欢. We have this community of people who love the Greek Play and are devoted to making it happen.”

Jaelyn 埃文斯 ’22, right, portrayed two characters in the play.

赫拉克勒斯 & Deianeira 提供科恩, 埃文斯, and the cast a rare opportunity to extend a process that usually lasts about six weeks.

“每一次, 我们做了一些非常丰富的东西, 用各种各样的东西让观众注意到,科恩说. “但他们不能和所有这些角色一起生活, 这些细节, 以及我们所做的丰富性. Spending longer than usual on this play made all of that even deeper.”

The live production’s new translation threw a bit of a curveball to returning cast members, 但所有人都一致认为，这种改变是必要的.

另一种翻译在当时是有效的, 我们在哪里, 因为全球流行病而上网,埃文斯说. “The language in the new translation is plainer, which works better in the Dell. It allows us to bring these characters to life in a way that we couldn’t on a screen.”

传统延续
希腊戏剧的传统可以追溯到1909年. Whiteside, a professor of Greek, staged Alcestis at the College. Productions continued annually until her retirement in 1954.

科恩在2000年复兴了希腊剧. 在怀特塞德最初的竞选期间, 这些戏剧是用希腊文演出的, 但自从科恩接手后，它们大多是英文的.

Most importantly, the plays still adhere to conventions that governed ancient theatre.

例如, 三个演员扮演所有的主要角色, 剧中大部分时间合唱队都在舞台上表演, 表演者戴着面具, which are now painstakingly handmade from linen and glue with molds that are created using the College’s 3D printer.

艾米R. 科恩 uses the College’s 3-D printer while working on masks for the play.

During the first four productions under 科恩, the masks only covered half of a performer’s face. 没有麦克风, dialogue would often be lost when an actor turned to address another part of the audience or a character on the other side of the Dell.

所以科恩和三个以前的学生, Naomi Fritts, 08年, 布列塔尼·斯托林斯09年, 09年的Katrina Weichmann, spent a few summers researching and developing techniques to build full theatrical masks that allowed performers to be heard clearly from all angles.

这些是在2006年推出的. 那时，面具仍然是手工制作的. In 2014, 3D扫描打印 被添加到流程中.

The first rehearsal with masks always involves some growing pains, but 科恩 said she was pleasantly surprised with how quickly this group adapted.

《det365亚洲版》, 谁同时扮演赫拉克勒斯和黛阿涅拉, was a newcomer to the Greek Play and said the process helped stretched acting muscles.

“I know how to use my face, and I don’t have my face anymore,” Gay said. “I had to learn how to make body language a bigger part of my performance.”

双重和三重任务

Sabina Sabat ’22 as one of the three characters she played in “赫拉克勒斯 & Deianeira.”

埃文斯 and fellow returning cast member Sabina Sabat ’22 played a total of five characters between them in 赫拉克勒斯 & Deianeira, while Gay joined the cast last spring as the title characters.

It’s widely believed that when Sophocles presented the tragedy, the roles of both husband and wife were played by the same performer.

“这对演员来说是一个很高的要求，”科恩说. “They are both such towering characters in their different ways, 索福克勒斯给了他们很多事情要做. 演讲内容非常丰富, and I’ve honestly started to think about it as if those two roles together are kind of Sophocles’ Hamlet, as far as how big a task it is and how rich the actor’s part is.”

Deianeira是一个更保守的角色, 而赫拉克勒斯, 当他在剧终出现的时候, 非常痛苦而且不羞于表达.

“I have a big personality, so you’d think it would be easy,” Gay said. “But it was hard to portray all that emotion and find a balance. 这很有趣，也很有挑战性. I feel like I was pushed out of my comfort zone, which is good.”

科恩说盖伊在第一次试镜时就做到了, showing “such confidence and intelligence in cold reading the two roles, 如此清晰地区分它们, 我知道他的声音和存在会在山谷中流传, 这需要很多才能填满.”

《det365亚洲版》 as 赫拉克勒斯, who returns at the end of the play.

对她来说, 埃文斯扮演了海勒斯, 赫拉克勒斯和黛阿涅拉的儿子, and a herald who plays a key role in the events of the show.

“我们已经能够创造出非常独特的, 独特的人物, to the point that I don’t feel like I’m playing both of them,”她说。. “I don’t even see myself as that other character when I’m talking about him.”

科恩 also recruited a couple players from the College’s men’s lacrosse team to lend a hand; they were among the soldiers who carried an ailing 赫拉克勒斯 into the Dell at the end of the play.

It was one more way to find echoes of a 2,000-year-old tradition in modern times.

“There’s something about it that feels, honestly, very Greek,”她说。. “任何你能想到的大避难所, 像德尔福, had the temple to the gods but many also had a theatre and a stadium. The things that went on there would be international panhellenic competitions in arts and sports. 所以我觉得这是一种很自然的合作关系.”