Argonautika in Allentown
Posted by Rachel Michel on June 13th, 2008 Atley Loughridge and Mark Megill |
If you keep up with our blog, you have probably been reading recently about the Youth Ink! Festival (which ended on Thursday with incredible success). I thought I might take this moment to let you know a little bit more about what happens in the McCarter Education Department, while we have your attention. The Education Department stays busy year-round, and with more than the encouragement and development of young playwrights. I am the Education Teaching Artist Intern, and, like many of the other interns, I had the privilege of working on the Youth Ink! Festival, both as a co-teacher on one of the residencies earlier in the year and as the Assistant Stage Manager and Production Assistant for the Festival itself (a lot of words to say I ran a lot of errands and helped everyone out wherever I could!) And, in addition to teaching in our after-school program, First Stage, and in-school residencies, I am also the Student Matinee Coordinator.
Whenever appropriate, we invite students from schools all over New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania to see McCarter’s mainstage productions as a part of our Student Matinee Series. This season, we had at least one matinee performance for Stick Fly, Tartuffe, A Christmas Carol, Argonautika, and A Seagull in the Hamptons. Some teachers really take advantage of the program and bring their students to more than one production per season. Mr. Mark Megill of Allentown High School in Allentown, NJ, is one such teacher. His drama students are regulars in our matinee audiences, and it is always a treat to see them; they are consistently well-prepared and, as a result, invested in every production.
So, when Mr. Megill told his students to post a “Citizen Response” to Argonautika on our blog, Adam was overwhelmed with a flood of insightful, relevant, and challenging questions and comments. I could be wrong, but I haven’t seen that many comments posted on one of our blog entries before or since! Adam approached the Education Department to see if we had any ideas about how to respond to all of these questions. As it turned out, we had just the thing. You see, the cast members of Argonautika, whose blog entries you may have enjoyed reading in the past, are a remarkable group of people, both on and off the stage. The Education Department was blessed with their involvement in several of our projects while the show was in residence at McCarter. So, even though Argonautika had closed and the actors had moved on to other projects, we knew just who to call. Atley Loughridge (Medea and others) had been particularly involved with the Education Department while she was in Princeton, and it was a rare and thrilling delight to work with a professional actor who understands the goals of our Education Department. When we asked if she would be willing to take the time to come back out to New Jersey to visit the students at Allentown High School, she immediately said yes!
When the day finally arrived, Mr. Megill gathered all of his 33 drama students in their auditorium, and Atley and I drove down to Allentown to spend an hour and a half discussing and exploring the production. The students were given the opportunity to pick Atley’s brain about her life as a professional actor, benefit from her knowledge of the origin of the Argonautika myth, as well as the further story of Medea (as made popular by Euripides), and hear from Atley how May Zimmerman’s production was created. My favorite part was a wonderful conversation about the feminist perspective in this production. As you may have read, several of the students were wondering why Jason’s character was “much more quiet than typically expected of a hero,” and if the play was “styled more from the female’s perspective, in the females’ favor.” Well, Atley was able to discuss with us what Zimmerman’s intentions were in creating a story wherein the female voices were definitely the loudest (think Hera and Athena, and certainly Medea), and the character of Medea was seen in a light in which she is rarely cast. Audiences familiar with the character of Medea most likely know her as the woman who kills her children to spite her ex-husband. In Zimmerman’s piece, Atley explained, the audience was meant to see Medea’s back story and to grow to understand her future actions in light of the events of the Argonautika myth.
Another prevalent question/comment from the students was their confusion with the end of the production. As one student wrote: “How come you talked about the ending of the play instead of acting it out?” Indeed, many students commented on the contrast between the high-action excitement of the first act and the subtler, quieter, more heavily narrated second act. Atley was able to talk with the students about Zimmerman’s choices in ending the piece (time constraints were a big part of it!), and she also encouraged them to think about how they would have ended the play differently. They had some brilliant ideas, and, had we had more time, I’m sure they would have been up on their feet acting them out for us!
The whole event got me thinking about what a unique opportunity we were experiencing. This is what education through the arts is all about—we weren’t just talking about ‘drama’ that day in drama class—we were exploring history, sociology, economics, the relationship between modern and ancient civilizations, storytelling as a way of sustaining culture, and so much more! And it was all thanks to a combination of individuals—so, thank you, Atley, for your willingness to include students in your many conversations about what it is that you do; Mr. Megill, for bringing your students to see our shows and inspiring them to think critically about it afterwards; Drama Students at Allentown High School, for delving into an assignment with enthusiasm and seeking knowledge far and wide; and The McCarter Blog, for providing us with a forum in which we can all come together!
Posted by Rachel Michel, Education Teaching Artist Intern at McCarter Theatre.
