Tower Hill’s Drama Department presented the classic Greek tragedy
Antigone on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.
The 446 B.C. play by Sophocles examined the conflict between Creon’s loyalty to
polis (city/community) and Antigone’s devotion to
oikos (home/family).
“Tower Hill’s Drama Department cracked open this ancient tale and to breathe new life into it,” says theater teacher Darla Max. “When the play begins and the chorus untangles the plot, the tragedy of loyalty, love, justice and duty will be hurled forward into the 21
st century.”
The stage design is one of the largest ever undertaken at Tower Hill. In an attempt to both mimic the ancient Greek theater and bring the story closer to the audience, students and faculty members extended the stage directly over the first few rows of seats.
Click here to view a time-lapse video of the project.
In ancient Greece, sets were minimal and included a wall at the most upstage portion of the stage called the skene. Behind it, actors moved for costume and mask changes before returning to the stage as different characters.
“Since we are building out in front of the stage, we are unable to use many of the lighting positions we use for other shows,” said Drama Department faculty member Matt Kator. “For
Antigone, a new front of house lighting position will be created using truss and chain motors about three quarters of the way into the audience.”
For the first time Kator used a 3D printer to design, render and build a small-scale model of the
Antigone set. He anticipates the technology becoming an even more valuable part of theatrical set design in the future.
Students involved in building the set were:
Blair Isken, Kaitlyn Scott, Benjamin Spiro, Andrew Stack, Adam Reynolds, Julia Molin, Nicholas Fort, Timothy Gouge, Paritosh Raval, Adam Fisher, Michael Gallagher, Luke Solacoff, Pat Mullen, Ann Guzzetta and Jim Guan.
The cast for the production:
Antigone: Brooke Hayman
Creon: George Gianforcaro
Nurse: Alexis Wrease
Ismene: Rebecca Pettinaro
Haemon: Spencer Johnson
Page: Safiya Miller
Jonas: Graham Bright
Guard 2: David Goodman
Guard 3: Luke Solacoff
Messenger: Hudson Pepper
Eurydice: Whitney Polich
Polynice: Brandon Nitsche
Eteoclese: Philip Nickel
Chorus:
Mark Cordell
Kennedy Medley
Joshua Collier
Renee Albrecht
Brian Miller
Jasmine Minhas
Samantha Silvers
Lexi Longo
Caroline DeSantis
Alexandra Caimi
Madison Stern
Rand Barton
Sabrina Luther