Our production went off without a hitch! It was a team effort to be sure and all in all a wonderful performance.
It was so exciting to be at Timeline Theater where their alley style stage with balcony at one end made for really dramatic presentation possibilities which we utilized.

If you've been following this blog you know that the students at Walter Payton College Prep have been working this semester on mounting a production of the play Medea by Greek playwright, Euripides, using the influential translation by the American poet, Robinson Jeffers.

We are nearing our culminating event and it is my pleasure to announce that:

Medea in Pieces will have its premier at
The Timeline Theater on Tuesday, June 1st at 7pm.

TimeLine Theatre Company is located at
615 W. Wellington Ave. in Chicago.

This week's class found every one in attendance and ready to work on the many aspects of putting our production together.
We have a final script which has been subjected to editing and revision a number of times over.

This week after what seems like a long hiatus, we are finally back in the classroom! While we have not met formally as a class, those students who volunteered to write our script have been working hard at shaping an amazing response to the work of Robinson Jeffers and the original play.
I have met with these students over the past few weeks to discuss themes and ideas important to the writing.
Students have composed a play in five short acts which focuses on an explanation for Medea's actions.

This week in the Medea class we began to discuss how we might tackle this project that we've set ourselves.
We finished up with the presentations from our last class. Groups of students chose a theme from the play and determined a possible 'pathway' to performance.
There were many fabulous ideas. However, in the final analysis, students did not feel that these individual projects would add up to a coherent re-telling of the play. They were in agreement that they wanted to find yet another way to approach the task of writing in response to the play and performing.

We have finished reading the play which offers us many avenues of conversation and plenty of questions.
The theater department at Payton is currently staging a production of Antigone in which a number of students in the class are participating. Our conversation included a comparative discussion of the two plays as well as identifying other literary sources for strong women such as those in The Color Purple.
We also noted contemporary characters from the real world such as HIlary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

Our second week of the Medea project and we delve deeper into the play. It’s becoming clearer that Medea is a complex character. Her anger and unhappiness are palpable. She is clearly misunderstood by at least some of those who surround her. Even those characters who are loyal to her appear not to completely know her as she knows herself.

We're off to a grand start with what I'm calling the Medea Project.
Our first class consisted of conversation, theater games and a first look at the play, Medea ,written by the Greek playwright, Euripides, but translated by American poet, Robinson Jeffers.

During our last class, students worked on revising a selected poem written earlier. Additionally, with Ms. Spooner's help, each student also recorded a performance of that poem. These recitations will be televised on the school's monitors for all to view.

Untitled
Luria F.

This week we read a pair of poems by the poet Jennifer Tseng called, ‘Red Handkerchief‘. The poem which is written in two sections is first addressed to "you" and then addressed to the speaker, as in, I am writing this poem for you.
It is a poem about family, love and connection as well as the complications of language, immigration and cultures.
The poet uses the word red for the strength of its many meanings: as a symbol love, the heart, her life and heritage.