"Alcestis"
Euripides
Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, 2005
Photos courtesy of Rebecca J. Becker
This was my first show with Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, under the direction of Keith Scales, but it would certainly not be my last. We in the Chorus tackled a strange and difficult score composed by Rebecca J. Becker and arranged by Mark LaPierre, and worked on organic choreography devised by Christine Calfas.
Atticus Mowry joined me in the Chorus from the cast of "As You Like It," which we had just finished doing. (In fact, during the Labor Day weekend of 2005, we had to leave rehearsals for "Alcestis" in the outdoor Cerf Amphitheater early to run up the hill about 200 yards for our final late-afternoon performances of the Shakespeare comedy.) In this show I met Michael Chambers, who became a good friend, and Jonah Weston, with whom I would appear in other shows -- notably, "Three Years" and "Arcadia."
The Chorus met and worked with the principal actors fairly late in the rehearsal process, so we felt somewhat (perhaps purposely) distant from them. I would work with Manservant/Apollo Zane Palmer ("Macbeth") and Andrew Hickman ("Peace" and "Antigone") later, as well as the actress who filled the title role, Melissa Whitney (who would play my character's wife in "Three Years"). That's Andrew as Herakles, below, and Melissa as a mysterious slave dancer who turns up late in the play, eventually to be revealed as Alcestis herself, returned from the realm of the dead.
We had one very memorable performance when, about the time Alcestis was giving her farewell speech in preparation for being taken by Death, the Oregon skies above us exploded with very uncharacteristic lightning and thunder, and then dumped a drenching rain on everyone. Cast and audience dashed for our alternate, indoor rain venue, the Vollum Hall lecture room, and we picked up the show from where we had left off about 20 minutes later.
WHAT THEY SAID
"On a crisp and sunny autumn afternoon you can hardly find a better place to take in a play that the steep amphitheater tucked into the woods on the Reed College campus. ... 'Alcestis' is still fascinating, as much for the ways that the culture it reflects is different from our own as for the ways that it's the same. And director Keith Scales' English text lays out the story in a clear modern idiom that's sensitive to the mood of the original. But, largely because of the static use of the chorus, the show never quite shakes the sense that it's an academic and amateur undertaking (in both senses: nonprofessional, but also an act of love). ... Still, the major roles are well-handled...." -- Bob Hicks, the Oregonian, Sept. 23, 2005