Media/Medea: Staging a Modern Greek Tragedy

Rehearsals are now well underway for Media/Medea, an updated adaptation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Medea, re-envisioned for the 21st-century from a Black perspective.

For the 15 student actors, 这不仅是在普利策奖获奖剧作家詹姆斯·詹姆斯的戏剧首演中表演的机会 Fat Ham 名气——这也是一个与来自不同教育背景的同龄人互动的机会. 一半的学生来自推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜和哈弗福德学院，一半来自费城社区学院(CCP)。.

The staging of the play, set to open in mid-April, is part of Greek Drama/Black Lives, a larger yearlong collaboration between the two institutions, sponsored by the Theater and Classics Departments at Bryn Mawr. 古典文学教授Catherine Conybeare，她是 American Council of Learned Societies grant that is funding the project, explains, 希腊戏剧/黑人生活的一个关键目标是加强中国共产党和布林莫尔之间的联系，同时也为我们今天可以从经典中学到的东西照亮一道光, using theater as the field for discovery.

The play is being produced by the Theater Program at Bryn Mawr, led by co-PI and Chair of the Arts Catharine Slusar, who brought Ijames to the project as playwright. “Theater, with its ability to share perspectives, is at the core of what it is to be human,” Slusar says. “这个项目用戏剧来画一条从经典到现在的线, challenging us along the way.”

In addition to the play, the Greek Drama/Black Lives project includes a playwriting class, a partnership with middle schoolers at E.M. Stanton School in South Philadelphia, and a theoretical and experiential graduate seminar.

In transposing Medea to a modern setting, Ijames, an associate professor of theatre at Villanova University, looked to popular culture for inspiration, 想象一下一对名人夫妇的内爆会对他们的孩子产生怎样的影响, and in the process lifting up questions of race and familial conflict.

The chorus, a mainstay of Greek tragedy, still plays a leading role, but this time they are part of the social media rumor mill. 对于美狄亚这个角色，詹姆斯的灵感来自于诺玛·戴斯蒙德 Sunset Boulevard, and Porsha Williams from Real Housewives of Atlanta.

The adaptation has resonated deeply with the student actors. “I was not surprised that it was brilliant and insightful and imaginative,” says Quinn Eli, curriculum coordinator for theater at CCP, who has known Ijames for more than decade. “詹姆斯能够在原著中找到有机的策略，并真正引起当代观众的共鸣，我并不感到惊讶，因为这些元素都在原著中 Medea.”

Whether in ancient Greece or modern-day America, certain themes endure. “当你谈到复仇、背叛和混乱对家庭的影响时,” says Eli, “我们当中的人无法轻易想象这对我们自己家庭的影响. 然后再加上社交媒体和那种文化审查的因素, and you’ve got something that continues to really resonate.”

Michael McLaughlin, a CCP theater major, agrees. “我立刻兴奋地做出了回应，因为他有一种非常有趣的写作方式，用非常简单的语言表达了这么多. It’s great to see somebody who’s coming from the same space as me, especially from the Black perspective, and can really figure out how to say a lot without a lot of words.”

For Regan Riehl ’24, an English major minoring in theater, engaging with Media/Medea 和其他演员一起调查的过程很有趣. “The more you read it, the more there is to pull out of it and to look at,” says Riehl, who plays Glauce, the princess for whom Jason abandons Medea. “我们的部分工作是回到原始文本并找到相似之处, 但很多时候是在审视作品的现状，并试图重新想象这些我们已经了解但以这种新方式存在的角色.”

国际知名导演Raelle Myrick-Hodges创立了费城 Azuka Theatre Company, was excited to start rehearsals, CCP的黑盒子剧场和BMC的古德哈特剧场哪一个可以替代. “Every time a group of humans gets to work on a brand- new something, it’s magic,” she says, 他补充说，这两个机构之间的合作尤其神奇.

“看着这些来自不同院校的学生互相挑战, be celebrated by each other, is really, really exciting,” she says. “他们带来的是对作家作品的新理解, because you have 15 people who all think differently.”

Lead artist Akeem Davis, 他是巴里摩尔奖和哈斯奖的获奖演员，曾在CCP和BMC任教，扮演杰森, is equally invigorated by the collaboration. “我认为学生们意识到，到目前为止，他们的大学经历非常不同, 所以这个过程就是他们中的许多人认识到他们的生活可能非常不同，也可能没有那么不同，并且能够欣赏两者.”

Back in January, before rehearsals began, Slusar和演员们一起工作了两个星期，教授了一系列的表演技巧, 给每个人一套类似的工具，培养早期的社区意识. “The best art is made from collaboration. 我们不是在真空中创造，而是通过严格和有意识的实践. 我们努力奠定了一个共享技术的基础，在此基础上可以建立戏剧，”Slusar说.

演员们也可以坐下来和詹姆斯一起阅读, since he was in New York City preparing for the Broadway opening of Fat Ham). “有幸和他在一个房间里，能够问他对某个角色有什么想法，真是太酷了,” says Bethany Wisdom ’24, who plays the part of Circe, Medea’s aunt. “詹姆斯很脚踏实地，他给了我们很多鼓励，很高兴看到我们用它来创造我们自己的鸟.”

With almost six weeks to go before opening night, Media/Medea is starting to take shape. “We're not just talking and thinking about it anymore,” says McLaughlin, who plays the role of the chorus leader. “我们起身行动，做出决定，试图解决问题. 这是任何过程中我最喜欢的部分，因为你会发现你从来不知道的关于自己的事情.”

On a recent night, CCP的黑匣子里充满了活动，演员们穿过他们的场景，尝试不同的方法, working out where they should be on stage, 听取雷尔的笔记，大声说话，或者让对话更加紧迫.

接下来的几周，游戏将更加完善和深入，并解决一些戏剧性的难题, but already, says Eli, “如果你只从它如何将学生聚集在一个创意企业的角度来评估它, it’s already very successful.”

Watching the process, he says, 你开始意识到对话和互动对人类的基本理解是多么不可或缺. “一旦你让两组人谈论他们各自关心的事情, 令人惊讶的是，他们找到了我们生活中许多其他方面缺失的共同点和共识. It’s a pleasure to watch.”