David Kaye, director of UNH's production of "Electra," said one of the inspirations behind his production of the classic Greek play is satanic rock star Marilyn Manson. "It's a punk, heavy metal rendition of the play," said Kaye. "I wanted to create an experience that would be as exciting as it was to that ancient audience 2,500 years ago." The Greek Trilogy Project is a series of plays running this coming weekend at the Johnson Theatre. The series is put together collectively by the theater departments of UNH, Plymouth State University, and Keene State College, with each of the plays in the trilogy produced by one of the schools. The project is a new idea for theater education and has taken over two and a half years to finally reach the stage. "This may be the first time three schools have put together a cohesive series." Kaye said. According to Kaye, UNH's Director of Acting and Dancing, the idea for this project first came about while he and one of his colleagues from Keene State were trying to figure out a way to get students from different schools to see each other's work. They decided to do a trilogy where each school took one of the chapters. They chose to do the three selected plays because each is written by a different significant ancient playwright, and all of the stories connect together well. "You can see the evolution of modern playwriting as you watch these three plays," Kay said. The series begins after the fall of Troy. The opening chapter is Euripides' "The Trojan Women" (Directed by Paul Mroczka and performed by Plymouth State), which follows the lives of the women whose husbands were slain in the battle of Troy. This is followed by Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" (Directed by Ron Spangler and performed by Keene State), which chronicles victorious General Agamemnon's homecoming. The series concludes with Sophocles' "Electra"(Directed by David Kaye and performed by UNH), which tells the story of the drama in Agamemnon's family after his death. "Electra" opened on Wednesday night and will also be showing tonight at 10 a.m., and again on Sunday at 7 p.m. "The Trojan Women" will show on Friday at 7 p.m. and "Agamemnon" will show on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $12.50 for the general public and $10.50 for seniors and UNH students. All three plays can be purchased for a total of $25 and can be bought at the UNH ticket office ((603) 862-2290); or can be purchased at the door of the Johnson Theatre one hour prior to show time.
Be the first to comment on this article!