An Actor Prepares [for Medea]

CONGRESS IN SESSION

Medea is a role actresses wait their entire careers for. I am playing her at 23. It is quite the undertaking.

I have no equal parallel in my own life to what Medea goes through. But I have experienced the emotions - loss and love, hate and hope, anger and ardor. What makes her human is that she lives always between these contrasts and that is where I will find her.

The beauty of the way we are working on this project is that I do not need to recall sad memories to play this character truthfully. I need only to rely on the intricate text, to push it, analyze it, live in the sound of the words and the emotions will come.

We are using an approach, a system, very new to me on this production. I am like a recent convert to this way of working. It inspires and excites me and I have put all of my stock in it. But I also go through moments of doubt and frustration. I just have to trust it.

It is first and foremost about the text. Everything - character, emotions, honesty - will come from the form. Ryan Emmons, our fearless director, had me read Peter Hall’s Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players.

• "First comes the form and second comes the feeling."
• "Here is the paradox: by hiding the feeling you reveal it, by not indulging it, you express it. This is the contradiction of all great acting."
• "Shakespeare’s text is a complex score that demands to be read as a piece of music, learned like the steps of a dance, or practiced like the strokes of a duel."

Shakespeare may not have written Medea, but we are working with a finely crafted, rhetorical, verse play. Sir Peter has made me hyper-attuned to the sound of words. I dig at the script searching for antithesis, monosyllabic lines, onomatopoeia, and repeated sounds. To this I add the wisdom of Michael Chekhov (I’m currently reading his Lessons for the Professional Actor)

• "Whatever we are going to experience on the stage - even if it is terribly heavy and uneasy - the impressions that it is terribly heavy must be given, but how it is produced must be artistically light and easy always."

For me, at this moment, Medea is not a woman who kills her children. She is a woman in pain. She must sing though she only talks, dance though she only walks.

My mind is very full of ideas at the moment. It is excitingly overwhelming.

Written by Julie Congress

Medea Cast List

I am thrilled to officially announce the full cast for No.11 Productions’ MEDEA!

Medea Cast List (Alphabetical)

JASON - Willy Appelman

MEDEA - Julie Congress

CHORUS - Laura DellaVilla

TUTOR - Mark Ferguson

CREON - David Henry Gerson

CHORUS - Haley Greenstein

CHORUS - Debbie Habib

CHORUS - Sara Kliger

CHORUS - Nina Meijers

AEGEUS - Roger Mulligan

CHORUS - Alison Novelli

MESSENGER - Sam Parrott

NURSE - Vanessa Wingerwrath

LIGHTING DESIGN by Maura Cordial

MUSIC/MUSICAL DIRECTION by Rebecca Greenstein

CHOREOGRAPHY by Ava Conaval

PUPPETRY by Jen Neads

COSTUMES by Brooke Cohen

SOUND DESIGN by Mitchell Conway

ACTING/VOCAL COACHING by Liz Coley

DIRECTED by Ryan Emmons

The Benefits of Starting Out

It’s easy to think, as you watch the group of singers you’re working with huddle around a microphone that you have jammed into a roll of paper towels because you lack a microphone stand, what are we doing?  If you fin yourself looking at that shoved in microphone or building all of your props out of cardboard, don’t doubt yourself…applaud.  Think “wow, this was a way better idea than using that beer glass on a pile of chairs.”   Whether recording a song or rehearsing a play, if you are just starting out, you’re probably working in somebody’s apartment, your neighbors hate you, and you rehearse after an eight hour work day.  These conditions are less than ideal, but at the end of the day, no one is going to see your apartment, they will see your work on a stage, they will assume you had a long rehearsal period in a large studio with a full day of technical rehearsal…this is part of the magic of indie theatre.    

So as you tie up your bed sheets to make yet another set of costumes, I wanted to take a moment to mention some of the positives of creating theatre as a new company:

·      No one is working on a project because of all the money they are going to make, people are working with you because they want to create art and believe that your company can facilitate that.

·      You don’t have to follow any rules…but it’s a good idea to make some up.

·      No matter how ridiculous your choices are, people will read them as gutsy because you’re just starting out – so the theatre you make can be way out there.

·      You can drink wine at rehearsals (not recommended for every rehearsal). 

·      More established artists are super enthusiastic and encouraging about your work…grass roots are trendy right now.

·      You have the gift of time, if you want to spend 5 months on 1 project…that’s possible. 

·      You’re not cornered into a niche, you can keep exploring different genres and mediums.

·      You can choose the work you do, it’s always better if you are passionate and have something to say about the play you are working on.    

·      If you have a flop, it won’t destroy you…your audience base isn’t that big anyway.

 

Those are just a few thoughts…there may be more, but I’m young and have crazy ideas and lots of time…so you’ll have wait.  Be adventurous and let us know when you are…we’ll come check it out.

 

Written By Ryan Emmons