Eurydice is a very special play in terms of dramaturgy. There are things that you have to look at and say, okay, this matters, this piece of information needs to communicate to the audience, and there are others that you just have to pass and say, this is interesting but it is not very supplemental to the performance. Eurydice is a wonderful play but it is hard to place it in the world of dramaturgy. It has no solid time or place. A setting would be up to the discretion of the director and designers. So as a dramaturg, you’ve just be on standby.
The real dramaturgy kicks in, I think, when you begin to research the original myth of Orpheus. I think it is one of the most important things to communicate to the audience. If they do not know that this is a modern day retelling of a Greek myth, they might think it is shallow and pointless, that it is just some fictional love story that some writer won a huge award for. When that is not the case at all.
Something that is terribly important to me about Eurydice is that people (audience members) are able to make every connection Ruhl set up in her genius script. The River Lethe is The River of Forgetfulness and the terrifying hound that guards the gates are three comic Stones who just gripe at everyone.
These findings are there waiting to be discovered and brought to the table for discussion. To help our audience not only make the connections, but actually educate them while they make the connections. We want them to enjoy watching this show, and not miss references that are made from the original myth.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Producing the Play Statement
Production Problems Posed by the Text
Eurydice is a wonderfully colorful script. There are so many things that the text gives you, in your head. The real challenge is materializing these awesome envisions. In the opening of the play, Orpheus showers Eurydice in a series of gifts including, all the birds in the sky, the ocean, and the moon and the stars. The dilemma we face with this is it is all done with no speaking accept Eurydice saying “thank you” after each gift is given. The second dilemma posed in the text is Orpheus’ music. The following problem is the use of a water pump in the play. How will it be incorporated to make sense? Will there be a modern water dispenser, or a pre-plumbing crank-it-with-all-your-might water pump? Alas, there are still problems bigger than these. Eurydice tumbles down a flight of 600 steps (stairs to be more clear). The script describes this as if it is actually happening on stage. It is hard to determine whether this would work, or not. After the tumble the problem becomes more extreme. How will Orpheus’ plan to travel to the underworld work on stage? Perhaps a lighting trick or a drop stage? What about Orpheus and Eurydice’s ascent back up to the regular world? How will that long journey work on stage? These are all questions that must be addressed upon wanting to produce this show.
Production Problems Posed by the Context
If we did Eurydice at Sam Houston State University, we would without a doubt run into serious questions about how we would configure the set on our stage. Assembling an Alice in Wonderland version of the underworld would be no problem for our designers, but a raining elevator would be tough. Overall, I believe Eurydice is a great piece for our university. We have talented and innovated professors and students that could take the challenge of this show on with no problem. Out of the list of a raining elevator, a strategically placed water pump, a flight of 600 stairs, Orpheus’s fabulous music, gifts of all the birds in the sky and walking in the ocean. I think that the only challenge for our institution would be the raining elevator.
Another area that we always have to question is the costumes. Luckily, Sarah Ruhl made a play ground for designers. With our great costume team, creating a theme for this show would not only be easy, but it can work on any sort of budget.
Eurydice is also a great script for SHSU because it can appeal to every audience. It can also be made as diverse as the production team would like it to be. Overall this is a great play for our institution and many others.
Other Production Solutions
Upon researching other major productions of Eurydice, I believe I only found five or six productions that really had substantial information. It was interesting how each of these productions concocted their own solutions for the various problems that they faced in producing this show. The Victory Gardens Theatre made their raining elevator with a cage bottom that leads into an area that can collect all of the rain. Then at the Roundhouse Theatre, the set design consisted of using a trap door for various scenes incorporating it fully into the entire production is seemed like. As I stated before, the only problem we may face at SHSU would be the raining elevator, which seems to be an easy project for talented set designers.
Critical Response
In the reviews I read about the few productions produced, I read the same thing over and over again. My favorite review was from the Angry White Guy in Chicago. He said it best when he wrote you’ll either love her work or hate it. He, whose name I have not quite landed on yet is a young professional actor himself. He loved the script and the performance he saw. He appreciated it so much that he left a $20 donation.
After winning the MacArthur Fellow for Eurydice, I doubt there are going to be many critics negatively judging her work, (but I could be wrong). I honestly did not find a review that bashed the script Ruhl’s Eurydice. I did however find reviews that bashed performances of Eurydice. The ACT theatre’s production faced pretty rude remarks about design choices and casting.
The only way I thing that it possible for someone to hate this script is by not knowing the original myth of Orpheus. It is not until then that viewers can get the full Ruhl experience.
Eurydice is a wonderfully colorful script. There are so many things that the text gives you, in your head. The real challenge is materializing these awesome envisions. In the opening of the play, Orpheus showers Eurydice in a series of gifts including, all the birds in the sky, the ocean, and the moon and the stars. The dilemma we face with this is it is all done with no speaking accept Eurydice saying “thank you” after each gift is given. The second dilemma posed in the text is Orpheus’ music. The following problem is the use of a water pump in the play. How will it be incorporated to make sense? Will there be a modern water dispenser, or a pre-plumbing crank-it-with-all-your-might water pump? Alas, there are still problems bigger than these. Eurydice tumbles down a flight of 600 steps (stairs to be more clear). The script describes this as if it is actually happening on stage. It is hard to determine whether this would work, or not. After the tumble the problem becomes more extreme. How will Orpheus’ plan to travel to the underworld work on stage? Perhaps a lighting trick or a drop stage? What about Orpheus and Eurydice’s ascent back up to the regular world? How will that long journey work on stage? These are all questions that must be addressed upon wanting to produce this show.
Production Problems Posed by the Context
If we did Eurydice at Sam Houston State University, we would without a doubt run into serious questions about how we would configure the set on our stage. Assembling an Alice in Wonderland version of the underworld would be no problem for our designers, but a raining elevator would be tough. Overall, I believe Eurydice is a great piece for our university. We have talented and innovated professors and students that could take the challenge of this show on with no problem. Out of the list of a raining elevator, a strategically placed water pump, a flight of 600 stairs, Orpheus’s fabulous music, gifts of all the birds in the sky and walking in the ocean. I think that the only challenge for our institution would be the raining elevator.
Another area that we always have to question is the costumes. Luckily, Sarah Ruhl made a play ground for designers. With our great costume team, creating a theme for this show would not only be easy, but it can work on any sort of budget.
Eurydice is also a great script for SHSU because it can appeal to every audience. It can also be made as diverse as the production team would like it to be. Overall this is a great play for our institution and many others.
Other Production Solutions
Upon researching other major productions of Eurydice, I believe I only found five or six productions that really had substantial information. It was interesting how each of these productions concocted their own solutions for the various problems that they faced in producing this show. The Victory Gardens Theatre made their raining elevator with a cage bottom that leads into an area that can collect all of the rain. Then at the Roundhouse Theatre, the set design consisted of using a trap door for various scenes incorporating it fully into the entire production is seemed like. As I stated before, the only problem we may face at SHSU would be the raining elevator, which seems to be an easy project for talented set designers.
Critical Response
In the reviews I read about the few productions produced, I read the same thing over and over again. My favorite review was from the Angry White Guy in Chicago. He said it best when he wrote you’ll either love her work or hate it. He, whose name I have not quite landed on yet is a young professional actor himself. He loved the script and the performance he saw. He appreciated it so much that he left a $20 donation.
After winning the MacArthur Fellow for Eurydice, I doubt there are going to be many critics negatively judging her work, (but I could be wrong). I honestly did not find a review that bashed the script Ruhl’s Eurydice. I did however find reviews that bashed performances of Eurydice. The ACT theatre’s production faced pretty rude remarks about design choices and casting.
The only way I thing that it possible for someone to hate this script is by not knowing the original myth of Orpheus. It is not until then that viewers can get the full Ruhl experience.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
ACT Theate
Venue: Act Theatre
Location: Seattle, Washington
Time: September 5-October 5, 2008
Director: Allison Narver
Set Designer: Matthew Smucker
Lighting Designer: Michael Wellborn
Narver and her excellent production team realize the theatrical potential of the play with an ever-shifting visual and sound scape.
Matthew Smucker's set evokes Eurydice's world (above and below) as an empty swimming pool with tiled floor, rusting metal drain and diving board (where some pivotal action occurs). Michael Wellborn's terrific lighting expands and multiplies the spatial possibilities. And Chris Walker deserves much credit for a sound design that changes moods with the plucking of a long lyre string, some spare and lyrical piano music, a big-band version of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and some very ominous synthesizer.
Misha Burton, Seattle Times
September 13, 2008
Location: Seattle, Washington
Time: September 5-October 5, 2008
Director: Allison Narver
Set Designer: Matthew Smucker
Lighting Designer: Michael Wellborn
Narver and her excellent production team realize the theatrical potential of the play with an ever-shifting visual and sound scape.
Matthew Smucker's set evokes Eurydice's world (above and below) as an empty swimming pool with tiled floor, rusting metal drain and diving board (where some pivotal action occurs). Michael Wellborn's terrific lighting expands and multiplies the spatial possibilities. And Chris Walker deserves much credit for a sound design that changes moods with the plucking of a long lyre string, some spare and lyrical piano music, a big-band version of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" and some very ominous synthesizer.
Misha Burton, Seattle Times
September 13, 2008
Victory Gardens Theatre
Venue: Victory Gardens Theatre
Location: Chicago, IL
Time: August 2008
Director: Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling
Lighting Designer: JR Lederle
Location: Chicago, IL
Time: August 2008
Director: Sandy Shinner and Jessica Thebus
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling
Lighting Designer: JR Lederle
But her tendency to write in deliberately elusive, falsely ethereal metaphors (“Your hair will be my orchestra and…I love you”) while letting directors and designers fill in the blanks is a gamble she loses this time. With the exception of Dan Ostling’s striking water-stained walls, nothing in Shinner and Thebus’s weirdly unemotional production—it’s mostly just Stark reciting sophomoric poetry, a little trickling rain and some helium balloons—can convince us that Ruhl’s 80-minute play comes from a place of unique theatricality.Christopher Piatt, Time Out Chicago, October 23, 2008
The production was spot on. The set and lighting design was simply beautiful to see and had a sort of calming effect on the senses. Minimalist in design, each piece of furniture, balloon, or piece of string seemed to perfectly fit in Shinner and Thebus's picture. The lighting used huge, vast shadows to communicate secondary layers of action. The sound design was absolutely crystalline and pitch perfect. The performances were very strong (especially Joe D. Lauck as Eurydice's father - a construct created by Ruhl to add motivation to the Wicked-style, "let's see this story from her angle" approach) and it in no way seemed a preview. The cats at Victory Gardens have their shit together and Skinner, Thebus and company are at the top of their game. http://donhall.blogspot.com/2008/10/review-eurydice.html
Roundhouse Theatre
Venue: Roundhouse Theatre
Location: Bethesda, MD
Time: February 4-March 3, 2009
Director: Derek Goldman
Set Designer: Clint Ramos and Robbie Hayes
Costume Designer: Kathleen Geldard
The Stones make equally expressive use of movement -- now simian, now dancelike. In notes to her script, Ruhl...compares the Stones to "nasty children." Goldman and costume designer Kathleen Geldard have taken this notion in an eye-catching direction, dressing the trio in candy-colored motley, with patterned stockings and punk-tinted hair, and a flouncy dress for the Loud Stone. The three resemble bratty dolls come to life.
Location: Bethesda, MD
Time: February 4-March 3, 2009
Director: Derek Goldman
Set Designer: Clint Ramos and Robbie Hayes
Costume Designer: Kathleen Geldard
The Stones make equally expressive use of movement -- now simian, now dancelike. In notes to her script, Ruhl...compares the Stones to "nasty children." Goldman and costume designer Kathleen Geldard have taken this notion in an eye-catching direction, dressing the trio in candy-colored motley, with patterned stockings and punk-tinted hair, and a flouncy dress for the Loud Stone. The three resemble bratty dolls come to life.
Ruhl once postulated that "Eurydice" could be "a playground for designers," and that is certainly the case here. Set designer Clint Ramos provides a bleak interlacing of ladders and scaffolding that hints at the dizzying distance between life and the Stygian kingdom. An elevator, smack in the middle, supplies one of the production's many shiver-inducing coups de theatre. Colin K. Bills chips in with menacing shadows, eddying rivulets of brightness and other artful lighting touches.
By Celia Wren
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Yale Rep Theatre
Venue: Second Stage Theatre
Location: New York City
Time: June 2007
Director: Les Waters
Set Design: Scott Bradley
Costume Design: Meg Neville
Lighting Design: Russel A. Champa
Sound Design: Bray Porter
Choreography: John Caraffa
Dramaturgy: Amy Boratko
You might almost wish there were subtitles here, alerting you to the inner meaning of the lyrical, illogical and, yes, sometimes overly quirky dialogue. (The most sensibly spoken characters onstage are probably the blunt-spoken chorus of stones, strange creatures with pea-green faces, in Victorian garb, who keep telling Eurydice to shut up and get used to being dead.)
Take, for instance, the tender, wrenchingly sad vision of Eurydice’s dead father, who can watch his daughter’s progress from the underworld below, miming the act of walking her down the aisle on her wedding day. He nods proudly at the guests on either side, gives her an encouraging smile, offers her up with a mixture of resignation and worry and joy. And he is utterly alone. As performed with impeccable simplicity and grace by Charles Shaw Robinson, this small vignette is among the most desolate and moving moments I can remember seeing on a stage.
Charles Isherwood
June 19, 2007
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/theater/reviews/19seco.html
Location: New York City
Time: June 2007
Director: Les Waters
Set Design: Scott Bradley
Costume Design: Meg Neville
Lighting Design: Russel A. Champa
Sound Design: Bray Porter
Choreography: John Caraffa
Dramaturgy: Amy Boratko
You might almost wish there were subtitles here, alerting you to the inner meaning of the lyrical, illogical and, yes, sometimes overly quirky dialogue. (The most sensibly spoken characters onstage are probably the blunt-spoken chorus of stones, strange creatures with pea-green faces, in Victorian garb, who keep telling Eurydice to shut up and get used to being dead.)
Take, for instance, the tender, wrenchingly sad vision of Eurydice’s dead father, who can watch his daughter’s progress from the underworld below, miming the act of walking her down the aisle on her wedding day. He nods proudly at the guests on either side, gives her an encouraging smile, offers her up with a mixture of resignation and worry and joy. And he is utterly alone. As performed with impeccable simplicity and grace by Charles Shaw Robinson, this small vignette is among the most desolate and moving moments I can remember seeing on a stage.
Charles Isherwood
June 19, 2007
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/theater/reviews/19seco.html
The World of the Play Statement
*Think of this as a note that may be included in the program.
Sarah Ruhl is a brilliant new playwright whose words can lift your emotions and make you cry like a Nick Cassavetes movie. That is exactly what happens when you read her script Eurydice. In creating this script Ruhl became a sort of present day Shakespeare; she retold a Greek myth, but made it vastly more (MODERN) comic, dramatic and entertaining. She shifted the view from Orpheus’s story to Eurydice’s story. The research I did consisted of gathering information about Aeschylus’ version of the Greek myth of Orpheus and comparing it to Ruhl’s modern day version of the myth. To understand the world of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, you must understand the original myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
When I began research on the myth of Orpheus I found there were several connections made within Ruhl’s version. I found two major and clever substitutions in Ruhl’s version of the story. The first of my favorite findings was that the three Stones that guarded the gates of Hades were originally the three headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld known as Cerberus. The second finding was about Ruhl’s River of Forgetfulness. In Greek mythology the River Lethe was a river that ran through the underworld. It was said that anyone who came into contact with this lethal river would not die, just forget everything it had known prior to being exposed to it. They forget everything, even their own language, which is exactly what happens it Ruhl’s retold tale. So cute, clever and fitting for Ruhl’s version of this myth. This is just the beginning, or a small portion of why it is so important to understand the myth before you get to fully appreciate Ruhl’s version.
There are also several directors’ notes that must be communicated to the audience in a straight forward manner. One example is the appearance of the underworld. It is stated on the first page of the play that the underworld should look more like a scene from Alice in Wonderland rather than the classical idea of the scary dark and meek idea that most individuals who are familiar with Greek mythology have. I think that this note was made so that in the design plan, there could be several added features that would give the story so many more different layers to play with. In Ruhl’s play, the Ruler of the Underworld explained to Orpheus that they liked to keep the underworld real comfortable so that people sent there would not mind staying there. An example of added layers is this comment. Yes the Ruler of the Underworld says that he provides a good atmosphere to keep those he rules happy, OR he could have just been saying this to make Orpheus think that Eurydice want to stay because the Ruler of the Underworld wants to make Eurydice his wife. It just works…
It should be addressed that this play moves along very quickly. At the beginning of the piece, two young children are in love and speak about marriage in youthful idioms and metaphors. Then into the next scene they are at their wedding. It is almost like time is flying and that we are just whizzing through this play. It may seem just like that, but upon studying the original myth, it happens just the same way. As in wedding, death, second death. Luckily, this play ends on a much happier note than the original myth. At the end of the original myth, Orpheus looks back at Eurydice before she is out of the underworld; she is then taken away from him for good. Orpheus proceeds to play his sad music and is killed by an angry band of Maenads who tore him to pieces. His head and his lyre were found by a Thracian Muse, (one of his people), and was buried by Mount Apollo.
In Ruhl’s version however, Eurydice calls Orpheus’ name and causes him to turn around sending her back to the underworld. There is no concrete statement for what happens to Orpheus, I don’t think he gets killed by a band of Maenads because it is not stated, but to my interpretation, he too is sent back to the underworld ending this story with a happily ever after.
Sarah Ruhl is a brilliant new playwright whose words can lift your emotions and make you cry like a Nick Cassavetes movie. That is exactly what happens when you read her script Eurydice. In creating this script Ruhl became a sort of present day Shakespeare; she retold a Greek myth, but made it vastly more (MODERN) comic, dramatic and entertaining. She shifted the view from Orpheus’s story to Eurydice’s story. The research I did consisted of gathering information about Aeschylus’ version of the Greek myth of Orpheus and comparing it to Ruhl’s modern day version of the myth. To understand the world of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, you must understand the original myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
When I began research on the myth of Orpheus I found there were several connections made within Ruhl’s version. I found two major and clever substitutions in Ruhl’s version of the story. The first of my favorite findings was that the three Stones that guarded the gates of Hades were originally the three headed dog who guarded the gates of the underworld known as Cerberus. The second finding was about Ruhl’s River of Forgetfulness. In Greek mythology the River Lethe was a river that ran through the underworld. It was said that anyone who came into contact with this lethal river would not die, just forget everything it had known prior to being exposed to it. They forget everything, even their own language, which is exactly what happens it Ruhl’s retold tale. So cute, clever and fitting for Ruhl’s version of this myth. This is just the beginning, or a small portion of why it is so important to understand the myth before you get to fully appreciate Ruhl’s version.
There are also several directors’ notes that must be communicated to the audience in a straight forward manner. One example is the appearance of the underworld. It is stated on the first page of the play that the underworld should look more like a scene from Alice in Wonderland rather than the classical idea of the scary dark and meek idea that most individuals who are familiar with Greek mythology have. I think that this note was made so that in the design plan, there could be several added features that would give the story so many more different layers to play with. In Ruhl’s play, the Ruler of the Underworld explained to Orpheus that they liked to keep the underworld real comfortable so that people sent there would not mind staying there. An example of added layers is this comment. Yes the Ruler of the Underworld says that he provides a good atmosphere to keep those he rules happy, OR he could have just been saying this to make Orpheus think that Eurydice want to stay because the Ruler of the Underworld wants to make Eurydice his wife. It just works…
It should be addressed that this play moves along very quickly. At the beginning of the piece, two young children are in love and speak about marriage in youthful idioms and metaphors. Then into the next scene they are at their wedding. It is almost like time is flying and that we are just whizzing through this play. It may seem just like that, but upon studying the original myth, it happens just the same way. As in wedding, death, second death. Luckily, this play ends on a much happier note than the original myth. At the end of the original myth, Orpheus looks back at Eurydice before she is out of the underworld; she is then taken away from him for good. Orpheus proceeds to play his sad music and is killed by an angry band of Maenads who tore him to pieces. His head and his lyre were found by a Thracian Muse, (one of his people), and was buried by Mount Apollo.
In Ruhl’s version however, Eurydice calls Orpheus’ name and causes him to turn around sending her back to the underworld. There is no concrete statement for what happens to Orpheus, I don’t think he gets killed by a band of Maenads because it is not stated, but to my interpretation, he too is sent back to the underworld ending this story with a happily ever after.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sounds and Images for the World of the Play
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl
1.
http://newcritics.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/Eurydice2.jpg
2.
http://obit-mag.com/media/image/landing(2).gif
3.
http://www.playbill.com/images/photo/3/1/31CA8018D73C479798E8E664DB2DB773.jpg
4.
http://www.variety.com/graphics/photos/reviewe/reur.jpg
5.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theater/v034/34.2weckwerth_fig01.html
Original composed music for a past production of Eurydice can be heard at this web address:
http://www.wilmatheater.org/seasons/2007-2008/Eurydice/Music_Info.htm
More sounds and descriptions that can be used to describe the world of the play:
1.
http://newcritics.com/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/Eurydice2.jpg
2.
http://obit-mag.com/media/image/landing(2).gif
3.
http://www.playbill.com/images/photo/3/1/31CA8018D73C479798E8E664DB2DB773.jpg
4.
http://www.variety.com/graphics/photos/reviewe/reur.jpg
5.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theater/v034/34.2weckwerth_fig01.html
Original composed music for a past production of Eurydice can be heard at this web address:
http://www.wilmatheater.org/seasons/2007-2008/Eurydice/Music_Info.htm
More sounds and descriptions that can be used to describe the world of the play:
- The underworld looks more like Alice in Wonderland than it does the underworld. (Director's Note)
- Ocean- sound clip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7549.html
- Water-sound clip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7388.html Drip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7365.html
- Sounds of brilliance- sound clip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7433.html-
- Rain- sound clip- http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7506.html
- Elevator ding-sound clip
- Mean children bickering- sound clip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7447.html
- Wedding music- sound clip
- Sounds of falling down a flight of stairs- sound clip
- Train- sound clip http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7122.html
- Water in rusty pipes- sound clip-http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7561.html
- Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree and I got Rhythm
- Tricycle bell- http://free-loops.com/download-free-loop-7123.html
Sounds and Images for the World of the Play
Original Myth of Orpheus
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HeUY-A2efl4/SMP92-88jGI/AAAAAAAABkc/LUsaAgW99mE/s400/OrpheusandEurydice.jpg
2.
http://www.classicartrepro.com/data/large/Watts/Orpheus_&_Eurydice.jpg
3.
1.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HeUY-A2efl4/SMP92-88jGI/AAAAAAAABkc/LUsaAgW99mE/s400/OrpheusandEurydice.jpg
2.
http://www.classicartrepro.com/data/large/Watts/Orpheus_&_Eurydice.jpg
3.
4.
http://www.ancient-bulgaria.com/2006/08/
1. Orpheus and Eurydice on their wedding day.
2. Eurydice after stepping on the poisonous viper.
3. Orpheus and Eurydice pulled away from each other for the second and final time.
4. Orpheus' head found by a Muse after the Maendas tore him to pieces.
http://www.deathreference.com/Nu-Pu/Orpheus.html
5.
http://www.pulseartstudio.com/13StringCarvedLyre.htm
http://www.ancient-bulgaria.com/2006/08/
1. Orpheus and Eurydice on their wedding day.
2. Eurydice after stepping on the poisonous viper.
3. Orpheus and Eurydice pulled away from each other for the second and final time.
4. Orpheus' head found by a Muse after the Maendas tore him to pieces.
http://www.deathreference.com/Nu-Pu/Orpheus.html
5.
http://www.pulseartstudio.com/13StringCarvedLyre.htm
Monday, July 20, 2009
The World of the Play
Important Facts about Eurydice there and then and here and now.
Original Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
• Orpheus's father could either be the Thracian King, Oeagrus, or the God Apollo. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz1836211506d60.html
• Orpheus is the best musician that ever lived; he controlled the world around him with his beautiful melodies.
http://www.loggia.com/myth/orpheus.html
• On their wedding day, Eurydice met Aristaeus who tried to rape her, running away from him; Eurydice dies from accidentally stepping on a viper whose venom kills her instantly.
http://www.amrep.org/articles/4_4a/myth.html
• Eurydice does not have a father in Hades, she was simply sent to the underworld after her tragic death.
• The River Lethe made the shades of the underworld forget their former lives. http://www.theriverstyx.net/
• Orpheus charmed Cerberus - the three-headed monster dog of Hades who guarded the Underworld - into letting him pass.
http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/Orpheus.html
• The Muses found his torn body and buried it in the sanctuary of the island. His limbs they gathered and placed in a tomb at the foot of Mount Olympus, and there to this day the nightingales sing more sweetly than anywhere else. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/eurydice/eurydicemyth.html
• Orpheus' key instrument was the Lyre. He used it to play enchanting music that put all things, even the wild beasts of the underworld into a calm trance.
http://www.amrep.org/articles/4_4a/myth.html
Sarah Ruhl's Retold Version of this Greek Myth
• Orpheus is classified as a young prince with no mentioning of his parents.
• He is the most talented musician in the world.
• On their wedding day, a Nasty/Interesting Man (also the ruler of the underworld) convinces Eurydice to join him to his apartment to retrieve a letter from her father. Eurydice dies from accidentally tripping down a flight of stairs of 600 steps running away from the man.
• The character ‘Father’ was added in to this retold version of the Greek myth.
• The River Lethe is referred to as The River of Forgetfulness.
• The three Stones represent the three headed dog Cerbrus who guarded the gates of the underworld.
• At the end of this retold tale, Orpheus goes straight back into the underworld, this time not as a hero but as a resident.
• The instrument Orpheus uses to plan his trip to the underworld is a guitar.
Original Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
• Orpheus's father could either be the Thracian King, Oeagrus, or the God Apollo. http://www.funtrivia.com/playquiz/quiz1836211506d60.html
• Orpheus is the best musician that ever lived; he controlled the world around him with his beautiful melodies.
http://www.loggia.com/myth/orpheus.html
• On their wedding day, Eurydice met Aristaeus who tried to rape her, running away from him; Eurydice dies from accidentally stepping on a viper whose venom kills her instantly.
http://www.amrep.org/articles/4_4a/myth.html
• Eurydice does not have a father in Hades, she was simply sent to the underworld after her tragic death.
• The River Lethe made the shades of the underworld forget their former lives. http://www.theriverstyx.net/
• Orpheus charmed Cerberus - the three-headed monster dog of Hades who guarded the Underworld - into letting him pass.
http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/Orpheus.html
• The Muses found his torn body and buried it in the sanctuary of the island. His limbs they gathered and placed in a tomb at the foot of Mount Olympus, and there to this day the nightingales sing more sweetly than anywhere else. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/eurydice/eurydicemyth.html
• Orpheus' key instrument was the Lyre. He used it to play enchanting music that put all things, even the wild beasts of the underworld into a calm trance.
http://www.amrep.org/articles/4_4a/myth.html
Sarah Ruhl's Retold Version of this Greek Myth
• Orpheus is classified as a young prince with no mentioning of his parents.
• He is the most talented musician in the world.
• On their wedding day, a Nasty/Interesting Man (also the ruler of the underworld) convinces Eurydice to join him to his apartment to retrieve a letter from her father. Eurydice dies from accidentally tripping down a flight of stairs of 600 steps running away from the man.
• The character ‘Father’ was added in to this retold version of the Greek myth.
• The River Lethe is referred to as The River of Forgetfulness.
• The three Stones represent the three headed dog Cerbrus who guarded the gates of the underworld.
• At the end of this retold tale, Orpheus goes straight back into the underworld, this time not as a hero but as a resident.
• The instrument Orpheus uses to plan his trip to the underworld is a guitar.
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