Tuesday evening
Yesterday was the last "evening" rehearsal; we've been having occasional night rehearsals so Kim and I can come over and contribute when our dayjobs are done. A lot of it was music rehearsals while Greg was in town (normally he's doing musical directing for Spelling Bee in Chicago, IL) but we did go through the ending and streamline it, cutting out some stuff to make the rhythm a bit faster, but also losing one joke that I can't find a place for, the lyric "And like that, Antigone's begun" when Jocasta kills herself.
When you're taking a myth like Sophocles's "Oedipus" and trying to make it child-friendly, really the only way to do it is to turn it some of the second half into a mystery. "Who killed the king? Let's search for CLUES!" Things like that. Eventually at the end the action has to prove that Oedipus killed his father and that Oedipus is Jocasta's son. It's at that point where it becomes (intentionally) absurd, because any moment where a character realizes "YOU ARE MY MOTHER?!?" can't be taken seriously. I haven't seen a real production yet of Oedipus Rex that it didn't seem like an absurd moment.
And as such, our production's key moment of realization centers around an inscribed Baklava pan that Laius gave Jocasta on their wedding day.
(But of course.)
And for the cast, who complain I don't put enough rehearsal pictures up: I go to maybe half of the rehearsals that you do; don't you have cameras? Jeez, I brought the 5 pound bag of gummi bears, isn't that enough for yas?
When you're taking a myth like Sophocles's "Oedipus" and trying to make it child-friendly, really the only way to do it is to turn it some of the second half into a mystery. "Who killed the king? Let's search for CLUES!" Things like that. Eventually at the end the action has to prove that Oedipus killed his father and that Oedipus is Jocasta's son. It's at that point where it becomes (intentionally) absurd, because any moment where a character realizes "YOU ARE MY MOTHER?!?" can't be taken seriously. I haven't seen a real production yet of Oedipus Rex that it didn't seem like an absurd moment.
And as such, our production's key moment of realization centers around an inscribed Baklava pan that Laius gave Jocasta on their wedding day.
(But of course.)
And for the cast, who complain I don't put enough rehearsal pictures up: I go to maybe half of the rehearsals that you do; don't you have cameras? Jeez, I brought the 5 pound bag of gummi bears, isn't that enough for yas?
Oedipus for Kids! plays as part of the