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Medea; Rock and roll and revenge at YSU Theater
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
Chalk up another one for Adele.
The British pop singer dominated the Grammy Awards last week, largely on the strength of her uber-smash “Rolling in the Deep.”
Now comes Youngstown State University Theater’s take on the Greek tragedy “Medea,” which opens tonight. W. Rick Schilling, director, took inspiration from Adele’s song in creating his vision for the play.
In her video, Adele sits regally in a collapsing room, her hair vaguely adorned in classic Greek style. When Schilling first saw it, a light bulb went on in his mind.
Revenge is a theme that never goes out of style, and “Medea,” of course, is the mother of all revenge tales. That’s why Adele’s stark video is so perfect. In it, the singer demonstrates the calm fury building in a scorned woman’s heart.
“See how I leave with every piece of you ... don’t underestimate the things that I will do,” she sings with bitterness.
Just like Medea.
Schilling is using the song in the intro scene of the play. Other rock songs are used elsewhere.
The YSU production promises to be innovative and visually stunning, thanks to Schilling, who teaches stage design in YSU’s theater department. He has incorporated a number of cultural touchstones that span centuries, from Japanese Bunraku and Kabuki theater, to life-sized puppets, which he hand-carved out of cedar.
He also makes use of projected images on an opaque screen, which serves as a backdrop to the stage.
Schilling calls his methods “low-tech/high-tech.”
Giant butterfly puppets will light on the stage. King Creon will be represented by a giant puppet that will be handled by two students. Iconic pop-culture characters are weaved in.
And the Japanese technique of hikki nuku — basically, an elaborate mask that flips from one face to another — is used in the scene where Medea snaps.
Schilling describes the production as “a meeting of cultural worlds.”
“Medea” was written 2,400 years ago by Euripides. But YSU’s version is based on the 1946 adaptation of Robinson Jeffers, which dispenses with the play’s ancient structure and repetitious episodic plot structure in favor of the contemporary two-act form.
Jeffers’ characters also speak dialog rather than lengthy monologues; and the Greek chorus — typically 12 or more actors chanting in unison — was banished in favor of three Corinthian women who are presented in a more humanistic fashion. Courtney Auman plays the title role. The rest of the cast includes Daniel Paul Temelkoff as Jason; Matt Malloy as King Aegus; and Eric Lewis, Kathie Steeb, Alex Samuels, Connor Bezeredi, Ashley Whited, Joseph Alvey, Claire Blackledge, Natalie Martzial, Kaleigh Locketti, Brittney S. Grant, Stacie Campbell, Eric Shonk, Cheney Morgan, John Cruz and Alex Samuels.
Schilling is assisted by associate professor and costume designer Jane Shanabarger; senior theater major and costume designer Masako Hayashi; professor John Murphy, scenic and lighting designer; and freshman sound designer Britty Segal.
The additional production expenses for the costumes and masks created for “Medea” were funded in part by Roy A. Dray and Delores Sutula Dray of East Liverpool, longtime donors to Youngstown State University Theater.