Elektra, of course, was an amazing experience.  All the plays have been for me, but I could not/cannot stop thinking about what we achieved this time.  We played to our largest public audiences ever, and the weather was divine.  There should be a DVD available by the end of the semester.

The next Greek Play will be in Greece!  It will be the centennial of Miss Mabel’s first play, and so we’ll do Alcestis in honor of her and her students.  It will be part of the summer study seminar “Practical Wisdom: Philosophy and Drama in Greece” led by me and David Schwartz.  Letters will go out this week to a wonderful group of students, who will put on a play as part of the course.  It won’t be as full a production as in the Dell, but it promises to be unforgettable.

And I just discovered Google Calendar. Our schedule and agenda will be able to be viewed by all the company who need it in many forms in many places, and crew chiefs can edit it and add events.

Right now I wanted to share how serendipity (or Miss Mabel, or Dionysus) is watching over us: I got a call from Martha at the Maier Museum on Friday asking me to come meet Betty Jo Harper, ‘50, who was in the 1948 Bacchae. Not only did Betty Jo show me a wonderful photograph of her and the Chorus she was in, but she also told me about a profile of Miss Mabel that she had written for volume III of Randolph-Macon Prose and Verse, a collection of student writings published in 1951.

This morning she brought me the book. I am, to put it mildly, overwhelmed. The essay, beautifully written, gives a clear sense of Miss Mabel’s personality and what it was like to be her student. There are other sources for Dr. Whiteside’s professional history (not that Betty Jo neglects that aspect), but this is my first chance to learn some of her idiosyncracies, and more details about how they used to produce the Play.

I’m so grateful to Mrs. Harper! I plan to ask for permission to put the essay (and more pictures of Miss Mabel) on the official Greek Play site. In the meantime, I’m starting to get a much better idea about the acting job I have to do in six weeks!

In her second Greek Play outing, Brittany Costa will play the title role. We can’t wait to see her singing and dancing in the Dell.

Anneka Freeman will show off her prodigious versatility by playing two men and a woman. She’ll be the only one who has to manage a really quick change, when at one point she has to switch from the Tutor, who has just reported in detail (but falsely) the death of Orestes, into Chrysothemis as she runs in to say that she’s sure that Orestes has come home.

Adam Brown will break new ground for the Greek Play. Taking us back, of course, to the way the Greeks did it, he’ll be the first man to be an actor in the Whiteside Greek Theatre. He’ll play both Elektra’s brother Orestes and their mother Klytemnestra.

Lorenzo Alvarez will join him in our new gender-blind era as the first male member of a Chorus in the Dell. Laura Allan, a veteran of the Clouds Chorus, will be able to show him the ropes. Also in the Chorus: Kimberly Nesbitt, who auditioned from Reading, England; Megan and Alexandra Barrett, making their theatrical debuts; and Rhiannon Knol, who may also accompany the singers.

Rounding out the cast for now (until we audition first-years to fill out the Chorus in the fall) are Nicole McLoud, Dani Dunn, and E.J. Tate.

Now we start making costumes and masks. Let us know if you want to help!

More great crew news: Olivia Vescovo has agreed to stage manage, and Raquel Cruz is pulling together a design team for the set. Brandi Bowling, from the Cloud Chorus, is leading off the Groupie Crew until she graduates, when she’ll leave it in the good hands of Brandon Morgan, Caleb Moxley, and Ashley Haugh (also a Cloud!).

Melissa showed us some great first drawings of the costumes (purples, browns, and greens . . .), and I think there’s going to be some actual spring sewing after dance concert finishes up.

Look for strange activity in the dining hall this week as we encourage people to try out.

And let me know what you would like to see posted here. What should I blog about?

Cast coming soon . . .

They join Lauren Reding (assistant director); Johna Strickland and Natalie Fort (producers), Dariana Fitzgerald (master carpenter); Naomi Fritts, Brittany Stallings, and Verity Ste. Marie (mask masters); and Ashley Haugh (chief groupie). The rest of the crew, creative and technical, are forming right now.

I seem to have a *remarkably* long to-do list for 7 months before the play, but that always seems to be the way of things. I’ll do the new Melpomene update tonight, and the script will be in the library tomorrow (thank you, typing fairies).

I met a great prospective today (hey, Elizabeth!), who’s definitely coming, and I suspect we’ll see her at first-year auditions on September 1.

Which reminds me: one request I had today was a list of *hard* dates. So here they are:

• April 13, 14 (4:30)–general auditions
• April 15–cast list, sign up for mask and costume fittings
• April 15 to May 15–as much mask and costume construction as possible
• April 27–cast and crew cookout
• Summer–learn lines, lyrics, as much mask, costume, and set construction as possible
• August 25 to 31–3 Actors rehearse during orientation
• September 1–first-year and latecomer auditions
• September 2–first readthrough and cast and crew dinner
• September 3 to October 9–regular rehearsals
• October 10, 11, 12 (4pm)–performances

I hope that helps.

Off to hear about Thracian horses.