Wyoming Seminary Players undergo ‘Metamorphoses’
From a press release:
A man with the golden touch seeks an end to his curse, while another man can never find enough to eat. One couple is separated by Death at their wedding, while another is joined together for eternity when they die.
These ancient stories and more are presented in Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning play “Metamorphoses,” which the Wyoming Seminary Players will present on Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8. Curtain is at 8 p.m. in the Upper School’s Buckingham Performing Arts Center (201 N. Sprague Ave., Kingston). Free-will donations will be taken at the door.
“Metamorphoses” is based on Ovid’s collection of ancient Greek transformation myths. American playwright and director Mary Zimmerman premiered the play in 1996 as “Six Myths” at Northwestern University and later at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. In February 2002, the play opened on Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre and won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director, as well as two Drama Desk Awards and other national awards.
Presented as a series of vignettes, the production begins with the creation story and continues with the stories of King Midas, Alcyone and Ceyx, Erysichthon, Orpheus and Eurydice, Pomona and Vertumnus, Myrrha, Phaeton, Apollo, Eros and Psyche, and Baucus and Philemon. Current language and images are used in the production, and the action takes place around two pools of water; the water represents the play’s central theme that everything in life undergoes change.
“I love this show because I think it has meaningful messages about both the beauty and pain of change, but most importantly, the inevitability of change,” says Lydia Traill, chair of the Sem English department, who is directing the show.
“I believe this show also has not been performed in this area, so to do something new is always exciting. And who would not want to direct a play with a swimming pool on stage?”
This performance is part of the 2014-15 Wyoming Seminary fine and performing arts program. For more information, call the Sem Communications Office at 570-270-2192.
Photo of junior Jabrea Patterson, Wilkes-Barre, courtesy of Wyoming Seminary
