April was previously seen in the Classical Greek Theatre Festival as Deianeira in
Women of Trachis. Other local credits include Mercury, Bull Shark Attach, and Blackberry
Winter (Salt Lake Acting Company; Mestiza (or, Mixed), The Audacity, and Pilot Program
(Plan-B Theatre Company); A Streetcar Named Desire (The Grand Theatre); Stage Kiss
(Wasatch Theatre Company); August: Osage County (Silver Summit/Utah Rep); and Titus
Andronicus (Pinnacle Acting Company). Regional credits include work with Berkeley
Repertory Theatre and the California Shakespeare Festival.
Mark Fossen has worked as an actor, director, dramaturg, and teacher in the Salt Lake
Area since 2005. As an actor, he has been seen in work with Plan-B Theatre, PYGmalion,
Meat & Potato, and more. Directing credits include The Grand, HCTO, Westminster, and
others. National credits include the California and Idaho Shakespeare Festivals, Berkeley
Repertory Theatre, and Chicago’s Steppenwolf. BA, University of Utah. MFA, University
of Idaho.
Tom is a recent transplant to Utah after 30+ years in New York. Following a career
in the business world, Tom is excited to get back to his first love – Theatre. Developing
new scripts has been the focus of his Theatre experience; first as the co-founder
of the Bloomington Playwrights Project (now called Constellation Stage and Screen),
then at the New Playwrights Theatre in Washington, DC, and during his grad school
years in Iowa. Trained as an Actor and Director, Tom has a BA from Indiana University
and an MFA from the University of Iowa.
Vicki has been acting, directing, and producing theater in the Salt Lake area for
over 35 years. Her education comes from Southern Utah University, the University of
Utah, and life. Medea is her second show with the Greek Theater Festival having performed
in Antigone in 2012. These Greek plays are some of the most challenging theater experiences
of her career. She believes Euripides would be shocked and pleased to know his show
was still being performed 2,400 years later.
Ariana holds a BFA from the University of Utah’s Actor Training Program (Magna Cum
Laude) and has worked professionally in local and regional theater for over 20 years.
Most recently she wrote, co-produced, and starred in Role Play at the Salt Lake Fringe
Festival, with Immigrant’s Daughter, a local theater and performing arts company for
which she serves as managing director.
Viviane Turman is a Westminster alumnus with a BFA in Theatre Performance. Their regional
acting credits include The Fossil Record (Elise), To Kill A Mockingbird (Mayella Ewell),
The Drowning Girls (Margaret), The Moors (Marjory), Malleable Vulnerability (Artist),
Mr. Burns (Jenny/Lisa), The Women of Trachis (Chorus), Macbeth (Witch 3/ Lennox),
Herakles (Protester/Chorus, Puppeteer), and Didn’t Go as Planned (Kathy).
Shane is a fourth-grade student at Redeemer Lutheran School. He has performed as a
chorus member in many school plays and musicals. He loves to play the piano and sing
in the school choir.
Heidi Farber is a seventh-grade student at Redeemer Lutheran School. She has performed
in many school plays and musicals. Her favorite role was as Imogene Herdman in the
Best Christmas Pageant ever. She is an avid musician, and she plays the piano, electric
guitar, rhythm guitar, and ukulele.
Katelynn Smith is currently a Senior Theatre Performance major at Westminster College.
Some favorite shows include The Thanksgiving Play (Logan), As You Like It (Jaques),
and Mamma Mia! (Donna).
Emily Kitterer is an Alumni of Westminster College with her BFA in Theatre Performance.
Some of her credits include: Defying Gravity (Teacher), As You Like It (Duke Senior),Stop
Kiss! (Nurse), Gaslight (Nancy), Men on Boats (Seneca Howland), Tragedy Averted (Police
Officer) with Pygmalion Productions, Wild Magic, Quiet Chaos (Silas) with Comet Sweeper
Theatre and SNAPSHOT (Isabel) with Sasquatch Theatre Co.
Emilio has been working with the Classical Greek Theatre Festival since 2011, going
from crew (Iphigenia in Tauris ’11), to stage manager (Oedipus, ’13), to assistant
director (Electra ’16, Herakles ’17), to director (Prometheus ’19) and now proudly
serves as the Artistic Director of this distinct organization as it carries on into
its fifth decade. Recent scenic design credits include La Bohème, L’elisir d’amore,
and A Little Night Music for Westminster Opera Studio as well as The Christians and
Eurydice at Good Co. Theatre. Recent directing credits include Man and Moon with Good
Company Theatre, The Telephone and Il Combatimento di Tancredi with Opera Contempo,
Opera Scenes with La Musica Lirica (an Opera Training program in Italy), and coming
up he will be directing Sleeping Giant at Salt Lake Acting Company.
Stephanie Stroud is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Westminster College. As an
actor and director, Stephanie has worked with such Chicago companies as Mortar Theater
Company, Saltbox Collective, Pegasus Players, Chicago Dramatists, Something Marvelous,
Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Profiles, and Second City. Stephanie is a member of
the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Actors' Equity, American Theater Movement
Educators, and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.
Meghan Durham Wall is a dance artist, educator, and advocate who lives, works, and
creates on the ancestral lands of the Ute, Goshute, and Eastern Shoshone people. She
focuses on community engagement and human connection through dance. Meghan’s creative
works as a professional performer and choreographer have been produced in Illinois,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Singapore.
Kyle has 15+ years of experience as a performer, designer, composer, and director.
He studied musical theater at Weber State University, and has a Level 1 Certification
in Evidence Based Voicework. He’s composed musicals with his partner, Porter, and
frequently creates music for Good Company Theatre in Ogden. Sound design credits with
Good Company Theatre include Man and Moon, Two Character Play, Ripped, The Jungle,
The Children.
Oedipus the King is an Eye-Popping Tragedy
September 8, 2013 by Russell Warne
SALT LAKE CITY—At the end of Westminster University's production of Oedipus the King, a chorus of nine actors sang the haunting words, "Call no man happy until that person dies free from sorrow." In other words, no matter how prosperous a person seems to be, until death it is always possible that a single tragedy could wipe out his happiness. Oedipus the King is an ancient Greek tragedy about the king of Thebes, a great city which has been beset by tragedy. When Creon (Oedipus's brother-in-law, played by Michael Calicino) returns from the oracle at Delphi, he explains that the gods have said through an oracle that the previous king's murderer is in Thebes and must be executed in order for Thebes to find peace again. Written by Sophocles, it is probably the most famous surviving Greek tragedy and has political and personal themes that resonate today. Presented by the Classical Ancient Greek Theatre Festival, this production will be touring Utah this month, bringing some of the world's oldest drama to local audiences. Dominating the production is Ryon Sharette as Oedipus. Sharette had a characteristic that I look for in an actor playing a king: dignity. Sharette's characterization of Oedipus started the play at the apex of his power and esteem. This made his eventual downfall more tragic and emphasized the ephemeral nature of wealth and power. Sharette was at his best when interacting with the other male characters in the play: Oedipus's battle of wills with the blind priest (Connor Montgomery) was a highlight of the play, and the confrontation with Creon provided enough dramatic tension to keep my interest for the middle section of the play.
I wasn't as interested in Elizabeth Summerhay's performance as Jocasta, Oedipus's wife. For the most part, Summerhays displayed a very limited range of emotion and reactions that were so subtle that many were lost to me, even though I was only sitting on the third row. This made it feel like Summerhays didn't give Sharette a lot to work with, giving their scenes together a similar tone to those of Oedipus's monologues (of which there are already plenty in the script). Summerhays did much to redeem herself in her final moments as Jocasta, but overall I wish that the only female character in the play had been more interesting.
However, Calacino's portrayal of the priest was fascinating because of the strong personality that Calacino gave his character. Calacino correctly understood that the priest, because of the supernatural understanding of the world, could provide the first challenge to Oedipus's hubris. Calacino showed this through a commanding voice, and the product of his performance was a strong setup of the play's central conflict.
Director Sandra Shotwell's goal with this production was to create a play that would be faithful to the conventions of ancient Greek theatre and show the audience why Oedipus the King is so revered in Western culture. In this she largely succeeded. Although some aspects of ancient Greek theatre (like the masks) are missing, the important pieces are there: the chorus, the limited number of speaking characters on stage at once, the direct addresses to the audience, and more. Thanks to Shotwell's direction (and Marianne McDonald's clear translation of the script), a background in theatre history or the text of the play is not necessary to understand this production.
The major downside with Shotwell's directorial choices is that faithfulness to ancient Greek theatrical conventions makes the production less accessible to modern audiences. Those who may have attended last year's production of Antigone were given a more accessible production set in modern times with contemporary costuming, props, and music that all combined to make the script relevant to today. By maintaining fidelity to ancient Greek performance tradition, Shotwell has created a work that is much closer to a museum piece than last year's Antigone and therefore difficult for modern audiences to relate to. However, the chorus was the major saving grace in making the production accessible. The nine actors—in excellent Greek fashion—effectively told the audience how to feel, what to think, and provided helpful commentary on the action. While their songs sometimes went on too long (and the choreography by Solange Gomes was understated by modern musical theatre standards), the chorus of Oedipus the King was an ideal example of what an ancient Greek chorus should be.
The emphasis of this production is on Sophocles's 2400-year-old script, so the technical elements are pretty sparse (and some, like the lighting won't even be present in performances at some of their other locations). Valerie Nishiguchi's costumes were most prominent, and all of them delineated social class of characters well and were functional enough for the chorus actors to easily dance in. Moreover, Nishiguchi wisely eschewed stereotypical Greek togas (as seen in the Festival's Iphigenia in Tauris two years ago) and instead provided a wide variety of robes, tunics, and other costume pieces that seemed more realistic. The music (composed by Cathy Neff and performed by oboist Hilary Coon) was pleasing and never strayed into the realm of tunelessness (again, unlike Iphigenia in Tauris) or repetitiveness.
Overall, though, Oedipus the King is a production that I would recommend to students and others interested in ancient Greek theatre and seeing a culturally influential play. However, the play has its boring moments that arise from the 2,400-year gulf between modern American and ancient Greece—a difference in cultures that may be too difficult to overcome. But for some people it will be worth the challenge to attend Oedipus the King, and this play, unlike its title character, certainly has no fatal flaws that should keep anyone away from it.