Woodlawn Theatre in San Antonio auditions for Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Matthew Byron Cassi at the Woodlawn Theatre - Black Box, 1920 Fredericksburg Rd (click for map) on Mon Sept 10th and Tues Sept 11th, potential callback on Wed, Sept 12th. Performance Dates: November 9th - 25th, 2012. Rehearsals: October 2012 Sun-Thurs 7-10pm. Read Through: Sunday, Sept 30th, 2012 7pm
Ruhl's vision of the Orpheus myth from Eurydice's point of view begins as Eurydice dies on her wedding day. "Determined to be reunited with his beloved wife, Orpheus journeys through the Underworld intent on bringing Eurydice back to the land of the living. Eurydice, now reunited with her dearly loved late father, must choose between the love of her father and love for her husband. Emotions collide as she tries to hold on to love and life while discovering the harsh and tragic rules of death, memory and choices." In Sarah Ruhl's world, stones can talk, the dead can send letters to the living, and the devil connives to send a fragile bride to her death so he can court her in the afterlife. On the far side of the river of forgetting, memory fades and the ability to read disappears. Young Orpheus, bereft in this life, telephones a long-distance information operator in an effort to try to locate his dead wife.
Despite the striking mythic beauty of its concepts, Ruhl's Eurydice made me profoundly uneasy last year when Different Stages did it at the City Theatre. Perhaps because the shade of Eurydice's father clings to his memories and continues to dream of her, despite the emptiness and unchanging nature of life after death.
Jamie Goodwin as the quietly grieving dead father has depth, dignity and stature, in contrast to the simplicity of Nathan Brockett and Cassidy Schiltz as the eternally naive lovers.
Received directly:
The 38th anniversary season at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre
presents
Sarah Ruhl's
EURYDICE
directed by Michelle Polgar and featuring Equity guests Jamie Goodwin and David Stahl
February 3 – 13, 2011
Thursdays–Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward’s University
3001 South Congress Avenue (Campus map: http://www.stedwards.edu/map/)
Reserved Seating Tickets available through the MMNT box office at 448-8484.
Advance $15 ($12 students, seniors, St. Edward’s community), All tickets $18 at the door.
Box office is open 1-5 p.m. Monday–Friday and 1 hour prior to curtain.
SPECIAL STUDENT NIGHT: Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. (all student tickets half price with ID)
Orpheus and Eurydice are in love — crazy, delirious love. All is going well until a strange man lures Eurydice away from her wedding reception with a letter from her long-dead father. This luminescent, lyrical and surprisingly funny play weaves a tale of love, compassion, memory and longing, reminding us of the enduring bonds of love.
Ruhl’s story is a contemporary re-imagining of the classic Orpheus myth, where the young lovers are torn apart on their wedding day by the bride’s untimely death. Distraught, Orpheus resolves to retrieve her, using his music to charm the guardians of the underworld. The Lord of The Underworld agrees to release her, so long as Orpheus does not turn to see her until they are both safely above ground.
“I've always been fascinated by Greek myth, and I like that everyone knows a story I'm telling,” says Ruhl. “There's a kind of structural vibration in knowing what the bones of the story are, but not how it's going to be told. It's the change-ups that are the sticking points." And change-ups abound. Ruhl tells the story from Eurydice’s perspective and adds Eurydice’s Father to the mix. The play is rife with theatrical flair, quirky humor, and a heart full of love and longing.
A Pulitzer finalist, winner of a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Sarah Ruhl is one of the finest playwrights of her generation. Other works include The Clean House, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Melancholy Play, In The Next Room and Orlando.
“ [R]hapsodically beautiful. [A] love letter to the world.” NY Times
About St. Edward's University Founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St. Edward's University is named among the top five "Up-and-Coming Universities" in the Western Region by its academic peers in a 2011 U.S. News & World Report survey. For eight consecutive years St. Edward's has been recognized as one of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report and this year by Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. St. Edward's is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university of more than 5,200 students located in Austin, Texas. For more information on St. Edward’s University, visit www.stedwards.edu.
UPDATE: Click for ALT review, January 11
Experience the fantastic and hallucinatory myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine, Eurydice. Eurydice journeys through the jaws of death into the Underworld where she happily reunites with her father who teaches her about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory. There, washed in the river of forgetfulness, she struggles to remember her lost love.
Things become more complicated when the malevolent Lord of the Underworld wants Eurydice for his bride, and a chorus of stones try to coerce her into conforming to the rigid rules of the Underworld. With humor, contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.
