Introducing... Our Newest Stone!

Welcome to Kaitlyn Lamb our newest Stone!

In taking the show to KCACTF, we had to replace one of our cast members. We were sad to loose Amber Cummings, who was so wonderful as the maiden Stone.  We’ve been lucky to get Kaitlyn Lamb to join the Eurydice team to be the new Stone. It’s a big challenge to ask someone to step into an existing show and only two weeks before opening night too! Here’s what Kaitlyn had to say about her experience so far:

I was super excited when I made the show because I remember watching it and thinking this play is crazy awesome. I had never seen anything like it and I'm just so happy to now be in it. The cast is amazing and I felt totally welcomed in by everyone. It was a bit challenging to jump into the play because we only had two weeks to work on it. It's looking great now and I can't wait for us to go to KCACTF and rock it.  

If you’ve seen the show, you know the Stones are one of the more unusual and compelling parts of the play. I asked some questions of Jessamyn Svensson, who plays one of the Stones about the intricacies of playing a Stone:

Jess in performance of Eurydice

As an actor, how have you approached the role of a stone? What has been its biggest challenges?

I approached this role by creating a character through my own history and life experiences. The most important thing for me about this role is keeping as emotionally honest as I can because the story is too important to be lost in over analyzing or thinking too much about it.

How has the director's concept of the stones as the Crone, Matron, Maiden Fates or Norns affected the role and the play for you?
 

As the crone, at first it was difficult to understand how to portray that without resorting to stereotype, it became more important to show how long my character has been in the underworld and what that meant. Was I more disconnected, was I more angry and bitter? 

 What purpose do the stones hold in the play? Why do you think they are in the play?

The stones are a throwback to old Greek plays. The chorus used to narrate offstage deaths and stuff. The stones in this show however, represent the stages of acceptance of our own mortality (if that makes sense). We still narrate, but it's more a stylistic choice than anything else I think.  

Do you think having all female stones significantly changes the play?

Yes, the female presence in the play I think places the attention and focus onto the relationships that Eurydice has with her father and husband, the fact that we are all women playing stones makes US relate a little more and think about our own relationships we had with the men in our lives before we died.

What stone symbolism is in the play? What does it say to you?

"Stone" for me is symbolic of how we as humans desire to be when dealing with pain and loss. We try and be stoney in our emotions and expression. It's a natural defense mechanism. So when we tell Eurydice to "act like a stone" because "being sad is not allowed" it's because that's how we dealt with our own pain.

Thanks to Jessamyn and Kaitlyn for sharing their thoughts – and thanks to the whole cast and crew – we’re excited to see the show this weekend at Mountain View High School: Thursday and Saturday at 7:30.
 



Moving Through The Elements with Eurydice

James Al-Shamma in his book, Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays, looks at Eurydice through the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. He says the play makes a downward arc from the highest to the lowest and assigns the following meaning and people to the elements:

Fire: Art or the artistic temperament.

This is Orpheus. He is passionate. He offers Eurydice “the sky and the stars,” and Eurydice associates him with the moon. You might say his head is in the clouds.

Air: Life

Air occupies the space below fire. Air is breath and breath is life. The Stones teach that the language of the dead is silent – like dirt, like pores. Much of life in the play is connected with language – singing, speaking, memories and stories – all of which the Stones discourage. The Shakespeare quote Father reads to Eurydice has King Lear comparing himself and Cordelia to birds in a cage. “Eurydice and her father, also suffer as trapped creatures of the air.”[1] Air most describes Eurydice and her Father.

Water: Grieving and Forgetting

Water is seen and heard and referenced throughout the entire play. Orpheus grieves for Eurydice through a dream where the lovers fall from the sky into a lake of salty tears; Eurydice is always thirsty; the Stones weep. And in some of the most iconic moments of the play, water is the cause and metaphor of forgetting. The Stones fit here; they are the guardians and supervisors of forgetting.

Earth: Death

Under water is earth. The Nasty Interesting Man and the Lord of the Underworld are both found here. The N/I Man is associated with farming with big hands like potatoes that can carry a cow in labor. The Lord of the Underworld grows downward like a turnip. He promised a wedding with a dirt-filled orchestra.

We see the downward arc of Eurydice three times throughout the play: In the opening scene Orpheus describes how Eurydice’s hair will become an instrument that will carry her into the air, to which Eurydice asks, won’t I fall when the song is over? Orpheus replies that the water-filled clouds will soften her fall. Then Eurydice falls to her death from a high-rise apartment, down 600 stairs to the Underworld. Lastly, we have Orpheus’ dream, in which the lovers topple off of Mt. Olympus. This time the clouds instead of cushioning their fall, are sharp-edged and cutting. They land in a salty lake.

Looking at the story through the four elements is intriguing. It brings new symbols and threads to the conversation. Maybe all our journeys arc through the four elements: the passion of youth, learning the art of living through the middle years, the grieving and then forgetting (finding peace?) of old age and then finally… death. Maybe they are the seasons and threads of life.

---

[1] Al-Shamma, James. Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays. P24

Eurydice Hits the Road!

No, it's not another journey to the underworld; Eurydice is heading to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region 8 at Weber State University! And the Dear Eurydice Project is going too!

If you could write one last letter to someone you’ve lost,

what would you say?

In February, UVU Theatre Department will be remounting Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl at the Kennedy Center Region 8 Theatre Festival. The play portrays the ancient Greek story of Orpheus’ famous trek into the Underworld to bring Eurydice back from the dead. Letters passed between the world of the living and the dead play a prominent role in the story.

Call for Letters

As part of the production, an art instillation in the lobby will be re-created from letters written to lost loves and we want a letter from you!

Letters to… anyone or anything you’ve loved and lost.

Letters from… you, of course. Anonymity is encouraged and please include where you’re from.

Letters on… stationary, postcards, emails, scraps of paper… anything up to one page in length.

Letters containing… words, poems, photos, doodles… anything that expresses your feelings.

Letters delivered to… Dear Eurydice Department of Theatrical Arts, UVU MS 234, 800 W. University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058-5999, deareurydice@gmail.com.