Actors prepare for fall semester play “Metamorphoses”
November 20, 2018
During rehearsal, senior Grace Bradley practices her role as one of the story’s narrators, which is the role she connects with the most. “She’s not a god, she’s not some mythical being like a lot of the characters, so I relate most to her, because she’s just your everyday person,” Bradley said.
Metamorphoses, a play composed of short stories from Greek mythology, is unconventional in its storytelling, which added many challenges for casting and practicing. Each cast member was given roles based on the monologue they did for the audition, as well as their movement, given its emphasis on physicality. The play was directed by theater teacher, Shaun Sheley.
“I think he [Sheley] did a really good job challenging people with characters outside of their realm of everyday being, and also, characters that they would still be drawn to,” senior Grace Bradley said.
“We did a lot of table work, we did a lot of work lifting the words off the page, and there’s a lot of physicality, so we did a lot of movement training,” Sheley said.
The set design was planned by Sheley and theater teacher Michael Perkins. With limited resources, they attempted to emulate the stage in the original play.
“The play’s supposed to have a body of water in it, we can’t do that, so we have the central pool area, which we’re going to use fabric and ball pit balls for to create an illusion of water. We have an area that’s supposed to be a heaven for the gods to come from, and the rest of it is built around the idea of the body of water, it serves as the generating pool for the metamorphosis,” Sheley said.
While the set is being finished in the blackbox, Freshman Jesus Pena practices playing the drunk man in a classroom, which was Pena’s favorite role to play. ‘I see myself as a comedian, so I like making people laugh, so when I’m so called ‘drunk’…I just see smiles on all the fellow actors…laughing with me, it just makes me feel good,” Pena said.
Cast member freshman Jesus Pena spent a lot of time perfecting his role.
“Every moment that I get of free time is just practicing my lines, making sure every detail…is on point, you can’t just feel comfortable, there’s always a way to succeed and be better at what you’re trying to do,” Pena said.
All of the many myths featured in the play are told in a way that centers around the idea of change.
“All of these myths are stories that have been passed down for hundreds of years…you know that there has to be something in them that resonates with just about everybody, or they wouldn’t keep getting told,” Bradley said.
The show was performed in the Black Box on Friday, Nov. 16 and Saturday, Nov. 15.
