Eurydice
Written by: Sarah Ruhl
Directed by: Derek Goldman
November 9th-11th and 15th-18th at 8 PM, November 12th at 2 PM
The Theater Program at Georgetown University continues its revelatory new season, Classics re-Visioned, with Sarah Ruhl's widely acclaimed drama, Eurydice, on November 9-11 at 8 PM, November 12th at 2PM and November 15-18 at 8PM in The Gonda Theatre of the new Royden B. Davis Performing Arts Center.
This area premiere from the Sarah Ruhl, 2006 MacArthur "Genius Grant" winner and author of The Clean House as well as A Passion Play, boldly reimagines the tragic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, with a mix of poetic imagery, contemporary characters, and surprising twists.
On her wedding day, a cruel fate befalls the young Eurydice when she tragically falls to her death. Crossing over to the underworld, Eurydice is met by her long since departed father. It is here, in the land of the dead with her father at her side that Eurdice's disquieted spirit - long weighed down by the anxieties and fears of the mortal world - is born anew. The arrival of her husband Orpheus, who has made the perilous journey to the underworld to rescue his bride, proves to be bittersweet as Eurydice is forced to make a horrible choice: return to the land of the living never to see her father again or remain in the land of the dead and never again embrace her husband. The result is at once playful and profound -- a lyrical exploration of music and memory, and of love and loss. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood recently called the play "Devastatingly lovely... the most moving exploration of the theme of loss that the American theater has produced since the events of Sept. 11, 2001."
Derek Goldman, Associate Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University, directs a superb cast that features nine Georgetown undergraduates, graduate students, and professional guest artists. Dr. Goldman is the Founding Artistic Director of the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, an award-winning theatre founded in Chicago in 1992 and now based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Among more than fifty productions as a professional director and published adapter/playwright, Goldman has directed Off-Broadway and worked regularly with regional theatres such as Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. His work has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Joseph Jefferson Award, the Spectator Award for Best Director, and many others.
Goldman commented that "the opportunity to work with a wonderful set of students and professional collaborators on this exquisite new play by America's most talked about and most exciting young playwright is a real gift to the students at Georgetown. It will be a pleasure to extend that gift to our audiences on and beyond campus, for whom this production will provide a first glimpse at what is already becoming one of the most celebrated new plays of the decade." Among the many deep registers the play taps are issues of family, mourning, faith, longing, the role of the artist in society, young love, and the relative benefits of remembering and forgetting.
Goldman is joined by special guest artist, Clint Ramos, who will design costumes and scenery. Ramos designs costumes and scenery for theatre, dance, opera and film throughout the US and abroad, including the recent premiere of Angels in America for the Boston Opera. Last Year he designed costumes for The Winter's Tale at the Davis Center. Georgetown's own Robbie Hayes will design the lights.
The second of four plays featured in Classics re-Visioned, Eurydice testifies to the Georgetown University Theater Program's vitality and remarkable recent growth. It also honors the new Davis Center's mission to bring outstanding theater to life, including new works, through collaboration with professional artists, educational outreach, and an integration of critical and creative inquiry.
Tickets can be ordered online or by calling (202) 687-ARTS. Price of admission is $15 (general seating), $12 (faculty and staff) and $7 (students).
