"Medea" is coming to the University of Memphis Thursday.
Director Brian Fruits spent last summer in Italy learning the art of mask making. With "Medea" he wanted to incorporate this new skill and challenge himself before he graduates with a Masters in Fine Arts in Theatre from the U of M's Department of Theatre & Dance.
"I've never done this; I'm scared of it," Fruits said. "The Greeks have been around 2,800 years, so we have to think about what's the relevancy, how to stick true to the story while we take some major liberties."
In addition to guiding actors technically, Fruits tries to bring the emotions behind the dialogue to a boil.
Laura Knote plays Medea, and in order to give her a better idea of the physicality of the character, Fruits asked her to take a class in krav maga, a non-competitive form of self-defense.
"It really showed me what it's like to be weak as a woman and how to work around people to get what I want," Knote said. "To play Medea, I had to know how to be vulnerable and become vulnerable."
During one rehearsal, Fruits brought in a social worker he knows who has dealt with traumatic circumstances like the ones in "Medea." His goal was to motivate the cast and show them "Medea" isn't just an ancient tragedy, and the problems presented in the play are contemporary.
"I think it's good to recover and breathe and remind ourselves of that emotion and motivation," Fruits said while huddled with the cast after a long rehearsal. "What we do, we're all playful and pretending to be something, but in my grand scheme of things, we need to go back to the story."
The play follows Greek and Roman structure while incorporating modern elements. Akin to ancient tradition, two of the principal characters play multiple roles and a chorus of performers follows the main action. Although the original Greek chorus was composed of men, U of M's chorus is entirely women.
"The chorus is composed of dancers, singers, actresses, every kind of performer," Fruits said. "The chorus is the biggest character."
For Knote, having an all-women chorus brings a new perspective to the ancient tragedy.
"There's a scene where I get to look each [member of the chorus] in the eyes, and I know they're on my side," Knote said. "It's an awesome feeling having a group of females back me up with what I'm saying."
Masks are an integral part of the performance, another throwback to Greek tradition.
For the principal characters in the show, costumers created live castings of the actors' faces and handcrafted the masks. For the chorus, they painted paper-måché masks with contours and highlights to amplify their facial features.
"We didn't want it to be in the style of commedia dell'arte, which has very extreme character features," Meghan Miller, costume designer, said. "With this, we're calling on expressive half-masks because they have more distinct facial features so that the audience can see them from the back of the house, but they're more human in nature."
Main character Medea, however, is one of the few characters without a mask in the performance.
"Because Medea is such a mercurial character, she goes through so many different emotions and so many different highs and lows, and seeing an actress' face makes it more real and makes it easier to feel for that person," Miller said.
The only other characters in the play without masks are Medea's children, played by nine-year-old Joseph Baker and 10-year-old Reece Berry.
Kimberly Baker, Joseph's mother and alumna of the U of M theatre program, has worked with Fruits before, so when her son got the part as one of Medea's children, she wasn't worried.
"Bryan knows us really well, I trust him and I respect him," Kimberly said. "He gave Joseph a copy of the play when he got the part, and every night we'd read through it together, so now he's really into Greek mythology."
Both children were destined for life in theatre. Joseph's father, William Baker, teaches introduction to theatre at the U of M, and Reece's parents, Alice Berry and Todd Berry, are members of the Voices of the South company.
"Twenty years ago, I saw 'Medea' in London, and I never thought I'd watch my child do 'Medea' on the stage where my husband and I performed," Kimberly said. "Especially not as a child."
"Medea" runs Thursday through Saturday, April 20 this week, and April 25-27 next week. Tickets for "Medea" are currently on sale at the box office in the lobby of the Theatre Building. All U of M students receive a complimentary ticket with their student ID, and tickets are $15 for students and senior citizens and $20 for adults.
Friday is Faculty and Staff Night, and each U of M faculty and staff member may request two free tickets to the performance.
