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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

​IU Theatre’s production of 'Antigone' to open today

Second-year M.F.A student Ashley Dillard performs as her character Antigone in the Greek tragedy "Antigone" during the show's rehearsal Monday evening at the Wells-Metz Theatre. The show's first performance will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Wells-Metz Theatre.

A warm yellow spotlight shone through the fog onstage to represent the rising sun in the opening scenes of a dress rehearsal of IU Theatre’s 
production of “Antigone.”

The show opens 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Wells-Metz Theatre. Further performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and Dec. 8 through 11 and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12.

The original play was written by Sophocles in ancient Greece, but the version coming to the stage Friday is a much newer take on the classic story, rewritten by Jean Anouilh in 1943.

“It has themes that are very close to today’s world in terms of politics and how transparent a leader should be, fighting against tyranny, which is a big thing right now, standing up against those who are trying to destroy,” director Katie Horwitz said.

Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and tries to obtain a respectable burial for her brother, Polynices, after Creon, the king of Thebes, decrees Polynices is not to be buried or even mourned. His edict states anyone caught trying to bury the body will be sentenced to death.

The updated take gives the audience more room to make up their mind about who they agree with, Horwitz said. Antigone is not a completely good hero, and Creon is not completely a bad villain, and this creates tension between the two characters.

This conflict is shown not only through the acting, but with the visual structure of the set as well.

This production of Antigone relates more to the modern world than to its ancient origins. Its freshness is shown with contemporary dance sequences made powerful with precisely designed lighting and modern costumes that include leather leggings, combat boots and 
tuxedos.

“I think people will be afraid that it’s a Greek play that they have to sit through, and it’s not,” Horwitz said. “It’s a contemporary play that is incredibly active and full of life. It deals with themes that are incredibly valid to today, and I think the classical story is beautiful.”

An often overlooked visual element is lighting. Lighting designer Carrie Barton said a rule for lighting is if it’s bad, the audience will notice, but if it’s good, it will remain unnoticed.

“In the argument between Creon and Antigone, you start seeing a power shift,” Barton said. “We show that shift by adding tension with lighting, using a warmer color and introducing angles that we haven’t seen in previous cues.”

Barton said she records all of the cues from the script into the lighting console, and the stage manager uses actors’ lines as guides to cue the specific lighting numbers to the light board operator via headset.

There are an estimated 100 lighting cues throughout the show with different combinations of almost 300 lights arranged into different channels and systems, Barton said. As well as these basic spotlights and overhead lights, there are gobos, or “goes before optics,” which filter the lights into patterns.

“Patterns in the light help add an extra layer to the set,” Barton said. “Actors can play in and out of the light at the same time, and so they can be duplicitous in how they act. When there’s something a little more sinister in their character, the light and shadow helps to show that.”

Throughout the show, there are several flashbacks and interjections from the chorus of mythological Fates. Barton said the extreme drama of these 
sequences can be emphasized with lighting.

“With lighting, it puts it in the setting that it should be,” Barton said. “The lighting for this show has been such a treat because I have these breaks from the story in which I get to break free from the script and design to the feeling and the emotion and the grit of it. What really interests me about lighting is that it’s something so intangible and yet at the same time, with a simple light, you can affect so many people.”

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