The final four readings for The San Francisco Olympians Festival IV: Trojan Requiem happen this week! If you've made it to see some of the readings earlier in the festival, you already know what a great night of theater these can be, and if you haven't yet made it out, you only have a few chances left!
###Wednesday, 11/20 THE TOOLS at 8pm.
Eight new short plays surrounding the objects of the Trojan War (RSVP through facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/626554024056568/)
The evening includes:
GOLDEN APPLES I or “Kalisti” by Helen Noakes, directed by Robert Estes
THE HELMET by Meg O'Connor, directed by Robert Estes
THE SWORD by Tracy Held Potter, directed by Robert Estes
THE SPEAR by Neil Higgins, directed by Robert Estes
THE BOW by Sunil Patel, directed by Charles Lewis III
THE SHIELD by Meg O’Connor, directed by Charles Lewis III
THE SHIPS or “Alexis, the Bronze Age Warship” by Tracy Held Potter, directed by Charles Lewis III
GOLDEN APPLES II by Allison Page, directed by Charles Lewis III
###Thursday, 11/21 THE BATTLEFIELD at 8pm
Two new one-act plays covering the place the war happened. (RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/177309422459586/ and/or here: https://www.facebook.com/events/182302725289751/)
More about each play:
"“On the Plains of Ilium” by Jeremy Cole, featuring an ensemble of eight actors, who give voice to the plains themselves – rock, soil, stream, grass, brush, tree, wind and cloud – as they struggle to keep the ancient stories alive. Their memories, however, are imperfect and occasionally at odds with one another. What arises is an alternately sad and humorous look at heroes long departed, and an indictment of the memories held by those who remain.”
Directed by Jonathan Carpenter.
And…
"The Immortal Wall of Troy – Ancient Mother Goddess Cybele, “born of stone, boundary between that which is known and unknown” - meets Poseidon, the gorgeous young upstart Olympian, and their rocky love story survives the Trojan War, the Kocktapus, and a faulty GPS to dance the EARTHQUAKE STOMP to a new and better Olympus. "
Written by Madeline Puccioni, directed by Jonathan Carpenter.
###Friday, 11/22 THE REASON at 8pm
“Ellen's Undone,” a full-length play based on Helen of Troy by Sam Hurwitt. RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1421970784683978/.
"Theatre Bay Area editor-in-chief and Bay Area theater critic Sam Hurwitt makes his playwriting debut with a staged reading of his full-length play “Ellen's Undone,” based on the story of Helen of Troy, as part of The San Francisco Olympians Festival IV: Trojan Requiem!
We have an amazing team assembled for “Ellen's Undone,” which will star Maggie Mason and Armando McClain, directed by Mina Morita. For more info about the play and Sam's take on Helen, check out http://www.sfolympians.com/?page_id=1302”
###Saturday, 11/23 THE HORSE at 8pm
Finally, closing this year's festival we have See Also All a new full-length play by Stuart Bousel, the founder of the San Francisco Olympians Festival. RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/453801974737069/.
"Around a bonfire on an empty plain, a man tells a boy a story, that may or may not be their own story, about a pair of brothers who declare war on one another, after handsome Paris steals the wife of King Menelaus: Helen, who may or may not be a head on a stick. Woven into the tale of the war are the trials of the prophetess Cassandra, the marriage of peace-loving Andromache to valiant but doomed Prince Hector, the rise and fall of the heroic Achilles and his beloved companion Patroclus, and the twin struggles of Odysseus and Aeneas, both visionaries of their time, to protect their families from a sea of troubles while the gods of Olympus attend divine cocktail parties in heaven and battle one another on the earth. Along the way the Apocolypse may or may not occur as an incidental result of one particularly rash decision.
For eight years now I have been working on a dramatic adaptation of the Trojan War myths. It's my favorite cycle in all of mythology, and the one which most influenced not just how I write, but how I think and relate to the world and our place in it. Though on the surface this play is an experimental retelling of the Trojan War from beginning to end, it's also a meditation on identity, literature, duty, God, love, betrayal, death, fear, loyalty and survival. It's less about a war than it is about the war within any given human being, between who they are, who they aspire to be, and what role they are forced to play by the circumstances of their life. It's the darkest play I've written at the end of a period of writing dark plays, and also the most hopeful and, I think, the beginning of a more light-hearted period in my work.”
Written by Stuart Bousel, directed by Ariel Craft.
ALL shows are at the The Exit Theater (156 Eddy St, San Francisco, California), starting at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased at the door, $10, cash only (no advance tickets!).
I have the wild and crazy goal of making it out for each of these evening, we will see if that is possible as the week progresses. You should come though, you should come and watch, and be impressed by the local artists creating new work where you live! It'll make you a happier person, I promise.