Setting the Stage for a Collaborative Study of “Antigone”

10/9/2024

While the upper school cast of “Antigone” is in rehearsals, a few of its actors have dropped in on ninth grade English classes to help bring their study of the ancient Greek tragedy to life.

“I was really excited to hear that the students from the fall play would be coming to my class,” said Siena Olay ’28. “I enjoyed listening and watching them act it out. They did a good job.”

The classroom performances came together when Beth Manspeizer, upper school theater teacher and “Antigone” director, approached Miriam Emery, English department chair, upon learning the ninth graders were reading the play.

”Interdisciplinary collaboration is so important in education,” Manspeizer explained. “It allows faculty and students to experience a topic from so many different points of view. We are so happy to be working together.”

The ninth grade English teachers quickly embraced the idea. Emery, Lisa Green and Thomas Cusano are incorporating the performances first. Tokumbo Bodunde, Michaela Pembroke and classical studies teacher Brittany Farrar are on board to welcome the actors later this month.

Green and Cusano met with about 40 cast members for what Green described as “a rich and interesting conversation.” Manspeizer said the meeting allowed her students “to have a greater context and appreciation for their characters.” Topics ranged from power dynamics to the aftermath of war.

Manspeizer has set the play in a post-World War II era. Josie Leff ’25 plays Antigone; Ayanna Beckett ’26 is her sister, Ismene; and Emerson Riter ’25 is taking on the role of Creon, Antigone’s uncle.

“We performed the scene where Creon questions Antigone about why she went against his decree,” Riter said. “It was cool that the ninth graders had read the play and were able to understand the scene within the context of the show.”

During the talkback, Green applauded the insights the actors shared with her class.

“Emerson talked about how Creon is often portrayed as merciless and pitiless and that she wanted to show him as caring and that he actually wants to do the right thing,” Green shared. “Ayanna discussed how Ismene is often portrayed as the weaker sister and said what unifies the characters is that they're all grieving; that informs her decisions about how to play the character as a protective older sister.”

According to Green, the collaboration “reinforced the idea that when you're teaching a play, you can approach it as poetry and you can approach it through the lens of scholarship, but it's fundamentally about performance and theater, and that is just such a powerful lens for understanding it.”

Don’t miss the upper school fall play “Antigone” with performances at Estherwood Terrace on Friday, October 25, at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 26, at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; and Sunday, October 27, at 2:00 p.m.