Helen
Playwrights' Arena
( 08/30/2012 - 11/07/2012 )
Running Time: 90 minutes
Euripides, the most subversive of the great Greek dramatists, followed his Trojan Women just three years later by presenting an entirely alternative history of "Helen of Troy" in Helen (412 B.C.), a play now largely ignored and rarely performed. In Helen, Euripides' heroine is no wanton seductress, but rather a pious, faithful wife and a hapless victim of Olympian plots who struggles to make the best of a very bad situation. By a trick of the gods, this Helen never travels to Troy at all, but is replaced by a phantom replica on the eve of her kidnapping by Paris. The real Queen Helen is magically transported by Hermes to the isolated island of Pharos in a cloud for safekeeping, where she waits out the Trojan War in an ironic celibacy. Helen picks up the story 17 years later, as the abandoned, middle-aged queen remains stranded, ignorant of the war's outcome. As the play opens, the once-famous beauty wonders whether the gods, her husband, and the world have forgotten her forever. Needless to say, they have not, and Euripides' inventive fantasy of mistaken identities and impossible coincidences ensues.
Tickets
This production closed on 11/07/2012
Schedule
Thursday, Friday, Saturday 8pm
Venue Information
Getty Villa, Outdoor Classical Theater
17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (map)
Box Office 310 - 440-7300
on site pkg $10 after 5pm, access from Northbound PCH only
Directors / Designers
Diane Levine Producer
Nick Salamone Playwright
David O Composer
Nick Salamone Lyricist
Jon Lawrence Rivera Director
Don Hill Stage Manager
Jaclyn Kalkhurst Stage Manager
David O Music Director
John H. Binkley Scenic Designer
Mylette Nora Costume Designer
R. Christopher Stokes Lighting Designer
Bob Blackburn Sound Designer
Ken Takemoto Prop Designer
Adam Flemming Video/Projection Designer
Raul Clayton Staggs Casting Director
Russell Boast Casting Director
Mary Louise Hart Dramaturg
Emiliano Almeida Musician: Percussion
David O Musician: Keyboards
Edgar Landa Fight Choreographer
Luke Yankee Dialect Coach
Brent Crayon Musician: Keyboards
Byron Nora Assistant Costume Designer
Shaunessey Quinn Assistant Director
Daniel Segura Assistant Director
Cast
Maxwell Caulfield Menelaos
Rachel Sorsa Helen
Robert Almodovar Old Soldier
Carlease Burke Hattie
Melody Butiu Lady
Arsene Delay Cleo
Chil Kong Theoclymenus
Jayme Lake Cherry
Natsuko Ohama Theonoe
Christopher Rivas Teucer