Hi Cathy,
Such a great show! We did Antigone Now several years ago to much success. As for style, we kept it modern day and because we wanted to make it a bit more relevant to our audience we used downtown Denver as our representation of Thebes (our school is located in the south Denver metro area so this hit home for our audience). We went with a war-torn Denver theme and used part of the Denver skyline in our poster/program design. We kept the set pretty simple and representational with a bit of an industrial feel. What little furniture we had was made out of speed-rail metal piping and darkly stained wood. We gave Antigone a biker jacket and covered her in tattoo's to give her that rough, rebellious look while Ismine was in simple ,brightly colored dresses to show her innocence and naivety.
In preparing for the show, we did have the cast/crew research Greek theatre and particularly the original Antigone script along with the times, the gods, the political climate, etc. so they had a good understanding of this story as a whole. When we do productions like this we typically spend at least a week just researching the historical content and context needed to accurately understand the show. This goes a long way into creating a dynamic performance.
Even though this show takes place in modern day, we did want to give that nod to (and a bit of transition from) ancient Greece and their traditional theatrical style. With the Prologue we split the lines between four people. A new person would speak at each new sentence, or sometimes we would even split a single sentence between actors to give the delivery the feel of the ancient Greek chorus'. We also put the actor's in masks for the Prologue, again as a nod to the Greek theatre. However, instead of using ancient masks we used industrial, steampunk style masks to keep with the modern day style in the set. This worked really well for us and was a nice way to pay homage to traditional Greek theatre while also keeping within the modern day style.
We made the choice to make the chorus more hands on throughout the show rather than just observing like traditional chorus' did. So part of our chorus was a two person on-location news reporter team. One person was the cameraman and the other the reporter. Reporters can go anywhere and have access to all sorts of information (just like a Greek chorus knows everything) so this concept played well within this story/script. The other part of the chorus were two prison guards who escort Antigone to court and prepare her for her death and ultimately deliver the lethal injection.
This is a very intriguing show with a lot of creative potential. And I think the author does a good of allowing for artistic license in how you choose to modernize it, there are so many possibilities. Hopefully this gives you a bit of inspiration for your production. If you have any questions feel free to reach out and ask.
Good luck!
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Jillian Lietzau
Lutheran High School
CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-24-2023 17:12
From: Cathy Archer
Subject: Antigone Now
My students and I are embarking on a production of Antigone Now. I am curious how others handled the time change? Did you reference Ancient Greece or keep it totally in the now? or did you set it totally ancient? What were some of the difficulties you encountered in working with this script? My students really love the script but are also confused by it. Any help would be appreciated!
Cathy
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Cathy Archer
EdTA Member or Troupe Director
Rutland High School
VT
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