The Gorgon Sisters

As March takes centre stage, we're stepping into a world full of iconic characters from well-known stories. Each play in this month's lineup includes beloved characters, ready to leap off the page and onto your stage or classroom. So, grab your popcorn, settle in, and immerse yourself in our March Reading List. These plays promise to take you on unforgettable adventures alongside some of literature's most memorable characters. It's time for an adventure like no other!

This is a fun project to do with your students at the end of the year. At first glance it looks like an art project (and it is!) but when you peel back the layers, you’ll see that it helps students develop their decision-making and reflection skills as well. On top of that, the final piece is a visual representation of students’ successes and happy memories in their drama class. So grab your markers and get to crafting! And if you aren’t artsy or craftsy yourself, feel free to let your students take the lead on this one. Materials Needed• Small, colourful pieces of paper to make cutouts (approximately post-it note size, but use whatever is appropriate for your students) • Scissors • Markers • Tape or glue • A large piece of poster board (or another item to make the base of the poster/art piece) • Any additional decorations you wish Instruction1. As a class, have your students choose a small symbol that is easy to reproduce or cut out. You might choose hearts, snowflakes, speech bubbles, stars, clouds, leaves, or whatever you like. You can also use found items such as postcards, Instax photos, ribbons, magazine cutouts, leaves that have fallen to the ground — whatever makes sense for your class and is easily available to you. Students will be writing on the cutouts — more details on that below. Ideally, your class will choose something personalized and representative of the subject or the students themselves. If you did a class production, you might choose something related to your show. For example, if you studied The Gorgon Sisters in your class, you might make cutouts in the shape of snakes (representing the snake-hair strands). If your class really enjoyed a unit on technical theatre, you could use cutouts of lights and microphones, or you could use fabric swatches for a class that loved costume work. If your class went on a field trip or had a guest speaker that really made an impact, you could design the cutout symbols around that. 2. Each student will take one of the cutouts and write down something they’ve achieved during the class (a success, a moment they’re proud of, something they learned, etc.). Keep the memories positive and encourage students to write in their own words: “I loved playing Heracles in The Gorgon Sisters,” “I learned so much from our stage makeup unit,” “I’ll never forget laughing really hard during improv class,” “I made so many new friends this semester,” “I’m proud of myself for performing a monologue for the first time.” It’s up to you whether you want your students to sign their cutouts or not. 3. Use the cutouts to make a poster or art piece, and display it with the class title and date, semester, or year. There are many different ways to create the piece. Going with the example of The Gorgon Sisters above, you might try one of the following: • Mount the production poster or a group photo of the students on a piece of poster board and attach the students’ cutouts to it. • Have a student who is a good artist draw or paint Stheno’s head on the poster board and place the snake cutouts around her head like hair. • Create a 3D art piece by decorating a mannequin head or foam head and attaching the cutouts. • Get a snake plushie and attach the cutouts to it with safety pins. 4. Eventually, if you continue this project over different classes and semesters, you can create an art installation with celebration posters/pieces from multiple drama classes to use as classroom décor. This way your drama students can look at the pieces and remember the good moments and their successes, and new students can look at the pieces as inspiration for the future. 5. If you wish, have students complete an exit slip at the end of the class (click the link below to get it!).

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * The Gorgon Sisters by Laramie Dean is a fabulous take on some Ancient Greek characters – complete with lots of casting flexibility and suggested cuts for one-act competitions. The story is everything to Stheno, the oldest gorgon sister. And this story is a big one, a hero’s quest. And not some lame quest like the one Perseus went on for a girl. Stheno wants to bring her sister Medusa back to life. It’s impossible, and everyone tells her so – Hades, Heracles, Athena… but for someone like Stheno, the impossible just takes a little longer. Why did we publish this play? This play is a win-win-win all around: cross-curricular material, with the Medusa myth told in such a unique way. It’s easy to stage with great characters. If you’re looking for something new in the Ancient Greek canon, The Gorgon Sisters is for you! Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I was commissioned to write a play about Greek mythology by Teresa Waldorf, who was, at that time, the head of the educational tour branch of the Montana Repertory Theatre. I’ve been fascinated by Medusa since I saw her fight Harry Hamlin in CLASH OF THE TITANS when it ran on TV when I was wee; I was unaware that there were two other Gorgon sisters left alive after Perseus claimed her head, and immediately I thought what a good story that would make: the baddest of the bad, the worst Gorgon of all, trying to become a hero and bring her beloved sister back to life. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. People you love will always be with you, no matter where you go or the distance between you. 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? Making Stheno look as cool as possible: she has a hairful of snakes, for Hades’ sake. And wings. And scales! 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Have fun with the tech and design. Cast as many people as you want and then dress ‘em up. The Greeks gave their gods and monsters a lot in the way of visuals: go nuts with props and costumes. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? It’s funny. It’s also incredibly sad: dealing with grief is never easy. It has unexpected moments, particularly with characters like Hades, who audiences probably remember best dramatized from Disney’s Hercules. This guy is a little different. Stheno is a strong, determined, and intelligent woman and a great role. 6. Why is this play great for online performances? We performed it at my school early last fall as a staged reading with costumes, props, and masks. It worked just fine. Concentrate on the words and the characterizations; encourage students to go even bigger, especially vocally. Tell them to have fun!

The Gorgon Sisters by Laramie Dean is a fabulous take on Ancient Greek characters with lots of casting flexibility and suggested cuts for one-act competitions. The story is everything to Stheno, the oldest gorgon sister. And this story is a big one, a hero’s quest. And not some lame quest like the one Perseus went on for a girl. Stheno wants to bring her sister Medusa back to life. It’s impossible, and everyone tells her so – Hades, Heracles, Athena… but for someone like Stheno, the impossible just takes a little longer. Thanks so much to Shelly Riggs and the incredibly talented students at Logan High School in Logan, Ohio for sharing their experience with The Gorgon Sisters with us. We’re thrilled that they were able to let their creative energy loose and enjoy everything the play has to offer: “This show is WONDERFUL. We loved the script, and the opportunities for creativity with the character design. Lighting and sound are really key to this script, and there are so many possibilities for properties and costumes as well. Highly recommended! TIPS: Make sure you have enough time to prepare this one. Reading it does not give you the full sense of this show. It was not until we were in rehearsals that we fully realized its potential. We had intended for it to be a low tech show for an acting class exercise, but it is really beautiful when more fully designed.”

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * You may think you know the classic Bram Stoker story, but the theatrical adaptation, Dracula, by Laramie Dean is a version like no other. Based on Bram Stoker’s timeless novel, Dracula is a highly theatrical exploration of the evil that lurks inside all of us… and how it can become all-consuming, draining away our humanity and turning us into monsters. Count Dracula travels from his castle in Transylvania to England with the intent of creating more vampires like himself. But little does he know that one woman may possess enough strength to destroy him forever. Why did we publish this play? Dracula is a classic character that everyone knows in some form. There have been novels written of the 500 year old vampire, movies made, and plays created. When drama teacher and playwright Laramie Dean put together his adaptation he wanted to find a way that hadn’t been done a trillion times before. We think he totally succeeded! What we especially love about Laramie’s adaptation is the strong women characters. It’s easy to say that Dracula renders everyone powerless, but Laramie offers a different take to Mina. She is no one’s damsel in distress. Let’s hear from the author!1. Why did you write this play? I have been obsessed with Dracula since I was seven and I discovered the Pendulum Press classic comic version (with art by Nestor Redondo; check it out). I immediately wrote my own play adaptation and forced my family and friends to participate in its staging (there might have been a rubber bat someone, probably me, hurled into the crowd). Since then I have written several play and comic book adaptations, and even a four hour audio book version which my very patient uncle and aunt listened to as they drove across Wales (I was 8 at the time). In 2004 I staged a version that queered the relationship between Harker and Dracula. Finally, I returned to the novel for the new adaptation I wrote for my students to perform, and which Theatrefolk is graciously publishing. 2. Describe the theme in one or two sentences. There exists in everyone the potential for good or for evil. How much would it take to bring out the darkness inside of you? 3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play? There are two that I love. For the moment when Renfield rhapsodizes about “rats, rats, rats!” and their blazing eyes, my husband, who is our technical director, used a gobo in front of a red gel so that we had this amazing visual that looked alternately like hundreds of drops of blood or the feral eyes of a thousand rats. The second visual I love because it’s so simple. When Dracula turns into a giant bat, we plunged the audience into a blackout, handed the actor playing Dracula two big flashlights, also equipped with red gels, and had him hold them up as high as he could while a sound effect of several roaring animals at once played. Dracula swooped his arms down while simultaneously shutting off the flashlights, making it look like the Dracula-bat had flown away. 4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be? Tell your actors to take it seriously. It’s easy not to, because the story has been parodied so much in popular culture, from The Munsters to Mel Brooks’ Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Work with your actors on the passion, the fear, the horror, and the battle all the characters are waging between the forces of light and darkness inside them. And their accents. They have to have good, strong British and Transylvanian accents. 5. Why is this play great for student performers? High school students are beginning to develop their own empathetic centers while learning about the world. They are watching everyone around them make choices, for good or not-so-good. The themes in this play focus on that struggle, and teenagers really connect with that. Plus vampires are fun.