Syracuse Stage Schedules MEDEA Live Online Panel Discussion, MEDEA AND THE MOMENT

With an online reading of Charles Martin's new translation of "Medea" scheduled for this weekend, Syracuse Stage has announced a live online panel discussion, "Medea and the Moment," for Monday, June 8 to discuss issues related to current events that are addressed in Euripides' tragedy. Particpants will have the opportunity to contribute questions and comments to the discussion. The reading is scheduled for June 5 at 7:30 pm and will be available at any time through June 7 at the theater's website.

Moderated by Joann Yarrow, Stage's director of community engagement and education, the scheduled seven member discussion panel includes translator Martin, performers Gillian Glasco (Medea) and Matt Chiorini (Jason), Stage artistic director Robert Hupp, associate artistic director Kyle Bass, "Medea" director April Sweeney and LightWork communications coordinator Cjala Surratt. The discussion is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and last approximately 45 minutes. It may be accessed through a link posted on the company's website at https://syracusestage.org/showinfo.php?id=99. The "Medea" reading, featuring a cast of nine professional actors, can be accessed through the same website June 5 - 7.

The connections between "Medea" and pressing issues of the day are immediate and multifaceted. April Sweeney, the reading's director and chair of the theater department at Colgate University, said, "Euripides' ancient play 'Medea,' asks us to (re)consider a series of questions that at heart revolve around issues of injustice: who is deserving of rights in a society, who is valued and matters and at what cost?"

Martin noted: "There are so many aspects of 'Medea' that appeal to a modern audience. The character of Medea is wonderfully realized. She is a woman who has been abandoned by her husband (along with their children) and she is a stateless person, a political refugee."

Originally scheduled as part of the 2019/2020 Cold Read Festival of New Plays, "Medea" moved online when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Festival's cancellation. Viewers accessing "Medea" will see the reading in a format resembling a Zoom meeting enhanced by visual and sound effects. Although the Euripides' tragedy dates from 431 BCE, "Medea" was included in the Festival, which is dedicated to new work, because Martin's new translation was published in 2019 by the University of California Press.

"As a festival and as an entity, 'Cold Read' is about introducing our audiences to new plays. For me, it's exciting to present a nearly 2,500-year-old drama as a new play,"said Bass, who serves as the Festival's curator. "With his fleet and resonant new adaption, poet Charles Martin has made Euripides' 'Medea' fresh and compelling. It speaks convincingly to our now."

Martin and wife Johanna Keller have lived in Syracuse for about 15 years. Martin is a poet, critic and translator whose many awards and accolades include a Pushcart Prize, the Bess Hokin Award, the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Merrill Ingram Foundation. He was poet in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City from 2005-2009, and has taught in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, at Queensborough Community College, Syracuse University, in the Stonecoast low-residency M.F.A. at the University of Southern Maine, and at the School of Letters of the University of the South. He has also taught workshops at the Sewanee Writers Conference and the West Chester Poetry Conference

Although "Medea" will be available free of charge, Syracuse Stage asks for help to raise money for organizations leading local anti-racism efforts. Those who would like to donate can do so at https://syracusestage.org/donatenow.php.

DETAILS

"Medea"

By Euripides

Translated by Charles Martin

Directed by April Sweeney

Curated by Kyle Bass

Technical Consultant: Ricky Pak

Stage Manager: Audrey Flynn

June 5 - 7, 2020 at SyracuseStage.org

Cast

Matt Chiorini* as Jason

Binaifer Dabu as Chorus 2

Robert Garland as Tutor/Messenger

Gillian Glasco* as Medea

Lilli Komurek as Chorus 3

Madeleine Lambert* as Lead Chorus

Larry John Meyers* as Creon

Alessandro Trinca* as Aegeus

Laura E. Vivio* as Nurse

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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