CAST

DEPARTMENT OF THEATER

(in alphabetical order)

Jean Ahn ....................................................................................... Chorus/Helen Adedoyin Domingo ................................................................ Chorus/Cassandra Anna Dorfman ......................................................................... Chorus/Iphigenia Savannah Gilmore ..........................................................................Clytemnestra Kristina Gustovich* ................................................................. Chorus/Aegisthus Charles Haakenson ............................................................... Chorus/Horseman Nicholas Justice..................................................................... Chorus/Watchman Declan Meagher ............................................................................. Agamemnon Jonathan Padron* ........................................................................... Chorus/Paris Billy Schmidt ............................................................................ Chorus/Dissident Will Stupp .....................................................................................Chorus/Herald

Agamemnon was first performed as a work in progress at the Round House in December, 1973. This version first performed at the Greenwich Theater in July 1976.

John Bouchard ............................................................................ Chair/Professor Susan Gratch......................................................................................... Professor Alan Freeman ......................................................................... Professor Emeritus Brian Fitzmorris ........................... Professor of the Practice/Production Manager Jamie Angell .................................................. Assistant Professor of the Practice Sarah Kozinn ............................................................. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Laural Meade............................................................ Adjunct Assistant Professor Tom Slotten .............................................................. Adjunct Assistant Professor Omowale Awe ....................................................................................... Instructor Marina Magalhães ................................................................................. Instructor Francisco Martinez ................................................................................ Instructor Ezra Weisz ............................................................................................ Instructor Aubree Cedillo ......................................................................... Technical Director Marie Scott ................................................................................ Stage Supervisor Jeremy Susel ................................................................... Lead Stage Technician Beatrice Gonzales .......................................................... Administrative Assistant

Special thanks to Steven Berkoff, The Edgerton Foundation Theater Program at Occidental College, Marc Campos, Russell Copely, Kirk Graves, and Bruce Steele.

*This student’s participation is in partial fulfillment of her/his senior comprehensive project. Agamemnon is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., New York, NY. Paid for in part by the Benjamin Culley Fund.

Don’t miss

William Shakespeare’s

OTHELLO Directed by John Bouchard April 2014 in Keck Theater Tickets go on sale in February

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Legend of the Curse Something begins to smell in this vile house/ is it the stew/ vomit-heaved that lies drying on the cracked streets/ or in the dark cellar and growing mushrooms from the slime/ under the lid/ life stirs from the dead/ pot of stew crammed with bits of human flesh/ a finger or two slipped in by the neglectful cook who was so careful to disguise the hell kitchen of skinned and sliced torso with thick sauce/ sipping gently at first like licking vomit/ strange already/ rot skunk stink/ like garlic stuffed/ camouflage with bitter herbs the smell of pain/ who would know/ what laughs and female giggles hide behind the dead teeth watching/ waiting to belch out and spit words with a Ha! Ha! You old rotting beast it’s on your own flesh that you feast/still/quiet/ the faces watching your face/ squaring its hole/ and down the gut it rolls/ tendon calf lips even you, have kissed when little/ the shoulder that you squeezed with comforting grip/ the tongue that whistled/ bite/ gulp/ slither down/ that’s gone for ever. The mouth opens again. That dark chamber of horrors/ blind ‘O’ open and close/ open and close stuffing down its own juices/ strange tasting difficult to go down/ does gristle stick in throat/ some wine/ the gravy’s very thick/ with blood/ your own/ all move in slow motion/ the eyes stare/ fixed/ time stopped/ plates full of not eating only you (around the table) only you. It’s very warm. The hand moving its heavy beat/ from plate to faces/ as faces caught/ teeth clenched jaws/ staring/ frozen fresco Why?/ It’s hot/ the garlic’s strong/ loosen my clothes/ the smell/ why that smell/why still/ chews on/ on scrawny bone splintered hard/ explore the mouth/ retrieve the bone belonging to no animal I know/ the faces now slope in/ incline those dark holes in their head to feast on you/ I know it now/ now it I know/ I am the feast they feast on/ my eternal horror/ I know where are my little ones/ inside/ they’re sliding down my guts/ along the lengthy graves of my intestines/ I know it now/ the thing retrieved from out my nauseous mouth is topped with its little nail/ the moon just rising. The heads of those that sloped/ hang/ taking no breath waiting for … the earth appeared to stop … still … everything hung at the end of that horror on my fork/ expecting me to break/ sob/ heave/ scream/ swallow my own beating heart/

tear hair/ stab my jellied eyes/ but no/ I’ll show them only how much I enjoy their rancid crime/ I’ll show them nothing/ take another glass of wine/ another forkful of my baby/ as the vomit rises in my throat I’ll force it back/ and stuff it down with more/ the faces start to shift/ incline a hairsbreadth back/ across their teeth the smile begins to fade/ query in the dead eyes/ is he already insane/ gone/ dead/ does he know?/ And still the regular beat as hand digs plate and father takes back dearest in broken pieces/ hand made meat/ but volts inside the brain compute from horror/ multi-faceted revenge (as mouth with pearl of vomit sneaking out the corner/ finger dabs it back) A curse is being laid and planned and grown in soil fertiled with heavy blood and silently the curse matures in hate’s loathsome brine and shrieks its prayers to the gods/ in sounds too loud for any mortal ears to hear/ but at the speed of light/ waves invisible already grip those horror thoughts/ ascend to heaven/ while the eyes revealing nothing nod/ the tongue continues to push its gushing vomit back/ the faces now are sunk into their heads/ not comprehending/ not knowing!! A napkin pats the lips/ a smile/ the chair scrapes back/ thank you for dinner/ they stare into your fast receding back/ he wants to shout you to the facts that you already carry in your bowels/ ‘you’ve eaten your own flesh you beast’. But tongue is locked within the jaws/ and grits his teeth/ until like clay/ crumble/ break/ decay/ his lips stretch/ expose a smile/ more a stinking yellow smudge of pain/ the joke has not quite teeth enough to bite/ between the cracks already a seed of death begins to grow/ a little root will send its veins and branches cracking through his skull/ through all that flows from out his tainted blood/ from out his loins/ his seed will poison/ all its flowers/ with a curse/ planted in that house/ that day/ hot afternoon/ when the earth seemed to halt/ and eyes were locked/ on the teeth of a fork. The curse of the house of Atreus.

PRODUCTION STAFF Director ......................................................................... Roger Guenveur Smith Sound and Projections .............................................. Marc Anthony Thompson Assistant Director ....................................................................... Jason Barlaan Scenic Designer ............................................................................ Susan Gratch Costume Designer ........................................................................... Tom Slotten Lighting Designer.......................................................................... Reza Vojdani* Production Manager ...................................................................Brian Fitzmorris Technical Director........................................................................ Aubree Cedillo Stage Manager .............................................................................. Emily Abbott* Stage Supervisor/Master Electrician .................................................Marie Scott Costume Shop Manager ................................................................. Tom Slotten Lead Stage Technician .................................................................. Jeremy Susel Assistant Scenic Designer ............................................................... Dylan Bruce Assistant Costume Designer .................................................... Olivia Warschaw Light Board Operator ...................................................................... Brian Robins Sound/Video Operator .............................................................. Kenyon Meleney Set Construction Crew ............................ Olachi Anamelechi, Anisha Banerjee, .................................................... Robert Bogue, Grace Brescia, Tomás Dakan, ....................................................... Aiden Giuffre, Evan Lund, Declan Meagher, ............................................................ Nicholas Yeh, Ernie Schwartz, Art Freed Paint Crew ............................................................................ Savannah Gilmore, .......................................................................... Kenyon Meleney, Emily Mofford Deck Crew ......................................................................................Nicholas Yeh Light Crew .............................................................. Christine Hart, Lily Jackson, ...................................................... Jonathan Padron, Adam Roy, Britta Swedin, ............................................................ Reza Vojdani, Tyler Yates, Nicholas Yeh Costume Crew .............................................. Hillia Corvina Aho, Marina Bellizzi, .................................................... Anna Geare, Dorothy Gray, Sarah Martellaro, ............................................ Jonathan Padron, Nirsaliz Rivas, Olivia Warschaw Wardrobe ...................................................................................... Amanda Fein House Manager ........................................................................... Adrian Adams Box Office Supervisor .....................................................................Vivien Reece

Director’s Notes: "Don't follow leaders," Bob Dylan warned us half a century ago. "Watch your parking meters." We ignored him of course and followed the trail of blood from the Grassy Knoll to the Lorraine Motel. Robert Kennedy, still mourning the death which we commemorate this month, announced yet another assassination, this time in Memphis. He quoted his "favorite poet, Aeschylus": In our own despair against our will comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God Weeks later, he met the same fate as his brothers John and Martin, catching a bullet in the pantry of our own Ambassador Hotel. Why had Senator Kennedy reached to ancient Greece to eulogize Dr. King? As the nation burned, Nina Simone reached deeply into the poetry of American blues to lament his loss, summoning "the awful grace of God" to sing the unspeakable: Folks you'd better stop and think 'Cause we're headed for the brink King had expressed similar sentiments when, exactly one year before his death, he made a brave (many would say treasonous) statement not only against the war in Vietnam, but against all war. Steven Berkoff, whose East London youth was forged during the Blitz, brings us Aeschylus by way of Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Blood will have blood" chants his Agamemnon chorus. These seemingly disparate sources of inspiration are interpreted by a young and energetic cast, whose peers are fighting multiple wars in multiple languages, all over the world.

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Guest artist

PATRONS PLEASE NOTE  We request that patrons silence phones and other electronic devices.  The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.  Only authorized personnel will be admitted backstage. Actors may be greeted on the North Patio.  Food and drink are not allowed in the theater.  Occidental College policy prohibits smoking in any building or within thirty feet of any college facility. Ashtrays are located outside on the front plaza.

The illumination of human darkness is as urgent a struggle, both onstage and off, and is generated by an ancient tradition of sacrifice and song. "My dearest wish," croons the well-armed Clytemnestra, "is that peace exists." --Roger Guenveur Smith November 2013