Unboxing Pandora by Rita Disibio Department of Theatre and Dance

Unboxing Pandora By Rita DiSibio Department of Theatre and Dance Primary Thesis Advisor Dr. Cecilia J. Pang Department of Theatre and Dance Thesis Committee Dr. Marcia Douglas Department of English Theodore Stark Department of Theatre and Dance University of Colorado, Boulder Defense Date: March 31, 2021 1 Abstract “Unboxing Pandora'' is an undergraduate thesis work analyzing the process behind the creation of my first full-length play, Pandora, an adaptation of the Greek myth known as Pandora’s Box. The play itself is an exploration of the question “did Pandora really open the box?” In asking this question, I hope to uncover the possibility that Pandora was not to blame for releasing darkness, and I hope to reimagine her world to show how Pandora and her story have been put into their own box. 2 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. The Playwright’s Process: Explanation of Methods 5 1. Unboxing the Thesis 5 2. Writing the Play 7 III. Where I Am Now: Evaluation of Methods 13 IV. Conclusion 16 V. Pandora : The Script 17 VI. Works Consulted 90 VIII. Works Cited 91 Appendix A: Original Poem from Exercise at Curious New Voices 92 Appendix B: One Act Version of Pandora 94 Appendix C: Improv Sessions 120 Appendix D: Example of Early Poetic Scene 121 3 I. Introduction The art of adaptation in the theatrical business is the process of taking an already established story and reimagining any of its elements to create something new or different. Some of the elements of a piece that can be rewritten include its language, location, locale, time, or a combination of any or all of these types of elements. Often the purpose of an adaptation is either to modernize an already popular story that has withstood the test of time, such as Shakespeare’s plays, to engage newer and younger audience members, or to present a story through a new lens that possibly offers commentary on the socio-political climate of the time. The purpose of my play Pandora , an adaptation of the Greek myth known as Pandora’s Box, is to explore the question “did Pandora really open the box?” Through this exploration, I want to see if I can uncover secrets within the myth through the reimagination of tangible elements, such as the language and characters, without completely changing the original plot of the story. In other words, I want to see if I can offer a new perspective on what actually happened in the story that fits into what we already know and have been told. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of how I wrote the play and how I explored the question “did Pandora really open the box” through the play. I will show how I used a combination of traditional writing methods, such as writing exercises and drafting, as well as theatrical methods, such as staged readings and improvisation sessions, to reach a full length draft of my play. I will also discuss how questioning the myth allowed me to discover the lens the story was asking to be looked through, rather than arbitrarily picking a lens and trying to blindly apply it to the story hoping that it fit. While a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, pursuing a BFA in Acting, I have found myself incredibly interested in the process of creating my own work. The acting industry 4 is a brutal business that often feels behind its time in relation to important issues such as race, gender, and disability representation. Now more than ever feels like the time for actors to become artists and create their own work that indulges in what they wish to discuss or see represented on stage and film. The process of writing and developing a full length play allowed me to further explore this area of self creation that I hope to continue working in post graduation. 5 II. The Playwright’s Process: Explanation of Methods 1. Unboxing the Question Like most of Greek mythology, the story of Pandora’s Box has been told and retold by storytellers and historians over thousands of years. While the finer details of this well known myth vary from scholar to scholar, there are several distinct plot points that seem to remain the same; Prometheus steals fire from the Gods to give to mortals on Earth, the Gods make Pandora as a punishment for Prometheus’ crime, and the punishment is enacted after Pandora marries Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus. The punishment consists of Pandora opening a box, or a jar, which then releases darkness and evil into the world. In some versions of the myth, Pandora even appears to release everything but “hope,” which is subsequently trapped inside the box (Britannica). Another plot point of the myth that has also seemed to remain steadfast among the different variances was the notion that Pandora was the first woman (Britannica). As an AFAB1 nonbinary person who constantly thinks about gender, the phrase “first woman” immediately caught my attention. I tried to envision what being the first woman could have possibly been like in a world already dominated by men. I then began to think about how women are often victim-blamed, and I wondered if this horrific behaviour could be traced all the way back to Pandora, the first woman. Perhaps she was the first woman to be victim-blamed, and perhaps what we know of Pandora’s story is not the whole truth. From these inquiries, I began to question if there was a possibility Pandora did not actually open the box. Perhaps Pandora was simply blamed for releasing darkness into the world without actually opening or releasing anything. I decided writing a play was the best method to explore these questions partly because writing a play is simply something I wanted to do, and partly because I was immensely inspired 1 A FAB = Assigned Female at Birth 6 by the playwright Sarah Ruhl, who achieved a similar goal in her play Eurydice. In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl questions and reimagines the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a wonderfully poetic way that really impacted me as an audience member when I first encountered the script. In the myth, we are told Oprheus turns around to look at Eurydice because he doubts that she was actually following him out of the Underworld. This moment of uncertainty causes him to lose Eurydice to the Underworld forever (Russell, 68- 72). Through the use of poetic realism, and through the addition of the character of Eurydice’s father, Sarah Ruhl turns this myth on its head by exploring the question “What if Eurydice wanted to stay in the Underworld? What if she made Orpheus turn around?” This type of reimagination is exactly what I hoped to achieve with my play, Pandora, and if I could make one audience member feel an ounce of what I felt after first experiencing Sarah Ruhl’s script, that would be the icing on the cake. 7 2. Writing the Play Writing Exercises, Poetry, and Prologues Pandora first began development in summer 2020 during the Curious New Voices playwriting program at Curious Theatre Company in Denver, Colorado. During this program, the playwrights are given a variety of exercises and prompts to jumpstart their creative juices until an idea sparks and sticks. Since I had already predetermined my topic for the play I wanted to write, I tried using the exercises to see if I could start finding my way towards this hidden world I wanted to uncover. The first exercise I did that sparked the beginning of this play was an exercise in which we were told to pick a character and write a birth announcement, a milestone, and an obituary for them. I started writing a birth announcement for Pandora, and I decided to write from her own point of view because I thought having her speak on her creation would be an interesting take. I ended up writing this long, poetic reflection that questioned the nature of Pandora being the first woman (Appendix A). After writing this reflection, I felt as though Pandora was calling to me to examine the role gender played in the outcome of her story. This feeling helped solidify that I wanted to play with the idea that perhaps Pandora was unjustly blamed for opening the box because of her gender. Through edits and rewriting, this birth announcement eventually turned into the prologue of the play. In classic Greek plays, there is often a chorus who speaks to the audience and helps explain the exposition and the subtext of the play. I wanted to honor this style in my version of the myth, especially because Sarah Ruhl also utilizes a modern Greek chorus in Eurydice with the characters of Big Stone, Little Stone, and Loud Stone. I felt called to have the already named characters in the play speak in the prologue as the Greek chorus because I wanted them to foreshadow their own arcs in the story. In the prologue, Pandora recites a monologue while the 8 other characters interrupt her by telling her story as we know it to the audience. In her monologue, Pandora questions what being a woman means, which prepares the audience to think about the role of gender when watching the play. Pandora also questions how her story will be passed on after she is no longer around to advocate for herself. The juxtaposition of having the rest of the characters speak over Pandora as questions these vast concepts prepares the audience to question whether her story has been passed on correctly as they visually see how she is not being listened to by the others.

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