Metamorphoses
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A NOISE WITHIN SPRING 2022 STUDY GUIDE Metamorphoses Based on the Myths of Ovid Written and originally directed by Mary Zimmerman Directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott May 8–June 5, 2022 STUDY GUIDES FROM A NOISE WITHIN A rich resource for teachers of English, reading, arts, and drama education. Dear Reader, We’re delighted you’re interested in our study guides, designed to provide a full range of information on our plays to teachers of all grade levels. A Noise Within’s study guides include: • General information about the play (characters, synopsis, timeline, and more) • Playwright biography and literary analysis • Historical content of the play • Scholarly articles • Production information (costumes, lights, direction, etc.) • Suggested classroom activities • Related resources (videos, books, etc.) • Discussion themes • Background on verse and prose (for Shakespeare’s plays) Our study guides allow you to review and share information with students to enhance both lesson plans and pupils’ theatrical experience and appreciation. They are designed to let you extrapolate articles and other information that best align with your own curricula and pedagogic goals. Pictured: Carolyn Ratteray, Evan Lewis Smith, and Veralyn Jones, Gem of the Ocean More information? It would be our pleasure. We’re 2019. PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ. here to make your students’ learning experience as rewarding and memorable as it can be! All the best, Alicia Green DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION Special thanks to our Dinner On Stage donors TABLE OF CONTENTS who kept the arts thriving this year by supporting our Student Matinees (SMATs): Character Map ......................................4 SMAT PERFORMANCE SPONSOR Synopsis ...........................................6 ($5,000 AND ABOVE) Richard Green Sheila & Alan Lamson About the Author: Ovid ..............................8 Jeanie & Terry Kay Barbara Lawrence About the Adaptor: Mary Zimmerman .................9 William & Priscilla Terri Murray Kennedy Richard & Sally Roberts The History of Metamorphoses: A Timeline ............10 SCHOOL SPONSOR ($2,500 AND ABOVE) Oral Storytelling Traditions and Epic Poetry ............11 Bill & Clarie Bogaard Julie & Lance Markowitz Kathleen & Bruce & Valerie Merritt The Backdrop To Metamorphoses: James Drummy Lyn Spector Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome ....................12 Sheila Grether-Marion & Lois Tandy Mark Marion Liz & Rhodes Trussell Gods, Monsters, and Men in Greek Mythology ......... 14 Barbara Henderson One Thing At A Time: Episodic Story Structure .........15 CLASS SPONSOR ($1,000 AND ABOVE) Water: An Element of Change ....................... 16 Molly Bachmann Eugene Kapaloski Meg Huntington Cajero Thomas & Gloria Lang Themes .............................................17 Jack & Becky Doody Jay Lesiger A Big Splash: A Conversation with Fred & Sandy Engler Cynthia Nunes & Armando Gonzalez Barbara Nye A Noise Within’s Production Team About the Pool .....20 Diane Grohulski Diana Peterson-More Pre-Show Preparation: Research ..................... 21 Schuyler & Gail Samuel & Deborah Hollingsworth William Christian Pre-Show Preparation: Activities .....................22 Robert & Jennifer Israel Margaret Sedenquist Denise Jay Tribune Direct Essay Questions ....................................24 Miranda Johnson-Haddad Vickie Taylor Additional Resources ...............................25 Molly Joseph WORKSHOP SPONSOR ($500 AND ABOVE) Robert Cathcart Bob Low, in honor of wife Cecilia Center Anni Frandsen Low, A NOISE WITHIN’S EDUCATION PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY: John Cushman Ph.D. Ann Peppers Foundation The Green Foundation Julie Daniels Alan Miller Patrick Garcia Julia Rodriguez-Elliott Capital Group Companies Kenneth T. and Sandra Greenstein Janet Samuel Michael J. Connell Eileen L. Norris Foundation Selma Holo & Fred Croton Deborah Strang David Holtz Donna Tucker, in memory Foundation Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Forsight Creations of Beverly Parks The Dick and Sally Roberts Steinmetz Foundation Jim Kelly Tucker Coyote Foundation Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Loretta Vigil Dwight Stuart Youth Fund Jason King Marianne Wallace The Jewish Community David & Julia Zuckerman Foundation Elyse Klein BUS SPONSOR ($350 AND ABOVE) Wendy Alden Allan Mohrman Anonymous Scott Myers Julie Fox Blackshaw Norma Richman Mary Hacker Edmund Roberts Ilona Linden Daniel Rothmuller Nancy Macky Chromatic Joan Mills Interactive Media ADDITIONAL DONORS Jerry Gallagher & Jan Sanders Gerard Clarke Linda Saurenman Margaret Grossman Stuart Semigran Margaret Koch Angela Conner & Irene Lacher Kevin Speaks Mark Nelson Sallie Strang Cover Image: Marc Leclerc in Metamorphoses. Photos by Craig Schwartz. 4 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Spring 2022 Study Guide Metamorphoses CHARACTER MAP COSMOGONY Zeus Woman by the Water Scientist King of the gods. Implores the gods to show Describes the chaos of her how humans came to be. the world’s beginnings. MIDAS ALCYONE AND CEYX Bacchus Midas Aphrodite God of agriculture, wine, A wealthy and Goddess of love and beauty. Enlists Iris and drama, and festivity. greedy ruler. Offers Sleep to help Alcyone and Ceyx reunite. Grants Midas a wish. to shelter Silenus. Iris Sleep Silenus His Daughter Goddess of the rain- Conjures an image A lost traveler and Midas’ playful bow and messenger of Ceyx that visits friend to Bacchus. daughter. to the gods. Alcyone in her sleep. Alcyone Ceyx Three Laundresses Daughter of Aeolus—god of Alcyone’s husband. As they do laundry, they tell the story of Midas the wind—and wife to Ceyx. Embarks on a to pass the time. Foresees a great danger in dangerous journey Ceyx’s planned voyage. to a far-off oracle. ERYSICHTHON ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Ceres Hades Goddess of grain and agriculture. King of the Underworld. Allows Eurydice to follow Curses Erysichthon with insatiable hunger after Orpheus back to the land of the living if Orpheus he cuts down one of her sacred trees. agrees to not look back for her until they are both out of the Underworld. Erysichthon His Mother A skeptic of the gods. Erysichthon’s mother. Persephone He cuts down a tree Erysichthon sells her Queen of the Underworld and Hades’ wife. She spends sacred to Ceres to use so that he may buy seven months of the year in the Underworld with for its timber. more food. Hades and the rest of the year in the living world where she is regarded as the goddess of spring. Hunger A spirit who assists Ceres by attaching herself Hermes Orpheus to Erysichthon. Messenger to A musician and would-be the gods. He husband to Eurydice. After carries souls Eurydice’s death, he travels to to the the Underworld to attempt bring Underworld. her back to the living world. Eurydice Orpheus' would-be wife. She was bitten by a venomous snake on the day of her wedding and died. 5 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Spring 2022 Study Guide Metamorphoses CHARACTER MAP VERTUMNUS AND POMONA MYRRHA Vertumnus Aphrodite God of springtime. Goddess of love and beauty. He is intent on earning the love of Pomona. Curses Myrrha with a lust for her father, Cinyras. Pomona Myrrha Cinyras A wood nymph and gifted botanist. Daughter of Cinyras. She angered Myrrha’s Does not notice Vertumnus. Aphrodite by ignoring her many father. suitors. Nursemaid Myrrha’s confidant. Helps Myrrha devise a plan to act on her lust without being seen. PHAETON EROS AND PSYCHE Apollo Aphrodite God of light, music, and poetry. Goddess of love and beauty. Eros’ mother. Jealous He drives the sun through the sky every day. of Psyche’s beauty, she sends Eros to kill Psyche. Phaeton Eros Apollo’s son. He is in therapy in part because of his God of love. Aphrodite’s son and Psyche’s husband. strained relationship with his father. Falls in love with Psyche against the wishes of Aphrodite but forbids Psyche from seeing him. Therapist Phaeton’s therapist. Psyche Eros’ wife. Prohibited from seeing her husband, she worries that she has married a monster. BAUCIS AND PHILEMON Zeus Baucis King of the gods. Disguises himself as a beggar to Philemon’s wife. She welcomes the disguised Zeus test the kindness of humans and Hermes into her humble home. Hermes Philemon Zeus’ son and messenger to the gods. With Zeus, Baucis’ husband. Ensures that Zeus and Hermes he disguises himself as a beggar to test the kindness are comfortable as guests in his home. of humans 6 A NOISE WITHIN 2021/22 SEASON | Spring 2022 Study Guide Metamorphoses SYNOPSIS Between the years 2 C.E. and 8 C.E., the Roman Orpheus and Eurydice poet Ovid wrote Metamorphoses, an epic poem. After his bride, Eurydice, dies suddenly on their In this poem, Ovid retells 250 Greek and Roman wedding day, Orpheus decides to descend into the myths over the course of 15 books. While Ovid’s Underworld to beg Hades to let Eurydice return to work is comprised of many different stories, the world of the living. There, Hades is so moved every myth in the epic poem shares a common by Orpheus’ tale, that he agrees to let Eurydice theme: transformation. Like Ovid’s original work, return with Orpheus under one condition: as they Mary Zimmerman’s theatrical adaptation of travel back out through the Underworld to the world Metamorphoses is comprised of mythological stories of the living, Orpheus must not look back to see told in episodic vignettes. The following stories are if Eurydice is behind him. It is a test of trust that featured in Zimmerman’s play: Orpheus ultimately fails, losing Eurydice forever. Midas Pomona and Vertumnus Midas, an exorbitantly rich and selfish man, performs Pomona, a wood nymph known for her gardening a rare good deed one day when he offers a lost skills, hardly notices anything but the flowers and traveler, who arrives in his court, shelter for the fields to which she tends. She is so engrossed in night. Because of this good deed, Bacchus, the gardening she even ignores suitors. Vertumnus, Roman god of festivity, offers to grant Midas a gift the god of springtime, is in love with her and, in of his choosing. His judgement clouded by greed, an effort to make Pomona take notice of him, he Midas asks that everything he touch turn to gold.