Gilroy
– A light coating of sawdust blankets the Gilroy High School
stage. Broken marble pillars rise from the set and a fountain
bubbles in the distance.
The cast members are backstage dressing for their final
rehearsal before tonight’s opening performance of
”
Antigone.
”
Gilroy – A light coating of sawdust blankets the Gilroy High School stage. Broken marble pillars rise from the set and a fountain bubbles in the distance.
The cast members are backstage dressing for their final rehearsal before tonight’s opening performance of “Antigone.”
“It’s a good thing I like this one. If not …” GHS drama teacher Ethan Stocks trailed off. “Antigone” is the third and final play of the season and will cap off Stock’s first year teaching at GHS.
The play has come together in just six weeks and the energy saturating the room is electric. The fountain is not as soothing as one might expect – it serves a perpetual reminder of the hours trickling away and all that needs to happen in the time in between.
“I still don’t have shoes,” said Emelie Castillo who plays a guard. “Right now I am wearing pink socks,” she whispers so that Stocks won’t overhear.
The 11–member cast is a small fraction of the participants from the senior play in March, when Stocks had a trio of helpers to paint scenery, oversee costume design and direct students backstage.
“This one it doesn’t feel as though there is the same support,” Stocks said. He is the director. And judging from his paint–splattered pants – he is taking on a little more than just directing.
“Antigone” is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles in 442 B.C.E and translated into French by Jean Anouilh in the 1940’s. The GHS production has adopted a Greek setting with 1940’s costumes. It may sound strange, but cast members promise the action is easy to follow.
Anouilh’s version of “Antigone” is one of the most reproduced of his career as a playwright.
“I didn’t actually plan on being in one last play,” said Joshua Rhinehart, a senior, who plays Creon the King of Thebes. “But it’s a French version of a Greek play – I couldn’t pass it up.”
The performance promises death, incest – and a kiss to be remembered, cast members quipped. Stocks, overhearing the description as he swept the stage, shouted that all the death scenes occur offstage.
“They’re are actually people coming to watch the kiss,” Isabelle Szucs said who plays “Antigone.”
“We all sit backstage waiting to watch it,” Castillo laughed.
Playing “Antigone” is a milestone in Szucs acting career.
“I usually play guys,” she said.
Ryan Daugherty, who plays Szucs love interest in the play, is also taking on a new role. He has been dubbed the production’s in house makeup artist.
Cast members insist tonight’s performance will be the best.
“That’s when we’re so hyped up and excited,” Szucs explained.
While the first may be the best, the last will be definitely be the most sentimental for the seniors participating.
“It’s kind of sad,” Rhinehart said. In the fall, he will head to University of California, Santa Cruz, where his acting career is uncertain.
But under Stocks’ direction, the performance will be perfect, according to the cast members.
“We take all the glory while he sweeps the stage,” said Alan Hoshida, a sophomore taking on two roles in the play. “He just wants it to be the best it can be.”
Performances run May 19 to 21, and 26, 27 at the Gilroy High School Theater. Curtain opens at 7:30pm. General admission is $5.
