Oresteia

The Oresteia is a trilogy by Aeschylus, one of the foremost playwrights of ancient Greece. It encompasses three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies. It tells the tragic tale of the House of Atreus, whose inhabitants have been cursed and are doomed to play out their bloody, vengeful destinies. At the beginning of the first part, the Trojan War has ended and the Greek general, Agamemnon, is returning victorious to his wife Clytemnestra. Yet she finds it difficult to forgive his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, who was killed to ensure the Greek fleet fair winds in their voyage to Troy. Her desire for vengeance, and its dire consequences, instigates the action of these poetic tragedies. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett) Cast: AGAMEMNON, king of Mycenae - StephenC AEGISTHUS, cousin to Agamemnon - mb ORESTES, son of Agamemnon - David O’Connell CLYTEMNESTRA, wife of Agamemnon - Christie Nowak CASSANDRA, a Trojan princess - Kristin Hughes ELECTRA, sister of Orestes - Claire Goget APOLLO, god of the Delphic oracle - Andrew Lebrun ATHENA, goddess of wisdom - Catharine Eastman PYTHIA, a priestess of Apollo - Kirsten Ferreri A WATCHMAN at Mycenae - Joe Earley A HERALD from Troy - tipaew NURSE to Orestes and Electra - Elizabeth Klett ATTENDANT of Aegisthus - Fr. Richard Zeile of Detroit ATTENDANT WOMAN of Athena - Jennifer Stearns NARRATOR - Justin Barrett CHORUS in Agamemnon - Andy Minter CHORUS in The Libation-Bearers - Jc Guan CHORUS in The Furies - Kara Shallenberg, Rosalind Wills, and Christie Nowak PYLADES - Annoying Twit Book Coordinators: Kirsten Ferreri, Sarah Jennings, Elizabeth Klett, and David Lawrence