A rainy forecast could not prevent Fusionfest VIII from providing theatrical entertainment on Classics Day. Despite a change in venue due to the rain, Fusionfest VIII performed seven ten-minute plays as part of Classics Day on October 2,2021. The newly-imagined play festival brought together students and faculty from several departments who combined their talents to create a series of performances which engaged with Classical Greek dramatic literature and conventions. This year’s Fusionfest differed from previous year’s in that plays were not created and performed in a twenty-four hour period but were instead rehearsed over four weeks. The plays performed included ten-minute cuttings from classical works written in 400-300 BCE, such as Agamemnon, Oedipus Rex, Lysistrata, and The Brothers Menaechmi. “These plays may have been written hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but they still have ideas relevant today. You can look at Lysistrata for example, as a response to the new laws restricting abortion in Texas” one participant explained. Modern works performed featured plays which engage with classic myths including an excerpt from Mojada, a modern retelling of Medea by Luis Alfaro, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and two original works written for the festival, This Wretched Labyrinth and The EZEE Support Group. Over fifty students from various departments and faculty from the Theatre, Art, and Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures departments worked together to create the performances. The event also offered an opportunity for community engagement, with actors from the community joining Monmouth College students and students from Carl Sandburg College presenting a performance from Oedipus Rex. The Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department presented Alfaro’s Mojada. The play tells the story of Medea, as seen through the lens of a modern undocumented immigrant in Los Angeles. This was the first time this department has been involved in Fusionfest, however, the department has recently been providing many opportunities for more Latino and Latina representation at Monmouth College. The play brought a more diverse viewpoint to Fusionfest VIII and provided a new experience of being onstage for many of the students who participated in Mojada. “It warmed my heart to see a large amount of people who have never acted before have the courage to get up and perform during Fusion. The smiles that spread across their faces after they were done with their performance said it all” stated Grace Cornelius, a sophomore Art and Theatre double major. Cornelius had a double role of both acting in the festival and in creating the periaktos which was used as scenery for the performances. “I was asked to participate in the acting portion, where I was assigned a cast and role. I also became involved with Fusion through the creation of the sets. I am the point person/co-leader for art alliance and mapped out a plan with the other individuals involved in the club and we painted the periaktos,” said Cornelius. The periaktos were three-sided set pieces with a different setting painted on each side used in classical Greek theatre. Cornelius played the title role in the excerpt from Ruhl’s Eurydice. “Eurydice is sneaky. It was almost as though her end goal was to have Orpheus turn around and meet her eye all along” Cornelius continued. “I never truly believed she wanted to leave her father or the underworld, she seemed content where her feet were, in which the decision to not leave broke her husband’s heart. Her character was quite fun to play, she had a lot of different layers to her personality...My favorite part of being involved by far...was the experience of seeing art alliances' image concepts come to life on the blank canvases”. “Working large-scale was a bit challenging and daunting at first, but the outcome was well worth the hard work and effort we put into the scenery” Cornelius explained. “The design process was so much fun. We mapped out the concepts on loose sheets of paper and from there sketched out the design on the canvases with colored chalk, using long pieces of scrap wood for guidelines and levels. There was more math involved than I thought there was going to be but after we determined the right numbers and calculations the painting was a breeze...Mixing the colors and layering the paint in an empty theatre with quiet music playing is quite therapeutic”. Cornelius hopes more students will get to enjoy the therapeutic experience of working on Fusionfest VIII. “Theatre is a way to break out of a comfort zone at a pace that is reasonable for a person’s individual needs. I hope people who have always wanted to act watched the performances and saw that they could take part in a production later down the road...I hope people realize that theatre is an activity that anyone can join anytime”.
Melanie Delbridge - Staff Writer