The Hilltop Players began their season with the ancient Greek play "Oedipus."/Photo courtesy of assistant theater professor Jared Cole

A Greek play written 2,500 years ago doesn’t initially excite me, but since I enjoy the Bryan Hilltop Players productions, I decided to give Sophocles a chance and attend “The Oedipus Story,” performed last Wednesday through Saturday. The play, especially the first half, was entertaining, which is a testament more to the talent of the actors rather than the writing of Sophocles.

What I remembered about Oedipus was a vague mix of high school English and Freud’s famous Oedipus complex. When I read that the Hilltop players were producing Oedipus, I was curiously confused. Why would Bryan produce a play about a king who sleeps with his mother? And how, with all that chorus chattering, will this be remotely interesting? I was intrigued enough to attend, along with around 100 others, on Saturday night for the final performance.

The play begins with “Oedipus at Rex.” The chorus, all wearing white masks, calls in unison for King Oedipus. Oedipus, played by senior Beau Boutwell, appears on the stage and the plot begins. The kingdom has been cursed because of a prophecy about a King’s son who would kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus, who doesn’t know his real heritage, is determined on finding the truth. With every new piece of information about Oedipus’s past, the plot escalates to the climax when Oedipus finds that it is he who has blindly committed these sins and brought the curse upon his kingdom. His wife, also his mother, hangs herself. Oedipus gouges out his eyes and banishes himself from the city. This concludes the first half.

Although the plot is predictable, it is still dramatic, and the actors pulled the audience into the production. The stage was a thrust stage, which means that three sides of the stage extended into the audience. The farthest audience member was only four rows back from the stage,and the actors entered and exited through the audience. All these elements created an “intimacy” between actors and audience, according to Jared Cole, assistant professor and theater fellow, who directed the play.

The masks, worn by all actors, were another unique addition to the play. Initially I didn’t like the masks. They were on the creepy side, and I am used to reading emotions by facial expressions, which wasn’t possible. Masks are more than an annoyance for actors; they create a problem. How do you express emotions without your face? One way is through presentational acting, which is typical of Greek theater. According to Cole, presentational acting is more about telling the story than being realistic.

“Everything in a play like this is a little louder, a little bigger, a little more obvious than the subtleties that we’ve come to expect in modern theater,” Boutwell said.

Wearing masks, along with the thrust stage, were two unique features of the Oedipus play./Photo courtesy of assistant theater professor Jared Cole

While this acting style isn’t my favorite, for this play, which relies so heavily on words, often ancient wording that at times was difficult to understand, the style worked well. At one point in the play Oedipus’ wife, Jocasta, played by sophomore Ashley Boyd, is pleading with Oedipus. Her back was turned to me, so I just watched her hands grow tense and relax with each falling and rising emotion. I didn’t need to hear the words to know what she was feeling; I was enthralled.

This type of acting, by Boyd and others, carried the play even through the slower moments. The second half of the play, “Oedipus at Colonus,” is a less familiar story but gives closure to the first half. In this second half Oedipus forgives himself of past sins, is forgiven by the gods and is able to die in honor.

“It’s a more redemptive side of Oedipus,” said Cole.

During this second half I realized that “The Oedipus Story” isn’t simply a strange story about violence and incest, but a story about honor, which runs deep in the Greek culture.

Even so, Oedipus isn’t a play I would watch multiple times for fun. Each half lasted about 60 minutes and required constant attention. There was no comic relief, and I felt a bit drained after watching.

The cast, who did four performances, prepared for weeks. Their dedication was obvious. Boutwell was almost flawless, with literally hundreds of lines to memorize. He credits senior Justin Winters, assistant director, for “unlocking his character” and helping him memorize lines.

“I had to stop trying to memorize what line goes where and focus on telling the audience the story. Once I learned this, I eventually began to fall into the lines,” he said.

While Oedipus had the largest part, every character had numerous lines to memorize. The chorus often spoke in unison with unified body movements.

There were times throughout this play when I was confused because of the outdated language, cultural references or sheer lack of attention. However, the majority of the time I was captivated by the dramatic story, and the entire time I was thoroughly impressed by the actors.

Couch potatoes remain seated. Channel-surfers put down your remotes. Familiar faces are now appearing on televisions across the region as students and faculty from Bryan star in local commercials for the Women’s Care Center of Rhea County.

For the past 25 years, Bryan College has been well-known for its involvement with the neighboring community. However, over the last two summers it has brought that involvement into the 21st century by donating time and effort to producing eight, one-minute commercials, a 30-minute promotional film and a 12-part web series for theEDGE, a teen risk-avoidance program established by the Care Center.

According to the program’s website, the EDGE, “initially began in 1993 to equip the youth in Rhea County with information so they would not find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy situation. It has grown into a program that not only encourages abstinence-until-marriage, but also helps youth make smart decisions in all aspects of life.”

The media project, produced by Bryan alum Taylor Hollingsworth, has used almost 30 Bryan students, alumni and faculty over the two-year period of filming.

Current students who were involved include seniors Jason Hundley, Emily Hendrix, Taylor Gentry, Justin Winters and Xavierian McCall, juniors Yuri Lopez and Nick Tuttle, sophomore Emilie Belisle and freshman Jake Ricketts, as well as faculty members Dr. Randy Hollingsworth, Dr. Ken Turner with wife Reagan, Chris Clark and Paulakay Ricketts.

According to Connie Arnold, education director for theEDGE, students and faculty were mostly contacted by word of mouth, with emphasis on prior familiarity with staff members, though auditions were held last summer for the film “The Ripple.”

“I don’t think hardly anyone turned us down,” Arnold said with a laugh. “The staff wrote all the commercials and it was about who they knew who fit the part.”

Five main stations are currently showing the commercials through Charter cable: ABC, TBS, MTV, VH1 and USA. The Care Center has also purchased audio spots on Christian radio station J103 and Rhea County Radio that will play throughout the fall.

Winters, a theater major who starred with Turner in the spot titled “Parents”, commented that while the commercials were good experience for his future, he also enjoyed participating for larger reasons.

“I did it because I love to do it…of course, it was motivated by vocation, but with that I don’t want to lose the important things. If there’s meaning, if something carries weight or is significant, that’s the thing I want to do. It makes my day,” he said.

“Well, we had some misgivings,” Turner said. “Neither my wife or I looks old enough to be the parents of a teenager. Even if I had a kid at 18…but they said not to worry about it.”

Turner also said he found the message of the commercial a worthwhile lesson for modern society.

“The punch-line was…if you don’t listen to your kids, don’t be surprised if they return the favor. I don’t worry about that with my kids so much, but I come from a background where I was neglected. Now that I’m a father, I find myself to be very critical of today’s parents, so this a message I think a lot of people should hear.”

The Care Center has no future plans to continue producing videos, but will continue releasing installments of their web series, entitled “Boyfriends of Genius”, each month for the next year.

“And who knows?” Arnold said. “God can do amazing things. This media has related to kids on a new level, it’s bridged the gap and they need that.”

The commercials, film and first installment of “Boyfriends of Genius” can be found on the EDGE’s website. http://www.theedgeonlife.org/media

Does the narrator of the web series sound familiar? He should. It’s former Bryan history professor, Dr. Jack Traylor.

Click here to view the embedded video.