Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts presents ‘Antigone’ with post-apocalyptic vibe
Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts director Jenny McClintock describes this weekend’s production of “Antigone” as very Mad Max-inspired.
Keep in mind that the Greek tragedy was written by Sophocles in about 441 B.C., but some of the themes are universal.
“‘Antigone’ starts right after a big war,” McClintock said. “Two brothers who are fighting on opposite sides just killed each other, the palace has been destroyed somewhat. There’s destruction already involved in the storytelling, so a post-apocalyptic theme fits. Not to mention you have a king that’s a bit of a narcissist, a despot, so that always lends itself to post-apocalyptic. It’s like you revert to these very primal instincts of narcissism and misogyny. It feels like it’s reverting to the past, even though it’s an unspecified future.”
The future for the HBAPA actors involves six shows of “Antigone,” starting Thursday and running through Sunday.
Instead of the historic auditorium on the Huntington Beach High campus, this acting department show will be staged in the studio theater behind it. Also called the “black box,” it seats about 100 people.
The show, one of three Theban plays involving King Oedipus and the effects of his reign, utilizes all of the limited space — including having some members of the chorus perform in a space above, near the ceiling.
“We look up and talk to the gods, and we do a lot of cool dances,” said Kayla Witecki, a Huntington Beach High senior and one of three chorus leads for the play along with senior Grace Cross and sophomore Tegenn Jeffery. “We’re really focused on the movement and kind of explaining our own interpretation of the story, which is really cool.”
The show has two different casts, McClintock said, though the chorus will stay the same throughout each of the six shows. The two students who play title character Antigone are Kaia Podd and Catherine Dosier.
“It’s definitely something that any young person can relate to,” said Dosier, a junior at Huntington Beach High. “It’s a feeling of, ‘I know what I want to do is right, but the whole world is telling me that I’m wrong.’ It’s a story of standing up for one’s self and doing the right thing in a place where someone might be telling you otherwise.”
Noella Egelsee, also a junior, is one of two actors playing the role of Tiresias — a blind prophet who sees the future and gives advice to King Creon.
Egelsee said the “Antigone” production continues the acting department’s post-apocalyptic school year after last fall’s “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,” inspired by the “The Simpsons” that takes place after the collapse of human civilization.
“I know there’s a bunch of action shows where you see sword-fighting and stuff like that,” she said. “It’s really cool to see the intimacy within this show, the speaking between people and the relationships formed throughout the show.”
McClintock said about 42 students are involved in the production. To lend the play an individualized nature, she picked out lines of the script and assigned them to certain chorus members. The end result is a bit different than the homogeneous group chorus common in Greek theater.
“As the play goes on, you see they all start to be horrified by what’s happening,” she said. “But no one really spoke up enough in the collective. That’s the theme that we’re really playing with here, that we’re stronger when we speak out in a collective voice.”
Tickets for “Antigone” range from $15 to $25. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit hbapa.org/see.
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