Puget Sound Theatre Arts Presents "Metamorphoses"

Zimmerman’s stage production of Ovid’s tales runs Feb. 24–March 3

TACOMA, Wash. – What better time than now to perform Metamorphoses, the play by Mary Zimmerman based on a series of tragic and joyous ancient Roman myths. The play turns on the maxim that “nothing is permanent”—and so the characters discover, as they fall in love, lust for riches, and reach for power. Likewise, many ordinary Americans have been reminded of the impermanence of their circumstances, as the world has changed dramatically in recent years.

Director John Rindo and the theatre arts students at University of Puget Sound will present Metamorphoses at Norton Clapp Theatre, over two weekends in late February and early March. Evening performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24, Saturday, Feb. 25, Friday, March 2, and Saturday, March 3. Matinees will be at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 1 and at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 3. Set design is by Kurt Walls and costume design by Mishka Navarre, with assistance from Georgina Cohen ’12. Kealine Kline ’12 is the choreographer.

Zimmerman’s highly praised play tells a series of stories based on the classical poem Metamorphoses, written by Ovid (43 B.C.–A.D. 18), a Roman poet who preserved for history a wealth of mythological tales.

Zimmerman chose to tell these tales onstage in a more modern and sometimes slightly bizarre manner: Zeus and the Scientist introduce the story of creation; the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice each tell their tragic story from their own point of view; and the ill-fated Phaeton bemoans his cold relationship with his father, Apollo, in front of his Therapist, who splices and dices his story with her own psychoanalysis.

In this idiosyncratic manner, with the help of some striking visuals, the stories are told of King Midas, who turns his daughter to gold; Erysichthon, who is cursed with an insatiable appetite; and Zeus and Hermes, who, disguised as beggars, discover what it is like to be human.

Over the years, various productions of Metamorphoses have been awarded five Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work/Adaptation, and several Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards.

Director John Rindo, associate professor, theatre arts, has been a member of the Puget Sound faculty since 1990. He has directed Puget Sound productions including Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, Into the Woods, and Guys and Dolls. Rindo writes for musical theater and also is interested in Shakespearean and contemporary theater.

Kurt Walls, director of theater production, has designed the scenery for productions including As You Like It, The Trip to Bountiful, The Cradle Will Rock, and The Wild Goose, at Norton Clapp Theatre, and for Seattle Men’s Chorus performances of Clouds in my Eyes at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and Snowglobe at The 5th Avenue Theatre and Benaroya Hall.

Mishka Navarre, theater costumer at Puget Sound, has designed costumes for As You Like It, The Trip to Bountiful, The Cradle Will Rock, One Mad Day!, The New Orleans Monologues, and numerous other productions.

For tickets order online at tickets.pugetsound.edu, or contact Wheelock Information Center to purchase with a credit card by calling 253.879.3419. Admission is $11 for the general public; $7 for seniors (55+), students, military, and Puget Sound students, faculty, and staff. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door.

For directions and a map of the campus: www.pugetsound.edu/directions

Photos on page: Top right: King Midas and his daughter, from A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1893); Top left: The Fall of Phaeton, by Hendrick Goltzius (1588); Above left: Director John Rindo

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