2022 CAMP Play: hippolytus
This year in San Francisco, the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance will be presenting hippolytos by Lane Flores (Loyola University), an original play inspired by Euripides’s Hippolytus. Lane will also direct the play, and has the following thoughts to share:
“the queer dionysia has been an ongoing project since 2018 and constitutes part of my attempt to reclaim space for my community in classical drama. It was inspired by the Queer Shakespeare Project, a group of Chicago artists who, under the helm of director Peter Anderson, began a series of workshops and trainings together with the intent of creating all-queer theatre pieces. During that process I found myself pulled more and more into the realm of Attic tragedy; I developed a thesis out of three interconnected facets of queer life – identity, relationships, and community – that interested me and with which I wanted to build a new, explicit belonging for queerness in classics. These facets would go on to be the primary themes in each of the plays of the queer dionysia.
My hippolytos is not intended to be an adaptation of Euripides, but rather a conversation with him (and Seneca, and Racine, and Chuck Mee, and Sarah Kane, and- well, the list goes on). The best plays are conversations with what has come before, giving rise to something new. Like our hybrid showing at this hybrid conference, the text is a queer mix of new work and old structure, of modern technology and ancient theatricality. With a virtual chorus and live actors, we’ll be straddling the line of what constitutes theatre and presentation, much like tragedy itself straddles art and philosophy, entertainment, and religion. This process has been heavily influenced by the SCS members involved and is an opportunity for everyone, from actors to audience, to experience a little bit of what goes into making new plays.”
In keeping with the SCS 2022 conference’s hybrid format, there are multiple ways to view Lane Flores’ hippolytus. For those attending virtually, a pre-recorded version of the play will be available on YouTube on Friday, January 7th. The link will be provided in the digital SCS conference program and on the OpenWater platform. In person conference-goers it can attend a live performance of the play on Friday night at 8:00 PM Pacific Time. The performance will observe social distancing protocols in compliance with California state policy. A talkback will follow the live performance at 9:30 PM Pacific Time. Virtual attendees may participate in the talkback by logging in to OpenWater and watching it synchronously. Both in person and virtual participants they submit questions ahead of time by emailing them to Krishni Burns (ksburns@uic.edu), or participants can submit questions during the talk back via chat. In person attendees may, of course, raise their hands.
We hope to see as many of you as possible at the performance for an innovative theatrical experience, and we look forward to sharing ideas with everyone afterward. The CAMP show remains open to the public, so all are welcome. The seating may be limited due to social distancing, but thanks to the tireless efforts of the SCS staff, we are able to provide access to our entire community. – Krishni Burns (CAMP Chair) and Lane Flores (Author/Director)
