Antigone in agony for SE production
by Linda Compton, reporter

    Antigone, a classic tale about a young woman whose life is cut short, will play in the SE Campus Roberson Theatre Wednesday through Saturday, Nov. 20-23.

   Performances will be at 8 p.m. each evening with a matinee Saturday at 2 p.m.

   Although this play is about ancient Greece, it also deals with civil disobedience.

   A law has been decreed, and many personal freedoms have been taken away.

   As as a special bonus, this is the first time the play has been presented using modern techno music.

   The Thebans, Part III: Antigone is the final installment of Sophocles’ Oedipus.

   Antigone, played by Deborah Prickett, and Ismene, played by Mandy Maxfield, are the surviving daughters of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes.

   Antigone, in defiance of Creon, the new king, resolves to bury her brother Polyneices, who was slain in his attack on Thebes. Creon has decreed that no funeral is to take place.

   She is caught in the act by Creon’s watchmen and brought before the king.

   Antigone justifies her action, asserting that she is bound to obey the eternal laws of right and wrong in spite of any human ordinance.

   Maxfield, one of the stars, hopes to complete her associate degree at TCC in the spring. She has been acting for about six years at various area community theaters.

   “I want to be a director at a junior college,” she said.

   Maxfield will attend Baylor or UNT.

   Creon, played by David Vieira, is unrelenting against Antigone and condemns her to a rock-hewn chamber.

   Creon’s son Haemon, to whom Antigone is betrothed, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her.

   Vieira has been acting since high school and wants to perform professionally.

   Anthony Lewis plays Haemon, the son of Creon.

   Now in his fourth production on SE Campus, Lewis has been acting since his sophomore year at Nolan High School.

   His major is theater arts, and he plans to transfer either to UNT or UT.

   John Dement, director of theatre on SE Campus, chose this Greek classic because most people of this day can identify with it.

   “For a 2,500-year-old text, this play still has a lot to say even in today’s times,” he said. “The impression I want people to go away with is that it’s dance club music with lots of fog and lighting,” he said.
   Dement will produce the next play in the spring, which will be Children of Eden, a Broadway musical.

   Auditions will be at the end of this semester.

   The only requirement to participate is that students register for rehearsal and performance, a one-hour course.