At 4:45pm on November 19th, 2018 we performed a site responsive theatre piece of the two remaining fragments of Aeschylus Danaids at the Pulgas Water Temple in San Mateo county. This work is part of a larger project called IOTA that brings to life the remaining fragments for the lost plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The weather was cloudy, with…
Æschylus is above all things the poet of righteousness. “But in any wise, I say unto thee, revere thou the altar of righteousness”: this is the crowning admonition of his doctrine, as its crowning prospect is the reconciliation or atonement of the principle of retribution with the principle of redemption, of the powers of the mystery of darkness with the coeternal forces of the spirit of wisdom, of the lord of inspiration and of light.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Age of Shakespeare (1908)
Aeschylus
Albrecht Durer: Bacchanal With Silenus
inspiration for Aeschylus‘ Net Haulers…
Aeschylus The Argo At San Francisco Maritime
At 2:45 p.m. on October 3rd, 2015 I performed a site responsive theater piece of the only remaining fragment from Aeschylus’ The Argo in the hold of the schooner C.A. Thayer at San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. based on Aeschylus’ The Argo adapted and directed by Jamie Lyons The early stages of the Argonaut…
Aeschylus Daughters of the Sun at Año Nuevo
At 6:25 a.m. on April 24th, 2015 I performed a site responsive theatre production of Aeschylus Daughters of The Sun in the waves off Año Nuevo State Park adapted and directed by Jamie Lyons performed by Jamie Lyons location: Año Nuevo State Park The Play… the story of how Phaëthon meet his death while attempting to…
Aeschylus’ The Bacchae (A.9)
The one surviving fragment suits any play concerning the punishment of an enemy of Dionysus. The Fragment… Evil, you see, comes swiftly upon mortals: the offence comes home to him who breaks the bounds of right. A site specific theatre production of Aeschylus’ The Bacchae
Philoctetes
Research for a series of site responsive theatre performances of Philoctetes. The Myth… in return for lighting Heracles funeral pyre Philoctetes is bequeathed his bow and arrows en route to Troy he is incapacitated by a snakebite and left behind by the Greeks on the island of Lemnos after a seer reveals that Troy can…
Inspiration for Glaucus
Inspiration for a site responsive theatre performance of Glaucus.
Aeschylus Glaucus of Potniae at Golden Gate Fields
At 1:15 p.m. on June 6th, 2015 we performed a site responsive theater piece with the fragments that remain from the lost Aeschylus tragedy, Glaucus of Potniae, at the Golden Gates Fields horse racing track. The Play… Glaucus reared his horse on human flesh so as to make her fiercer she ultimately turns on Glaucus…
Inspiration for Aeschylus’ Circe
source: NY Times fashion photo from 50s Inspiration for a site specific theater performance of Aeschylus’ Circe.
Golden Gate Fields
Location… originally Rancho San Antonio owned by José Domingo Peralta Peralta sold it in July 1852 to John Fleming who used it as a transhipment point for shipping his cattle across the bay for slaughter and processing later in the 19th century it became the site of the Giant Powder Company a manufacturer of black…
Aeschylus Circe
The Story… Odysseus’ first visit to after his companions had been transformed into pigs. The Fragment… He was seen thinly sown in yellow, which is the ultimate of wandering. Inspiration for The Iota’s site specific theatre production of Aeschylus’ Daughters of the Sun.
Aeschylus Athamas
The Story… Athamas and Ino were driven mad by Hera for having agreed to care for the child Dionysus (whose mother Semele was Ino’s sister) Athamas shot Learchus with an arrow under the delusion that he was a deer Ino threw Melicertes into a boiling cauldron then leaped into the sea taking the cauldron with…
Archeresses (A.6)
Actaeon torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs as Artemis turns him into a stag for an offence against her. The Fragment… Never yet has a barren day’s hunting sent Actaeon home with abundance of toil but with empty hands. In maidens who are pure of the bed of wedlock, the glance of their…
Women of Aetna (A.4)
Thaleia, a Sicilian nymph daughter of Hephaestus made pregnant by Zeus she is then swallowed up by the earth the women of Aetna wander the land in search of her Thaleia’s twin offspring emerge from below ground and are named the Palici The Fragment… A So what name will mortals give them? B Zeus ordains…
Aeschylus’ Ixion
Gods and men alike were horrified by Ixon’s murder of his father-in-law Deïoneus none were willing to purify him Zeus took pity on him not only purified him but took him to heaven Ixion, in turn, committed the ultimate hybris by attempting to seduce Hera (Zeus deceived him into lying instead with a cloud in…
Aeschylus’ Amymone (A.5)
Amymone in the Argive countryside while there she attracts the attention of a Satyr who attempts to rape her she screams for help from Poseidon Poseidon appears putting the satyr to flight then he himself makes love to Amymone When they are finished Poseidon strikes the ground with his trident creating for her THE SPRING OF…
Aeschylus’ Callisto (A.13)
Callisto was a hunting companion of Artemis she is made pregnant by Zeus before giving birth Callisto is transformed into a bear (by Zeus or Hera or Artemis) her child (taken from her womb after Artemis had shot her) was human Arcas Callisto’s destiny by order of Zeus was to be placed in the heavens…
The Lion (A.57)
The Nemean Lion killed by Heracles as the first of his Labors another instance of the familiar “hero vs. monster” scenario in a satyr play The Fragment… The bane of travellers the serpent of the place .
Inspiration for Aeschylus’ The Argo
The early stages of the Argonaut expeditionperhaps even its very beginning The Fragment… The holy speaking beam of the Argogroaned aloud Inspiration for a site responsive theatre piece with the remaining text fragments of Aeschylus’ The Argo