I incorporated a text fragment from one of Euripides’ lost tragedies to an image of an abandoned dollhouse discovered on a sidewalk. Informally, the piece is called Enclose the Divine. This work is part of a larger project called IOTA that brings to life the remaining textual fragments of the lost plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The Fragment What house shaped…
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Love is The Fullest Education (Motion)
Muriel Maffre, Ryan Tacata, Derek Phillips and myself performed a site specific theatre piece with the fragments of one of the lost tragedies by Euripides on Slacker Hill in the Marin Headlands. Informally, we called the work Love is The Fullest Education and the fragment relates the myth of Zeus’ seduction of Io in…
In Time of Need (Sophocles Fragment)
I incorporated a text fragment from one of Sophocles’ lost tragedies to an image of an abandoned house outside Watsonville. Informally, the piece is called In Time of Need. This work is part of a larger project called IOTA that brings to life the remaining textual fragments of the lost plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The Fragment For … shines…
Euripides Fragment #115
The man who knows how to heal well must look to the lifestyles of a city’s inhabitants and to their land when he examines their illnesses. Euripides Fragment #115
Sophocles’ Laocoön at BAMPFA
At noon. on March 9th, 2020we performed a site specific productionof a fragment from Sophocles tragedy Laocoönat the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Fragment And fire shines on the altar in the streetas it sends up a vapor from drops of myrrh,exotic scents. Poseidon, you who range over the capes of the…
Aeschylus Danaids at the Pulgas Water Temple
At 4:45pm on November 19th, 2018 we performed a site specific 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…
Euripides Fragment #259
At noon. on May 9th, 2018 we performed a site specific production of a Euripides fragment in East Palo Alto The weather was sunny with a temperature of 64℉ The duration of the performance was 5 minutes for an audience of 4 The Fragment The man on the path of steady success should not think…
Exploring #25
Sophocles’ Pandora (Hammer-Strikers)
Zeus punished men for Prometheus’ theft of fire by causing the first woman to be created out of clay This woman is Pandora: ‘All-Gifted’, because of the gifts provided her by the gods She is Man’s punishment for the theft of fire Pandora opens the jar in which all kinds of evils are contained they…
Oedipus in Fort Mason Chapel
The staged reading of Oedipus happened last night in Fort Mason Chapel for SF International Arts Festival … I’m biased but i thought it was marvelous and more than anything I’m in awe of the incredible effort intelligence, humor and grace of my collaborators in this all too brief adventure thank you Muriel Maffre, John Warren…
Exploring #24
Sophocles’ No. 116 at The Wave Organ
The Fragment… he blows no longer on small pipes, but with savage blasts, without a mouthpiece. Location… The Wave Organ an acoustic sculpture installed on the shore of San Francisco Bay in May 1986 by Peter Richards of the Exploratorium and sculptor and mason George Gonzales a series of 25 PVC organ pipes the wave…
Sophocles’ Nausicaä at Pillar Point
The Production… At 1:08 p.m. on July 10th, 2016 we performed a site specific production of Sophocles lost drama Nausicaä at Pillar Point The weather was sunny with a temperature of 72℉ The duration of the performance was 65 minutes for an audience of 37 Aleta Hayes, Jamie Lyons, Judy Syrkin-Nikolau, Benjamin Cohn, performance art…
Backstage at Pillar Point
Judy Syrkin-Nikolau (Nausicaä) backstage in wildflowers at Pillar Point…
Sopohocles’ Nausicaä Perfromance
The Iota and The Chocolate Heads present Sophocles’ lost drama Nausicaä… Afternoon, July 10th, Half Moon Bay Only a few fragments remain from Sophocles original play which was presumably based upon the fifth and sixth books of the Odyssey. The Fragment… …to weave robes and tunics made of linen… The wave passed me by then…
Rehearsing Nausicaä
Judy Syrkin-Nikolau and Amber Levine rehearsing a moment for Sophocles’ Nausicaä
Rehearsing Nausicaä on site
Nausicaä design meeting
We have the best design meetings….
Nausicaä & Odysseus
Judy Syrkin-Nikolau and Ben Cohn of The Chocolate Heads rehearsing Sophocles Nausicaä with the choreographic expertise of Aleta Hayes
Timothy Lee as Poseidon
Timothy Lee of The Chocolate Heads as Poseidon in Sophocles Nausicaä with Choreographic expertise from Aleta Hayes
rehearsing Sophocles Nausicaä
Poseidon vs. Odysseus “Poseidon god of the earthquake launched a colossal wave, terrible, murderous, arching over him, pounding down on him, hard as a windstorm blasting piles of dry parched chaff, scattering flying husks…” The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles Sophocles Nausicaä rehearsal with The Chocolate Heads in Stanford Theater and Performance Studies‘ Prosser Studio
Sophocles’ Nausicaä at Pillar Point
The Production… At 1:08 p.m. on July 10th, 2016 we performed a site specific production of Sophocles lost drama Nausicaä at Pillar Point The weather was sunny with a temperature of 72℉ The duration of the performance was 65 minutes for an audience of 37 Aleta Hayes, Jamie Lyons, Judy Syrkin-Nikolau, Benjamin Cohn, performance art…
Rehearsing Sophocles’ Nausicaä
Rehearsing Sophocles No. 116
Early morning rehearsal of Sophocles fragment number 116 with barking sea lions pelicans diving for fish fascinated tourists and local runners the amazing soundscape by Derek Phillips and the beautiful movement Of Lauren Dietrich Chavez
Euripides No. 91 preshow
Last minute notes and warmup with Muriel and Ryan
Sophocles No. 116 rehearsal
Wave Organ Rehearsal
Update: Euripides #91
Euripides #91 postponed on account of Zeus (i.e. Clouds/Fog) not making his call time. But oh, what a sunrise…
Walk Thru of Site
Sophocles Unattributed Fragment #110 At San Gregorio
The Production… At 3:57 p.m. on December 23rd, 2015 I performed a site specific production of an unattributed fragment of Sophocles in San Gregorio with eight dead fish on a fence The weather was partly cloudy with a temperature of 52℉ The duration of the performance was two and a half minutes for an audience…
CLOUD TALK (SOPHOCLES #137)
On October 9th, 2015 Rebecca Ormiston, Ryan Tacata and myself created an experimental piece for Artist Weather TV that incorporated a text fragment from one of Sophocles’ lost tragedies: Sophocles Fragment #137. Informally, the piece is called Cloud Talk. This work is part of a larger project called IOTA that brings to life the remaining…
Aeschylus’ The Argo At San Francisco Maritime
based on Aeschylus’ The Argo adapted and directed by Jamie Lyons The early stages of the Argonaut expedition perhaps even its very beginning The Argo was constructed by the shipwright Argus with the help of Athena In her prow a piece of timber from the sacred forest of Dodona spoke prophecies In the end Argo…
Argo Rehearsal aboard C.A. Thayer
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Aeschylus’ Glaucus of Potniae (A.1) at Golden Gate Fields
The Play… Glaucus reared his horse on human flesh so as to make her fiercer she ultimately turns on Glaucus as he violates the order of nature Location… Golden Gate Fields was originally Rancho San Antonio owned by José Domingo Peralta Peralta sold it in July 1852 to John Fleming who used it as a…
Euripides Unidentified Fragment (E.266) At Aquatic Park
based on Euripides’ fragments adapted and directed by Jamie Lyons with Val Sinkler & Jamie Freebury The Fragment… No man’s friend stays faithful to his tomb. Location… In 1902, it became illegal to bury new bodies in the city By 1921, the bodies were being moved en masse to Colma By 1941 nearly all of…
Sophocles’ Sinon at The Emeryville Mudflats
based on Sophocles’ fragments adapted and directed by Jamie Lyons performed by Todd Pivetti The Play… left behind by the departing Greeks Sinon pretending to be a companion of Palamedes whom the Greeks sacrificed wins the confidence of the Trojans convincing them the Wooden Horse is merely an offering to Athena yet – if the…
Aeschylus’ Daughters of the Sun (A.20) At Año Nuevo
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 drive his father’s chariot through the sky. “his sisters through their grief were transformed into poplar trees, and how every year by the banks of the River Eridanus,…
Electra Work
James Baldwin: “Take This Hammer” (1963)
“There is no moral distance between the facts of life in San Francisco and the facts of life in Birmingham.” In the summer of 1963, the KQED Film Unit invited author James Baldwin to investigate racism in San Francisco. Baldwin agreed to be filmed while he scrutinized the liberal, cosmopolitan image projected by the city….
The Mechanics Monument by Douglas Tilden
In April of 1937, in a demonstration that ‘Athletic dance was the future sport of American men”. Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers performed at The Mechanics Monument by Douglas Tilden. The sculpture, located at the intersection of Market, Bush and Battery Streets in San Francisco, was dedicated on May 15, 1901. President Theodore Roosevelt…
Jason deCaires Taylor’s “Rising Tide”
Jason deCaires Taylor’s “Rising Tide”: four life-size horses and their riders on the banks of Thames River, London.
Russian Site Specific Theatre in the 1920s
Photographs by Alexander Grinberg (1885-1979,) one of the most respected Russian photographers of the 20th c. His prestige was on the rise throughout the 1920s until 1929 when, under the storm of the cultural revolution the “old school” of Soviet photography came under fire as “depraved”, and Grinberg fell out of favor. His photography was…
Euripides’ Oedipus
Euripides Oedipus differs from Sophocles: he included a long narrative of the Sphinx’s riddle and of how Oedipus solved it; Oedipus is blinded not by his own hand but by servants of the dead Laius; when the truth of Oedipus’ life is revealed Jocasta does not kill herself (as in Sophocles and Homer) from shame…
Exploring #23
Site Specific Theatre, San Quentin State Prison
Rehearing Nausicaä
Odysseus drowning… Site Specific rehearsal of Nausicaä
Exploring #22
Site Specific Theatre
Sophocles, Unattributed Fragment (S.180)
My fate is always revolving on the fast-moving wheel of the goddess changing its nature just as the appearance of the moon cannot remain for two nights in the same shape but first emerges from obscurity as new making its face more beautiful coming to fullness when it is at its loveliest it dissolves…
Exploring #21
Exploring #20
Exploring a new site specific theatre location.
Working at the Wave Organ
Exploring #19
Exploring a new site specific theatre location, Half Moon Bay.
Exploring #18
Exploring a new site specific theatre location, Hearst Tomb
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
Exploring #17
Exploring the water temple as a location for a future site specific performance.
Exploring #16
Exploring the Richmond shoreline for a future site specific performance.
Sophocles’ Polyxene (S.77)
the Ghost of Achilles appears warning the Greeks to postpone their departure prophesying disastrous consequences a quarrel develops between Agamemnon and Menelaus resulting in the departure of Menelaus while Agamemnon remains to sacrifice Polyxena The Fragment… MENELAUS Do you remain here somewhere in the land of Ida and round up the flocks of Olympus for…
Cassandra Imploring Athena
What sort of man can I guess was author of these deeds, the man who in his insolence wrenched headlong from its base my image, and dragged the prophetic maiden from the altar in defiance of the gods? Sophocles’ Ajax the Locrian
Andromeda
Inspiration for a site specific theatre performance of Euripides’ Andromeda.
Rehearsal Eurpides Fragement
Rehearsal E.266
Exploring #15
Exploring Carolands for a site specific theatre performance.
Showcase of work so far…
as part of the Collected Works‘ Franconia Performance Salon at the Museum of Performance + Design we’ll be showing the documentation of our performances Saturday, June 27th, 6:30pm @ MP+D 893B Folsom St. San Francisco work to be shown will include… Aeschylus’ Daughters of the Sun Sophocles’ Sinon and Aeschylus’ Glaucus of Pontiae A presentation…
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 be taken only with the aid of Heracles’ bow and arrows…
Exploring #14
Exploring a location for a future site specific theatre performance.
Athamas & Ino
Inspiration for a site specific performance involving Athamas & Ino.
Aeschylus’ Glaucus of Potniae (A.1) at Golden Gate Fields
The Play… Glaucus reared his horse on human flesh so as to make her fiercer she ultimately turns on Glaucus as he violates the order of nature Location… Golden Gate Fields was originally Rancho San Antonio owned by José Domingo Peralta Peralta sold it in July 1852 to John Fleming who used it as a…
Pasiphaë
Denials from me will no longer convince you; for the facts are now quite clear. If I had thrown myself at a man in love’s furtive commerce, I should rightly now be revealed as lascivious. As it is, because my madness was a god’s onslaught, I hurt, but my trouble is not voluntary. Why, it…
Wave Organ Joe
Joe lives off social security. Has to fish for his dinner.
Exploring #13
Exploring the Palace of Fine Arts for a future site specific theatre performance.
Wave Organ
playing with movement and sound in upcoming performance site for Sophocles fragment S.116
Peter Richards & The Wave Organ
Peter Richards (a senior artist at the Exploratorium) shares his inspiration for creating the wave organ and explores its function as a theatre in which many different kinds of human experiences unfold..
Exploring #12
Exploring a future location for a site specific theatre performance.
Glaucus Rehearsal
Rehearsal photos of a site specific rehearsal for Aeschylus’ Glaucus.
The Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse for The Iota’s Site Specific Theatre production of Sophocles’ Sinon.
Amymone Rehearsal 1
study for the fragment of sophocles’ satyr drama amymone…
Rehearsal
site specific theatre rehearsal
Building The Trojan Horse
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…