Eden Prairie High School’s winter play is a modern adaptation by Emily Mann of Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy, Antigone. Antigone and her uncle, King Creon, have deeply divided beliefs.  Each unable to compromise, they bring about the destruction of everyone around them.

Performances in the EPHS Performing Arts Center are as follows:

Thursday, Feb. 4th at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 5th at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 6th at 2:00 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 6th at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now!  You MUST purchase your tickets via this link https://www.vancoevents.com/us/HTU in order to contact trace those in the audience.  The purchase window closes about five hours before each performance. Seating will be arranged on a first-come (purchased), first-served basis in terms of preferable seating in the PAC, and in accordance with COVID-safe distancing and a 25% capacity maximum attendance limit for each performance.   

Thursday, February 4th’s performance will also be live streamed at the following link:  https://youtu.be/CkE6nyWlfKA  at NO charge. 

Please contact director Kari Beutz or see the EPHS Drama website with additional questions:  https://ephsdrama.com/blog/.

Last February, Eden Prairie High School Drama, under the direction of new-to-EPHS yet seasoned director Kari Beutz, produced Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” a play about not fully realizing life as one lives it.  “Our Town” follows Emily Webb, who, in Act I, falls in love with the boy next door, George Gibbs.  In Act II, they get married.  In Act III, Emily has died in childbirth, and we see her joining other deceased in the cemetery of the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire around the early 1900s.  Emily is granted one day to revisit her life, and she realizes that most of us take our lives for granted, that the most ordinary days are indeed special.  Little did the cast and crew know how much they needed to take that message to heart as it would be the last play produced of the 2019-20 school year prior to the COVID-induced shutdown.   

This winter, director Beutz decided on a modern adaptation by Emily Mann of Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy, Antigone. The script was chosen both for its ability to pivot to either a live or live-streamed platform, as well as for its timely themes.  Antigone and her uncle, King Creon, have deeply divided beliefs.  Each unable to compromise, they bring about the destruction of everyone around them.   

The dystopian setting and production concept was inspired by images of destruction and civil unrest around the country during recent protests.   “Whose Law?” spray-painted at a riot will be a focal point of the production, as Antigone follows her own moral law, which clashes with newly-appointed King Creon’s edict.  Antigone wishes to grant her brother Polynieces a proper burial, yet Creon forbids it since Polynieces fought on the other side of the recent civil war.   

The play was cast just prior to the governor’s order to pause on in-person activities, so auditions were held on November 18-19 in the EPHS Performing Arts Center, observing social distancing and masking.  After easily deciding on casting Josie Axelson as Antigone, further casting decisions were made via Zoom on Monday, November 23.  The cast had been rehearsing via Zoom after school, then went back to EPHS in person on January 4th to continue rehearsals in person.  They intend to perform the weekend of February 6th-8th, regardless of the platform: live or live-streamed, which the poetic, engaging script will transcend.  (At the moment, live performances are scheduled with a 25% capacity, socially-distanced audience = around 150 people performance).

Cast:

Creon – Xander Gordy

Aide – Frances Johnson 

Antigone – Josie Axelson* 

Ismene – Georgia Becker

Guard – Mary Wolberg

Haemon, Creon’s son – Sam Zwiefelhofer

Teiresias, the prophet – Sophia Dohmen

Eurydice, Creon’s wife – Elizabeth Saunders

Chorus –  Ronia Mukherjee, Edwin Paredes, Elizabeth Stephan, Spencer Wilson 

* Josie Axelson is a local professional actor.  

Production:

Artistic Director – Kari Beutz

Stage Managers – Lily Lawinger and Averi Leone

Costume Designer – Blair Schuler

Costumer – Katie Ross

Lighting Designer – Katherine Kregness

Sound Designer – Ryan Hines

Crew – Josey Abbott, Zeek Beuning, Rachel Diede, Vivienne Tabor, Megan Wilson, Treven VaderLouw

Please contact director Kari Beutz for more information at [email protected]