Acting Unlimited Presents MEDEA, Now thru 7/26

Acting Unlimited announces that the summer production for 2014 is MEDEA, freely adapted from the MEDEA of Euripides by Robinson Jeffers. The show will open on Friday, July 18th at 7:30 pm at the Burke Theater in Burke-Hawthorne Hall on the UL-Lafayette campus, and run today, the 18th, and continues the 19th, 25th, and 26th of July at 7:30 pm and on Sunday the 20th at 3 pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.auimedea.eventbrite.com or reserved by calling 337-484-0172.

Medea of Colchis, granddaughter of Helios (the sun god) and niece of Circe, was a renowned sorceress in her own country. After Medea fell in love with Jason (helped by the intervention of Venus, goddess of love), she helped Jason complete the tasks given to him by her father to win the Golden Fleece, and fled with him when he took the Fleece. They settled in Corinth and lived there with their two children until Jason left Medea to marry Creusa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth.

The play opens soon after Jason and Creusa marry. Medea, who followed Jason to a land strange to her and who has tried to adapt herself to strange customs and leave behind her own country and identity, finds herself abandoned by the man she has loved. She finds that the country she has tried to become part of for so long may not be as welcoming to her as she thought.

The story of Medea has been traditionally presented as the story of the revenge of a woman scorned. But what if there is another story within that one? What does Medea draw on to survive--and what guides her actions? This production looks to those questions to fuel this production.

The play features Jessica Jouclard as Medea, Daniel Ladmirault as Jason, Stephanie Broussard as The Nurse, Patricia D. Sidman as the First Woman, Erin Segura as the Second Woman, Ali Roberts as the Third Woman, Edward deMahy as Creon, Ken Harellson as Aegus, Robert Sidman as the Tutor, Reece McDaniel as the Messenger, Will Hargrave and Aubrey Ladmirault as the Children, and Leslie Whitman as the Priestess. The play is directed by Gerard Ducharme and Walter Brown. MEDEA is produced by special arrangement from Samuel French.