USC Department Of Theatre And Dance Will Present ORPHEUS

The University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance will present ORPHEUS, a dance-theatre adaptation of Metamorphoses by Ovid, from February 12 through February 14 at Drayton Hall Theatre. Performances will take place nightly at 7:00 p.m., with an additional 2:00 p.m. matinee on February 14.

The production is directed and co-choreographed by André Megerdichian, associate professor of dance at USC, with text drawn from an adaptation of the original Latin by Andrew Berns, professor of history at USC. The work is a collaboration between USC Theatre and the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program and features an original score composed and performed by Amos Hoffman, with Berns accompanying on mandolin.

ORPHEUS originated from a presentation Berns gave at USC in 2021 related to his translations for Metamorphoses (Special Problems Press), a book of contemporary photographs by Kate Joyce. Megerdichian attended the talk and began developing the performance work in collaboration with Berns and faculty from both theatre and dance. The project later received support through an Excel grant from USC’s Office of the Vice President for Research.

“There was a simplicity to Andrew's translation that evoked worlds of imagination and story,” Megerdichian said. “It's incredibly poetic and evocative.”

The production focuses on the myth of Orpheus following the second loss of Eurydice and uses that narrative as a framework to explore additional stories from Metamorphoses, including Daedalus and Icarus, Deucalion and Pyrrha, Arachne, and Philomela. In this adaptation, Ovid appears as a character guiding Orpheus through his grief, a role Megerdichian described as akin to a “therapist in limbo.”

“I think the great plight of humanity is that we don't give ourselves the compassionate conversations we would give to the ones we love,” Megerdichian said. “We're trying to make that journey palpable for Orpheus so that others can see it for themselves.”

The creative team includes co-choreography by Jennifer Deckert, director of the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program, with acting scenes co-directed by Lauren Wilson and Marybeth Gorman Craig. Scenic design is by Egba Evwibovwe, costume design by Helen Ryser, lighting design by Garreth Hayward, and sound design by Senior Instructor John Kiselica. Percussion for the live score will be performed by guest artist Dan Aran.

Hoffman’s score draws on Middle Eastern musical traditions and will be performed live on oud. Berns noted the connection between the music and the adaptation, saying, “What's so inspiring about the musical style of Amos' score is that there are almost infinite possibilities. And, to me, that parallels what we're doing with this adaptation – wandering out, exploring, and then coming back to Orpheus' journey.”

For Berns, the project represents a shift from traditional academic work into performance. “I'm a history professor,” he said. “When Kate Joyce convinced me to take this on, it was an almost life-changing experience to break out of the confines of formal academic research and deploy some of those talents toward something more creative.”