DC-Area Kids Star in the First Live Production of PERSEPHONE at Traveling Players

Traveling Players will produce the first live production of Persephone by award-winning playwright Judith Walsh White. The play will open July 29 at the Traveling Players Studio in Tysons Corner Center.

In Persephone, the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone live a life of eternal bliss on the sacred Earth. When the trickster Cupid shoots his Arrow at the head-over-heels Hades, Persephone is taken to the underworld. Soon the Earth suffers from her departure; famine, dust bowls, and droughts. Can Hades win her love? Will mother and daughter reunite? And, most importantly, will the Earth retain her beauty?

Traveling Players originally commissioned Persephone in 2020. The play was scheduled to open that summer in-person, but the pandemic forced the original cast on zoom. Since then White has reworked the script to serve an ensemble of anywhere from 5 to 13 performers. Composer Nathan Sherwood Liang wrote the score. He has previously composed the scores for Atalanta and Heracles!, both of which premiered at Traveling Players.

The play is currently in rehearsal with Traveling Players' Mythology Ensemble, a 2-week sleepaway theatre summer camp for kids in grades 4-6. The small but mighty cast of just 5 young actors is led by a trio of directors who specialize in training young people in acting, movement, improvisation, and stage combat.

For more information about Persephone, tickets, and other upcoming performances please visit travelingplayers.org.