Written by Sophocles
Adaptation by Yael Prizant and James Vesce

Directed by James Vesce
Dramaturgy by Yael Prizant

Choreography by Delia Neil
Musical Direction by Gordon Nunn
Scenic Design: Brian Ruggaber
Lighting Design: Ben Stanton
Costume Design: Bob Croghan
Sound Design: James Vesce

Rowe Theatre, UNC Charlotte

THE STORY
Antigone tells the story of a young woman who defies her uncle in order to provide her brother a proper burial, set against the background of a civil war and a family doomed because, from the beginning, it has failed to follow the instructions of the gods. This new adaptation of the Greek tragedy set the conflicting family loyalties during the American Civil War. The text was drawn from a variety of sources and complemented by musical compositions echoing the period folk music of the mid-and-late nineteenth century.

PRODUCTION NOTES
The events in Antigone are consistent with the view of many regarding wars in general - that they are inevitable, unavoidable- despite sensible alternatives which always seem to be pushed aside. When Southerners were asked as Shiloh why they fount they told Union army members, "Because you're here," and further, "You're not fighting for the negroes, you're fighting for the union." Both blind obedience to a political authority and the flaws in human nature which prevent us from seeing what is right and reasonable are important ideas in the production.

As an alternative to the view expressed above, a chorus of women and slaves provided movement sequences between episodes. The slaves embodied the resistance to and overthrow of failed authority from which generate the Messenger and Teiresias. Women, who in both Greek society and Civil War America, according to Mary Liefkowitz in Women in Greek Myth, were recognized as possessing a "better sense of what is right and just than men: they were the surveyors of the wars initiated and fought by men; they preserved the family; they washed the bodies of the dead…" reflected the forgotten voice of wisdom.