Cal Poly Theatre and Dance Department Puts a New Spin on a Classic Story

Spotlight On: Antigone and Letters to Soldiers Lost

Antigone and the body of Polyneices

• Classic Greek play Antigone gets a makeover
• Director and writer Al Schnupp explains his process
• Ryan Austin, who plays King Creon, shares his views

Most are familiar with Antigone, the Greek play by Sophocles. In the story, both of Antigone’s brothers are killed fighting on opposite sides of a civil war. King Creon decides that while one should be honored, the other should remain unburied, a sign of dishonor. Antigone decides to honor the second brother, disobeying King Creon, and facing dire consequences.

Perhaps less familiar, are the books “Shrapnel in the Heart” by Laura Palmer, “Letters on the Wall” by Michael Sofarelli, and “Offerings at the Wall” (Turner Publishing, Inc.). These books contain a collection of touching, emotional letters left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

For the next two weekends, Cal Poly’s theatre department will be presenting “Antigone and Letters to Soldiers Lost,” a combination of the classic Sophocles play and letter readings out of the three books listed above. By placing letters in between the scenes of the play, Schnupp is able to set the tone and heighten the emotions of the show, which revolves around the central theme of how survivors deal with the aftermath of war.

“I had read some letters many, many years ago,” explained director and writer Al Schnupp, of his idea to incorporate the letters, “And they stayed with me. They are so powerful because they are real letters to people that they really cared about. I always thought at some point it would be great to conduct a show around that. In tandem, I kept thinking it would be interesting to write a play about memorials…” He went on to explain that he examined all different types of memorials, from Holocaust memorials to roadside memorials.

“The more I taught Antigone in my script analysis class, the more I thought [the letters and the story] could be linked. I found some great letters to really compliment the story.” – Al Schnupp

When casting the characters of the play, Schnupp explained that he looked for “inner strength, resilience, nerve, and inner conviction.” He also said he considered energy, posture, and voice. For the letter readers he looked for simplicity and vulnerability. “I want to see your heartache,” he added.

Ryan Austin, who plays the role Creon explained his audition process: “I read a scene between Haemon and Antigone with Ellen Jones (who ended up getting cast as Antigone)…I usually feel like I could have done better after an audition, but I felt remarkably comfortable with our read…I never actually read for Creon though – I guess our dynamic just worked.”

“The role has been a bit of a challenge. The scenes from the original Antigone are all very powerful scenes, but the action is consistently broken up by some of the Vietnam letters…so that tends to make it difficult to maintain focus. However, with that being said, often the letters reflect the emotion or the idea of the scenes they are in so I have found that rather than ignoring them, I can use the momentum of each of the letters to my advantage in terms of the pacing and emotional arc of the scene.” – Ryan Austin

He went on to discus his character, King Creon: “Creon is not just a bad guy…he is simply human – he makes mistakes and his position as King allows the consequences of his mistakes to be much worse than the average citizen. His motivation is not malicious – he simply wants to keep peace in a city that has been ravaged by war.  Creon thinks he is doing what is best for his people.”

When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the show Schnupp said, “I want the audience to be engaged emotionally in the show, to be impressed by Antigone’s courage, to understand Creon’s position and not see him as just a pure villain, and to honor the soldiers and people who wrote the letters, and to have their feelings stirred up.”

Go see “Antigone and Letters to Soldiers Lost:”

• Date: November 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20
• Time: 8:00 p.m.
• Location: Spanos Theatre
• Tickets: $15.00, $12.00 for students and seniors

For more information or to buy tickets, call 805-756-2787 or click here.