By the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance

"AntigoneNOW Sign-up list, registrants will be emailed performance information on May 22. 

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present a radical new production of Sophocles’ AntigoneNOW this spring online (details to come). Free to the public, the production can be viewed online for a 24-hour period on May 23 beginning at 12 a.m. (PDT).

For the performance, the directors ask that the viewer use headphones to enjoy the immersive sound experience of AntigoneNOW.

There will be an online screening and discussion of the performance on May 23 at 11 a.m. For details, visit this link.

'When it was clear that COVID 19 would impact our campus, I was moved to consider how we could allow this moment in history to positively impact our learning community and our intended production of Antigone,' said Margaret Laurena Kemp, co-director and associate professor of theatre and dance. 'As an artist and instructor, my call to action is to model collaboration, research, creativity and community engagement through performance and theatre making practices. For me this is the soul of the value of theatre and dance at an R1 Institution. Our hybrid approach to Antigone, which is now called Antigone NOW answers the call.'

A radical new performance film of Sophocles’ Antigone, devised from the translation by Seamus Heaney.

A world in strife, a nation in fear, a woman stranded, in grief. Award-winning Irish director and UC Davis Granada Artist-in-Residence Sinéad Rushe will co-direct with Margaret Laurena Kemp, associate professor of theatre and dance, a ground-breaking contemporary response to the classical play, Antigone.

'Made collectively in the USA, UK, Japan and Singapore using mobile phones, Ipads and video, this all-female cast and creative team will create a stunning new film that confronts the isolation of our moment,' said Rushe. 'A culturally diverse ensemble of female identifying actors, each in seclusion, will evoke the breadth of Antigone’s defiance against devastating loss.'"

Read the full article on the UC Davis Theatre and Dance department website.