The University of Idaho Theatre Department’s “Medea: Her Story” is off to Denver, Colorado to perform for a much broader audience Feb. 21.
“Medea: Her Story,” is one of three plays selected to be performed at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 7.
UI theater students will also have the opportunity to see other college works such as “Mr. Burns A Post Electric Play” from Gonzaga, directed by a UI alumni member, and “Cabaret” from American River College. Medea was chosen from a pool of 36 productions to attend the festival, said actress and theater arts professor Kelly Quinnett, who portrays Medea in “Medea: Her Story.”
“I think it’s amazing, it’s a really important play and it’s something that needs to be shared with as many people as possible,” Quinnett said.
The UI production was written in collaboration with designers and actors as an experiment in creating new works, said UI Directing Student and Co-Director Maiya Corral
“I think it can inspire other college theater departments to make their own work and concentrate on stories that are really important to be told right now,” Corral said.
Quinnett said those who missed the production the first time will have another opportunity to see the benefit performance at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Hartung Theatre.
“It’s such a wonderful honor to be able to do this, to be able to take a production from the University of Idaho that we actually created at the University of Idaho and have all these people experience it,” Quinnett said.
She said “Medea” in particular is an important story to tell now because of its women-centric themes. In the devised play, Medea retells a women’s story in a world where it is more often “his” story. Quinnett said she hopes audience members will consider different motives for Medea’s actions, who killed her own children to get revenge on her unfaithful husband in the classic story. She said many assume the original story is true although it has only one man’s point of view.
“I’m so interested in the fact that Euripides chose this character, this mythical character, chose her and made her a complete villain to win a contest back in 400 B.C.,” Quinnett said.
Corral said she has been to KCACTF eight times, and once brought a play she directed from her community college, in which she received an award and the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. for the national festival.
Corral said she believes it is important to motivate aspiring theater artists to create work even if they believe financial issues impede their success. She said theater can create hope and bring together audience members and actors to create a sense of a greater whole within communities.
“There’s a ton of really amazing opportunities to share work like we’re going to be doing,” Corral said.
Quinnett said through KCACTF she received a life-changing opportunity.
“For me, as a small-town girl from Kentucky, I was put under contract for ABC and that’s when I started to do TV and film,” she said. “It pretty much launched my career, being the recipient of that (acting award).”
Fifteen actors, four directors, multiple designers and technicians and many others from UI will participate in scholarship opportunities and competitions while at the upcoming festival, Quinnett said.
Nina Rydalch can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NinaRobin7