Touring After Orpheus for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been an amazing experience. I have encountered people and seen things that I never dreamed that I would be able to. Where else would you meet a celebrity and a fairy on the same day? Leaving Edinburgh is difficult, as none of our group got to do everything that could be done. We share stories and fall into a deep sleep as the plane takes us home. But home doesn't mean that the journey is complete. On the contrary, the journey continues.
Every year Centre College's theater department puts on the family weekend show. This year the department thought it would be appropriate to do After Orpheus.
We arrive back on Centre's campus for the start of the fall term and immediately decide that our show needs a face lift. We agree that it needs script changes and additional scenes. Since we no longer had our Fringe requirement of one hour, we wanted to expand scenes that we had had to condense, and show scenes that we didn't get to develop.
We arrive at Centre's theater after class and our minds open up to possibilities unexplored and territory uncharted in the world of our play. We can change anything. Our minds start raging with possibilities of new lines, new characters, and new scenes. The play morphs into something wonderful and new, while still keeping the integrity of the plot in place.
As we move into a permanent theater space, we also no longer have restrictions of scenery, giving us literally a whole new world to play in. We gain official scenic and lighting designers who will give our play something it really never had before: a look. Sure we had blocks, ladders, and quickly arranged lights, but we had never had anything that we didn't have to take back to our rooms at the end of the show. Whatever these designers come up with is sure to make our play truly a magical place to be.
Along with set and lights, our costumes are also getting a clean start. I know I am getting a complete new dress as Persephone, as the one I wore in Edinburgh wasn't Greek goddess enough. We also get dressing rooms that are bigger than a closet and not located in a dark alley. This, I think, is the best improvement of all.
The cast of After Orpheus poses on a new set