I drove to Oklahoma City and arrived early to find parking and the theater on OCU's campus. I managed to find a parking spot just outside the building which happened to be the Performing Arts building where the Black Box Theater was located. I hadn't been to the Stage II theater before, so I got lucky finding my way. Once inside the building, I was heart-struck when, as I approached the ticket table, the cashier closed the cash box and said, "I'm sorry, we are already SOLD OUT."
"Sold Out?" I asked, "then, could there possibly be any standing room or alternative way to see the play, since I was attending for a class for credit?" She said no, they were told absolutely not to allow anyone else inside. The stage director came out and re-confirmed to everyone that they were sorry to be sold out and that there was nothing anyone could do. He said we would have missed the performance on Saturday as well, since they sold out in advance each day. I sighed, and wondered how I could have managed to miss it after being so close as the entrance door.
I started to leave and stopped in the women's restroom and said a prayer. It occurred to me to see if I could hear the play from outside the doors of the theater and possibly take some notes. The cashier and others were putting the table and chairs away, so I asked if I might be able to hear anything from outside the theater. They said once the doors were closed I wouldn't be able to hear the actors speaking, so no luck. I thought, I can't leave now. I might not be able to see it, but even if I have to attend it 'deaf and blind,' I will wait here until it's over before I leave the play. I noticed a man that was waiting in a chair by the door with his laptop open. He told the cashier he would wait for the stage director to come back to speak to him. I decided to wait around and see what would happen.
When the stage director came back, it was the same one who told us they were sold out and that there was no other seating. He was making an exception for the man in the chair to get in due to his association with the production. I asked if it might be possible to find a seat with them. The director agreed to let me come and sit in the balcony along with them. He led us through the backstage and through all the actors as they were preparing to go onstage. We went up a small spiral stairway to a balcony which surrounded the theater. There were several seats where some of the acting students were seated, and there happened to be one empty seat. He told me I could sit there if I didn't mind watching from the balcony. The balcony was more of a catwalk, not meant for seating, but for the actors to use in the balcony scenes.
When the play was over, I went to thank the stage director for being so kind. They were already setting up for another event in the evening. After I got home, I was looking for a picture of Euripides, and I couldn't believe it when I saw his face - he looks exactly like the stage director that helped me! An exact twin: hair, beard and all, except for the robe!
Euripides/Stage Director
I, like a small bird perched above the walls of Troy, watched as the theater shaped like a black box went completely dark and silent. A light came on above the stage and Poseidon appeared on the balcony, delivering the prologue. Below, the women of Troy: Hecuba crumbled on the ground. Gradually the others came to join the scene.
There was something intimate and powerful to the performance in such a small venue. There were no masks, the stage was bare, the performance raw in its realism. Each woman spoke their part like a veil being lifted to reveal another level of grief, loss, anguish, heartache, fear, despair. The black box seemed perfect for such a play, like watching the embers burn in a flame, extinguishing one after the other until all hope was lost. In the end, the bare bones of Hecuba's strength led the women of Troy to their fate, to their Greeks.
In the end, I felt like I was carrying the ashes of Troy
in a black box.
