Meet Emily Bowden

We're excited to work with you too, Emily!

EMILY BOWDEN (Stage Management) is excited to work with Memorial Players for the first time! Typically, on the other side of the curtain, she has recently acted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at Baltimore City College and Peter Pan with Charm City Players. She would like to study musical theatre at NYU after graduating high school.

Meet Sean Dynan

Sean is such a welcome addition to our Memorial Players Family!

SEAN DYNAN (Aemilian) is from West Orange, NJ and holds his B.M. and M.M. in Saxophone Performance from Duquesne University and The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University respectively. He is a certified sommelier and has become an enthusiastic Uber driver in hopes of transitioning to a life based solely on his endeavors in acting and music while working on stage, film, and TV in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area.

TRUE or FALSE? Romans did not wear pants.

TRUE OR FALSE? Romans did not wear pants.

FALSE. Republican Rome viewed the draped clothing of Greek and Minoan (Cretan) culture as an emblem of civilisation and disdained trousers as the mark of barbarians. But Roman soldiers mounted steeds (and adopted pants) in the first century A.D. after getting trounced repeatedly by Hannibal and his trouser-clad cavalrymen. Roman complaints about pants show up as early as Cicero. In a Letter to his Friends he wrote:

“I am marvellously fond of pleasantries, our native brand most of all, especially in view of its present decline; for adulterated as it had already become after the influx of the foreign element into our city, it is now with the accession of the trousered tribes from over the Alps so overwhelmed that no trace of the old gay charm is any more to be found.” 

Emperor Honorius more or less organized an anti-German pogrom and banned trousers in the 420s.

Roman Braccha

Barbarian Pants

Thanks for making us all look the part, Christine!

Thanks for making us all look the part, Christine!

CHRISTINE CALDERON (Costumes) has assisted with costumes for several plays for Memorial Players. She has had a lot of fun leading the costume design crew for Romulus. She spends most of her time designing renovations for many of Bolton Hill’s beautiful town homes as well as being mother and wife to the four young men in her life. She would like to thank her amazing costume crew for helping to pull the show together.

Sunday October 30: raising the stage!

John Webb, Andy Johnston, Sandra Steven and Kate Leisner examining a flat

Nancy Kelso guarding the flats

Nothing is to heavy for Ottaker (Alan Rosenberg)

Otto Rumpf (John Dignam) has seen enough.

Ryan Tisch and Laura Weeldryer taking a break

Sean Dynan and Richard Peck, adjusting the flats

Ned and Hall Pollard deciding where to go with this thing

Another flat carried on by Sean, Alan and John

Rina Steinhauer, testing the stage

Michiel van Katwijk, Kate Leisner, Daniel Weinglass and Sandra Stevens with one of the back panels

Michiel van Katwijk, Kate Leisner, Daniel Weinglass and Sandra Stevens with one of the back panels

Kate Leisner, Daniel Weinglass and Michiel van Katwijk

John Webb

Even the Emperor (Terry O'Hara) himself is helping out!

Emily Bowden, one of our stage managers

John Webb and Daniel Weinglass reaching high

It is starting to look like a villa.  John Seeley and John Lisch.

Ned Pollard wielding a drill

Hal Pollard examining the structure

We are so lucky to have Kate!

We are so lucky to have Kate!

KATE LEISNER (Assistant Director) has been involved in community theater for over a decade, acting in dozens of plays including Our Town and Steel Magnolias. Before moving to Baltimore a few years ago, she was working on a master’s degree in international relations in London. Kate currently works on legislative campaigns at a local PR firm. In her free time, she enjoys traveling abroad and reading.

True or False: March 15 is also known as the Ides of March.

True!

In the ancient Roman calendar, each month had an Ides. In March, May, July, and October, the Ides fell on the 15th day. In every other month, the Ides fell on the 13th. The word Ides derives from a Latin word which means “to divide.” The Ides were originally meant to mark the full moon, but because calendar months and lunar months were different lengths, they quickly got out of step. 


We should beware of the Ides of March!  Why? 

Caesar: The Ides of March are come.

Soothsayer: Aye, Caesar, but no gone.

-- Shakespeare.  Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1 

Thanks to Shakespeare's indelible dramatization, March 15—also called the Ides of March—is forever linked with the 44 B.C. assassination of Julius Caesar, and with prophecies of doom. Until that day Julius Caesar ruled Rome. The traditional Republican government had been supplanted by a temporary dictatorship, one that Caesar very much wished to make permanent. But Caesar's quest for power spawned a conspiracy to have him killed, and on the Ides of March, a group of prominent Romans brought him to an untimely end in the Senate House.

The Assassionation of Caesar in the 1963 movie Cleopatra

Romulus, Zeno, and Julia Believe! + some other photos from last weekend's rehearsal

Romulus, Zeno & Julia Believe

Romulus, Zeno & Julia Believe

Titus, Metellus and Tullius stand by their Empress

Titus, Metellus and Tullius stand by their Empress

Titus and Tullius

Aemilian and Tullius

Princess Rea

Princess Rea

Tullius contemplating burning the archives

Ottaker and his Goths

We LOVE our poster! And here's who we have to thank for it:

We LOVE our poster! And here's who we have to thank for it:

LYNNE MENEFEE (Poster/Program/Set Painting) grew up in Bolton Hill (with a side adventure living in LA in the 80s) and is freelance graphic designer. She has been designing posters and programs, painting sets, and making props since Meet Me in St. Louis. She also is graphic designer for Baltimore Shakespeare Factory and scheduler/reviewer for Maryland Theatre Guide. Remembering Mom who always encouraged her, found this neighborhood and made it home.

TRUE or FALSE? The last Roman Emperor lived in Tivoli.

TRUE or FALSE? The last Roman Emperor lived in Tivoli.

Probably false. Tivoli is a town and comune in central Italy, about 19 miles east-north-east of Rome. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna. In Roman times, the city was renowned for its beauty and good water, and was enriched by many Roman villas. The last Roman emperor however ruled from Ravenna, a city about 225 miles north east of Tivoli. The capital of the Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna by Emperor Honorius in AD 402, because it was easier to defend, and had better connections to the Eastern Empire. Romulus therefore most likely lived in a villa, perhpas much like the ones in Tivoli, but in or near Ravenna.

Villa gardens in Tivoli

Ravenna