Thank you, Lucas!!

LUCAS CALDERON (Lighting & Sound Technician) has appeared in previous Memorial Players productions including the role of a thief in Oliver. Lucas ran the spotlight this past spring for Ragtime and had so much fun he thought he would do it again. Lucas also has lent a hand on the costume crew. He is in eighth grade at Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School and enjoys swimming, math and science.

True or False: Antigone is an ancient Greek tragedy.

True.  Antigone is a tragedy written the Greek tragedian Sophocles in or before 441 BC.

Near the end of Act I, you will hear Rea, daughter of the Roman emperor, reciting from Antigone.  The verses Rea is reciting are the verses Antigone recites as she is walking towards prison where she ultimately will take her own life.  As she is walking towards her death in the tomb, she is reminding us and herself of the injustice of the Gods.

Thebes, and you my fathers’ gods,
And rulers of Thebes, you see me now, the last
Unhappy daughter of a line of kings,
Your kings, led away to death. You will remember
What things I suffer, and at what men’s hands,
Because I would not transgress the laws of heaven.
Come: let us wait no longer.

As you can imagine, there is reason why the playwright chose these particular verses from the play!

Antigone by Frederic Leighton (1882)

Meet Alan Rosenberg

ALAN ROSENBERG (Ottaker) last appeared at Memorial Players as Septimus Hodge in Arcadia, and has also been seen recently as Oliver in As You Like It with Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. Alan teaches theatre and directs the drama club at Baltimore City College. He is a graduate of Cornell University and resides in Mt. Washington with a small army of dogs that could probably sack Rome. Thanks to Rina for seeing his potential to be a Gothic Butcher, a hard-working and talented cast and crew for welcoming him late to the party, his awesome students for inspiring him, and above all to his wife and karaoke duet partner, Pilar, for her love and support.

True or False: Theodoric was Ottaker’s nephew

False.   Not much is known of Odoacer's early life. His ethnicity is generally regarded as Germanic, but who his parents were, how he was raised, or even where, is a matter of debate among historians.  It is definitely not clear that he was Gothic.  Most historians now agree that he was part of the Roman military establishment.

Peter Mullan as Odoacer in The Last Legion (2007)

Theoderic the Great was king of the Ostrogoths.  He was born in 454 A.D., the son of of the King Theodemir and Ereleuva.  He lived as a hostage at the court of Constantinople for many years and was treated with favor by the Emperors Leo I and Zeno.  He returned to live among the Ostrogoths when he was 31 years old and became their king in 488.  He was most definitely not with Odoacer when the latter deposed Romulus.

Theodoric the Great

Welcome Hal!

So glad to have you on board with us.

Bolton Hill’s HAL POLLARD (Goth) is pleased to be making his first appearance in a Memorial Players production. When not slavishly following the tenants of Gothic-ism, sacking villages, and generally being dour, Hal enjoys listening to Bauhaus and contemplating the blackness of black. Hal would like to thank Ned and Rina for encouraging him to join Ottaker the Butcher’s band of brooding barbarians and the rest of the great Memorial community.

True or False: Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Ottaker, the Gothic butcher.

True.  In 476 Odoacer advanced to Ravenna and captured the city, compelling the young emperor Romulus to abdicate on September 4.

Ottaker, better known as Odoacer or Odovacer, was a soldier in the Roman army who ascended the ranks and became an officer.  When the soldiers rebelled against their leader, Orestes, they choose Odoacer as their new commander.  Odoacer killed Orestes, the father of Romulus, and then marched onto Ravenna, the residence of the Roman emperor.

"Odoacer compels Augustulus to yield the Crown--Drawn by B. Moerlings." Image published: 1901.

Read more about Ottaker at http://www.ancient.eu/Odoacer/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odoacer