Actresses Elisa Reig, Aymara Melo and Rosanna Morrone----------------------------------------
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The Multicultural Space Camera Obscura marked an important chapter in the artistic development of Jorge Luis Morejon. He directed the performance space, located in the heart of Little Havana, Miami, Florida, from 2003 to 2005. The small black box allowed him and the actors he collaborated with to experiment, feel and live theatre in a different and unique way. Thelos Theatre was created simultaneously with Camera Obscura, a space that became the group’s home and the home of other groups with whom the space was shared. As a result of this fusion, the first play ever directed and produced by Jorge Luis Morejon in Camera Obscura was born, Three Greek Women, with the participation of actresses Rosanna Morrone, Elisa Reig and Aymara Melo. The following articles, critical reviews, interviews and letters are a reaction to the approximately 20 performances of the play in Miami and New York.
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A Good Proposal (translation)
By Jesús Hernández /Diario Las Américas
Like in ancient times, very ancient, in the V century BC, when the Greeks sang odes to the God Dionysus, a group of classic theatre admirers have gathered efforts in the name Thelos Group to represent what others would consider a failure in Miami; a play of the Greek tragic theatre. A piece that is titled "Three Greek Women," and that it is presented in a small cultural space, opened recently, named Camera Obscura, on 6 street, south west, 12th Avenue.
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The three women are three known heroines of Hellenic mythology; Medea, Antigone and Clytemnestra, whom without being characters of the same text or author, carrie misfortune and pain as common peculiarities.
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The concept is Jorge Luis Morejón's, an actor and e instructor of performing arts (who currently teaches at Prometeo school), that beginning with Esquilo's, Sófocles' y Euripides' classic texts, places the mystic characters in trial before Zeus, to expose their cases, defend them, and obtain the desired divine absolution to rest in piece.
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Three guilty souls wander in the infinite. They do not know tranquility because of the evils committed: Medea killed her children to hurt her husband who abandoned her for another woman, Antigone suffers her death, the suicide out disobedience of the king's decreet after having buried her brother, and Clytemnestra killed her husband Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, in revenge for the death of her daughter Iphigenia.
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The development of the plot equally manifests mankind's disilusion, the evolution of submission to a superior destiny, even to divine will, and the challenging of the dictates of the gods. Jorge Luis takes into account the eternal fate which characterizes the characters, but brakes the myth when he gives them an end which even though in accordance with the ancient dialogues, it reflects the redemption of women in times to come.
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Even more important that the final message, it is the effect this piece could cause on the spectator. If peculiar is the presentation of a classic Greek theatre passage in Miami, it is admirable the affinity of the actresses with the characters. Elisa Reig and Rossana Morrone practically debut in the great theatre with this piece and already show a moving connection. Aymara Melo comes from the Escuela Cubana Superior de Actuacion, where she was also successful.
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Jorge Luis succeeds in guiding the three actresses through the path of body movement and the impact of dramatization, which substantiated by the interpretation, the text and the momentum of choral expression, succeeds in differentiating one character from the other, in that way producing a useful communication with the audience without any other ambientation than the allegoric Greek music, the costumes, the darkness and an appropriate use of the light. It is a beneficial theatrical event that should be well received.
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Three Greek Women, Fridays and Saturdays, 8.00 pm, Camera Obscura Space, 1165 S.W. 6 Street, Miami, phone 305 324 4000, tickets $15 or $10 for students.
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Critical Review
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The lights dim as the three women enter the stage; the audience is transfixed. There is no traditional script to hide behind, the script is written in the actresses’ movements and unforgettable facial expressions. Prior to the performance, Jorge Luis Morejon, Three Greek Women’s producer, director and choreographer, and the backbone of the Camera Obscura Cultural Space theater, tells the audience how over time, we have become far removed from the classics, and particularly from Greek literature and thought.
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Morejon’s introductory remarks are quite accurate; classical Greek themes are rarely a part of contemporary literature and theatrical productions.Throughout the Greek classics, archetypal images emerge. Within the tragedies and comedies are depicted our own human weaknesses and strengths. I recall an interview several years ago, where Bill Moyers asked the late great mythologist Joseph Campbell why the myths should matter to us, to which Campbell responded, “the myths are the literature of the spirit,” and indeed they are. According to Joseph Campbell: These bits of information from ancient times, which have to do with themes that have supported human life, built civilizations, and informed religions over the millennia, have to do with deep inner problems, inner mysteries, inner thresholds of passage, and if you don’t know what the guide-signs are along the way, you have to work it out yourself. But once the subject catches you, there is such a feeling, from one or another of these traditions, of information of a deep, rich, life-vivifying sort that you don’t want to give it up.[1][1]
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In Three Greek Women, beyond the power inherent within the Greek tragedies, is the powerful talent of the three superb actresses, Elisa Reig, Rosanna Morrone, and Aymara Melo. This multi-cultural ensemble, which includes a Spaniard, an Italian, and a Cuban, comprise what is perhaps some of the best talent I have yet to witness. They captivate everyone present with the sheer strength and energy they bring to their characters, leaving the audience spellbound, and eliciting a standing ovation.
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Jorge Luis Morejon’s outstanding direction is a true homage to the arts. The originality and vision of his work is reflected in each detail throughout the play. After the performance, I find myself making a mental list of everyone I would tell about the play, except it is Three Greek Women’s last night. Nonetheless, I am delighted to have found Camera Obscura, a place where talent abounds, and which I am certain I will visit again soon.
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1 Campbell, Joseph, The Power of Myth, Doubleday, New York, NY, 1988.
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Critique
By Christine Dolen/the Miami Herald
By Christine Dolen/the Miami Herald
“Inside the black-box space called Camera Obscura, fresh dreams and ancient tragedies are being played out.The space once known as Little Havana's P.S. 742 has been rechristened and reopened, and it's now home to the maiden effort of the Thelos, Camera Obscura's resident theater company. Director Jorge Luis Morejon has created a piece titled Three Greek Women, merging music, movement and text drawn from the work of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus, with Elisa Reig portraying Antigone, Rosanna Morrone as Clytemnestra and Aymara Melo as Medea.
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Morejon's experimental concept is that the three women -- Antigone, who defiantly buried her brother and then committed suicide; Clytemnestra, who murdered the adulterous Agamemnon; Medea, who repaid Jason's abandonment by murdering their children -- are on trial, with the gods as their judges. The actors play both the ''defendants'' and sorceresses relaying the gods' pronouncements.Reig, Morrone and Melo bring intense physicality into the barren space. They move in a tight knot then separate, pound their bodies, react to invisible torments. Because they're in beige costumes that blend with their skin tones, their expressive faces -- agonized, mournful, horrified -- seize and command attention.”
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The Miami Herald
4L Sunday, January 23, 2005
OPINION
Culturally Myopic
Re Herald theater critic Christine Dolen's ethnically intensive comment about the actresses' heavy accents in her Jan 17 review of Three Greek Women at Camera Obscura:
Is Dolen unaware that we all, she included, speak English with some sort of accent (Southern, Midwestern, Spanish)? Which should she have us believe is the correct accent for this work - a Greek one? In a nation in which the population grows more multiethnic, led in this change by places like Miami, comments like this are culturally myopic.
Richard Iacino, Miami
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Letters
4L Sunday, January 23, 2005
OPINION
Culturally Myopic
Re Herald theater critic Christine Dolen's ethnically intensive comment about the actresses' heavy accents in her Jan 17 review of Three Greek Women at Camera Obscura:
Is Dolen unaware that we all, she included, speak English with some sort of accent (Southern, Midwestern, Spanish)? Which should she have us believe is the correct accent for this work - a Greek one? In a nation in which the population grows more multiethnic, led in this change by places like Miami, comments like this are culturally myopic.
Richard Iacino, Miami
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Letters
Letter (e-mail) from actor and friend Horacio Lazo after having seen the last performance of Three Greek Women.
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Wed, 23 Mar 2005
Dear friends,
Dear friends,
After attending your final performance of "Three Greek Women," the least I can do is to congratulate you. Not only for having presented a work of outmost quality, but for having dared to go against the current, for having given us that gift, for having started a path which, though perceived as long and arduous, I am sure it will make feel very proud. Not only of the work itself, but of what you have started.
At the beginning of the year, a journalist complained about theater in Miami always following the easy way of comedy, without daring to touch other audience's fibers needed to awaken in order to initiate that path. I am proud to be able to say that the initiators are my friends.
A hug,
Horacio
PS. I don't have the e-mails of the other members of this work. Please extend to them my congratulations.
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Horacio
PS. I don't have the e-mails of the other members of this work. Please extend to them my congratulations.
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Thelos in the Big Apple
Thelos went to New York with Three Greek Women. This was Thelos’ first production and its first invitation to perform outside of Miami and outside of Camera Obscura. "T2K, nyc notebook" announced Three Greek Women, among other pieces, in the “Road Show," the Field's Gotour mini-fest at ps 122, July 5, 2005.
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Three Greek Women (excerpt) Thelos Theater Group (THEATER - Miami, FL):
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"Three Greek Women works from the classic Greek texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, intertwining the stories of Clytemnestra, Antigone and Medea to create a new story."
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On its front page T2K explains how the “selection of the 14 acts representing GoTour's first anniversary celebration was equally democratic: "they selected one another. In January, GoTour invited members to define on a personal level -- in 500 words or less -- what it means to be an independent artist.”
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T2K quotes Jorge Luis Morejon:
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"For some of us," writes Thelos' Jorge Luis Morejon, "the format of independent work is a real necessity and the only way possible to be genuine, real and artistically uncompromising."
http://www.theater2k.com/Notebook070505_Roadshow.htm
http://www.theater2k.com/Notebook070505_Roadshow.htm
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Community Work
St. Sophia Cathedral Bulletin - January 30, 2005
Today 'Three Greek Women' a variation of the theatrical production donated by the Thelos Theater Group will be presented in the Hall after church Services.
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"Three Greek Women" is the result of a theatrical research project conceptualized, adapted and directed by Jorge Luis Morejon. Thelos Theatre, a new theater group that resides at Camera Obscura Cultural Space in Little Havana, has developed the work for performance.
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The piece compiles classic Greek texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles, as well as The Eumenides, The Libation Bearers, and Prometheus Bound. The play is an example of the Morejon's Exposition Style, which includes music, text, and movement, all combined in a way which allows for the stories of Clytemnestra( wife of Agamemnon, killed her adulterous husband to avenge the death of her daughter Iphigenia), Antigone (disobeying the king's edict buried her brother and then killed herself), and Medea 9after being abandoned by her husband for another woman, out of revenge, kills her children, his sons) to weave into a new story.
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Teatromundial.com
Excerpt of Jorge Luis Morejon's interview by Teatromundial
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Thelos of Miami will perform in NY with its spectacle 'Three Greek Women'(translation)
By Ernesto Hernadez
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"What do yo expect from this festival in New York?
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The festival has been created to give support to the independent artists community in the United States, from there it derives that, in artistic terms, the festival will serve as a platform to expose our work to the New York audience. Practically, it will put us on the map the festival is trying to create and that includes independent arts communities from all over the country. I also expect precisely all that the festival offers, that it will help us to to take control of our vision through sharing information with other participants and organize our own tours. The information includes the places, presenters and resources to which potentially we will have access to through our work in this festival. I hope that Thelos will bring high the name of our city. Yuya Dola, our direction assistant, will be in charge of the group during the festival. I hope for them to have a good time, to have fun, and for Three Greek Women to have the same success that it has had in Miami."
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