Sauk to present modern ‘Medea’

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DIXON – Sauk Valley Community College’s Theater Department tackles the most intense of Greek tragedies this fall as it presents a modern adaptation of Euripides’ “Medea.”

It’s a new adaptation that takes on one of the most complex and fascinating characters in the history of drama – the scorned and cunning Medea.

“We’re going Greek this year,” said Jason Hedrick, director of theater. In the spring, the theater department will offer “Aristophane’s Lysistrata,” the most satirical and riotous Greek comedy of them all, he said.

Medea – a startling combination of heroine, victim, and villain – shocks audiences to this day as she takes revenge on her husband, Jason, who exiled her and took up with the daughter of King Creon, he said.

Hedrick, Technical Director Andrew Kida, of Franklin Grove, and costume designer Jennifer Salamone, of Dixon, have designed a production that puts a new artistic spin on a classic. Sauk’s story, set in a post-eco-collapse landscape, propels one of the world’s oldest plays into the future.

The lead role of Medea, Hedrick said, is a task that only the bravest actor would undertake, and Sauk theater major Erica Dimmig of Sterling is the woman for the role. Dimmig skillfully executed roles in last year’s productions of Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Euphio Question.”

“Erica is ready for the most complex role in her study here at Sauk and one of the most challenging roles in the history of theater,” Hedrick said.

Playing Medea’s husband, Jason, of Jason and the Argonauts, is theater major Nick Woods of Sterling. Salamone will lead the Greek chorus. She was in “Catch-22” and “The Campus Shakespeare Hike,” and directed and performed in the area’s first productions of “The Vagina Monologues” at the Mathis Theatre last spring.

Supporting Salamone are fellow chorus members Sarah Giroux, of Dixon, and Hannah Pierson, of Walnut.

Rounding out the cast is Patty Bush of Morrison, as the nurse, James G. Jaeger of Sterling, as the tutor; Justin Lilly of Lyndon, as Creon, Schuyler Bielema of Dixon as Aegeus, Jorge Chirinos of Sterling as the messenger, Nathan and Ethan Waters, both of Rock Falls, as Creon’s guards, and Maxwell Grove of Sterling, and Griffen Bielema of Dixon, as Jason and Medea’s sons.

Grove appeared in Sauk’s production of “Cabaret,” and 5-year-old Griffen Bielema takes on his first stage role.

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