HELEN

March 28 -April 27, 2019

Fridays 8pm, Saturdays 8pm, Sundays at 1:30pm

Saturday, April 20 & 27 also at 1:30pm

Written by Ellen McLaughlin

directed by Shannon r. davis

Ellen McLaughlin’s Helen, a modern adaptation of Euripides’ classic, explores beauty, gender, archetypes, societal expectations, and war.

The gods have imprisoned the notorious Helen of Troy in an Egyptian hotel room. For 17 years, she awaits her rescue.​

Featuring

Adrian Deane as Helen, LEticia Duarte as Servant, Steven Flores as Menelaus,

Helen wu as Io, Stefani Potter as Athena

Special Events

• Friday March 29: OPENING NIGHT!

  Ticket includes post-show reception with food and drinks with the cast and crew of Helen

• Sunday March 31, April 7, April 14: Post-show talkbacks

  In classic Theatre of Yugen fashion, we’ll be hosting talkbacks with select members of the cast and production team following our Sunday matinees. Free for all audiences.

• Sunday April 21, 4:00: New Beginnings, an Oestara celebration

  Theatre of Yugen is celebrating the Old Ways this year with food, games, and witchy blessings after our last Sunday matinee.

  $5 general admittance or Included with admission to the performance.

  • Egg coloring, to celebrate the return of Spring

  • Face painting for all ages

  • Rune readings with Shannon R. Davis

  • Painted mask making

  • Learn to smudge with sage

  • Planting seeds with love and wishes for the year

• Saturday April 27, 8 PM: Closing night

  Say goodbye in style with a closing night toast with Theatre of Yugen. Included in admission.

THE LEGEND

The gods have replaced Helen with a phantom and whisked the real woman away to an Egyptian hotel room to await her judgement or rescue. After seventeen years of solitude, endless routine, and one serious fly infestation, company arrives. Will their stories save her? Can the woman transcend the icon?

Theatre of Yugen’s Helen is foremost a story by, about, and for women.  It makes space for a group of people from traditionally marginalized groups, in the creation of a narrative with a woman/POC/queer-led team: director, assistant director, production assistant, stage manager, and designers.

Director Shannon R. Davis explains, “We’ve intentionally hired an all woman/queer/POC artistic team to create a new vision of an age-old story. For centuries, Helen has had her story told by men, mostly straight white men. McLaughlin wrote an unbelievably witty script, giving authorship back to the women historically scorned. We’ve gone a step further by making the full team ‘non-traditional’ and have taken our dynamic and diverse lived-experiences into account in conceiving the design and feeling of the show. We’re taking an ancient story about women and the duplicitous roles society expects us to play (especially as they pertain to the male gaze), beauty and it’s idolization, and shoving it back in the face of the oppressors… With artful beauty and grace… of course. We want to help empower women to take agency and authorship of their own stories.”

The design and direction teams all identify as women or non-binary, while the cast and crew comprise heavily of indigenous and Native artists. Given the three Native-identifying actors and Native director, this production will weave elements of Native culture into characters and scenarios in the traditionally Greek play. One particular change of interest is Io. In Greek mythology, Io is a young shepherdess that is about to be ravaged by Zeus. Hera catches Zeus about to defile Io, so rather than have Io murdered by Hera, Zeus turns Io into a cow. She is sent to wander the earth, plagued by gadflies that Hera has cursed her with. In Native Lakota Sioux tradition, there is a figure called the white buffalo woman, a messenger, or prophet that transforms into a white buffalo. If a man looks at her with lust, she will turn him to dust. If he reveres and honors her, she shares ancient knowledge, such as how to survive famine, and how to pray and be one with the earth.

In this production, Io is a messenger, a visitor, a refugee, who teaches Helen about herself through stories, Io’s and Helen’s. Mixing these two cross-cultural legends/icons presents an opportunity to tell a Native story through a more familiar lens. As does Menelaus. The actor portraying Menelaus, Steven Flores (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) is Comanche and Mestizo. With the director, he is creating an anachronistic soldier from the Indian American wars, Vietnam War, and the 2 World Wars. As Menelaus is a representation or archetype of soldiers from all wars, he will upend the peaceful Native stereotype, humanizing the archetype further by showing that Natives, too, participated in violence and wars.

Theatre of Yugen’s Artistic Director Nick Ishimaru shares why the company chose Helen for its 40th season on ‘Memory:’ “After conducting an extensive review of its history, accomplishments and future relevance, with the approval of the Board of Directors and the senior staff, Theatre of Yugen will relaunch in 2019. While continuing its unmatched contribution to sustaining and innovating Japanese theatre in the US, the relaunched company will expand its mission to advance multisensory experiences through the design and performance of classic works alongside emergent voices, working interculturally by placing disparate communities into collaboration. To that end, the performances of Helen will formally announce and showcase the expanded performative aspiration of the company, which, in this case, will center LGBTQ+, POCs, and women.”

Cast

Leticia Duarte (Servant) (they/them/theirs) - Oakland based Radical Queer/Actor. Chippewa , Mexican-Mestizo, mixed with European Colonizers, African-American mutt. Duarte has performed in theater, film, television, and industrials. Recent credits include; Season 2, episodes 2,3, & 6 of The North Pole Show, Brooklyn Bridge (Townhall Theatre), King of Cuba (Central Works), and The Normal Heart (Theatre Rhinoceros). 

Steven Flores (Menelaus​) (he/him/his) - San Francisco-based/Bi-Coastal. Descendant of the Comanche/Mexican-Mestizo bloodline, and Native American medicine worker in study,​ Seketemaqua/Luke in Manahatta at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other credits: Last of the Caucasians (The Barrow Group Theater Company, NY) Delusion: The Blood Rite (Haunted Play). Public performance art: The “Universe” in The Invisible Realm Art Show. TV/Film: The Monster Project, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Helen Wu (Io) (she/her/hers) - San Francisco-based. A Bay Area native, Helen is Chinese-American and fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Helen has studied acting at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and American Conservatory Theater’s Studio A.C.T. Outside of acting, Helen enjoys being a member of the San Francisco Choral Society. Helen is thrilled to be part of the cast of Helen at Theatre of Yugen.

Production Team

Shannon R. Davis (Director) is San Francisco-based, a descendant of the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Saami people​. 2018 Phil Killian Directing Fellow at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Credits: Othello (associate director, American Repertory Theatre); Othello,  Manahatta (assistant director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Adulting for Beginners (Musical Café/Ashby Stage); Religomania (Exit Theatre/SF Fringe Festival); Monsters & Wild Things (Brava Theater Center). MFA in Directing/Acting (UW-Madison) & trained with Moscow Art Theatre USA- Harvard.

McKenna Moses (Production Manager/Stage Manager)

Ella Cooley (Sound Design)

Ariel Quenell-Silverstien (Costume Design)

Miranda Waldron (Light Design)

Randy Wong-Westbrooke (Set Consultant)

Miranda Waldron (Light Design)

Production Photos

by Devlin Shand