Act Out

Who are you?  What year are you?  What are your interests?

My name is Greer Patten and I am a junior. Outside of theater, I participate in Highlander Publications as one of the Assistant Editors. 

What exactly do you do for Antigone?

I play the Messenger, who is the mailman of the office. Throughout the entirety of the play, I simply deliver mail to the other office workers. However, at the very end of the play, I deliver the news of integral events that occur offstage. 

What brought you to join the cast for Antigone??

I have done theater since I was in 3rd grade, and my love of it has only blossomed in the Homestead theater program. I have met some of my best friends through the program and I am so unbelievably grateful for them. A lot of my really good friends are seniors, so I knew this would be my last show with them, and I am so beyond thrilled that this incredible show will be the one to close this chapter of our lives together. 

Do you have any stories from rehearsals?

SO MANY. At the very first rehearsal, we read through the play and analyzed every line of the show. I had just gotten back from visiting my brother at college and I was super tired. I was falling asleep on Alexandra (our Antigone), and I eventually started playing Papa’s Freezeria to keep me awake since our first scripts were on our computers (but if Figg asks, I was fully paying attention). Another really fun one was this week when Geri (our Tiresias) had to do a mic check. She was doing her monologue, and as it went on, the chorus was just getting more and more absurd with their actions. It was so much fun to just joke around during a long rehearsal, and all of the moments like this have made the rehearsal process so much fun.

Antigone is a story about standing up for what you believe in and the conflict between family values and the values of the State.  How have you connected to the story?  

This story hits really hard for everyone, but especially for high schoolers. We live in a time and a society where it is really easy to conform to what others are doing and not stand up for what you believe in. This story (even if it doesn’t have the happiest ending) is really encouraging to the audience because it shows the strength of standing up for yourself. It also is really important to see that it is okay for younger people to have their own opinions and they do not have to simply go by what they have been told. 

You are using a script that was cobbled together by Figg, how have you changed it?  What have you added or taken away? 

I personally haven’t changed anything in the script, but I read my specific part in multiple different translations so that I could get the full meaning behind the lines. I have never been in a Greek tragedy before this and have never had this serious of a role, so using these other translations has really helped me to make sure I was doing the show justice. A lot of our actors have done this, or something similar, so we have made the show very digestible for the audience, so everyone will be able to enjoy it without being confused by the text. 

What’s one thing that is different in this play or rehearsal process than anything else we’ve done in the Homestead Theatre Department?

The chorus specifically was not cast in their specific roles for the first few weeks of rehearsals. This allowed us to not only fully explore different characters before giving our preferences, but also allow us to discover different things about the characters. We were able to share our discoveries with the people that ended up actually being the part, which made all of our characters that much better. We also have an acting pre-show and intermission, which is something I have never done, and I think is so cool. 

Anything else you want to talk about?

I am so genuinely proud of this entire cast and crew. This group of people has been one of the most positive, loving, optimistic, and caring bunch I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I believe that the seriousness and level of sadness of this show have made us all so much closer, because there is no room for negativity, and we have all just gotten along so well. We have been able to work so well together to create this amazing spectacle of a show, and I love this group of people and this show so so much.

Come see Antigone this weekend!