One of the great bonuses of being married to an English teacher is getting to go along on field trips to see theater. On Wednesday, Meredith, Mrs. Dubbs (the Latin teacher), and I got onto two buses with Mer’s English classes and Dubbs’s Latin classes, and headed off to Barberton to see The Magical Theater Company’s production of The Odyssey.

A few weeks ago, the director of the production came and gave a talk on concepts and design elements for the show. That was pretty great – it gave a little preview of what we would see. He talked about working with the playwright (who was also an actor in the play) about trying to tackle a huge epic and work it into a 75-minute play. He talked about the design elements – about how he used huge strips of muslin in different configurations to suggest different locations. He discussed the challenges of creating the Cyclops on stage (he went with a puppet head about 8 feet high and two actors dressed as arms) and how to make the boat work in the limited space they had.

All of this was a good lead-in for seeing the play on Wednesday. Mer and I got front-row seats after several students decided they did not want them (why? I have no idea.). The play did a fine job. They hit all the major elements of The Odyssey that I remembered from reading it as a little kid. There was the Cyclops, and the witch Circe (where the crew was turned into pigs). They had Aeolus (the master of winds), and Odysseus traveling to the underworld to find out how to get home. The had the Scylla and Charybdis (the monster and the whirlpool – the whirlpool was not on stage, just pointed at off-stage). They included the stay with a very dizzy sea nymph, Calypso, and finally the killing of the suitors back in Troy. That is pretty impressive to do that on stage and in 75 minutes.

The acting was very fine, especially Odysseus. Most of the actors had many roles, and they pulled that off really well (especially with the rapid costume changes!).

I loved the Cyclops. He was a huge puppet head with an eye that moved and a mouth that moved. An actor inside supplied the voice and the animation. The head was not trying to be realistic – it was suggestive, and that was the way to go. If they had tried for a super-realistic head, it would not have worked. The head was still able to eat one of the crew, even stuffing the crew member in his mouth – the Cyclops had two “hands” that were played by actors. It really worked for me.

The Scylla was also a puppet – just three serpent heads (instead of six). The heads were still big enough to grab sailors by their heads and throw them off the boat (and off stage). Again, it was more suggestive than realistic, but it is theater, and it worked.

After the play (and the excellent question-and-answer period), we got back on the buses and headed to Chapel Hill mall, where we took good advantage of the food court. Mer and I got good food from the Great Steak and Potato company (what good fries!), and then I was able to get my second Blizzard from Dairy Queen in less than a week! Yum!

The kids were great throughout – we had no trouble, and they seemed to enjoy the show. It makes me happy and proud that our students behave themselves so well on these trips – it makes the experienc much more enjoyable for me and for Mer.

We get to take another field trip in March to see Macbeth. That should be another good time (in a tragic sort of way).