Greek To Me - Jonathan Elmore: Creative Producer

Greek To Me: A Play In Three Wee Acts

The full title of this play is Greek To Me: A Play In Three Wee Acts and the Acts were also titled. They were Act One: Pandora's Lament, Act Two: Jealous Again, and Act Three: Apollo's Creed. This project was part of an all day Greek culture day for the 5th graders at Grove Elementary. I began writing it far in advance and finished it far too close to actual performance day. It was interesting trying to write it. It was supposed to be in the writing style of traditional ancient Greek theatre. This includes heroes, villains and a chorus that is basically the show's narrator. Also a tradition was making the play about the Greek gods. This proved to be slightly difficult to keep it kid friendly. Some of the teachers thought it was racy, but it wasn't any more so than the typical Disney film. As my friend Shonna said, "Considering what you were writing about, I thought you downplayed a great deal...the incest, extramarital affairs, etc. that typically define much of the Greek mythology." She put the whole thing into perspective for me. We had first time director Don Simpson at the helm. He was in charge of some first time actors so it was a big experiment that went really well. It was performed in a gymnasium that echoed a whole lot but I think it was fairly audible to everyone. In the final evaluations, the teachers said that the kids really enjoyed it. That's pretty much all that matters.