Katya Schexnaydre shares her thoughts on the politics of The Penelopiad and the sweet, sweet melodies Joshua Dumas has created for the show. Katya plays one of the twelve maids in The Penelopiad.
At first I set out to write a post about the importance of giving voices to women and to issues of consent in light of recent court rulings, and other current events. I wanted to share with you why this play is so important to me.
The Odyssey is usually taught and regarded in its own historical bubble. This bubble makes it
difficult to criticize the violence against and silencing of female characters in the story. AsSarah and Lynette pointed out, consent and individuality as we understand them were foreign concepts to Homer and to Ancient Greece. I was going to talk about the moves contemporary society has made to silence women and strip them of their personhood. This is all really important and I think The Penelopiad allows us to compare the past to the present in a way that is both accessible and somewhat cautionary.
BUT, while I was trying to eloquently expand on all of the above, I was listening to the recordings of last night’s music rehearsal. HOLY $#!& THE MUSIC FOR THIS SHOW IS INCREDIBLE!!! Josh Dumas has composed eight original songs to Atwood’s verses that range in sound from 60s girl group, to swampy blues, to ethereal à cappella indie. And I have to say, with all humility, the women of this cast are doing a bang-up job of bringing Dumas’ songs to life.
Reading through the script, Atwood’s songs seemed a little hokey—the rhymes were sometimes odd, or just too repetitive, the meter of her verses often gave me the impression of a cheesy sea shanty or nursery rhyme. Now I don’t mind a good sea shanty and I rarely pass on a nursery rhyme, but to me the songs felt a little insincere. Some of Atwood’s verses seemed like they would be impossible to set to music. I had no idea how anyone was going to write music for this play that
wasn’t campy or distracting.
Josh shared a little bit of his struggle with Atwood’s lyrics in rehearsal with us. The song “Dreamboats” is written as ballad and the lyrics are whimsically sweet. But the song occurs during an act of extreme violence within the play. The challenge to Josh, or anyone trying to set this song to music, is to write something that stays true to the text, but still respects the pain and trauma the women singing are experiencing. When Josh played “Dreamboats” for us in rehearsal the first thing he said was, “I hate it.” He felt there wasn’t enough of a balance between the sweet and the sour in the song. But as he played it for the cast and as we learned it, we all loved it. The magic of this song comes from its simplicity and its sweetness. We were able to play around with layering voices and adding harmonies. After about 45 minutes we had a heartbreaking ballad, filled with all the emotion necessary for its setting, without straying from Atwood’s verse.
Erica, Laura, Kim, and Josh have given us a great piece of theater to work with. Sarah Sapperstein has given us tools to wade through all of the many points of view and changing contexts surrounding Penelope’s story. But the defining factor of this production is the collaboration of the cast with the rest of the team. Erica and Josh have given us room to play within the script and the music and we’re finding new ways to tell this story. The bones of this play have become our own. The voices of these women are becoming our own—voices carrying all the power and sublime
beauty of Olympus itself.
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Katya has trained at the Pacific Northwest Ballet school, and the Martha Graham School of Modern Dance, as well as studying theater at Cornish College of the Arts. Before moving to Chicago, she spent three years performing with Serendipity Dance Brigade, a modern dance company based in Seattle. Recent roles include Estelle in No Exit at Shimer College, where she is majoring in Humanities and Social Sciences.
wasn’t campy or distracting.
Josh shared a little bit of his struggle with Atwood’s lyrics in rehearsal with us. The song “Dreamboats” is written as ballad and the lyrics are whimsically sweet. But the song occurs during an act of extreme violence within the play. The challenge to Josh, or anyone trying to set this song to music, is to write something that stays true to the text, but still respects the pain and trauma the women singing are experiencing. When Josh played “Dreamboats” for us in rehearsal the first thing he said was, “I hate it.” He felt there wasn’t enough of a balance between the sweet and the sour in the song. But as he played it for the cast and as we learned it, we all loved it. The magic of this song comes from its simplicity and its sweetness. We were able to play around with layering voices and adding harmonies. After about 45 minutes we had a heartbreaking ballad, filled with all the emotion necessary for its setting, without straying from Atwood’s verse.
Erica, Laura, Kim, and Josh have given us a great piece of theater to work with. Sarah Sapperstein has given us tools to wade through all of the many points of view and changing contexts surrounding Penelope’s story. But the defining factor of this production is the collaboration of the cast with the rest of the team. Erica and Josh have given us room to play within the script and the music and we’re finding new ways to tell this story. The bones of this play have become our own. The voices of these women are becoming our own—voices carrying all the power and sublime
beauty of Olympus itself.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katya has trained at the Pacific Northwest Ballet school, and the Martha Graham School of Modern Dance, as well as studying theater at Cornish College of the Arts. Before moving to Chicago, she spent three years performing with Serendipity Dance Brigade, a modern dance company based in Seattle. Recent roles include Estelle in No Exit at Shimer College, where she is majoring in Humanities and Social Sciences.