Scripts - or in some cases collections of sources on which to base improvisations - are now posted here via links to documents uploaded to Scribd.
If you have access to the (unobtrusive) scripts page it is because you have expressed an interest in being a character. Please do not give the page's address to anyone else as it will ruin the "surprise" element of the night. A few more details about the characters may be found on the Denizens page. If you wish to express an interest in playing a masked, costumed character you must:
Be resident in Leeds (at least from 27th September to 9th October 2010);
Be available for auditions, rehearsals, costume-fittings and from 4.30pm to 10.30pm on Friday 8th October;
Be comfortable interacting with strangers while in character;
Not be allergic to: manmade fibres, newspaper, flour and water paste, PVA glue, emulsion and poster paint;
Have black trousers, shoes and sweater to wear as a costume base.
To express an interest - or request a script as an attachment, contact Eleanor OKell (e.r.okell) on her University of Leeds (leeds.ac.uk) email address.
Aeneas
Circe
Charon
The Sibyl of Cumae
Orpheus (and Eurydice) (and Persephone)
Demeter (and Persephone)
Horus and the Egyptian Lector Priest
Roman Orator
Monday 30 August 2010
Thursday 26 August 2010
Progress - Getting out and about!
Having intended to write scripts this week for the characters I've only managed three (Circe, Orpheus/Persephone/Eurydice and the Roman orator's funeral speech) but we've taken advantage of two opportunities to get the piece a bit of publicity...
1st September 2010 - Light Night publicity photoshoot, Leeds Town Hall steps.
All the characters in masks and costumes with props! This does mean I have to get them all finished by then, which will involve even more and more rapid hand-tying of "hair" onto masks (now I know why hand-tied wigs are *so* expensive), frantic carving of polystyrene, (blow-)drying of papier-mache and miles of hand sewing as my sewing machine has, probably appropriately, given up the ghost! Still, it will be worth it. Tomorrow I shop for the fabric for Charon's big black cloak...
14th September 2010 - 20 minute talk to the Leeds Psychogeography Group, Seminar Room G23, Baines Wing University of Leeds as part of the Psychogeography Open Media Night 17:00-19:00 (all welcome). Campus map of buildings: click on this link, then launch the interactive campus map, and choose Baines Wing from the list on the right. From the main entrance of the Baines Wing, go straight ahead past the reception on the right, go through the doors on the left, follow the corridor round to the left and the door to the room is on your left.
Open Media Night - running order
Oliver Neilson: Urban Photography
Phillipa Dobson: Exodus & Pigsty (films)
Diane Myers: Beating-the-Bounds (poem)
Claire Harbottle: Driving Blind (film)
Andrea Capstick: Around Leeds Market with Pam and Carole (film)
Robert Elliot and Eleanor OKell: Underworlds Live in Leeds
Robert Elliott and Eleanor OKell provide background to and a preview of "Underworlds Live in Leeds", a piece which temporarily maps an alternate universe onto Leeds' urban core.
1st September 2010 - Light Night publicity photoshoot, Leeds Town Hall steps.
All the characters in masks and costumes with props! This does mean I have to get them all finished by then, which will involve even more and more rapid hand-tying of "hair" onto masks (now I know why hand-tied wigs are *so* expensive), frantic carving of polystyrene, (blow-)drying of papier-mache and miles of hand sewing as my sewing machine has, probably appropriately, given up the ghost! Still, it will be worth it. Tomorrow I shop for the fabric for Charon's big black cloak...
14th September 2010 - 20 minute talk to the Leeds Psychogeography Group, Seminar Room G23, Baines Wing University of Leeds as part of the Psychogeography Open Media Night 17:00-19:00 (all welcome). Campus map of buildings: click on this link, then launch the interactive campus map, and choose Baines Wing from the list on the right. From the main entrance of the Baines Wing, go straight ahead past the reception on the right, go through the doors on the left, follow the corridor round to the left and the door to the room is on your left.
Open Media Night - running order
Oliver Neilson: Urban Photography
Phillipa Dobson: Exodus & Pigsty (films)
Diane Myers: Beating-the-Bounds (poem)
Claire Harbottle: Driving Blind (film)
Andrea Capstick: Around Leeds Market with Pam and Carole (film)
Robert Elliot and Eleanor OKell: Underworlds Live in Leeds
Robert Elliott and Eleanor OKell provide background to and a preview of "Underworlds Live in Leeds", a piece which temporarily maps an alternate universe onto Leeds' urban core.
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Work on the Greek Underworld
Started by re-reading Homer in order to script the character Circe - whose mask is now painted, and looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself...
Circe - an immortal goddess, daughter of the Sun and Medea's aunt, who was adept with drugs and had magical powers, including the ability to turn men into pigs - gave the Greek hero Odysseus (yes, any Troy fans among you, the guy played by Sean Bean) instructions about how to get to the Underworld while still alive so that he could learn the things he needed to know in order to get home to his wife and son - ahhh!!!
We'd always planned to have Circe in the Ancient World's Gallery to give instructions on journeying safely through the Greek Underworld to participants, but now I've decided to have her perform the ritual to placate the dead on the participants' behalf and I've finished her (interactive) script - mostly lines culled from Martin Hammond's excellent prose translation of the Odyssey.
The thing that's really cool is that Circe is already in the Leeds City Museum (http://www.leedsmuseum.co.uk/). We knew a bronze statue of Circe by the sculptor Alfred Drury (who also sculpted 'Morn and Eve' - the scantily clad classical ladies with torches in City Square) was commissioned by Leeds City Art Gallery in 1894 and that the statue was once displayed in Park Square, but we didn't know where she was now. So, we were delighted to bump into her downstairs near the gift shop in the City Museum (see below) and are looking forward to bringing her life - although with more clothes - with the help of an actress for one night only on 8th October 2010. So, come and meet Circe in the flesh, get instructions to journey safely through the Greek Underworld and ask her any questions you like, but take care not to upset her, lest she turn you into a pig...
And just to remind you that neither we - nor the ancient Greeks for that matter - take Circe entirely seriously:
To read the relevant bits of Homer's account of who Odysseus meets (which might give you some clues about who participants might meet - e.g. it includes a hero who is sculpted on the side of Leeds Town Hall) see Homer's Underworld.
Circe - an immortal goddess, daughter of the Sun and Medea's aunt, who was adept with drugs and had magical powers, including the ability to turn men into pigs - gave the Greek hero Odysseus (yes, any Troy fans among you, the guy played by Sean Bean) instructions about how to get to the Underworld while still alive so that he could learn the things he needed to know in order to get home to his wife and son - ahhh!!!
We'd always planned to have Circe in the Ancient World's Gallery to give instructions on journeying safely through the Greek Underworld to participants, but now I've decided to have her perform the ritual to placate the dead on the participants' behalf and I've finished her (interactive) script - mostly lines culled from Martin Hammond's excellent prose translation of the Odyssey.
The thing that's really cool is that Circe is already in the Leeds City Museum (http://www.leedsmuseum.co.uk/). We knew a bronze statue of Circe by the sculptor Alfred Drury (who also sculpted 'Morn and Eve' - the scantily clad classical ladies with torches in City Square) was commissioned by Leeds City Art Gallery in 1894 and that the statue was once displayed in Park Square, but we didn't know where she was now. So, we were delighted to bump into her downstairs near the gift shop in the City Museum (see below) and are looking forward to bringing her life - although with more clothes - with the help of an actress for one night only on 8th October 2010. So, come and meet Circe in the flesh, get instructions to journey safely through the Greek Underworld and ask her any questions you like, but take care not to upset her, lest she turn you into a pig...
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| Circe with wand and potion cup (a shallow goblet reminiscent of a kylix), surrounded by boars (formerly men). Bronze statue by Alfred Drury (1894). Image courtesy of Leeds City Museum http://www.leedsmuseum.co.uk/ Cf. J. W. Waterhouse's Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses (1891), Oldham Art Gallery, Oldham. |
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| Odysseus (centre) pursues Circe (right), who has dropped her wand and potion cup (here a skyphos); behind Odysseus (left) are two men whom she has already transformed into a horse/mule and a boar. Detail of an Attic red-figure calyx krater (a mixing bowl for wine and water used at drinking parties) by the Persephone Painter, c. 440 BCE, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 41.83. |
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| Comic Odysseus (left) and comic Circe (centre), with wand (used for stirring) and potion cup (here a skyphos). Boiotian black-figure skyphos, c.410-400 BCE, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum G259. |
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Starting a blog for our Light Night piece...
Well, we've just had to describe what our bit of Brookheimeresque "edutainment" is all about in 50 words. That felt kinda web-friendly, so I've taken it as an incentive to start telling people a bit more about it. This is my first blog and Underworlds Live in Leeds is my first project as an "artist", so here goes....
WHAT: Underworlds Live in Leeds: Eleanor OKell and Robert Elliott
WHERE: Leeds City Museum: Ancient Worlds Gallery and across Leeds
WHEN: 5pm-10pm in the Museum, till much later elsewhere, Friday 8th October 2010
Journey in time and space to return Leeds' forgotten Greek, Roman and Egyptian underworlds to life - complete with their myths and denizens. Meet them in the Ancient Worlds Gallery and across Leeds. Will you cross the River Styx with the Ferryman, find Persephone or let Horus weigh your soul?
Not bad - huh?
Anyway, we got asked to flesh it out, so here's a bit more detail in case I've whetted your appetite!
Underworlds Live in Leeds takes an imaginative closer look at the art and architecture of the city in which we live.
Leeds is full of references to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian past that usually go unnoticed. This performance piece / alternative walking tour brings those pasts to life by presenting Leeds as the ancients’ afterlife location and making them available to comment!
Journeys through the underworlds can be taken with the aid of written guides and verbal instructions from characters in the City Museum or from displays in various locations, which will indicate another point of interest. As well as learning about Leeds' past and the ancient underworlds you could cross the River Styx with Charon the ferryman, get a prophecy from the Sibyl, help to find Persephone, hear a funeral oration, follow the obelisk trail or even let the Egyptian god Horus weigh your soul.
For those seeking more factual information an expert will be on hand in the City Museum, there will be an exhibition in the Classics Library (1st floor, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds) and the written guides will be available for download after Light Night from Classics Yorkshire.
WHAT: Underworlds Live in Leeds: Eleanor OKell and Robert Elliott
WHERE: Leeds City Museum: Ancient Worlds Gallery and across Leeds
WHEN: 5pm-10pm in the Museum, till much later elsewhere, Friday 8th October 2010
Journey in time and space to return Leeds' forgotten Greek, Roman and Egyptian underworlds to life - complete with their myths and denizens. Meet them in the Ancient Worlds Gallery and across Leeds. Will you cross the River Styx with the Ferryman, find Persephone or let Horus weigh your soul?
Not bad - huh?
Anyway, we got asked to flesh it out, so here's a bit more detail in case I've whetted your appetite!
Underworlds Live in Leeds takes an imaginative closer look at the art and architecture of the city in which we live.
Leeds is full of references to the Greek, Roman and Egyptian past that usually go unnoticed. This performance piece / alternative walking tour brings those pasts to life by presenting Leeds as the ancients’ afterlife location and making them available to comment!
Journeys through the underworlds can be taken with the aid of written guides and verbal instructions from characters in the City Museum or from displays in various locations, which will indicate another point of interest. As well as learning about Leeds' past and the ancient underworlds you could cross the River Styx with Charon the ferryman, get a prophecy from the Sibyl, help to find Persephone, hear a funeral oration, follow the obelisk trail or even let the Egyptian god Horus weigh your soul.
For those seeking more factual information an expert will be on hand in the City Museum, there will be an exhibition in the Classics Library (1st floor, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds) and the written guides will be available for download after Light Night from Classics Yorkshire.
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