New Acting Program And Its Talented Teens Take On Sophocles At The Southampton Cultural Center

It’s an age-old story of ego and power, yet it feels totally relevant in an era of partisan politics and shifting allegiances.Imagine a bombed-out city after a tragic and hard-fought war, where two brothers are pitted against one another in heated battle. One is killed, and the victor is rewarded with a prominent role in the government of his uncle, the king, who decrees that the dead brother be left to rot on the battlefield.

Enter a rebellious and willful young woman—sister to the brothers and niece to the king—who defies her uncle under penalty of death by ensuring that her dead brother is given a proper burial.

The name of the woman and the play, of course, is Antigone, and the author is Greek dramatist Sophocles, who wrote the tragedy around 441 BC.

This weekend, at the Southampton Cultural Center, audiences will have a chance to see a contemporary take on the classical work when six young actors in grades seven through 12 present “Antigone Now,” the first-ever production of South Fork Performing Arts.

Written by Melissa Cooper, this updated one-act version of the play has been staged in theaters around the world, and while it has all the morality and Oedipal overtones of the original text, it’s set in modern times, with updated language.

The accessibility of “Antigone Now” makes it ideal for the young actors of South Fork Performing Arts who have collectively opted to set their version of the play in the 1990s grunge era, though, truth be told, it treads on controversial topics not normally addressed theatrically by this age group.

“Incest, murder, death, suicide … a lot of schools wouldn’t choose to do this,” admitted theater director Tamara Salkin during a recent Friday night rehearsal at the cultural center.

She’s right, and while “Antigone Now” is unusual fare for actors of such a tender age, the piece aligns perfectly with the mission of South Fork Performing Arts. The organization was founded by Ms. Salkin and musical director Amanda Borsack Jones after a series of brainstorming sessions three years ago in which they sought to address what they believed was lacking in terms of youth theater on the East End.

“We felt there were no educational components in the performing arts,” explained Ms. Jones, a music educator, former chorus teacher at East Hampton Middle School and current musical director for the cultural center. As a musician, Ms. Jones can frequently be spotted behind a keyboard in the orchestra pit during musical productions at local schools and youth theaters.

While musicals and straight dramatic plays at school do provide kids with on-stage opportunities, what she and Ms. Salkin are looking to create is the ability for students to dive deep into their characters and the theatrical process in order to truly own and understand the work they are doing.

“I’ve always felt a need for an educational component. As a teacher, what are they learning here? How are they taking what they’re learning and applying it to the next production?” Ms. Jones said. “The kids in this cast are used to performing and are involved in a lot of shows. But when we say, ‘What’s your motivation behind that line?’—they’ve never been asked that before.”

“Amanda and I both have education degrees. It’s not just that we’ve been in plays before or that music is Amanda’s hobby—we’re professionals,” Ms. Salkin added. “We don’t say, ‘Stand here and say this.’ It’s about character work, subtext—we create the world of the play together.

“As the director, I want them to help me,” Ms. Salkin added. “That’s been the most fun, seeing how they interpret the characters in this play. They’re smart—looking at the play and their characters and asking, what is my character trying to get? How do I convey that in what I say and how I say my line?”

The six young actors in “Antigone Now” are Pierson High School sophomore Gaylin Davey, Hampton Bays eighth-grader Zoey Engeldrum, Pierson freshman Emily Glass, East Hampton eighth-grader Silas Jones (Ms. Jones’s son), East Hampton senior Madeline Kane, and East Hampton seventh-grader Dakota Quackenbush.

Challenging the students to think and act outside their comfort zone is a major goal of South Fork Performing Arts, as is taking ownership of the production

“It’s been eye-opening for me,” Ms. Jones said. “I come from a musical background. I see a play and think, ‘Now is a good time for a song.’ I came for a first rehearsal and thought, these are really good kids. I didn’t say we needed a song.”

In order to keep the attention on the work of the students, Ms. Salkin explained that “Antigone Now” will be performed black box style, with only basic costuming and minimal staging, consisting of 10 literal black boxes that can be transformed into everything from a jail cell to a hospital bed.

“This is a straight play, which, outside of school, kids don’t get a lot of opportunities to do,” Ms. Salkin said. “The focus is on the kids and what they’re doing. We’re not about the spectacle. We want people to see our actors and say, ‘Look at how great they are. They don’t need that set.’”

Though this is the first public performance for South Fork Performing Arts, Ms. Salkin and Ms. Jones have been offering workshops and classes for quite some time. While all these young actors have several shows under their belt, what’s new for many of them is the type of roles they are taking on with “Antigone Now.”

“We’ve been analyzing the lines that have been vague to find the emotion and read between the lines of what our character is talking about and feeling when they say what they say,” explained Gaylin Davey, who plays Antigone.

“This is my first straight play, and it’s really intimidating for me,” admitted Madeline Kane, a fan of, and frequent performer in, musical productions. She plays the role of a Greek chorus member in the show. “This is wordy. I keep thinking, where’s the next song? But I think it’s worked out well.”

Ms. Salkin explained that the chorus performers are a blank slate upon which the actors are encouraged to write the story of their own character. In Madeline’s case, she has created a character who, because of war, economic decline and the loss of her factory job, has been forced to turn to drug smuggling and ultimately, prostitution, in order to survive.

“It’s been tough for me, but letting us make our own decisions with our own characters makes it more natural and not forced,” Madeline said. “I have confidence in my decision, and I’m trusting my instincts.”

“Madeline’s instincts are amazing. Her interpretation of her lines with her character works so well,” added Ms. Salkin, quoting one of those lines: “There’ll be dancing in the streets tonight! We’ll knock back some cold ones, until everything blurs. Sway your hips, baby. Get loose, let it out. Look at me. I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. I’m alive.”

“She interpreted it into this beautiful thing,” Ms. Salkin said.

Another actor going well beyond her comfort zone is Dakota Quackenbush. Though Dakota has already had sizable stage roles at Bay Street Theater, most recently in “Evita” over the summer, and, in 2017, played Brigitta in the national touring production of “The Sound of Music,” in this play she is taking on an entirely new role.

“I always play characters the same age I am now or younger,” said Dakota, who explained that her character in “Antigone Now” works at the palace, where she is caregiver for Antigone.

“Dakota is used to playing her age, but this character is an adult, and a very complex one,” Ms. Salkin said. “It’s been pulling her out, and she says it’s so uncomfortable because she’s used to playing a little girl. But I wanted to give her experience to play someone different than herself. She just hasn’t had the opportunity.”

Another important goal for Ms. Salkin and Ms. Jones is placing students in roles that don’t necessarily align with their real-life personas, something that may not happen in school productions where the teachers who direct the plays already know them well from the classroom.

“I’ve played lots of lead boys and characters that are troublemakers or outgoing, so this is different,” said Zoey Engeldrum, who plays Ismene, Antigone’s quiet, meek sister.

Conversely, Gaylin Davey, who plays the outspoken Antigone, has often been cast in the sweet and soft-spoken roles that are more in keeping with her offstage personality.

But as Ms. Salkin explained, ultimately, for this group of students, South Fork Performing Arts is all about sparking imagination, exploring emotion and offering insight into the world of oneself through the vehicle of onstage experience.

“For us, the most important thing is process over product,” Ms. Salkin said. “Anybody can go up there and say something on stage … but what you do in the rehearsal process leading up to that moment is so much more important.”

“Antigone Now” by Melissa Cooper is directed by Tamara Salkin. Performances at the Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane, Southampton, are Friday and Saturday, December 14 and 15, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15, $10 students. The performance is presented by South Fork Performing Arts in association with Southampton Cultural Center.

On January 5, from noon to 4 p.m., South Fork Performing Arts will hold auditions for its next production—a musical—to be staged at Southampton Cultural Center in May 2019. Also available in the new year are classes in Shakespeare’s monologues, scene study of modern American plays, and acting in children’s theater. For details, visit southforkperformingarts.com.