Demeter preparing for Persephone's 2017 return?

During the Age of Sisyphus, Demeter, was in charge of the harvest. She loved her little daughter, Persephone and the crops grew high and healthy. As time passed, Persephone grew into a lovely goddess. That's when the trouble started. One day Hades, the king of the underworld, decided to take his three-headed dog out for a chariot ride. When they encountered Persephone, she only laughed and scratched the dogs heads. Hades fell deeply in love, grabbed her and dove deep into the darkest depths of the Underworld.

Hades locked Persephone in a beautifully decorated room in the Hall of Hades, but Persephone refused to eat. She had heard if you ate anything in Hades, you could never leave. Finally, in desperate hunger, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds; meanwhile, back on earth, Demeter, missed her daughter terribly and the crops were dying. It was clear this could not go on, so Zeus sent his son Hermes to work a deal with Hades. This was the deal Hermes worked out:

If Persephone would marry Hades, she would live as queen of the Underworld for six months each winter. In the spring, Persephone would return to earth and live there for six months. Every spring, Demeter makes sure flowers are blooming and crops are growing and the fields are green with welcome. Every fall, when Persephone returns to the underworld, Demeter ignores the crops and flowers and lets them die. Each spring, Demeter brings everything to life again, ready to welcome her daughter's return.

To the ancient Greeks, that was the reason for seasons - winter, spring, summer, fall.

Thantos' Back Story

Thantos is lost. He was rejected by his mother and left to die, learning to survive by doing whatever it takes. He never experienced love and was only touched by the cold hand of his mother. Thantos becomes the loyal buddy, assassin, henchman, executioner and innocent victim of Zeus. Thantos is constantly trying to prove his loyalty to Zeus.

He is manipulated by Zeus who asks him to perform demeaning tasks for him. Eroticized by the female scent, Thantos stalks the conquests for Zeus. At times he has been allowed to watch Zeus in his sexual games with women. Thantos tries to have a secret life with a woman, but he is impotent and unable to experience love.

Thantos learned to use his great strength, imposing stature and commanding voice to survive captivity and starvation at the hands of war lords. He can frighten with his mere presence. He is conflicted between hurting or protecting the humans. He dreams of being an equal and having a friend, but he can't begin to put it together. He feels nothing about killing, doesn't feel physical pain but is tortured by his isolation. He falls into an endless loop of self-pity, blames the humans and can't figure out right from wrong. He has never refused Zeus anything, but one day he wants to be his own man.

SONGS

ACT 1
Bada-bing bada-boom
Only in the hearts of fools

ACT 2
I will make you scream

Aphrodite's Back Story

Aphrodite's destiny is written and her fate is sealed. From the moment of her birth Aphrodite was defined as the object of desire, the icon of beauty and love. As a young girl, she played alone, testing the fates by marking and scarring herself. She tore and muddied her gowns. She cut her hair off and bit her nails until they bled but each morning she was perfect again: was dressed and dragged into the temple by her handmaidens, to take her place beside Zeus.

Aphrodite disappeared with regularity. She visited the Oracle of Delphi where she could hide from her duties and learned about the powerful potions, cures, curses and trances she could use to retaliate against the humans and lesser gods. She learned to manipulate and expand her vacuous role in a long and lonely eternity.

She was loved, hated, beautiful and irresistible, this daughter of Zeus. Outbursts of emotions, fueled by her desire for freedom from the demands of perfection, the attention of bad boys from Sparta and women who challenged and criticized every part of her, each strand of hair, each measurement of the classic body. For all her gifts of sensuous attraction and seductive prowess, she is unfulfilled by her roll in Olympian life. Forever doomed to be an object of man's desires, she fights for equality with Ares, in hopes of turning his head and owning his heart. She acts out with rage when she is displeased. She throws tantrums when Ares doesn't respond to her and uses her powers with magic and the sacred arts to overcome her enemies, reorder the status quo and wield her powerful revenge upon the lesser gods and humans.

SONGS

ACT 1
You got to do what you got to do

ACT 2
No death do us part

Happy New Year!

From Zeus to Seussical

Look everyone! Aphrodite, Persephone and Dawn were spotted in Seussical at the Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton. It runs through December 30th. "Oh the thinks you can think when you think about Seuss".

Early Costume Sketches

We've been dressing up our latest performance package to submit to several music theater festivals and I ran across some early costume sketches for the lead roles in Sisyphus. We'll plan to add them as eye candy in the character sections. It's fun to put them side-by-side with the final costume.

Sisyphus Photo Scrapbook

We've been gathering up all the various pictures people have for Sisyphus and we now have a link to a scrapbook of photos. It starts all the way back with our first reading and ends with our final performance at the Aurora Fox Theater. There are all sorts of photos of the event and the process we took getting there.