Staging "Electra"

The fourth in a series of articles about Bellairs performing with the College of Saint Teresa Drama Department.

John Bellairs began teaching at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona, Minnesota, in September 1963 and soon began participating in plays produced by the college's drama department.

"Electra" is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles.  The story takes place in the year following the Trojan war and recounts the tale of Electra and the vengeance that she and her brother, Orestes, take on their mother Clytemnestra and step father Aegisthus for the murder of their father, Agamemnon [1].

Members of the College of Saint Teresa Speech and Drama Department performed the play in November of 1964 [2].

Performances

The play was performed on four subsequent days [3]:

• Friday, November 13, 1964, at 8 p.m.
• Saturday, November 14 at 2 and 8 p.m.
• Sunday, November 15 at 8 p.m.
• Monday, November 16 at 8 p.m.

The college staged the production in the college auditorium.

Cast

• Gayle Biehman - chorus
• John Bellairs - Paedagogus
• Carrie Benoit - chorus
• Roger Budny - Pylades
• Elaine Conway - chorus
• Marguerite Coughlin - Electra
• Mary Beth Cunningham - chorus
• Gene D'Amour - Aegisthus
• Maureen Ellis - Clytemnestra
• Dorothy Germann - chorus
• Mary Ann Hausmann - chorus
• Kathleen Kendrick - chorus
• Marcia McCann - chorus
• Mary Ann Okray - chorus
• William Peltzman - Orestes
• Jeann Roux - chorus
• Susan Streiff - chorus
• Kathleen Wimer - Chrysothemis
• Candace Young - chorus

Female roles were filled by College of Saint Teresa students with male roles handled by students from Saint Mary's College [3]. The lone faculty exception was Bellairs.

Crew

• John E. Marzocco - director/lighting
• Eileen Whalen - vocal coach
• Richard J. Weiland - technical director/set designer
• Dianne Wrocklage - assistant technical director
• Sister M. Lorraine - publicity director
• Anna Poulos - poster design
• Robert Larka - house supervision
• Lucey Ramsey - house manager
• Mary Beth Hendricks - stage manager
• Joan Teich - assistant stage manager

The statue of Apollo used on the set was made by Anna Poulos and Judi Larka, with Poulos also creating the urns and bowls used on stage [4].

Reviews

• "...John Bellairs is an earnest Paedagogus."[5]
• Fellow instructor John Murphy vividly remembers this of all of Bellairs's performances in the way "he practiced the play by doing wide gestures and using the entire stage, as you do in Greek dramas, to talk about the action that happened off stage."[6]

References

• [1] Wikipedia: Electra
• [2] "St. Teresa's Drama Group to Present Sophocles' Tragedy". Winona Daily News, Sep. 28, 1964.
• [3] "Cast for St. Teresa's 'Electra' Announced".  Winona Daily News, Nov. 2, 1964.
• [4] "'Electra' Set Classic, Contemporary".  Winona Daily News, Nov. 15, 1964.
• [5] "'Electra' Makes 'Good Theater'". Winona Daily News, Nov. 16, 1964.
• [6] Correspondence with John Murphy (2003).

(Above) Paedagogus, portrayed by John Bellairs, informs Electra that the time for her revenge upon Clytemnestra is ripe. She is alone in the house (p. 107, College of Saint Teresa Aldine, 1965).

(Above) The director, cast, technical crew and production crew of Sophocles' Electra. Electra was put on by the college during the month of November. The art department assisted in the pottery and statue seen in the background. Bellairs is in the front row, fourth from left (p. 105, College of Saint Teresa Aldine, 1965).