The Story of Philomele: Meet Meghan Reardon

Where are you from?

Topeka, KS



What do you do when you're not performing?


I do administrative work for a handful of groups, High Concept Laboratories, Voice of the City and Premiere Theatre and Performance, for whom I also serve as grant writer. They are all awesome organizations and I’m more than happy to talk to anyone about any of them. If you’re very lucky or have way too much free time, you can also catch me a few days a week playing the role of Cashier at Banana Republic in Old Orchard Mall. Play your cards right and I will lovingly wrap your items in tissue paper while tempting you with offers of Banana Credit Cards.



What is your favorite moment in The Love of the Nightingale?


I love Procne and Philomele’s relationship—I’ve got two sisters, an older one in NY and a younger one in KS, and the more moments we discover and create onstage between the two sisters, the more it makes me miss my real-life sisters and brings back memories of growing up with them.



Any standout rehearsal moments?


Secretly, my favorite rehearsal moments are whenever James offers to buy coffee. Not so secretly, learning fight choreography from Claire and her assistant Zack was scary and exciting. I’m a petite lady, so being able to grapple around and get a few good swings in feels pretty darn good. I’m also an actor who just loves being completely physically engaged in an action and a moment, so it’s really gratifying on a number of levels.



What's a fun fact about your character?


I think Phil enjoys going to the theatre even more than I do, which is definitely saying something. I mean, this girl LOVES it, and is totally uninhibited in her reactions. I could get there, but it would probably take a few drinks.





The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.


Tickets are available through our website.

Dramaturge's Corner: The Nightingale

Dramaturge Marti Lyons gives an inside look at The Love of the Nightingale.

The nightingale is an important symbol for poets from a variety of ages, and has taken on a number of symbolic connotations. Homer evokes the nightingale in the Odyssey, suggesting the myth of Philomela and Procne. This myth is the focus of Sophocles’ tragedy, Tereus, of which only fragments remain. Ovid, too, in his Metamorphoses, includes the most popular version of this myth, imitated and altered by later poets, including Chrétien de Troyes, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and George Gascoigne. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land also evokes the nightingale’s song (and the myth of Philomela and Procne). Because of the violence associated with the myth, the nightingale’s song was long interpreted as a lament.

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.
Tickets are available through our website.

The Story of Hero: Sarah Latin-Kasper

Where are you from?

Milwaukee, WI (Bay View!)

What do you do when you're not performing?

Dance around my house,invent new pancake recipes, try to juggle as good as my boyfriend,watch a lot of Six Feet Under...and work, of course.

What is your favorite moment in The Love of the Nightingale?

As of right now...when John tries to get up on Niobe during the Bacchae festival.

Any standout rehearsal moments?

Our amazing "negative space" dance party.

What's a fun fact about your character?

In classical Greek Mythology Hero is the wife of Zeus

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.

Tickets are available through our website.

Dramaturge's Corner: Hero and Hera

Dramaturge Marti Lyons gives an inside look at The Love of the Nightingale.

Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her. Hera's mother was Rhea and her father, Cronus.

Portrayed as majestic and solemn, often enthroned, and crowned with the polos (a high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesses), Hera may bear a pomegranate in her hand, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. A scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos."

Hera was known for her jealous and vengeful nature, most notably against Zeus's paramours and offspring, but also against mortals who crossed her, such as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess, earning Hera's hatred.

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.

Tickets are available through our website.

The Story of Helen: Meet Amanda Newman

Where are you from?

I grew up on the south side of Milwaukee and finished out my high school years in the suburbs. And yes, beer and cheese are two of my fave food groups.

What do you do when you're not performing?

I spend my time taking as many dance classes as possible. I also have my own part-time sewing/design business "A-Train Originals" and I really enjoy cooking. Lately, I've been into 'feng shui-ing' my apartment when I have time.

What is your favorite moment in The Love of the Nightingale?

My favorite line is when Tereus says "How could I know what love was? Who was there to teach me?" To me it concisely addresses the topics of love, responsbility and forgiveness that I see in the play.

Any standout rehearsal moments?

I really enjoyed the table work and devling into the script with the entire cast. I've been performing as a dancer and haven't been in a play for years so it was such a pleasure to get back into nitty gritty text analysis.

What's a fun fact about your character?

As Procne's elder, Helen can empathize with Procne and feels the duty to support her. But Helen loses her patience when Procne's Thracian snobbery and "I'm-the-Queen-so-I-can-do-whatever-I-want" attidute results in rude interruptions of the important work of silent dancing. "Me, me, me, me, me"... seriously Procne, get a grip.

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.

Get your tickets through our website.

Dramaturge's Corner: Helen, The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships

Dramaturge Marti Lyons gives an inside look at The Love of the Nightingale.

In Greek mythology, Helen, known as Helen of Troy (and earlier Helen of Sparta), was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), daughter of King Tyndareus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. Helen was described by Dr. Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's eponymous play as having "the face that launched a thousand ships."

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.
Get your tickets through our website.

Meet Edwin Unger

Where are you from?

Port Saint Lucie, Florida. It's a bit north of Palm Beach, to give you a frame of reference.

What do you do when you're not performing?

Audition! Even when I AM performing, I go to every audition that I can squeeze in. During casting for Nightingale, I auditioned 17 times in a two week period.

What is your favorite moment in The Love of the Nightingale?

It has to be the second moment with Philomele and the Captain. They share a tender moment, and everything seems resolved, positive, as if the story could have a happy ending. Then Tereus appears (I won't tell you what happens next). Making the reader/audience believe in a happy ending only to snatch it from them at the last moment seems to define several parts of this play, and no moment more than this one.

Any standout rehearsal moments?

At the time of this writing, I've only been to a couple rehearsals that weren't table work. However, it's the table work that I've really loved. It's such a great feeling to be surrounded by scholars who want to squeeze every drop of meaning from this play. Though Nightingale isn't very long, every aspect of it runs so deeply that it's good to know there are 30+ cast and crew members experiencing it with me.

What's a fun fact about your character?

Look up the "Ship of Theseus Paradox."

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.
Get your tickets through our website.

The Story of Itys: Meet Carrie Drapac

Where are you from?

I hail from just outside of Gary, Indiana but made my way to Chicago via New York. So, I often feel like a New Yorker with Midwestern sensibilities.

What do you do when you're not performing?

When not performing, my days (and nights) are mostly consumed by building, running, and working for my small in-home personal training business, Comfy Fitness.

What is your favorite moment in The Love of the Nightingale?

Oh geeze...one moment, really?! Actually, I think what captivates me more so than any moment in Nightingale is the text. I'm am completely astounded each time I hear different speeches and realize that by the end of the show, single words have now taken on layers of meaning.

Any standout rehearsal moments?

I LOVED seeing the choreography for the first time last night in rehearsal. It offers the audience yet another way into the world of the play.

What's a fun fact about your character?

Hmmm, what don't we know about Itys? Well, he feeds a stray kitten that he has named Aepytus after his favorite Greek figure...but that all happens off-stage.

The Love of the Nightingale runs May 3-29.

Get your tickets through our website.