World Mythology Tragedy Project (F12)

==Where we began: Groups' initial plans==
===Group A===
So our group decided to do the scene Agamemnon starting on page 50-60, lines 1372-1675. This is the scene where agamemnon and cassandra have been killed by clytaemestra and aegisthus, The way we will modernize this story is by using a CSI type crime scene analysis. In this type of modern 'play' we will evaluate the death of agamemnon and cassandra and attempt to find out who killed them in the context of modern society, Like a crime of passion and adultery. 
===Group B===
Approaching the end of Antigone (beginning page 227, lines 1293-1300, Greek Tragedies Volume 1 Second Edition), we aim to parallel Antigone's suicide to avoid starvation with a scene we will base on the concluding minutes of Shawshank Redemption. This concept of using suicide to avoid further punishments is in many ways similar to the warden's death.
All group members will meet to collectively write a script to preserve the qualities of Antigone in this modern retelling.
===Group C===
Group 3 met today during the given time. Every member was present except for James Bennet, but we were aware that recently he had a surgery and are planning an emailing him all the work we accomplish and what we expect him to do.
1) We have decided to stick with Alex's idea, doing scene 5 (pages 271 to 284) from Hippolytus. We are highlighting on the action where Hippolytus and his father Theseus are in their intense argument. 
2) The tension filled, argumentative dialogue back and forth serves as an important literary tool as well as a good theater tool to grab the audience's attention. The whole background story about the mother's suicide and falsely accusing of her son of raping her as the reason serves as an interesting and tragic beginning that can easily be related to modern times. The chastity vow made by Hippolytus can play an important role as well.
3) We have decided to modernize the tragedy into a scene where a teenage male comes out as homosexual to his parents. The main argument is to occur between the boy and his father, just like Hippolytus and his father. The chorus will be represented by 2 younger siblings (Strophe and Anti-Strophe), and the chorus leader in the tragedy will be represented by a mother figure, and instead of a suicide that causes a climatic moment a tragic incident will occur to the boy that evokes him to come out (father is angered and son comes to talk to him- maybe he was bullied yet again and father is angered he does not stand up for himself). The chastity of Hippolytus that was "judged" within the tragedy is equivalent to the homosexuality that causes others to judge the boy. The boy will be kicked out of the house, just as Hippolytus was banished. 
===Group D===
Our group decided to work on the Aeneid of Virgil, a verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum. We are incorporating two scenes from two different books. We are taking the scene (Book II, lines 985-1080) of Aeneas trying to leave Troy with his wife, son, father and whoever can follow behind, and somehow his wife is parted from them and she is killed in the city, while the others escape, and when Aeneas realizes she is gone and then her spirit visits Aeneas and he must go on after, because his fate is not in Troy. We are also going to be using the scene (Book IV, lines 7-37 and 886-924) of when Aeneas is leaving Carthage and his new love Dido, who was filled with Cupids love for Aeneas, and she cannot bare living without him so she kills herself. These scenes both deal with flight and losing a loved one, and dealing with the loss, so we decided to do a scene about a hurricane coming and destroying a town and a man losing his wife because she went back in to get something, as Aeneas loses his wife. Then with him moving on with his son and meeting a new woman but he cannot stay long in the town because he is passing through to get to a more stable environment to raise his child, and she becomes so overwhelmed because she is so very young and does not know real love yet, and she kills herself. When the man finds out about this lady's death he feels guilt and sadness because of the loss of his wife and this girl and he is visited by their spirits to help pick him up when he does not know what to do with himself just as Aeneas was visited by his wife's spirit to help guide him a bit.
===Group E===
Group E will be doing Antigone, p196-p202 line 589 and incorporating parts from p204, 223, 229-230. Essentially we will be telling the story of Creon's suffering by not doing the right thing and then when he begins to feel the shame of his actions (by finding that his niece broke his law and that his actions in killing her killed both his own wife and son) he tries to cover up what happened and also right his wrong by burying Polyneices, but it is too little too late.
We used Tim's idea for modernization.
Hey guys, here is my idea for the tragedy project:
1. From Antigone, the scene that I find interesting is at the end when Antigone and Creon are arguing over the burial of Polynices. Creon had just discovered who the criminal was that had altered the body during the night. Upon finding out it was Antigone, he tries to cover it up, so that he did not have to execute the former King’s daughter. Creon gets mad because he think that Antigone has just done this because she knows that she can’t be punished while Antigone is perfectly fine with dying for the cause. She believes her brother deserves the proper burial. Creon is stuck between punishing Antigone to secure his power as king and doing what is the proper thing, which would be admitting he is wrong and properly burying the body. Ultimately, Antigone makes it public what she has done so Creon must execute her. This causes Antigone’s fiancé and Creon’s son, Haemon to commit suicide. At the news of her son’s death, Creon’s wife, Eurydice, then also commits suicide. This leaves Creon all alone.
2. I find this particular scene interesting because Creon directly makes a decision that turns around and bites him in the ass. He could either maintain the power he has as king, punishing one of the most important women in Thebes for caring for her brother or he could just admit he was wrong and have the body of Polynices properly buried. He ends up executing Antigone, choosing the selfish path. He was then punished for his decision, losing everyone he loved. This will be interesting to make modern. You ultimately start cheering for Antigone and hate Creon through the story so it sort of comes down to a hero and a villain. The villain wins, but loses everything he has doing so. I feel there are plenty of similar storylines that we can work with. 
3. My idea for modernization could be set in a work environment. A boss is exerting his power on an employee who has just spent a large amount of the company’s money in buying a product that is eco-friendly. For example, the product they chose does not emit air pollution like the previous product did. After firing the employee for wasting the money, the boss returns to the old way, polluting the air. Later that day, when he returns home, his wife gives him the news that she is dying of lung cancer, a sort of side effect from the pollution his company is emitting….I know it’s a little bit of a stretch and would need some work to make it fit properly. The whole idea is that the main person would have a choice and ends up making one that directly hurts the ones he loves.
===Group F===
we went with Ming's idea:
Hey guys,
I was reading through the greek tragedies and we have limited choices so I was thinking maybe a scene from Hippolytus(the last one).The tragedy is short so a quick run down if you haven't read the story before is that Hippolytus is the son of Theseus and Hippolyta(queen of amazons) but after she died, Theseus remarried Phaedra. Aphrodite was mad at Hippolytus because he worshipped Artemis and shunned her. So as revenge she enchanted Phaedra into falling in love with her step son. But Hippolytus would never return this love because she was his step mom and she kills herself leaving a note that made it sound like Hippolytus raped and wronged her. So Theseus reads the note and believes that Hippolytus has done wrong and curses his son to die at the hands of Posiedon.
The part I picked is separated so the first is pages 273-282 and the second 288-293. The first is when Theseus is cursing his son and Hippolytus is vying for his innocence. The second is When Artemis reveals the truth to Theseus after his son is dead by the very curse he put on him and Hippolytus(his spirit) hears about the truth as well. I think this plays on the concept of revenge and regret very well. Sometimes the truth is muddled and causes the ones around the situation misery, and when we hear about the truth, then we understand and learn from our mistakes.
A possible modernizing/mashup could possibly be playing around with the justice system and how some people are sometimes wrongly accused and sometimes the truth is never uncovered and both sides suffer or even if the truth is uncovered, both sides still had to suffer.
we are going to have the inmate be prosecuted based on faulty eye witness statements and have them been imprisoned for a couple of decades and the innocence project has found DNA evidence that exonerates him. He is then released and works out a settlement with the state and does not put blame on the victim he says they are both victims in the situation. we are going to have two court cases in the presentation the original and the one that brings the new evidence that exonerates the defendant and each should be about 5 minutes long. 
Line up
~~a couple of months pass~~
Prosecution gives opening statement
Defendant gives opening statements ( Rape Case)
Victim on stand (Jason) prosecution
Jury comes back with guilty verdict
~~ 30 years pass~~
in the court room again
innocence project explained
DNA evidence presented
Judge rules for his release and he is exonerated
He is leaving the court-room and the victim comes up to him and apologizes for picking the wrong person
Defendant forgives and does not blame her for they are both victims 
 
Defendant: Hippolytus
Defense Council: Artemis
Prosecution: Phaedra
Judge: Theseus
Victim: Phaedra
Real Rapist: Aphrodite
Jury: Chorus