From the Archives (November 8, 2012):
About a year ago, the Chicago based theater artist Erica Barnes approached David Lehman for permission to adapt his poem “Mythologies” for the stage as a dance performance piece. According to Erica, she was in the midst of a somewhat fallow period when on a whim she visited the Poetry Foundation website, clicked on the “Poem of the Day” and “fell in love.” David’s sequence of thirty sonnets “Mythologies,” first published in the Paris Review issue 106 (1988) and awarded the Bernard F. Connors prize, was the Foundation’s featured poem. Erica has this to say about David’s poem:
We need new myths. Our old heroes are too unattainable, too perfect, too… heroic. David Lehman’s poem ‘Mythologies’ tells the story of a man struggling to construct new myths in the wake of the disintegration of his expectations. Blending the language of poetry with the ritual of theatre, ‘Mythologies’ searches for the answer to the age-old question — what is it to be human?
David granted permission and over the next several months Erica dispatched periodic updates of her work- in-progress. She secured funding, hired a full cast and crew, found performance space, and held rehearsals. On November 1, “Mythologies” opened at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater in Chicago. “It was a success,” writes Erica, and her excitement is palpable. She sends along this preview video, which makes us wish we could put the production on the road:
Erica promises to send more photos of the performance, which we will share here. Meanwhile, you can find out more about “Mythologies” in Chicago by visiting the dedicated website. You will find Erica’s interview with David here.
Congratulations Erica!
“Mythologies” will be included in David Lehman’s forthcoming New and Selected Poems (Scribner, 2013).
— sdh
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Author: The Best American Poetry
