Jessie Marshall Discusses Making of Media/Medea

Medium Juggler: Senior Jessie Marshall's senior project, Media/Medea, employs video, pop music and dance. (photo by Liz Fox)

Last spring, senior Jessie Marshall proposed an extraordinarily ambitious senior honors project, a staged multi-media adaptian of the story of Medea, a mythological woman who kills her children to protect them from the world's wrongs. Marshall's production would incorporate video, film and popular music, stretching the aesthetic boundaries of theater. She spent last summer making masks for the performance and writing the script. The result, Media/Medea will be performed tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Hall Auditorium. Arts editor Tim Willcutts interviewed Marshall.

Tim Willcutts: What's compelling to you about the Medea myth?

Jessie Marshall: Its depiction of women and of mothers is why I think it's so relevant. Women today are depicted as either mothers or sex objects. Monica Lewinsky is the most obvious example. You also have Anita Hill, Lorena Bobbit, the list goes on. Women's notoriety always seems to be tied to their sexuality. We can't help but be affected by these representations of ourselves.

TW: Do you think Medea is particularly relevant to contemporary culture, as opposed to say, Helen of Troy or other mythological figures?

JM: She really appealed to me because she took control of her situation. Helen of Troy caused a war accidentally. Medea commited this incredibly powerful act of killing her children. I wanted to explore why anyone would make that choice, which really is self-sacrificing.

TW: Would you say this production attempts something akin to the recent Romeo and Juliet film, placing an archaic tale in a self-consciously modern context?

JM: I would. Though, Baz Luhrmann was telling the story through film, working within that format really well. Instead of just placing the Medea story in theater, I'm trying to convert the theater medium into other forms of media - television, rock music, film, commercials.

TW: How much control do you have over each of those elements?

JM: There are a bunch of designers, two people doing video, three different choreographers. We started with the script, then exchanged ideas back and forth. Collaboration is very difficult. But this production is over-the-top, very emotive and commercial. So it was easy to get into.

TW: Most senior projects are productions of other people's works. But you actually wrote Media/Medea. After working with it on the page, does the production surprise you? Is it what you envisioned?

JM: It's strange because writing and directing are so incredibly different. Now, I don't really remember what I originally wrote.

TW: Because it's grown so much?

JM: As a writer, I don't think, well, we probably can't have a revolving stage to move from this scene into the next. But, as a director, you have to think, how can this actually happen. It becomes its own beast and you have to deal with it.

TW: Is more at stake in this weekend's production, since you wrote it?

JM: I forget that aspect of it. It's been something I've learned to separate myself from. I can't take it personally. In fact, sometimes, the words sound completely foreign to me.

TW: You tend to compose pieces that allude very overtly to other works or artists - Sylvia Plath in the case of last spring's Plathmouth - and now Medea. Is your aim to allow audiences to experience these works in a new format - or are you trying to put forth your own vision, something completely new?

JM: I find that it's very hard to write something completely original. There is no story that's new. It's much easier to adapt other pieces. We're all used to receiving information from a multitude of sources. You give a play or any sort of art a lot of depth by referencing other sources.

TW: What are you planning next?

JM: I'll be in Alexis McNab's senior project, Night Fractal.