Directing Euripides' Medea

This thesis documents the directorial preparation and rehearsal process for the production of Euripides Medea, produced at the TELUS theatre, January 2009, as the thesis requirement for an MFA in Directing from the Theatre Department of the University of British Columbia. Included are a script analysis of the Kenneth McLeish translation of Medea, a rehearsal journal, and an essay examining the role and intervention of the gods in Euripides’ Medea. This production was framed as a re-enactment by the household staff of Jason and Medea. The appendix includes a storyboard script for the household characters written by the director. The bibliography includes sources used by the director for script analysis research. Challenges in staging Medea include the deus ex machina, the child actors and staging the Greek Chorus. An essential question explored in this production is the character of Medea and whether the audience is to consider her as a monster or as a human. This production explored the deus ex machina as an act of grace, signaling that the gods transcend societal codes of justice, and that Euripides offers the image of a complex woman, struggling and stumbling towards the divine.Arts, Faculty ofTheatre and Film, Department ofGraduat