Kris Knutsen was an apprentice at Pacific Theatre, was one of the invited playrights at our Rosedale Writers Week in 2007, and is working on her MFA in playwriting. Woven in with all of that, Kris is on the TWU Theatre faculty this fall, leading students through the creation of this intriguing original theatre piece.
MYTHIFICATION
Nov 26 - 29, 8pm
Trinity Western University
Tickets: 604 513-2121 ext 3872 / twuboxoffice@gmail.com / online
"We have been established since Everlasting, before there ever was an earth..."
MYTHIFICATION is a student created production using myth, storytelling and inspirations from classic Greek theatre to explore the figurative origins of the universe. Creation as you’ve never seen it before, this original student work turns “the beginning” into an epic battle for humanity.
“J.R.R. Tolkien refers to myth as a ‘real, though unfocused gleam of divine truth falling on human imagination’, and that’s the idea we started with in this production,” says director Kris Knutsen, a Seattle based playwright and actor. “In a ‘student-created production’ we are responsible for creating every part of the theatre experience; beginning to end, story and presentation, theatrical stage and the world of the play. It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time.”
The idea for Mythification started with a love for classic Greek theatre. “When creating a work with an ensemble, it’s great to have a common inspiration. For us, it was these classic plays that were the origins of Western theatre. Epic things happened, everyone’s dying, the gods intervene, there’s no pretense towards the “smallishness” of life. Characters transcend the ordinary, yet somehow end up speaking personally about it.”
The contrast is created by using a Greek “style” to tell a mythic story from another culture. “For our production we used Genesis 1” says Knutsen. “The beginning of all beginnings. It’s got everything you need: creation of worlds, conflict, origin of time and humanity… We merged a humanity typically found in Greek mythology with the story and structure found in the Biblical account. The underlying story is the same, but like nothing you’ve ever seen. It feels unique and personal while still respecting the story as it was written. It definitely is creation as you’ve never seen it before.”
A show of epic proportions, Mythification is an original night of theatre that uses music, movement, and story to explore timeless truths in creative representations. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, the power of myth “Gets under our skin...troubles oldest certainties…and in general shocks us more fully awake than we are for most of our lives.”
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