The 2008 Class produced an '80's teen cult classic version of "The Castle of Perseverance" (Image Credit: Fee 2008) |
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Medieval Drama Goes Gettysburg, 1999-2011
This course involves combining classroom lecture and discussion, independent research, and the collaborative effort of scripting, staging, and producing a Medieval play. Modern productions of Medieval plays have proven ideal vehicles through which students may begin to approach an alien culture, and in our efforts at Gettysburg we have attempted to forge a new path by updating selected plays: We stage student-produced plays which are translated and updated by the participants themselves. Our productions have received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike, and were cited recently in "Teaching Medieval British Literature into the Twenty-First Century," an online appendix to the Medieval British Literature Handbook edited by Daniel T. Kline (Continuum 2009). "I am not a Nightmare!" A trippy Tricky Dicky made an appearance in our 2003 '70's Afterschool Special version of "Wit and Science" (Image Credit: Fee 2003) |
A Jazz-Hands Star is Born: Very Medieval Drama Christmas 2011
See the Second Shepherd (AND the First, AND the Third!) throw down with Mak, the devilish sheep-rustler, in a wild Medieval inversion of the Christmas story! See the Three Magi out-wit a high-camp King Herod in the midst of a world-class temper-tantrum!! Three Shepherds, Three Magi, the Holy Family, an Unholy Inversion thereof, and a cast of thousands (of Barnyard Animals, that is!) open the Holiday Season in Style! Don't miss it! CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL POSTER! Collect all six! Trade with your friends! (Image Credit: Freeborn 2011) |
“You’ll Put Your Eye Out, Mak!” Oh Come, All Ye Faithful, to A Christmas Story, Medieval Style! |
A Very Medieval Drama Christmas 2011: Featuring Santa, His Elves, and a Carol Sing-a-long |
Follow Yonder Star to see the Wakefield Master as you’ve never seen him before, Friday, December 9th at 4:00 PM, in the Gettysburg College Chapel!!! Coming Soon to a College Chapel Near You!
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 In a cameo inspired by an anachronistic reference to “Saint Nicholas” in the original medieval text, our 2011 production features an appearance by the Jolly Old Elf himself! Likewise, a reference to a an Elf who subsitituted a changeling for a human child at the stroke of Midnight gave us license to include a skipping, spotlit appearance of one of Santa's Helpers! Singing in the original text is also represented through some family favorites of the Season! Come sing along! |
Courtney Walton, as Gill, discusses the merits of her "son," the sheep played by Tommy Bender (Image Credit: Curley 2011) |
Here Sean Johnson rests from his labors in the role of Santa Claus (Image Credit: Curley 2011) |
For 2010 we returned to a favorite hilarious theme: Memento mori! The Wakefield Last Judgment is a play about serious issues concerning the end of the world and the punishment of sin, but with a twist: It contrasts an angry and awesome Christ the Judge with hilarious and disgusting devils, tempering serious theology with a spoonful of the Comedy of Evil.
"Let My People Go, Satan!" 2010's Zombie Apocalypse version of the Wakefield "Last Judgment" featured a "Harrowing of Hell" flashback sequence in which a victorious Christ battered down the very Gates of Hell to overthrow the dominion of Satan! CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL POSTER! Collect all six! Trade with your friends! (Image Credit: Freeborn 2010)
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The 2005 Class produced a "Goodfellas" version of the York Crucifixion Play (Image Credit: Fee 2005) |
The 2001 Class produced a Jazz Age version of the Morality Play "Mankind" (Image Credit: Fee 2001) |
Following in the footsteps of 1999's highly successful Hillbilly version of the Wakefield Noah, the Spring 2001 Medieval Drama course produced a gangland, Jazz Age version of the morality play Mankind, complete with live music. Our 2003 '70's After-school Special version of Wit and Science featured a disco soundtrack, and our 2005 version of the York Crucifixion of Christ brought the black comedy of the York Realist to life to a punk beat, giving new meaning to the phrase "They know not what they do." As early as the fall of 2000 the Chicago Sun-Times was the most notable of dozens of papers which picked up a wire service story which featured our 1999 class production, and in 2005 we were invited to perform at a regional undergraduate Medieval Studies conference at Hood College, where we received rave reviews. In April of 2008 we collaborated with a student production of a Tudor comedy at Centenary College in New Jersey. |
Students in this course learn a great deal about the evolution of drama in the Middle Ages, write a number of papers, including one which suggests links between Medieval plays and contemporary films, and utilize this newfound knowledge by tackling the problems of text and time first-hand, as it were, by scripting and staging their own play. In 2008 we produced The Castle of Perseverance, a play about the struggle between good and evil within the individual soul, but with a twist: It’s a battle royale with no-holds-barred, complete with preaching angels and farting devils, and the Seven Deadly Sins march to war with the Seven Cardinal Virtues at the very gates of the Castle of the Soul. The Castle of Perseverance is long and theologically complex, as well as elaborate in its use of costumes and props; following in the footsteps of our previous successes, however, we truncated, translated, and updated the play in a minimalist style evocative of such '80's teen classics The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
"Play man, play!" The 2001 Class produced a Jazz Age version of the Morality Play "Mankind" (Image Credit: Fee 2001)
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"Get on the damn boat!" The 1999 Class produced a Hillbilly version of the Wakefield Master's "Noah" (Image Credit: Fee 1999) In a stunning twist of Fate, Josh Eyler, '00, one of the leads in our original production in 1999 who played the eponymous Noah (in yellow slicker, above), has gone on to be a scholar of Medieval Drama, and published an article on the N-Town Noah in the April 2010 issue of Neophilologus. Our 2010 Solid Gold Zombie Dancers shook some extra glitter during the Thriller number in Josh’s honor! Thankfully, no limbs seemed to shake loose…. The campus-wide performance was on April 30th, 2010 at 4:00 PM behind Breidenbaugh Hall on the campus of Gettysburg College.
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Medieval Drama extends across generations of Gettysburg students! Siri (White) Phelps, '01, was one of the translators of and performed in our Jazz Age version of Mankind long before she became an English teacher at Fairfield High School. Siri can be seen (in the center of the shot above, in the yellow top) getting down to the smooth jazz tones of the Joe Zoller Orchestra. Well prepared for the rigors of Medieval Drama by Mrs. Phelps, her former Fairfield students Eleanor Leaman and Emily Schrum went on to help to sound the notes of Doom in our 2010 Last Judgment!
"Get thee to Hell, Satan!" 2010's Zombie Apocalypse version of the Wakefield "Last Judgment" featured Christ the Judge in a Triumphant Throw-down with Satan! (Image Credit: Fee and Miller 2010) |
"They know not what they do...." The 2005 Class produced a "Goodfellas" version of the York "Crucifixion" Play (Image Credit: Fee 2005) |
Medieval Drama Class Webpages:
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Medieval Drama Class Production Videos:
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The 2003 Class produced a '70's After-School Special version of the early humanist "Wit and Science" (Image Credit: Fee 2003)
All Medieval Drama Webpages, Images, Videos, and Text Copyright 1999-2011 Christopher R. Fee and Gettysburg College
