K-School Actors Will Perform Greek Tragedy Tonight at IOP

A spring politicians will have a chance in display their acting skills tonight in the Institute of Politics (IOP) Forum, when the newly formed Kennedy School Players debut in Sophocles's tragedy "Antigone."

The cast consists almost entirely of full-time K-School students, and this is the first play any group of K-School students has ever staged, according to John A. Schall, a second-year Public Policy students.

Schall, who founded the group in October and is directing "Antigone," will also play the lead role of King Creon.

The play is a Greek tragedy about Oedipus's daughter Antigone, who resolves to bury her slain brother, Polyneices, in defiance of her uncle, King Creon of Thebes, who had ordered that the slain man remain unburied.

"I was concerned about the focus of our interests at the K-School, that we were not paying enough attention to some aspects of public policy, such as political theater," said Schall "I wanted to bring ethics back into our discussion of public policy," he added.

"The conflict is between a notion of private responsibility opposing the rules of the state," Schall said

Co-sponsored by the players and the IOP, the production has a budget of just under $2000, according to Charles Trucheart, associate director of the IOP.

Trucheart added that the K-School Student Association contributed a $1000 grant, which the IOP equaled by donating the Forum space and staff time.

Although he called the players an "ethereal group," Schall said he thinks they will go on to stage future productions.

First-year public policy student Garth B. Rieman, who plays the Special Assistant to the King in the play, agreed. "I'll be back next year, and I think that the chances are pretty good that some of the first-year students will want to do the same," he said.

The IOP Forum has been the site of two undergraduate plays. A different version of "Antigone" went up in October 1981, and "Hair" was performed in November 1981.