ABOUT
INSPIRATION:
A Poem and Mistake is inspired by our work with Stephanie McCarter, award-winning translator of Metamorphoses (New Yorker Best Books of 2022) and the #metoo movement.
SYNOPSIS:
Myrrha, a grad student in the classics, grapples with the fifty sexual assaults in Ovid's Metamorphoses. When her professor profoundly misunderstands her, Myrrha pushes him, and suddenly, like the characters in Metamorphoses, he is changed into a version of Myrrha. Both characters find themselves in an Ovidian landscape where transformation is a magical and terrifying confrontation with their own gender, sexuality, and desire.
CREATIVE TEAM
Cheri Magid (writer) writes for theatre, television, film and opera. Her plays have been seen in New York at Primary Stages, New Georges, The New Group, The Women’s Project and Rattlestick, regionally in the US at South Coast Rep, People’s Light and Theatre Company, The Road Theatre Company and Cincinnati Playhouse among others. Her opera Penelope and the Geese, for which she wrote the libretto, will have performances in October 2021 at UNAM’s El Aleph Festival in Mexico City. The opera, which is composed by Milica Paranosic, has been developed at artistic residencies at Sewanee University of the South (where Cheri was the Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence) and the University of Delaware (where she was the first Susan P. Stroman Visiting Playwright), and has been awarded grants from Opera America, New Music USA and the Society of Classical Studies. BBC Radio 4 recently interviewed Cheri about A Poem and a Mistake for the series Modern Metamorphoses. She is currently writing a podcast, The Classics for Sarah Jessica Parker’s company and Audible UK. Cheri wrote for the Emmy-award-winning children’s television show Arthur and is an Assistant Arts Professor in Dramatic Writing at New York University.
Stephanie McCarter (Classics consultant) is Professor of Classics at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. She is currently finishing a new translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses for Penguin Classics, scheduled for release in 2022, and has recently published a translation of Horace’s Odes, Epodes, & Carmen Saeculare for the University of Oklahoma Press (2020). She is also the author of Horace between Freedom and Slavery: The First Book of Epistles (Wisconsin, 2015). In addition to her scholarly work, her writing has appeared in The Sewanee Review, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, The Millions, The Brooklyn Rail (InTranslation), Lapham’s Quarterly, Hyperallergic, Psyche, Eidolon, and elsewhere.
Originally from Montreal, Sarah Baskin (Myrrha, collaborator) is a New York based actor committed to developing new work for the stage and screen. In theatre, Sarah has performed Off- Broadway (Roundabout, Urban Stages, 59E59+), Regionally (Portland Center Stage, American Repertory Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre +), and with several downtown theatre companies. Recent TV/ Film credits include “The Equalizer” (NBC, opposite Queen Latifah), “Gossip Girl Reboot” (HBO Max), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), and several Independent films. Sarah recently directed her first short film, Donut Chase, which has just completed post production. Her second short, Les Calins Cheap, which Sarah co-adapted and will direct and act in, is set to shoot in Montreal in October 2021. Sarah is a company member of The Actors Center, Subway Token Films, Virago. BA: Vassar College; MFA: American Repertory Theatre /Moscow Art Theatre School at Harvard University. For more: sarahbaskin.com
Tamilla Woodard (director) is the co-founder of the site specific international
partnership, PopUP Theatrics. She proudly served as the co-Artistic Director of Working Theater in New York for the last year and was the Associate Director of Tony Award-winning Hadestown on Broadway in it’s premier season. Prior to joining Working Theater, Tamilla was the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Tamilla has directed at theaters nationally and internationally. Currently, Tamilla is represented online by the concert film WEIGHTLESS by The Kilbanes produced by WP Theater; Where We Stand for Steppenwolf NOW; Theater for One’s HERE WE ARE series by Nicole Salter and Delanna Studi, The Parsnip Ship and MCC’s audio sci-fi THIS IS WHERE WE GO and the audio drama The House of the Negro Insane by Terence Anthony, produced by Contemporary American Theater Festival. Tamilla is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she currently chairs the acting department. Recently named one of 50 Women to Watch on Broadway, Tamilla is also a recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women.
Additional film/play credits:
Editor: Mac Cappuccino
Cinematographer: Drue Pennella
Production Designer and Costume Consultant: Deb O
Sound Designer and Engineer: Carsen Joenk
Composer: Milica Paranosic
Color Correction: Jackie Ng
Stage Manager: Taylor Steward
Production Assistants: Dana Drori, TJ Drouin, Jared Skolnick
Classics Consultant: Stephanie McCarter
Produced by ShoutOut Saugerties, Suzanne Bennett, Cheri Magid and Sarah Baskin. Developed with Dorset Theatre Festival’s Women Artists Writing group and ShoutOut Saugerties with support from the Australian Center for Contemporary Art and the Society of Classical Studies' Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities initiative. This project is made possible in part through support from the County of Ulster’s Ulster County Cultural Services & Promotion Fund administrated by Arts Mid-Hudson.