*_ARTS RELEASE
__FOR IMMEDIATE 
RELEASE_**                                                                                                    
*

 Contact:    Eric 
Gullickson                                                    
                    November 2, 2009
(845) 257-3245* 
/
Note to editors:/*/ Director Nancy Saklad is available for interviews. 
Call 845-257-3860. A hi-resolution image is available at 
www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/Metamorphoses.html 
.
 /


  Ovid’s Metamorphoses continues main stage theatre season at New Paltz

 *NEW PALTZ –* Playwright Mary Zimmerman’s award-winning /Metamorphoses/ 
is more than a 
revisiting of Ovid’s ancient text – it is a contemporary re-imagining of 
his timeless tales.
Jack Wade 
/Metamorphoses/, recipient of the 2002 Tony Award, Obie Award and Drama 
Desk Award, will be performed Nov. 12 – 22, in McKenna Theatre at the 
State University of New York at New Paltz. The play is directed by Nancy 
Saklad, assistant professor of performance at New Paltz.

Ovid’s /Metamorphoses /is brought to light by Zimmerman in an adaptation 
that juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary, the comic with the 
sorrowful within the context of transformation. It is deeply moving and 
humorous, weaving familiar Greek mythology into a stunning exploration 
of love, loss, memory, imagination and the power to adapt and endure.

Set in and around a large pool of water onstage, /Metamorphoses /is a 
poignant piece about transformation. Water, known for its mutable 
properties is the backdrop for the play.  It possesses an astonishing 
capacity for transformation.  It can become ice, mist and fog. It rains, 
it pours, it showers and it drips.  It cleanses, quenches thirst and 
even drowns. In the best of times water humbles. In lesser times, water 
tortures.  

In this play,  water – the pool – is a metaphor for the ever-shifting 
tides of life’s transformations and a physical and emotional reality to 
the characters who traverse it, who wrestle with it, who immerse 
themselves in it and to those who release themselves to it.

The tales included in the play are /Midas/, who is granted the power to 
turn everything he touches to gold; /Alcyone and Cexy/, a pair of lovers 
whose love lives on beyond Ceyx’s death; /Myrrha/, the story of a young 
girl who is cursed by Aphrodite for not seeking romantic love; /Orpheus 
and Eurydice/, a tale in which Orpheus goes to the underworld to seek 
his wife after their death. This tale is unique in that it is told 
twice—once in the classic fashion and once as told by German poet Rilke. 
These two perspectives offer a classic and feminist viewpoint; /Baucis 
and Philemon/, a beautiful ensemble piece about humility and abundance; 
/Eros and Psyche/, cleverly told using classic characters and two 
contemporary teenagers to capture two perspectives on love and romance; 
/Phaeton/, re-imagined with young Phaeton, whose father is Apollo, the 
sun, destroyed the earth and himself when he took the keys to his 
fathers car (chariot), drove too close to the earth and destroyed it. In 
this particular rendition Phaeton is in session with a psychologist who 
bandies Jungian and Freudian theories of individuation; /Narcissus /is 
the classic tale of a young man who falls in love with his own image and 
is frozen by it, and finally /Erysichthon /whose greed becomes his 
downfall when he cuts down a sacred grove of trees that belongs to the 
goddess Ceres. He is cursed with an insatiable hunger and ends up 
devouring himself.

Commenting on the play, Saklad said, “One of the key themes of 
/Metamorphoses/ is the notion that we are giving ‘scant attention to our 
mythic side’ these days. The play states that, ‘myths are public 
dreams,’ and ‘dreams are private myths.’  Zimmerman allows us to take a 
mythic glance at who we are when we neglect self, when we neglect 
community, and when we love.”

*About the director*

Nancy Saklad is an assistant professor of performance at New Paltz. When 
not teaching, she directs, and coaches voice and acting. Favorite 
directing credits include /Much Ado About Nothing/ at Boston’s Publik 
Theatre, /How I Learned To Drive/ at Durham Center Stage and /Other 
People’s Money/ at Seacoast Repertory Theatre. She also directed the 
Professional Division Moss Hart Award winning production of /The Diary 
of Anne Frank/ at Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, NH and 
numerous other plays.  Saklad has taught acting, voice and directing at 
the University of Miami, Fla., the University of New Hampshire, Regis 
College in Mass., Queens College in New York City, and The American 
Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. Saklad is also a 
recipient of the Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival Bronze 
Medallion for service to the New England Region. She is a certified 
Fitzmaurice Voicework practitioner and is also certified in Michael 
Chekhov acting technique. Over the past few years she has been 
affiliated with the acclaimed Pearl Theatre in New York City as a 
Fitzmaurice Voicework coach and consultant.

*Related events *

/Metamosphoses/: Post-performance Talk-back

Nov. 13 and 21.

The director, cast and dramaturges will talk about the process for 
/Metamorphoses/.

*Ticket information*

Performance dates for /Metamorphoses/ are Nov. 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 
21 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 15 and 22 at 2 p.m.  Ticket prices are $16 
general reserved, $14 reserved students, SUNY faculty and staff, seniors 
– available on line at www.newpaltz.edu/theatre/productions.html 
, and at the Box 
Office, located in Parker Theatre, (845) 257-3880, Monday – Friday, 
11:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The Department of Theatre Arts _Mainstage 1009-2010 season_ 
continues in the 
Spring with /Fresh Dance, /Yoav Kaddar, Artistic Director and /Babes in 
Arms/, by Rodgers and Hart, directed by Paul Kassel.

-30-//

/The State University of New York at New Paltz was named “Hottest Small 
State School” in //the //2008 Kaplan/Newsweek How To Get Into College 
Guide, which identifies America’s 25 Hottest Schools. The guide features 
schools that all offer top academic programs and are making their mark 
in the competitive world of higher education./

/New Paltz is a highly selective college of about 8,000 undergraduate 
and graduate students located in the Mid-Hudson Valley between New York 
City and Albany. Degrees are offered in the liberal arts and sciences, 
which serve as a core for professional programs in the fine and 
performing arts, education, business and engineering./

 

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