Achilles
As a teenager, Achilles was given a choice: go to Troy to die young but earn eternal glory, or stay home, live a long life and die a nobody. He chose the glory. In Troy, he fought with ferocity and earned his title, “The Greatest of the Greeks”. His disagreement with Agamemnon over the slave girl, Briseis, is a central plot point of Homer’s Iliad. Basically, Agamemnon takes Briseis away from Achilles, and Achilles is so pissed he sits out the war and has his mom, Thetis (a goddess), go to Zeus to tip the scale in favor of the Trojans. Achilles isn’t as upset at the loss of the woman as he is concerned with how Agamemnon diminished his honor. In Achilles’ absence, the Greeks get slaughtered. Even though everyone, but Agamemnon, begs him to jump back in, he refuses. It isn’t until Patroclus, his lover and closest friend, gets killed by Hector while fighting in his place, that Achilles jumps back in the fight. He avenges Patroclus’ death by killing Hector and is later killed by Hector’s younger brother Paris.
In addition for being known for his strength, Achilles also plays the lute, is known for his fast running (he is called “swift foot”), and his golden hair, which he cuts off and places on the dead Patroclus’ body before it’s cremated.
Rachel Bublitz’s play will mash up Achilles’ story in the Trojan War with the football culture of modern day Texas, creating a brand new world where cheerleaders are property, and the Gods preside over the games. Achilles, a young football legend, is the number one ranked player in the country. When the Trojans kidnap their precious bovine mascot, Helen, Achilles chooses to die young and glorious rather than grow old and lose his talents.
ACHILLES by Rachel Bublitz
Directed by Claire Rice
staged reading on Saturday, November 9, 2013
Jaime Lee Currier (Briseis)
Neil Higgins (Patroclus)
Ben Knoll (Agamemnon)
Yasmine Love (Cheerleader #1/Fortune Teller/Athena)
Karen Offeriens (Stage Directions)
Adam Reese (Odysseus)
Claire Rice (Cheerleader #3/Thetis)
Carina Lastimosa Salazar (Cheerleader #2/Artemis/Aphrodite)
Nikolas Strubbe (Diomedes/Hector)
Veronica Tjioe (Polyxena/Iphigenia)
Peter Townley (Achilles)
Nicholas Weinbach (Menelaus/Paris)
Rachel Bublitz has been involved with theatre for over a decade. Her short plays have been produced in San Francisco and New York City. This past October her short play My Body received bicoastal staged readings, read in both Playwright’s Center of San Francisco’s benefit for Planned Parenthood, Repro Rights! as well as in Washington DC with The Disreputables event SLUT! Another short play Bill and Kelly was published in December 2011 in the Rockford Review’s “Underneath” edition. In June, The Fantasy Club, Rachel’s full length received a staged reading with PCSF and will be produced in the fall of 2013 with All Terrain Theatre Company. She is currently writing a full length play based on Achilles for the 2013 SF Olympians Festival. Bublitz founded The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project, is a member of the Dramatists Guild, and spends the majority of her time chasing after her two rambunctious children. A transplant from Southern California, Rachel lives in Berkeley. For more information about Rachel, please visit her website: www.rachelbublitz.com.
The artwork for Achilles was created by Nathan Anderson.