Fontus or Fons was the Latin god of pure spring water. The Fontinalia was a religious holiday held in his honor. Romans celebrated by decorating wells and fountains with garlands. It is conceivable that the city planners of Rome might have been especially generous with this tribute, since the ever swelling population of the ancient metropolis constantly challenged their ability to provide enough water.
In Christian Simonsen’s play about Fontus, the god of pure spring water travels in time between Ancient Rome and Modern Flint, Michigan, trying to convince both cultures not to foul their own water supply and harm their most vulnerable people. But will this pagan god realize that conservative Christians in any era can be just as toxic as lead pipes?
FONTUS or THE RISE AND FALL OF MICHIGAN EMPIRE by Christian Simonsen
Directed by Allison Page
Staged Reading on October 19, 2017 at the EXIT Theatre
Ron Chapman (Anthony Benson/Roman Slave)
Elaine Gavin (Roman Junior Magistrate/City Council Member)
Matt Gunnison (Roman Senator/Michigan Senator)
Nicole Odell (Stage Directions)
Cassie Rosenbrock (Roman Advisor/State Advisor)
Gabriel Sanchez (Fontus)
Christian Simonsen is honored once again to be a playwright in the San Francisco Olympians Festival. In previous years he contributed the scripts Io: A Sequel to Prometheus Bound, Cassiopeia, Chronus, Ino Leucothea, and Scylla, or Death by the Half-Dozen. His plays have been produced in Denver, Houston, Columbus, Louisville and Minneapolis, as well as overseas in Seoul, Sydney, Oxford and London. Christian’s short play Eve of the Vertebrates won 1st Place in the 2016 Stony Brook University Science Playwriting Competition. Currently he writes for the San Francisco sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster. You can learn more about Christian at www.ChristianSimonsen.com.
The image of Fontus was created by Cody A. Rishell.