Nephele
Nephele was a Cloud Nymph created by Zeus to test the integrity of King Ixion after Hera claimed Ixion tried to rape her during a feast while he was a guest of Mt Olympus. For his test, Zeus molded Nephele out of clouds in the shape of Hera to see if Ixion would try to make advances on her. Ixion failed the test and coupled with Nephele, impregnating her with what would be the first Centuar. For his punishment, Ixion was chained to a burning wheel for all eternity. (Harsh!)
Nephele either lived out the rest of her life as a Cloud Nymph or ended up marrying the Boiotian King Athamas and becoming mother to the twins Phirxus and Helle. The texts are not clear about that because apparently Nephele was a pretty common name back then and there may have been more than one.
Siyu Song’s play will explore the consequences of modern romance and unexpected emotions that arise after Zeus Catfishes* his buddy Ixion with a fake Facebook page. Siyu thinks there’s more to Zeus than all the stories about him tricking humans into having meaningless sex with himself or others. Siyu also thinks Zeus is much more social media literate than these stories portray.
*Urban dictionary defines Catfish as: someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.
NEPHELE by Siyu Song
Directed by Scott Baker
Staged Reading on November 5, 2014
Rose Marie Fox (Nev)
J Jha (Ixion)
Steffanos X (Zeus)
Richard Wenzel (Stage Directions)
This is Siyu’s first year with SF Olympians as a writer after being an audience member last year. Siyu’s theater debut was as the Time Wizard in his 3rd grade class play. After a 20 year hiatus, he took an improv class on a whim and hasn’t looked back. In the past year he has performed in the Sacramento Comedy Festival and Upright Citizen Brigade’s Del Close Marathon. Currently he performs around San Francisco through Endgames Improv with his team “Other People’s Children”. To pay for his improv classes, Siyu is a Production Engineer at Industrial Light and Magic. Siyu is also looking forward to the day he is able to Catfish someone of his very own so that he can gain the 30 pounds he’s lost since college and go back to getting all his clothes from Ross.
The image of Nephele was created by Cody A. Rishell. You can see more of his work at here and here.