Director Blayn Lemke brings Antigone, a Greek classic by Sophocles, to the Coon Rapids campus.

By:Alan Morgan

Staff writer

“We haven’t had a Greek play in over 15 years,” Blayn Lemke said. The theatre department decided to put the seating on stage for the audience to be up close to the actors. “This is an intimate story and it needed an intimate setting,” Lemke said.

Five performances of Antigone were performances in the Coon Rapids Performing Arts Center in mid-April.

The director said that Anoka-Ramsey students could connect with the classic play. “It is a really relevant story and the main characters are about [the age of our students]. This is about a young person standing up to a corrupt authority figure,” Lemke said.

Lemke said that he picked Jamie Costello to play an Antigone “because she came in ready to work and passionate about her character.” Costello was also cast in “33 Variations” last semester.

This is a powerful play that is relevant to our present times. Antigone doesn’t have a happy ending just like in real life sometimes. But it gives audiences a chance to see Antigone, a young girl standing up for what she knows and believes is right and is willing to sacrifice everything to show people the wrongs of a corrupt system. This play is a three-department collaboration between theatre, arts and music.

The performance encourages the audience to contemplate what they would do if they were in Antigone’s position. The cast doesn’t use masks like in traditional Greek plays. Instead, they use makeup. Some scenes in this play can be disturbing and challenging. Blayn Lemke pushes the boundaries and makes us think.