KENNESAW, Ga. | Aug 9, 2024
Ebony Golden is a theatre and performance studies major at Kennesaw State University whose project, “Jouvay Women: Rejuvenating Classical Theatre in the Caribbean,” is part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program.
This new adaptation is set in Trinidad rather than the original Greece and follows various carnival characters through the story of a woman who in response to being wronged by her husband kills her children so that he knows the pain of loss.
“This version of Medea is a unique adaptation that infuses the traditions and characters of Carnival and the beautiful of spirit of Trinidad,” Golden said.
Golden uses the emancipation strategies of the Jouvay Popular Theatre Process (JPTP) developed by Tony Hall to expose the means of resistance in Carnival Medea. JPTP is a workshop that utilizes the characters of Trinidad carnival like the baby doll character.
“With my primary investigator, Dr. Tom Fish, we conducted interviews with the playwright and director herself, Shirlene Holmes and the production manager Chi Ife,” Golden said.
Holmes died in 2023 and Hall died in 2016, and part of Golden’s goal is to honor their legacies by continuing their work.
Story by Alyssa Ozment
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