{"id":1017,"date":"2017-12-23T22:07:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-23T22:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2018-01-23T22:12:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T22:12:13","slug":"mythmasters-bring-ancient-greeks-to-life-for-cultural-enrichment-day-by-kally-proctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/mythmasters-bring-ancient-greeks-to-life-for-cultural-enrichment-day-by-kally-proctor\/","title":{"rendered":"MythMasters Bring Ancient Greeks to Life for Cultural Enrichment Day by Kally Proctor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MythMasters Performers in Action<\/strong>
\n<\/span>WAYLAND, MA–Ancient Greeks in the auditorium?<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the students at Wayland Middle School were welcomed to on Friday, December 8th for Cultural Enrichment Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event involved three performances by the MythMasters, two actors reenacting myths from ancient Greek civilization. After each 15-20 minute show, the MythMasters held discussions with students about their meaning and purpose. <\/span><\/p>\n

The program is the brainchild of David <\/span>Zucker and Richard McElvain and is offered by Young Audiences of Massachusetts which provides a variety of educational-oriented performances, workshops, and residences for schools and students. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the creators, <\/span>the myths \u201cforce us to reflect on ourselves and our lives. The idea [is] that a myth is not a lie, but an investigation into the human condition.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Principal Gavron, the school has been hosting cultural enrichment performances for at least 20 years and are selected by the PTO to highlight cultures from various regions of the world that tie in with the curriculum. \u201cI think celebrating the arts and enjoying the many ways people communicate history and culture is a true gift the PTO offers us,\u201d she notes.<\/span><\/p>\n

To accommodate the event \u2013 which occurred during a 54 minute block at the end of the school day \u2013 Principal Gavron said the administration borrowed 10 minutes of time from each class and reduced a couple of passing times from four minutes to three. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first performance was called \u201c<\/span>Phaeton and the Sun Chariot<\/span><\/i>\u201d and was about the sun god\u2019s son (Phaeton), wanting to take a ride on his father\u2019s sun-filled chariot across the sky, against his father\u2019s wishes. As legend has it, Phaeton lost control and plummeted to the Earth, scorching some of the Earth and many of its inhabitants, including himself. During the Q&A which followed, one student suggested the moral of the story is that \u201cyou better be careful what you wish for.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The second performance was the story of \u201c<\/span>Echo and Narcissus<\/span><\/i>\u201d about a nymph named Echo who suffered a curse limiting her to only repeat what others have said (this is where the word \u201c<\/span>Echo<\/span><\/i>\u201d comes from). Echo fell in love with a handsome man named Narcissus who loved only himself (this is where the word \u201c<\/span>narcissist<\/span><\/i>\u201d comes from). As the story unfolds, Narcissus fell in love with his reflection to the point where he never could leave it, forcing Echo to stay there by his side until they both withered away. In the Q&A, students claimed the moral of this story is that people shouldn\u2019t love others because of their looks, but because of who they really are.<\/span><\/p>\n

The MythMasters last performance was called \u201c<\/span>Orpheus and Eurydice<\/span><\/i>\u201d and was about a talented musician named Orpheus who fell in love with a woman named Eurydice. \u00a0When Eurydice died, Orpheus was heartbroken and pleaded with the gods of underworld (where all people went when they died) to resurrect Eurydice. The gods granted Orpheus\u2019 wish on one condition — Eurydice had to walk behind Orpheus who could never look back at her until they exited the underworld. Unfortunately for Orpheus, however, he accidentally looked back at Eurydice, and she was returned to the underworld without Orpheus. Students noted that the moral of this story was more complicated and was harder to find.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students at WMS found the experience both fun and entertaining: “I think that the MythMasters were awesome. My favorite part was about Narcissus and how he was obsessed about himself. <\/span>I [also] liked it when they picked people from the audience,” said Bethany Foreman, a 6th grader.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was very interesting to see what a few Greek myths were.\u201d added Jaden Kane, another 6th grader.<\/span><\/p>\n

According their website, MythMasters provides: \u201ca skillful blend of mime, comedy, drama, puppetry, masks, music, reverence, irreverence\u2026[where with] lots of audience participation, the gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, monsters and maidens of Greek mythology walk the earth once more.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Zucker and McElvain are also responsible for two other similarly-structured educational performance shows: Shakespeare Guyz and MathsAmazing. They said they were inspired to create MythMasters \u201cthere is something about these stories that captivates the imagination of young folk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some images and data borrowed rom <\/span>Young Audiences<\/span> at <\/span>http:\/\/yamass.org\/our-programs\/mythmasters\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MythMasters Performers in Action WAYLAND, MA–Ancient Greeks in the auditorium? That\u2019s what the students at Wayland Middle School were welcomed to on Friday, December 8th for Cultural Enrichment Day. The event involved three performances by the MythMasters, two actors reenacting myths from ancient Greek civilization. After each 15-20 minute show, the MythMasters held discussions with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1018,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waylandmiddleschool.org\/orange_black\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}