The FuryUs Project with Susan Kelejian & Jolene Rae Harrington

The Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization ended 50 years of the Roe v. Wade era, in which abortion was settled law. In doing so, the Supreme Court unleashed a wave of outrage, anger and despair, and blunted what the expected "red wave" in the midterm elections. Susan Kelejian, director of the Ojai Valley Artists Theater Ensemble (OVATE), went to her board with a plan to create an applied theater project, which took as its inspiration Greek mythology, particularly Aeschylus' "Orestes" and its themes of matricide of Clytemnestra, and his  judgment for his crime by the Furies.  The project, which fits into the experiential or devised theater model, will involve several dozen women in a multi-media production, focusing around themes of misogyny and betrayal. While the schedule has not yet been set, Kelejian and Harrington expect to begin public performances in March. The cast of several dozen, predominately female, many between ages 18 and 25.  The two have been working together for years and were astounded by how much they had in common in their "parallel lives." They have a goal of exporting the FuryUs model to other local theaters to build their own adaptations.  We also talked about Antonin Artaud and the Living Theater, the history of oppression, how Kelejian's day job as a therapist, and Harrington's interest in ancient Greece, fits into the project, audience attention spans, global warming, and healing through the arts. For more information, check out the profile in the Winter issue of Ojai Quarterly. The OVATE website is Ovate.org. The original casting call read, "Are you angry, frustrated, tapped out, or numb about what’s going on in the world? Are you feeling like you want to scream, cry, rage, and wail against the thousands of years of gender-specific oppression and need an outlet that is creative and mindful Are you FURIOUS? We are ...