Alanah Anaise Cervantes '12

2009 Soar Student

"The SOAR project opened a lot of avenues for me, both in learning and in implementing what I've learned….All in all, this project was perfect for me. I'm glad I was able to participate as a freshman because it's given me so much at an early and ripe time in my college career."
 
Hometown: Riverside, California

Major(s):  Undeclared (planning a self-designed major in Storytelling with a minor in playscript or theatre)

Project: Finding Clytemnestra's Daughters (with Becky Kolacki ’10)

Faculty advisor: Christopher Shorr, visiting assistant professor of English and theatre director

Goal: Study, transcribe, and compile more than forty translations of three Greek plays: Sophocles' Electra, Aeschylus' The Oresteia, and Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis. The research was used to help Professor Shorr edit and revise Agamemnon's Daughters, his adaptation of the three plays. The finished work, Clytemnestra's Daughters, will be published and available to be performed by the Moravian University Theatre Company and others.

What I learned:  how to research; familiarity with the Greek tragedy; the ins and outs of playwriting

Future plans: experiment further with playwriting. In the near term I plan to work closely with Moravian University Theatre Company: I’m now an assistant director and, next semester, I will direct a full-scale production. I fully intend theatre and theatre-based writing to be part of my future life and career.