West Texas A&M University’s Department of Art, Theatre and Dance diligently produced Artemisia, becoming the first university to stage this powerful play about a 17th-century painter who defied societal norms to become a groundbreaking artist. The production presented unique challenges, including meticulous attention to historical accuracy, navigating dark themes with care to ensure actors’ well-being, and integrating intricate special effects to bring the story to life.
“This is a play that deals with a lot of mature themes and content,” Callie Hisek, associate professor of theatre and theatre program coordinator, said. “That was a challenge working through some of the themes.” However, the students and the university were prepared to overcome these obstacles and put on a wonderful production. Many precautions were taken, such as using intimacy coordinators and even rewriting the play to make their actors feel comfortable and safe, Anne Medlock, Department Head for Art, Theatre, and Dance and Communication, said.
Hisek also mentioned what she loved. ”The themes that are found in the play. I’m a huge fan of the playwright as well. Lauren Gunderson writes in ways that appeal to me and ran across this new work that she did, I was laughing then I was crying then I was enraged then I was filled with joy then I figured this is the play I need to do.” Amanda Hibbard, a digital communication and media major student at WT attended the play and agreed with Hisek, saying the play evokes feelings like “sadness, yearning, anger and contentment.”
Medlock shared insight into Artemisia’s life, noting that Artemisia is often remembered for being raped by her future husband and taking him to court to prevent the marriage. However, many people are unaware that she created numerous paintings over her 60-year career, some of which are displayed during the play. Hibbard praised the production’s creative use of Artemisia’s work, saying, “I loved the way they used projections to showcase some of her actual art.”
Jonah Gonzales, a theatre performance major who plays Artemisia’s father, Orazio Gentileschi, said, “It’s honestly a really interesting story since there’s so much she had to go through. I was honestly shocked because, ‘How have I not heard of her before?’”
WT also took great pride in being able to show Artemisia as it would be the first showing of the play by any university. “We love Lauren Gunderson’s work, we are the first University to produce it so we’re really excited about that”, said Medlock. “When we got our script, our director actually said it’s the latest rough draft, the playwright is still working on it,” Gonzales said, and he felt it was a privilege to be able to produce this play.
It takes nearly a year of planning and effort for directors to bring a play to life. They must decide on the season’s lineup— typically four productions, with two each in the fall and spring semesters. Beyond selecting the plays, the department carefully organizes its budget to cover essentials like props, costumes, and licensing fees to secure production rights.
“You go in there, this show is 100 minutes long, under two hours. yet it has taken a year’s worth of my research and time into it,” Hisek said. “Five months of designers working on it, planning to research and then six weeks for actors to develop these characters.”
However long it takes and despite the unique challenges every production poses, the students persevere, Hisek is proud of everyone, saying, “The students have put their hearts and souls into this work not just the designers but also the cast and ensemble, also the guest projection designer that we had and my colleague who did set and props for it, they all met my expectations and more. And I am extremely proud of this production. I am proud of everything everyone has done for this production.”
The next production will be a comedy musical, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, set around 100 B.C.E. in a Roman city. Rehearsal started mid-February and the play will premiere in late March and early April. To get tickets students may go to the Box Office in the Happy State Bank Studio black box theatre, in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex on WT’s Canyon campus. The box office is open two weeks before opening shows from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and also opens an hour before the show. All faculty and students receive free tickets to the showing, all students must do is present their Buff Gold Card.
