A boy brandished a plastic sword high above his head before plunging it into an oversized foam eye mask, prompting raucous laughter from the audience. This playful and imaginative scene captured the spirit of Mudlark Theater’s fall production of “The Odyssey,” the first of three shows in the company’s 20th anniversary season.
Mudlark Theater is well known in Evanston for inspiring and empowering young creatives through acting, scriptwriting and more. With casts composed of children ranging from 11 to 14 years old, Mudlark shows are distinct in that they never turn a student away. Instead, they have auditions biannually for fall and spring seasons, and then distribute them among three shows based on fit.
“It’s all a big puzzle of who we are assigning where,” said Sarah Kinn, Mudlark’s marketing and engagement manager.
“The Odyssey” has already been put on twice by Mudlark over its 20 years, meaning many Mudlark regulars have fond memories of prior productions.
Mudlark Artistic Director Christina Lepri-Stringer said “The Odyssey’s” script really embodies Mudlark’s mission of inclusivity.
“Yes, it is about the story of Odysseus, but also all of the different gods and goddesses and creatures that he meets along the way,” Lepri-Stringer said. “This gives all these other young people the opportunity to have a really standout moment on stage.”
These mythical interactions between characters animated nearly every scene of Mudlark’s production. In the show, Odysseus sails off from Troy with a crew of fellow sailors. But after nearly dying at the hands of a murderous cyclops, being turned into pigs by Circe, traversing the underworld and then having their ship swept up in Poseidon’s rage — only Odysseus eventually makes it back to Ithaca.
On the surface, a story set in antiquity like “The Odyssey” may have little resonance — but the cast members were able to find many parallels between “The Odyssey” and their lives as middle-schoolers in themes like defining your “home,” leading a group and confronting obstacles, Mudlark Executive Director Ian Frank said.
According to Frank, Mudlark is built around trust in its cast members, which makes “The Odyssey” such a perfect production.
“We’re saying to these young artists, we trust you to be able to take on the greatest story in the literary tradition of Western civilization,” Frank said. “We think you can.”
After 20 years serving the Evanston community, Mudlark has had its own fair share of Odyssey-like experiences. There have been seasons fraught with obstacles and challenges that the company has had to face head-on and overcome.
Both Frank and Kinn said each show is rigorous and difficult, with only six weeks to pull off each production and countless hours devoted to perfecting lines and mastering fight scenes. But these challenges are all part of the journey to create a good show, Frank said.
“Ultimately, you are trying to get to something that’s really great,” Frank said. “Just like the Odyssey, it’s about getting home for us. It’s making sure this organization can continue for years to come and be there for generations of young artists in the future.”
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