Jeremy, 
I have enjoyed your various notices of your musical activities. I was
particularly impress with the work you were doing with Prof. Schrum in
the modernizing of Greek plays. To me that gives me the impression
that you have undertaken a task of serious music writing. I think you
should be commended for the direction you have taken. At the same time
the part you play in the Sweet Passions of Harrisburg indicates your
interest in good folk music also. I'm certain that your folks are very
happy with what you have accomplished. Keep up the fine work.

David Bleil


For immediate release:

Penn State Hazleton Campus Theatre announces its spring production:

Iphigenia
Original texts by Euripides; Adaptation by Dr. Stephen A. Schrum
Original Music by Jeremy dePrisco and Stephen A. Schrum
Musical Arrangements by Jeremy dePrisco

April 1-4, 1998, at 8:00pm in the Penn State Hazleton Commons
Tickets: $4 regular; $2 Students and Seniors
Call 717-450-3054 for information and reservations, or email sas14@psu.edu
Web pages: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/Faculty/SSchrum/IPHY/IPHinfo.html

Iphigenia is a music-theatre piece consisting of two ancient Greek
tragedies by Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris.

Theatre Director Stephen A. Schrum has updated the plays to the twentieth
century. The first act (Iphigenia in Aulis) is set in 1957. The Greek
armies have gathered in Aulis Bay, and are waiting for the weather to clear
before setting off to Troy, to attack that foreign land and bring back
Helen, the wife of one of the Greek generals, Menelaus. However, a
self-declared prophet says that the bad weather has been sent by the gods,
and decrees that only the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the young daughter of
another general, Agamemnon, will clear the weather and permit the army to
go to war.

The second act (Iphigenia in Tauris) is set in 1970. As it turns out,
Iphigenia had been rescued by a goddess at her sacrifice and was brought to
Tauris, which is ruled by a cult leader who believes in the ritual
sacrifice of foreigners and invaders. One of the victims who is brought to
the sacrificial altar is Iphigenia's brother, Orestes, and she has to think
of a way to escape before he is killed.

The production has both singing and non-singing roles, and the script
retains the structure of the original Greek plays while using twentieth
century styles of music. It also includes modern language and situations;
for example, General Agamemnon speaks to a reporter as if giving a press
conference to deliver needed exposition to the audience, rather than simply
speak to his servant, as in Euripides' texts.

Original music is being composed for the production by Schrum and Jeremy
dePrisco, a singer/songwriter originally from Hazleton, who is also doing
the arrangements. While some of the collaboration is occurring face to face
or in phone calls and mailings, most of the collaborative process between
the director and composer is occurring on the Internet, using email. For
example, Schrum may suggest an image, and perhaps the instrumentation, for
one of the songs, and send it to dePrisco in an email note. DePrisco then
works on the idea and sends a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
file, that Schrum can listen to and comment on. Also notable about this
collaboration is that dePrisco works on an IBM computer running Windows,
while Schrum uses the Macintosh, but there is no problem with translating
files.

Penn State Hazleton students (many of whom were actors in the recent
production of Black Snow on campus) recently attended a reading of an
earlier version of the script to help Schrum with the rewrite. In addition
to being able to hear the play aloud, Schrum received several good
suggestions from the readers for the improvement of the script. "Theatre is
all about collaboration, and this is a project I wouldn't have dreamed of
doing without such collaboration," Schrum said.

Iphigenia is a part of Schrum's projected five play Iphigenia Cycle, that
will eventually include the three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia as the
centerpiece, with these two plays as the framing plays. Due to time
constraints, the adaptation of the Oresteia will follow later; however,
Schrum has scripted a brief news show to follow intermission, to inform the
audience about what happens in the thirteen years between Aulis and Tauris.