Chelsea Xie

Senior Ishan Mysore, playing Haemon, cries out and mourns for senior S Wang as Antigone. AP English Literature teacher Susanne Salhab invited other students and teachers to view the performances of Sophocles’ play.

English teacher Susanne Salhab’s AP Literature students performed scenes from the play “Antigone” by Greek tragedian Sophocles in the Nichols Auditorium on Nov. 12 and 13. 

Students worked in groups to reenact moments that illustrated key plot elements: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. While students in previous years had created annotated plot mountains to demonstrate their understanding of Antigone, Salhab introduced live performances this year to encourage more creative and personal engagement with the narrative. 

“What I find so exciting is that students were willing to think about English in a different way,” Salhab said. “I wanted them to think, ‘How can I show what I understand about a character by being that character?’ I’m never gonna teach like an English class in which we’re not gonna write essays, but I just wanted to challenge them to show their learning in a different way.” 

Performances portrayed the progression of the play’s central conflict between Antigone and her uncle, King Creon, with scenes ranging from Antigone’s defiant exchange with her sister Ismene to King Creon’s devastation upon discovering his son’s and wife’s deaths. 

Some students took creative liberty with their scenes and placed them in settings far removed from the play’s traditional ancient Greek world, like a corporate office, medieval France and even a puppet show. 

Senior S Wang, who played Antigone in the climactic moment where Creon finds his son Haemon’s dead body, enjoyed seeing familiar scenes represented in new situations. 

“The purpose was to think more deeply about how the characters have affected each other and how ‘Antigone’ can be pulled out of its original setting into so many other contexts,” S said. “Seeing the lessons and the power dynamics and the consequences faced by the characters across so many different dimensions and universes goes to prove why this play is such a classic.”

The performers donned homemade costumes to represent their characters, using bedsheets to imitate traditional Greek clothing, accessories like crowns or wreaths and even fake swords to enact dramatic death scenes. 

Senior Eddie Zhang appreciated the opportunity to learn about literature in a way unlike typical analyses. 

“The process of acting it out was probably my favorite part because it’s a departure from all the writing that we have to do in AP Lit,” Eddie said. “It was nice to see the play from a certain perspective and get a new understanding of what each character meant or what they were saying.” 

Before each performance, groups presented a literary analysis that outlined the scene’s significance, pointing out literary techniques and explaining the motivation behind costuming and staging choices.

Salhab invited students and faculty to watch the performances during periods five and six. For S, the most enjoyable part of the activity was portraying the intense drama of the scene on stage and seeing the audience’s response.

“It was so great to get the reactions from the audience like laughter and smiling,” S said. “For those in the audience that were in my class and had read the play, it’s great for them to see it visually. For all the external audience members who came to support and watch us, they also enjoyed it a lot because we tried our best to explain everything and show the plot in our acting.”