Drive-in is increasingly the medium of choice for those who want to balance a love for the arts with social distancing caution. You’ve got drive-in movies, drive-in concerts and now, courtesy of Osceola Arts and local stage director Jeremy Seghers, drive-in theater is coming to Central Florida. In August, Seghers will stage an outdoor production of Euripides’ famed tragedy The Bacchae, and the audience will remain in their cars the whole time for an extra layer of safety.
The Bacchae was groundbreaking in its time, a masterwork of the Greek tragedian Euripides, courting controversy then – and now – with its themes of power, faith, revenge and a kingdom at the breaking point. Not to mention the inevitably wrenching and bloody climax (it is a tragedy, after all).
Seghers is no stranger to staging theater in unconventional settings and spaces. He seems to thrive on taking theater out of the theater. Seghers has staged Equus in a barn, Dracula in a taxidermy shop, and his own Three Stories at Timucua Arts Foundation, with each act of the play taking place on a different floor. The Bacchae runs Aug. 13-16 (UPDATE: they’ve added another weekend of performances, Aug. 20-23) at Osceola Arts on East Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee. Email for ticketing information here.
_
Please follow CDC guidelines and Orange County advisories to stay safe, and please support this free publication. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you news on how coronavirus is affecting Central Florida. Please consider making a one-time or monthly donation. Every little bit helps.
Related Stories
This article appears in Mean People Suck.