Last Weekend to See Entertaining, Enlightening Play Premiered at TLE Theatre in Second Life!

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

If you haven't seen it, do not miss one of the final two performances of the TLE Educational Network's most recent live theatre production - Hypatia of Alexandria. It's one of the best stage productions I've yet to see in Second Life.

This well-written, professionally produced play is being shown in twice this weekend - at 7 p.m. SLT (Pacific time zone) Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, at the stunning stage built at the TLE virtual education center especially for this production of. (Click here for the SLURL that will teleport you to the Hypatia of Alexandria Theatre in Second Life.)

The play is filled with intrigue, deceit, lust, power, and horrendous murder - and also love, truth, and beauty. And it highlights some of the incredible talents (such as the Hypatia cast and crew, shown below during a curtain call) that inhabit the sims of this virtual world.

I expected it to be a fine production, given the author and director, the talented poet Skylar Smythe, the cast (several of whom I've seen make outstanding performances at other SL events), and the TLE Educational Network's reputation for high-quality live theatre. But it was even better than I expected! Some of the highlights:

• The powerful, yet accessible poetry that comprises much of the spoken parts. Skylar wrote these parts as sonnets - which any English major or writer will tell you is a challenging poetic form to adhere to. And sometimes it's a challenging form to listen to and comprehend - but not in the case of Hypatia of Alexandria.
• The excellent performances by the cast, who worked some magic with scripting to bring the characters and their actions to life.
• The authentic sets and costumes.
• The amazing theatre designed by Skylar and built by Josue Habana.
• The special effects created by Josue.
• And best of all for me: the fascinating exploration of the themes of individual rights, the corruption inherent in power, and true meaning of love.

SL resident Lisa Launay served as the narrator (shown in above photo at far right). Morgana Nagorski played the title role of Hypatia, Klannex Northmead played Hypatia's father Theon, Caliban Jigsaw was Orestes, Eve Petlyakov was Lydia, Kitten Leakey played the slave girl, House Ragu took on the role of Cyril, and Misterblue Waves performed the role of Archeron.

Hypatia of Alexandria is based on the life of a brilliant woman who lived in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago, and yet the story remains (unfortunately) all too relevant to the modern world. I highly recommend seeing it!