How did they do that?

This new feature gives you a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how our designers and production team create some of the magic on stage.

In act 1 of Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika, Pollux fights the evil King Amycus, who boxes his enemies to the death. For King Amycus, Mary Zimmerman and her design team created a costume that towers over the other actors on stage, yet still has a moving mouth and arms.

So how did they do that?

Underneath the costume are two actors, one sitting on the shoulders of the other. The actor on top controls the head and arms, while the other manipulates the mouth. The arms are built from dowels (to give them length) and have hand grips and straps for easier use. To open and close the mouth, the bottom actor pulls on a handle tied to two strings, which are tied to the mouth. Eye holes in the stomach allow the bottom actor to see, while the top actor looks through holes in the throat.
Photo of King Amycus and Pollux (played by Casey Jackson) by Carol Rosegg.

For more information on Argonautika, click here or see our Q&A with director Mary Zimmerman.

Argonautika Opening Night Photos

Jaleo was our host for the Argonautika Opening Night Post-Performance celebration! All photos by Kevin Allen.


Ethan McSweeny, director for Major Barbara, Argonautika cast memeber Andy Murray and Mary Zimmerman (writer/director for Argonautika).

Argonautika cast members Ronete Levenson and Tessa Klein.

Natalie Kurczewski of STC's costume shop with Argonautika cast memeber Jesse J. Perez.

Thanks to the Cast and Crew of Argonautika, the Shakespeare Theatre Company staff, our patrons and our friends for a great celebration.

Free! Happenings at the Harman

Happenings at the Harman presents the National Gallery of Art Chamber Players Piano Trio. The piano trio will perform selections by 19th-century composers in the forum of Sidney Harman Hall on Wednesday, January 30, from noon to 1 p.m.


Box lunches are available for purchase for $10 if desired; Seating is unreserved general admission, based on availability and is on a first-come, first-seat basis. It is recommended that you arrive early as many Happenings events have overflow crowds.


Call the Box Office at 202.547.1122 for up-to-date schedule information or to place an order for a box lunch.

Free! Happenings at the Harman

Hear Bruce Hutton, an American master of folk music and instruments from the county's long and varied history of self expression, in the forum of Sidney Harman Hall on Wednesday, January 23, from noon to 1 p.m. Box lunches are available for purchase for $10 if desired; reservations are requested but not required.

Presented in partnership with The Washington Performing Arts Society.

For more information on Bruce Hutton, see his website.
Call the Box Office at 202.547.1122 for up-to-date schedule information, to reserve a space or to place an order for a box lunch.

Photos courtesy of Bruce Hutton website.

Argonautika Twitters

M. William Shiner, our Resident Production Stage Manager, is "twittering" about Argonautika.

See how things are going here and subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Shiner has been providing frequent updates (aka twittering) about what is happening on the set of Argonautika at the Lansburgh Theatre.

Lisa Tejero and Sofia Jean Gomez in Argonautika. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Talk about Argonautika

Atley Loughridge and Jake Suffian in the Berkeley Repertory production. Photo by Kevin Berne.

We want to know what you think...

Post a comment and tell us your thoughts about our production of Argonautika.

The set of Argonautika from the Berkeley Repertory production. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Free! Happenings at the Harman

Join us and the Tehreema Mitha Dance Company for multicultural dances that nourish and enlighten in the forum of Sidney Harman Hall on Wednesday, January 16, from noon to 1 p.m. Box lunches are available for purchase for $10 if desired; reservations are requested but not required.

For more information on the Dance Company, see their website.

Call the Box Office at 202.547.1122 for up-to-date schedule information, to reserve a space or to place an order for a box lunch.

Photo by Aabvaan Barron, borrowed from Tehreema Mitha Dance Company website.

Mary Zimmerman on Argonautika

Mary Zimmerman’s production of Argonautika opens at STC on January 15 after terrific runs at Berkeley Repertory and the Lookingglass Theatre Company . Zimmerman’s production of Pericles was a hit here in 2004. She recently did a Q&A with us.

Most recent project:
Opening the season of the Metropolitan Opera with Lucia di Lammermoor, and the Argonautika tour.

Play you would most like to direct:
I’m not one who has a rolodex of plays in my head I’d like to direct. Mostly I adapt non-dramatic texts for the stage. But … I always like doing Shakespeare and would do almost any Shakespeare play.

What's on your iPod? (mp3, cd player, etc.):
Recently I’ve driven back and forth across the country—Berkeley to Maine, and back and down and around—and I’ve been saved by podcasts: 52 Episodes of Savage Love, The Diane Rehm Show, The Story, This American Life, Radio Lab, On the Media and The Ricky Gervais Show. Also I have operas on my iPod that I’m supposed to be studying.

Favorite Shakespearean Play:
They aren’t considered The Greats, perhaps, but I think Midsummer and Twelfth Night are nearly perfect works of art.

You spent several weeks in D.C. when rehearsing for your production of Pericles.

What did you like about the city:
How it is a company town, how you hear politics discussed constantly and with such familiarity, as in “Did you see Sy’s article last week?” Seeing a Supreme Court Justice in the deli; riding my bike with my dog running alongside up and down the mall and having him take a poop on the Senate lawn; Clinton coming to Pericles and being backstage and telling the actor playing a drunk knight, “I like your fella best. That would’ve been me.” I really, really love D.C. So small and so monumental at the same moment. It feels urgent and neighborly at the same moment.

Favorite Shakespearean Villain:
So many good ones! But perhaps currently Iachimo in Cymbeline.

What's next after Argonautika:
I’m slated for another opera at the Met in early ’09, and there may well be something with my company, the Lookingglass, before then.

Why did you want to adapt and direct the myth of Jason and the Argonauts?
I just had some really strong feelings about the story. It is both an epic adventure and a love story—something that isn’t too common. I like how the real danger in the play isn’t so much the monsters and harpies and so forth, but love itself, which is referred to all the time as “the destroyer.” And I had strong visual ideas about it pretty much instantly. In the end, it turned out to have contemporary political resonances, and that came as a surprise to me.

What has become your favorite scene in the play and why?
I like the early, “roll call” scene because I think it is a pretty good compression of the “catalogue” of heroes in the original, and it introduces everyone to the audience and charges everything up. I love also when Medea first enters with the arrow through her chest and what we call the “insomnia” moment where she is held in the air and tossed around as she is trying to sleep. I like those literal embodiments of metaphors of suffering: being “struck” by love and “tossing” in bed. I like the boat launch, the Boxer, the death of the baby, the death of Medea’s brother. I’m really fond of the acceleration and movement of the last 20 minutes of the show. Hmnn. I don’t have one that really outdistances the others. I like the sheer variety of episodes and images in the story.

Photo of the set by Kevin Berne.

New Podcasts!

We've added new podcasts, click the links below to hear them:

Shakespeare Theatre Company Happenings at the Harman: Folger President Dr. Gail Kern Paster discusses history’s Edward II and Christopher Marlowe’s dramatic rendering of his life.
Click here.

Shakespeare Theatre Company Windows on Shakespeare – The Taming of the Shrew.

Photo of the exterior of Sidney Harman Hall by Tom Arban.

The Washington National Opera and the Shakespeare Theatre Company compare excerpts from Faust in the forum of Sidney Harman Hall on Wednesday, January 9, from noon to 1 p.m.

Box lunches are available for purchase for $10 if desired; reservations are requested but not required. Artists and programs subject to change based on guest availability.

Call the Box Office at 202.547.1122 for up-to-date schedule information, to reserve a space and to place an order for a box lunch.

Argonautika Production Photos

Previews for Argonautika start January 15!
Take a sneak peek with our production photos.
Remember to Ask the Literary Expert your questions.
For tix call 202.547.1122 or click here.

Ronete Levenson and Tessa Klein.

Atley Loughridge and Jake Suffian.

The Set.

Sofia Jean Gomez with (background) Soren Oliver, Chris Kipiniak and Allen Gilmore.

The Cast.

All photos by Kevin Berne.

Podcast: Mary Zimmerman

We've uploaded a podcast featuring Mary Zimmerman discussing her production of Argonautika, which opens at STC on Jan. 15. Check it out here.