The cast of ‘Cracking Zeus.’ From left to right: Sola Bamis, Amari Cheatom and Derrek Jennings. | Photo courtesy Christopher Hampton
This weekend (Dec. 13-15), CalArts School of Theater alumnus Christopher Hampton (Theater BFA 10) debuts his first full-length play at the Attic Theatre in Los Angeles. Titled Cracking Zeus, the play mashes up a mythical Greek story with the crack epidemic that spread across America in the 1980s.
The premiere is part of the Imaginese Arts Festival, a three-week multi-media festival that donates a portion of all proceeds to the Young Storytellers Foundation.
Hampton developed the work while studying acting at CalArts. He summarizes the plot via email:
Cracking Zeus is the story of Hera, who has traveled to Earth to find and destroy Zeus’s latest bastard child. She finds him in the hood running a storefront church with his mother. She then meets the neighborhood crackhead Rufus and deems him the lowest and most disgusting member of their society. Her plan then becomes to destroy the bastard and shame his mother by getting him addicted to crack… with darkly ironic consequences.
The play includes actors Sola Bamis (Theater MFA 11), Whitney Rodriguez (Theater MFA 11) and Ajala Bandele (Theater BFA 10) and sound designer E. Martin Giminez (Theater MFA 09). Hampton also produces the play, which is stage managed by Sharon Mae (Theater MFA 10), with dramaturgy by Mitchell Colley (Theater BFA 11).
A Q&A with Hampton follows the Dec. 14 performance, and a visual art exhibit precedes the performance from 7-8 pm nightly.