Orpheus & Eurydice – New Play Reading

Join Traveling Players and renowned playwright Judith Walsh White for the first reading of her new play, Orpheus & Eurydice before it premieres this summer at Traveling Players.

Commissioned by Traveling Players for their Mythology Ensemble – a two-week sleepaway acting camp for kids in grades 4-6 – the story follows the “super star-crossed lovers” Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus has been blessed with incredible musical talent - even the rocks and trees rejoice at the sound of his beautiful lyre. Eurydice, a nymph who lives in the nearby forest, hears his song, and they fall deeply in love. In a cruel twist of fate, Vee, a jealous viper, kills Eurydice for a chance at Orpheus. The musician then gathers his courage and braves the Underworld to save his love.

Hades, the god of death, is reluctant to release sweet Eurydice from his Underworld, so he offers them a nearly impossible bargain: the young lovers can return to the land of the living, but they may not see or talk to one another while winding the paths of the Underworld until they have returned to Earth. Love is built on trust. If they can evade doubt, then maybe their true love can conquer death.

Orpheus & Eurydice is the 10th script that Traveling Players has commissioned from award-winning playwright Judith Walsh White for our youngest performers. Two of those ten scripts have subsequently been published, with Traveling Players performers listed as the original cast – an honor professional actors work their whole careers hoping to achieve. These plays have since received performances in Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Canada, the UK, and Gibraltar, as well as throughout the US, including The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville.