New Fortune Theatre Company

Coming

ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Tuesday, November 13th, 7pm

A New Fortune staged reading

Kill Socrates A Comedy

by Amanda Schaar

Directed by Richard Baird

Starring

J. Todd Adams

Dana Hooley

Max Macke

Neil McDonald

Ted Barton as Socrates

When: November 13th, 7pm

Where:

The beautiful home of Walter & Mary Munk!

9530 La Jolla Shores Dr.

La Jolla, CA 92037

We will be reading under the stars,

so please bundle up!

Parking: free street parking

Admission: free to the public

Recommended $20 donation.

To ensure a seat, please RSVP.

Socrates. Must. DIE.

At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this is a roller-coaster ride through one of history’s most famous minds, ending in one of history’s most infamous deaths.

Socrates was a citizen of the world’s first democracy. This led him to ask the question: are the majority of people wise or unwise? Socrates' answer: Unwise. Then the majority of people killed him for saying that. Then they felt guilty about killing him so they killed the lawyer who prosecuted him too. So much... for free speech.

Faced with his impending death, Socrates attempts to solve some of mankind’s greatest mysteries. He even proves the immortality of the soul – for himself, at least.

Here’s what readers are saying about Kill Socrates A Comedy:

“Hilarious, savvy and smart.”

“Magnificent, funny and touching.”

“A fascinating exploration.”

“Socrates is fantastic.”

INSIDER'S LOOK!

Here's what you'd see if you opened the script:

“To die would be an awfully big adventure.”

- J.M. Barrie

“Well I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it.”

-Mary Chase

“Alice: How long is forever?

White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.”

– Lewis Carroll

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

– Albert Einstein

“Estragon: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?

Vladimir: Yes, yes we’re magicians.”

- Samuel Beckett

“You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.”

-Roald Dahl

Thanks for Sponsoring!

Would you like to sponsor this hilariously thought-provoking event?

$100 sponsors an actor
Everyone will cheer at the show for your generosity!
You'll be sent a signed, print copy of the script!
$500 sponsors the whole shebang
The playwright will create an original piece for you or someone you love! You can commission both subject and style, or leave it up to fate!

Contributions are tax-deductible and easy to make.

Every contribution made by clicking the yellow DONATE button at the top of this page from now until November 13th will be considered a sponsorship and will be receive the above thanks!

Any questions, call 602.380.3706.

Thank you so much!

Wait till you hear what our next show is...

INSIDER'S LOOK!

Here are the notes at the end of the script:

A few historical items, because knowing never hurts:

Socrates lived 470-399BC.

He was a veteran of the Peloponnesian War, where he was noted for his courage in battle.

He successfully opposed the 30 Tyrants (no small feat), saving a prisoner, ironically, from a wrongful execution.

His trade is speculated to have been Stone Mason, which was his father’s.

His friends have called his wife, Xanthippe, ‘undesirable.’ She thought him careless with his family (and he was).

Socrates was convicted by a vote of 280-221. That’s a very big jury.

Meletus is believed to have been a very young and unsuccessful poet, and a religious zealot. After the death of Socrates, it is reported that the Athenians executed Meletus out of guilt.

Phaedo in this play represents three of Socrates friends. Euthyphro is one; he seems to have been an unpopular but determined soothsayer. Crito is another: a wealthy businessman who made his money in agriculture and married into aristocracy. And Phaedo: of high birth, he was made a prisoner of war in his youth, and was sold into slavery where he was used as a prostitute. He is said to have been beautiful. He was freed by one of Socrates friends, became a student of Socrates (who would stroke his long hair), and eventually founded his own school of philosophy.

Chaerephon shows up in a number of Greek writings: Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. He seems to have been a very popular and very unusual man, lean, nocturnal, energetic, and intellectual. He would have died fairly recent to these events. His brother was supposedly in the court.

Anaxagoras lived 510-428BC. He was the first philosopher of Athens and was also charged with impiety and exiled. He introduced the concept of ‘Mind.’ He also named the Milky Way, and provided an accurate explanation of eclipses - which Socrates mentions - although his description of the sun was ‘a mass of blazing metal larger than the Peloponnese.’ He was the first to explain that the moon shines from the reflected light of the sun, although he also said that moon had mountains and believed they were inhabited. ‘Everything is in everything’ he is supposed to have said. He thought BIG.

Aesop died at least 150 years before Socrates did, so his stories were already quite old. (Incidentally, none of his works have survived. What we know is simply attributed to him.)

The poison given to Socrates is widely believed to have been hemlock, though we can never know what species. Some of modern medicine and botany believe Plato’s depiction of the death is far too sweet, that Socrates should have been bloating, vomiting, slobbering and blue. Other’s state that there are species of hemlock which act exactly as Plato describes, shutting down the nervous system and leaving the brain completely sound until the last. Either way, it seems in large part thanks to this famous death that hemlock is so well avoided that few modern studies are made of the plant.

Asclepius, whom Socrates mentions at the last, is the Greek god of Healing. The meaning of Socrates’ offer is widely interpreted.

And,

None of Socrates’ written works survive.

SEE YOU NOVEMBER 13th at 7pm!