UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present “Eurydice,” Sarah Ruhl’s magical and beautiful adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The play will run Nov. 7 to 16 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre on the Ukiah Campus.

According to director Reid Edelman, “Ruhl has put her own highly imaginative spin on the classic myth drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an ancient story which has lent itself to innumerable retellings. This is an enchanting play which will touch people’s hearts.”

Orpheus and Eurydice is the myth in which on the wedding day of the beautiful Eurydice, to the musician Orpheus, tragedy strikes.

Eurydice steps onto a pit of vipers, dies and is swept away to the underworld of Hades.

Orpheus’ grief overwhelms him; he travels to the underworld and plays music which melts the lord of the underworld’s heart.

Hades agrees that Orpheus can lead Eurydice back to the world of the living, but with one condition: Orpheus must promise not to look back at Eurydice until they reach the surface.

Orpheus, undone by his own doubts, looks back, losing his love forever.

The myth has been interpreted widely by poets, playwrights, psychologists, philosophers, musicians and filmmakers through the generations.

In the version of the story in production at Mendocino College, playwright Sarah Ruhl adds the character of Eurydice’s dead father (played by Jonathan Whipple), whom Eurydice (played by theater major Melany Katz) meets when she goes to the underworld.

“The play examines the nature of love, memory, and earthly connectedness,” said Edelman. “Ruhl wrote the play as a sort of love letter to her own deceased father, and it is brimming with humanity. The play celebrates the power of both poetry and music in connecting us to others. It is one of the most affecting plays that I have ever encountered.”

In this production, the musician Orpheus (played by Max Hovland) is a moody modern guitarist, and the Lord of The Underworld (played by DonMike Chilberg) is a child who grows and shrinks in the spirit of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Ruhl also adds the haunting character of the “Nasty Interesting Man” (played by theater major Thomas Kenney) and a “chorus of stones,” actors and dancers who comment on the action and torment Eurydice in the underworld.

The Stone Chorus features Scott Andrews, James Blake, Melissa Chapman, Ayla Decaire, Thomas Kenney, Marco Orozco, Maheanani Phillips and Megan Regan.

An evocative musical score by college recording arts instructor Rodney Grisanti and students in his Recording Arts classes will enhance the production.

There also will be original dance sequences choreographed by college dance instructor Eryn Schon-Brunner.

This play is appropriate for most audiences, though its themes of love, death, memory, language and music will be most appreciated by those ages 12 and older.

The production features a cast of 12 local performers, as well as impressive scenery and costumes created by students in Mendocino College’s theater, art and costuming classes under the direction of faculty members Kathy Dingman Katz, Gregory Byard, Lisa Rosenstreich and Theatre Technician Larry L. Lang.

Several members of the production are students in the college’s new Conservatory Cohort Group, a learning community of students engaging in a pre-professional conservatory-style training experience.

The play is being stage managed by Charlyn Keyser with the assistance of Alice Gully and Sarah Davis.

Eurydice opens on Friday, Nov. 7. Performances will run for two weekends only, through Nov. 16.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, and Saturday, Nov. 8; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13; 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, and Saturday, Nov. 15; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.

Tickets – $20 general, $15 students and seniors – are available at the Mendocino Book Co., at Mendocino College Bookstore and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org .

The performance on Thursday, Nov. 13, is a special discount night, with all tickets costing only $10.

Audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance.

For more information, call 707-468-3172 or visit www.mendocino.edu/CVPA .