Adam Houghton (in red shirt) as Creon in The Burial at Thebes

Photographs courtesy of Handcart Ensemble

Theater professor appears in New York City play

09/11/2006

Adam Houghton practices what he teaches.

Houghton, an assistant professor of theater at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, appeared this fall in the New York City debut of The Burial at Thebes, an adaptation by Irish poet Seamus Heaney of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. The play was produced by the Handcart Ensemble.           

“I teach acting, and for me it is very important to do what I teach,” said Houghton, who portrayed Creon in the production, which ran from Sept. 7-23 at Theatre 315, New York City. “I ask my students to take risks in class – getting up in front of others to do something at which they could fail – and it helps my teaching to take those same risks.

“I have greater understanding of my students’ positions as actors and they have greater trust in me as a teacher,” Houghton said. “The work in New York City has already improved how I teach.”

Houghton said it was not difficult going from the director’s chair at CSB/SJU to taking direction as an actor.

“Taking this role, I knew I could trust the show’s director (J. Scott Reynolds), and I knew he valued my collaboration,” Houghton said. “There were times when Scott chose to handle things differently than I would if I was directing the show, but that allows me to learn new ways of working. It also allows me to assess my work as a director at CSB/SJU against the standard of a New York City professional director.”

Houghton, in his fourth year at CSB/SJU, has been able to perform in productions of different types each year – in a department production, a one-man faculty performance and in workshops and conferences. He has had an association with Handcart Ensemble since he directed “Mistress of the Inn” for them in March 2001.

“This experience supports my professional development perfectly,” Houghton said. “My work (in New York City) will also help my collaboration with departmental colleagues because I am freshly connected to our country’s greatest theater city.”

In this fall's production, Houghton played Creon, the “headstrong” King of Thebes who has come to rule after a war in which two sons of Oedipus (Eteocles and Polyneices) have killed each other. Creon considers Polyneices a traitor and orders his body to rot without a burial. Antigone, Oedipus’ daughter, defies Creon’s order and buries Polyneices. Creon then sentences Antigone to be walled in a cave. In short order, Antigone hangs herself; Creon’s son, Haemon, who was betrothed to Antigone, kills himself; and finally, Creon’s queen kills herself.

“Creon is left with no one to turn to and nowhere to go. He is completely humbled,” Houghton said.

More information about the production is available at the producer's Web site.