Guest Post: Post-Oedipus Director Spencer Driggers on Tony Romo, Bono, and Other Post-Modern Tragic Heroes [Theater contest]

2. The brilliant scientist Dr. Faustus sold his soul to the devil to gain intellectual supremacy. In the music industry, there used to be something called "selling out" that was strikingly similar. Some of you kids may not remember, but once upon a time certain musicians would refuse to sign with major labels and deny advertisers rights to their music because of something called "cred". It’s all very arcane and passé now, but let me try to illustrate: Back in the mid 80’s, R.E.M. was making some of the coolest music around - no, really. But they jumped ship from I.R.S. Records for the bright lights and big bucks of Warner Brothers, and soon thereafter Michael Stipe and was singing about "Shiny Happy People". The band was never the same. "Losing My Religion", indeed.

3. Narcissus was a looker, and his own biggest fan. He fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, and was never able to tear himself away. He was also immediately recognized by one name, like Paris, Bono, and Madonna. Or, of course, Oprah. She has utterly saturated the market with her own image, the most egregious example of which is a magazine featuring monthly cover photos of herself called “O.” I think it’s short for, “Oh, please god, not again.”

4. Daedalus fashioned wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son, Icarus, so that they might soar to freedom from captivity. Before takeoff, he cautioned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. Did Icarus listen? He did not. Giddy with the thrill of flight, crunk beyond all measure of reason, Icarus flapped higher and higher. His wings soon melted and he spiraled to his death upon the punishing rocks below. In the more recent past, a powerful son ignored the words of warning from his prominent father, went blazing into a really hot place, and everything fell apart and came crashing down. Unlike Icarus, however, this guy got to retire to Dallas.

5. Marc Antony was a renowned leader and a great military mind who, like our friend Samson, was undone by his love for a woman. In this case, it was a woman even more famous than he: Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. Singer Marc Anthony has a strikingly similar name. He is beloved the world over, and has wedded himself to an even more high-profile woman, the one they call “J. Lo.” Since that time, his career has… Uh, I guess it’s been going pretty well. So. Let’s see here. Cleopatra had asps. J. Lo has ass. So there’s that. Um, Marc Antony may have had a hideous mole on his face... This is going nowhere. Much like Odysseus, when he sailed aimlessly through the seas of…. which seas were those?

Okay, that last one was garbage. Help me out, here. Let’s make it interesting: contest!

Send your take on a tragic hero and his or her contemporary equivalent to theatre@austinist.com. The winner will have their entry published here and win 2 free tickets to the opening weekend of Post-Oedipus.