HECUBA Set for New York Euripides Summer Festival

As part of ATT's 2015 summer series, American Thymele Theatre is presenting the New York Euripides Summer Festival from July 28th to August 1st. Five free, fully staged performances of Euripides' Hecuba are presented in select New York City stages.

Hecuba is set at the camp of Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, near the shore of the Thracian peninsula across the Hellespont from Troy. After the most famous war of all time is over, the former Trojan queen Hecuba, is now a slave facing the horrible aftermath of this war. Her profound grief is transformed into near triumph after exacting revenge for the injustice she has endured, following the killing of her son Polydorus by a trusted friend and the sacrifice of her youngest daughter Polyxena, for the good of the Greek forces in Troy. Veteran actress Norma Novak appears in the title role as Hecuba and Stephen Diacrussi makes his New York Euripides Summer Festival debut as Polydorus, a role that introduced him to Euripides and classical repertory while still a teenager.

For many weeks, Greece has dominated world news as its "financial crisis" spread fear of a potential global economic calamity, receiving more international attention than it did eleven years ago when Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics. Greece can easily be compared to Hecuba, a former queen who is now a slave, just as Hellas used to be, in our life time, a constitutional monarchy, a prosperous and dignified nation that is now enslaved, at the mercy of foreigners. As Hecuba puts it: "Politicians do not care what harm they cause, providing they can please a crowd - no man on earth is truly free. I too was great once. All are slaves of money and personal necessity." Considering that the real democracy that Greece gave birth to no longer exists since it has been replaced by oligarchy and plutocracy, Hecuba was never more timely.

Directed by Jonghee Quispe, this production of Hecuba features a cast of eighteen which, in addition to Norma Novak and Stephen Diacrussi, includes Elizabeth Carian, Amy Fuhrman, Katharine McKenzie, Julie Orkis, Adrienne Camm, Yaprak Unver as Polyxena, Marc Osian as Odysseus, Brett Lawlor as Talthybius, Kate Dogileva as the Handmaid, Joshua Carlton as Agamemnon, andSamuel Muniz as Polymestor. Also appearing are Owen Ginley, Constantine Zias, Tom Frelinghuysen, Henry Bock and Colin Yuji.

Hecuba is among the numerous dramas that Euripides wrote whose titles bear names of women, probably making Euripides the world's first advocate of what we know today as "women's rights", by dramatizing the difficult role that women had to assume in antiquity, always making his women stronger figures than the men in his tragedies.

This genre of theatrical expression encompasses areas such as ancient history, mythology, music, and dramatic poetry at its best, all interwoven with marvelous lyricism, Greek culture, education, and rarely-offered free entertainment, as presented in the quality, traditional approach that has characterized American Thymele Theatre in its twenty two-year history.

ATT adheres to some essential elements of the ancient Greek theatre, as employed in its initial New York Euripides Summer Festival production of Rhesus in 2009, namely in presenting such works in traditional, stylized stagings, in daylight time, in an amphitheater setting, without intermission, and free of charge to the public - just like in antiquity.

The New York Euripides Summer Festival dates for HECUBA are as follows:

Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28th and 29th at 6:00 p.m. at the

EAST RIVER PARK AMPHITHEATRE

(FDR Drive Grand Street overpass at Cherry Street to East River Park, south of Delancey Street)

Thursday and Friday, July 30th and 31st at 6:00 p.m. at

THE RICHARD RODGERS AMPHITHEATER

(Marcus Garvey Park, 120th - 124th Streets between Mt. Morris Pk. West and Madison Avenue)

Saturday, August 1st at 8:00 p.m. at the

MINOR LATHAM PLAYHOUSE

(3009 Broadway at 119th Street, Milbank Hall - Columbia University)

Reservations are recommended for the August 1st performance at the Minor Latham Playhouse by calling SmartTix at 1-212-868-4444 or by visiting:

http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=hec775&ss=1