One of history's most personal and powerful antiwar statements, Trojan Women, written by Euripides in 451 BC, is brought to vital life in a propulsive new staging by acclaimed director Anne Bogart and Siti Company from a new adaptation by Irish playwright Jocelyn Clarke.
The play, which takes place amid the wreckage of Troy after a 10-year siege by the Greeks, centers on four women: Queen Hecuba of Troy, her daughter Kassandra, and her daughters-in-law Andromache and Helen of Troy. As they await their fate under the Greek captors who infiltrated their city while Troy celebrated a perceived victory, these women- caught between past horrors and future dread-embody the human consequence of war.
Bogart, who premiered this work at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles in September 2011, engages directly with conventional wisdom that paints this ancient play as plotless and featuring, in her own words, "a bunch of women in rags screaming." Under her nimble and imaginative direction, and anchored by Clarke's highly modernized adaptation and a quartet of exceptional performances, Trojan Women (After Euripides) approaches the tale from a contemporary perspective, mining the universal struggle to move forward in the face of tragic, crippling loss.
The national tour for the production includes Connecticut College; Arts Emerson, Boston, MA; and University Musical Society, Ann Arbor, MI.
Since its founding in 1992 by directors Anne Bogart and Tadashio Suzuki, Siti Company has redefined contemporary theater in the US and abroad through an innovative approach to collaboration, cultural exchange, and actor training. An ensemble theater based in New York that tours extensively throughout the United States and internationally, SITI serves as a creative home for a core group of artists: 10 actors, four designers, one playwright, Bogart, and an extraordinary list of collaborators. Working together, SITI has not only reimagined what is possible both on and off the stage, but has also, more broadly, redefined what it means to be a global artist in the new millennium.
SITI is dedicated to the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and international collaboration. Through the company's performances, educational programs, and collaborations with other artists and thinkers, SITI continues to challenge the status quo, strives to achieve artistic excellence in every aspect of its work, and to offer new ways of seeing and being as both artists and global citizens.
SITI has traveled to 22 countries in five continents and created more than 35 new productions including such iconic pieces as Under Construction (2009), The Medium (1994), Death and the Ploughman (2004), bobrauschenbergamerica (2003 Next Wave), War of the Worlds-The Radio Play (2000 Next Wave), Hotel Cassiopeia (2007 Next Wave), and a triptych of solo pieces inspired by great artists-Bob (1998), Room (2000), and Score (2002)-as well as American Document (2010), a collaboration with the
Martha Graham Dance Company. During its current 20th anniversary season, SITI will premiere A Rite, a full-length collaborative work commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts with the
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, as well as Café Variations, based on short plays by
Charles L. Mee and features popular George and
Ira Gershwin songs.
Among the many accolades SITI and as its members have garnered are: seven OBIE Awards; two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Doris Duke Artist Award, a USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, the
American Theatre Wing's
Henry Hewes design award, the Dublin Festival's Best Foreign Production award, and several Drama Desk Award nominations, among others.
Behind great arts presenters are great supporters, and few of BAM's friends have deserved that title more than Richard B. Fisher (1936-2004). A visionary in both professional and philanthropic endeavors, Dick championed the creation of a strong endowment to enable BAM to continue presenting its signature groundbreaking programming, even in difficult times. As chairman of the BAM Endowment Trust from 1992 to 2004, Dick shared financial expertise from years as president, chairman, and chairman emeritus of Morgan Stanley, and he guided investments as pledges grew to $50 million. The doubling of the endowment in 2004 may be largely credited to a leadership challenge grant from Dick and his wife,
Jeanne Donovan Fisher, which in turn inspired support from other donors. Dick's generosity throughout his life continued even with his passing in the form of a landmark bequest. To honor Dick's friendship to BAM and recognize the legacy of progressive arts presentations he helped ensure in Brooklyn, where he and Emily H. Fisher raised their family, BAM inaugurated the annu
Al Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award in 2006. Each year, members of the Fisher family help BAM select the engagement that best exemplifies Dick's forward-thinking ethos and passion for the arts, using this opportunity to celebrate Richard B. Fisher in perpetuity. Past recipients have included Pina Bausch,
Charles L. Mee,
Bill T. Jones,
Robert Wilson,
Mark Morris, and Kronos Quartet. BAM's newest facility, the BAM Richard B. Fisher Building, is named in lasting tribute to this great BAM supporter.
The 2012 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors
Anne Bogart and the
Siti Company production of Trojan Women (After Euripides). The ceremony will take place on stage prior to the opening night performance of the engagement. BAM President
Karen Brooks Hopkins will present the Fisher Award-a beautifully designed walking stick by Fort Greene sculptor/designer Chris Gullian, who drew his inspiration from Dick's interests and the architecture of BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building-to
Anne Bogart, artistic director of
Siti Company.
Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM.
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit
BAM.org.
