About The Trojan Women Project
The Trojan Women Project seeks to engage with communities where there is a desire to use theater as a means of addressing contemporary issues. Since its beginning in 2014, The Trojan Women Project has developed an approach to theater-making that is inquiry-based and inclusive. The work is ongoing.
From 2014-2019, The Trojan Women Project partnered with arts communities in Guatemala, Cambodia and Kosovo in re-creating the music and staging of LaMaMa's groundbreaking production of The Trojan Women, originally directed by Andrei Serban, composed by Elizabeth Swados, and produced by Ellen Stewart in 1974. Each re-creation used the text, music, and scenarios originally developed by Elizabeth Swados, Andrei Serban and the Great Jones Repertory Company, while focusing on the exploration of sound and gesture. During workshops and rehearsals, performers were encouraged to incorporate their own instruments, music, dance and design elements into the production; performances for local communities followed.
In December, 2019, many of these international artists came to New York City for The Trojan Women Project Festival, a celebration of our work together as well as for the centennial of La MaMa’s founder, Ellen Stewart. Albanian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, Mayan, Roma, and Serbian artists joined members of LaMaMa’s Great Jones Rep in a new version of La MaMa’s The Trojan Women, re-imagined and directed by Andrei Serban.
Since the Festival, The Trojan Women Project has branched out with work that includes other stories:
In 2020, we partnered online with asylum-seekers in Athens Greece to create Multiverso. An expanded version was presented the following year as part of CultureHub’s ReFest.
In 2021, we began online theater workshops with The New Star DramaGroup in Kisii, Kenya.
In 2021, The Trojan Women Project, in association with LaMaMa Umbria International and the local immigrant community, presented Birds and a Choir, a musical/theatrical event for Little Amal’s Walk as it passed through Spoleto, Italy.
In 2022, we partnered with La MaMa, university students, community groups, and local musicians to greet Amal as she walked through the East Village of NYC.
Now we are beginning something new. Members of The Trojan Women Project and additional artists are creating a new ensemble piece for theater called Sur, based on the short story by feminist science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin. Set in 1910-11, Sur tells the story of nine South American women who plan and complete a journey to the South Pole. The women travel in secret - theirs is a radical plan, considering the constraints placed on them by society and family. The story follows them from a Buenos Aires drawing room to the glaciers of Antarctica. They hire a ship, set up camp on the ice, haul supplies through blizzards, fight snow-blindness, and eventually reach the South Pole. Then they return to their homes: Their journey remains a secret.
Our initial research and planning has begun. In order to transform the original story into a full-length theater piece, including projections, scenography, and music, we will develop the work through 2024, offering open rehearsals of the work-in-progress as well as community workshops exploring the story’s themes.
Sur raises questions about traditional paradigms of power and acquisition. It challenges us to imagine a world of collaboration and equity, and a society that respects the natural world. Just as the themes of The Trojan Women continue to be relevant throughout the world, we look to create an adaptation of LeGuin's fictional tale that encourages exploration of themes relevant to our lives and the world around us.
As a program of La MaMa ETC, The Trojan Women Project continues to honor the legacy of La MaMa’s founder Ellen Stewart, who spent her life bringing people together with theater, dance and music. She crossed borders, opened doors, and encouraged everyone to do the same. The Trojan Women Project is committed to working in this spirit, encouraging all of us towards a collective vision of mutual respect and understanding that comes with hearing stories, making theater, and being together in one communal space.
