The Trojan Women Project Festival

Dec 5-15, 2019

La Mama, New York City

The Trojan Women Project Festival, under the sponsorship of the National Endowment of the Arts, celebrated the centennial of La MaMa’s founder, Ellen Stewart, the 45th anniversary of La MaMa’s The Trojan Women and The Trojan Women Project’s five years of work with artists in Kosovo, Cambodia and Guatemala, who learned the piece in the same way that La MaMa’s Great Jones Rep artists learned over the years - roles were passed on by oral tradition, artist to artist. In each country, the local artists performed the play for communities in different regions of their countries. It was always the dream of The Trojan Women Project to bring these new, international groups to New York City to perform with La MaMa artists as a united company. The festival was the realization of that dream. The festival company included Albanian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, Mayan, Roma, Serbian, and U.S. artists. A newly reimagined version of La MaMa’s The Trojan Women was directed by Andrei Serban and performed by the entire company. The festival also included invited guest performances, long-distance exchanges using live-stream technology, a display of art and photos, workshops and panel discussions.

Photo credit: Theo Cote