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Lecture: "Tragedies for the Pandemic” —Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director, Theater of War Productions
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Thu, Sep 24.2020
Virtual Event
At the beginning of the pandemic, Theater of War Productions, a social impact company that had spent years performing ancient plays in unlikely places—hospitals, military bases, homeless shelters, and prisons—pivoted to Zoom. Their first online outing, The Oedipus Project, gathered more than 15,000 people from over 40 countries for a virtual performance of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, featuring Oscar Isaac, Frances McDormand, John Turturro, Jeffrey Wright and others, culminating in a facilitated, global discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on individuals, families, and communities. In the weeks and months that have followed, Theater of War Productions has presented more than a dozen performances on Zoom—projects based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Biblical Book of Job, and Sophocles’ Antigone and Women of Trachis—for an ever-expanding international audience. Now, Theater of War Productions turns its attention to Kenyon College, where it will launch a year-long virtual residency this fall.
In his lecture, “Tragedies for the Pandemic,” Theater of War Productions’ Artistic Director and Kenyon alumnus Bryan Doerries (’98) will describe how he and his company have used ancient tragedies to empower thousands of people all over the world to engage in vital, democratic, pluralistic discussions about some of the most challenging issues of our time, including racialized violence, healthcare inequality, and the moral suffering of frontline medical providers.
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War & Mental HealthTheater of War: Hector, Andromache, and the Death of AstyanaxTheater of War: Hector, Andromache, and the Death of Astyanax presents live, dramatic readings of selections from Homer’s Iliad, Book VI and scenes from The Trojan Women by Euripides—featuring acclaimed actors and a Chorus of students, from a variety of backgrounds, whose lives have been impacted by war—to help frame powerful, healing dialogue about the human cost of war, centered on the suffering of children and civilians. The project uses ancient texts that explore and depict the dehumanization of war to create a vocabulary for openly discussing challenging and divisive subjects, with the aim of generating compassion, empathy, moral repair, understanding, and positive action.
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Gun ViolenceHerculesDrawing from an ancient Greek tragedy about a vicious act of violence committed by an angry man with an invincible weapon, this project aims to generate powerful dialogue between concerned citizens, members of the law enforcement community, victims and perpetrators of gun violence, and the general public.
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Racialized Police ViolenceAntigone in FergusonAntigone in Ferguson is a groundbreaking project that fuses dramatic readings by acclaimed actors of Sophocles’ Antigone with live choral music performed by a diverse choir, including activists, youth, teachers, police officers, and concerned citizens from St. Louis, Missouri and New York City, culminating in powerful, healing discussions about racialized violence, police brutality, systemic oppression, gender-based violence, health inequality, and social justice. Antigone in Ferguson was conceived in the wake of Michael Brown’s death in 2014, through a collaboration between Theater of War Productions and community members from Ferguson, MO, and premiered at Normandy High School, Michael Brown’s alma mater, in September of 2016.