Can a group strengthen the individual? SITI is committed to providing a place where the interaction of art, artists, audiences, and ideas inspire the possibility for change, optimism, and hope. SITI Company, one of the country’s leading theater ensembles, brings one of the greatest of all anti-war dramas in this new production, which premiered at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles last year.

The Trojan Women, by the Greek playwright Euripides, was first performed over 2,400 years ago during the Peloponnesian War and is often considered a commentary on the barbaric behavior of the Athenians toward the women and children of the people they subjugated. In the ruins of their burning city, the royal women of Troy — still mourning the slaughter of their husbands and sons — await enslavement and exile. The play is a timeless meditation on the moments of individual choice that separate death and life, despair and hope, future and past. This adaptation by Jocelyn Clarke isn’t a literal staging of the ancient Greek play, but uses Euripides’ text as a framework, imbuing his characters with the sensibilities and souls of 21st-century individuals. Anne Bogart, the founder of SITI Company and interviewer of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson for last year’s Einstein on the Beach Penny Stamps lecture, directs.

Where does inspiration come from? What makes an artist tick? Join us for a post-performance Q&A and get a glimpse into the lives and minds of the artists that bring creativity to the stage. Must have a ticket to this evening’s performance to attend.

Program:
Program Book [PDF]

Also see
SITI Company website

SITI Company is an ensemble-based theater company whose three ongoing components are the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and a commitment to international collaboration.

SITI was founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration. Originally envisioned as a summer institute in Saratoga Springs, New York, SITI has expanded to encompass a year-round program based in New York City with a summer season in Saratoga. SITI believes that contemporary American theater must necessarily incorporate artists from around the world and learn from the resulting cross-cultural exchange of dance, music, art, and performance experiences.

Anne Bogart is the Artistic Director of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a Professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program. Works with SITI include American Document, Antigone, Under Construction, Freshwater, Who Do You Think You Are, Radio Macbeth, Hotel Cassiopeia, Death and the Ploughman, La Dispute, Score, bobrauschenbergamerica, Room, War of the Worlds, Cabin Pressure, War of the Worlds: The Radio Play, Alice’s Adventures, Culture of Desire, Bob, Going, Going, Gone, Small Lives/Big Dreams, The Medium, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Private Lives, August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and Charles Mee’s Orestes. She is the author of three books: A Director Prepares, The Viewpoints Book and And Then, You Act.

We welcome SITI company to these UMS debut performances.

4/28: Pre-Show Talk: Director Anne Bogart on the creation of Trojan Women

An interview with director Anne Bogart and cast members