The Trojan Women Project. Building a bridge between cultures through a universal language

Abstract

The article discusses The Trojan Women Project presented at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City in December 2019. The performance was the result of a five-years project that involved La MaMa’s actors, designers and musicians together with artists belonging to worldwide communities. The work was based on the new production of La MaMa’s historical performance directed by Andrei Serban in 1974. This new project engaged with communities with a recent history of conflict with the aim of addressing contemporary issues through theatre. Workshops done within some Guatemalan, Cambodian and Kosovan communities were focused on the exploration of sounds and gestures by using text, music, and scenography originally developed in the Seventies by Elizabeth Swados, Andrei Serban and the Great Jones Repertory Company. Both workshops and rehearsals led to performances created for these communities, who can use them as they wish in their future work. By working with artists and community members in different countries, ‘The Trojan Women Project’ developed a multi-phased kind of exchange, including stories, music and movements of the participants in the original La MaMa’s piece in the workshops and performances. The legacy of the former work was kept creating a new vision of the ancient Greek tragedy, following Serban and Swados’ artistic experimentation in adopting the ancient Greek language with new forms of language. Their aim was to experiment with universal form of communication. This project testifies to the lasting engagement of La MaMa in fostering the sharing of cultures and in supporting the experimentation of new creative way of doing theatre. An objective that was central for its founder, Ellen Stewart, since the foundation of La MaMa Cafe in 1961.