Event

The Trojan Women

For The Trojan Women, a Director Who Has Known War

Eugene, Oregon, May 16, 2016 Eugene's theatre scene gains a unique, powerful voice as Anton Ray, trained theater director and U.S. Army veteran, returns to his home city to stage Euripides searing war tragedy, The Trojan Women. The play will run June 3rd to the 18th and will be performed at the newly-created Oregon Laboratory Theater on 3470 W 11th St.

The project marks the culmination of Ray's MFA director training at London's prestigious East 15 Acting School. Ray served in the US Army from 1998-2006, completing tours in Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia in 2000 and 2003 before earning his BFA at California Institute of the Arts. Today, he's the artistic director of his own Warrior Poet production company, dedicated to timeless stories with an uncompromising edge.

Euripides' play tells the story of Troys captive women, awaiting their fate at the hands of Greek conquerors after years of conflict. Ray plans a stark and atmospheric production. He's staging The Trojan Women in a converted warehouse, employing only three live actors to accent the isolating trauma of war experiences, and combining multi-media and non-traditional seating with ancient Greek theater traditions to give Euripides classic story urgency and immediacy.

The Trojan Women is an amazing story about the costs and aftermath of war, Ray explains. It asks us to question whether those who survive can ever be considered lucky. And by forcing us to view war through the eyes of the conquered, it demonstrates just how little wars accomplish. Even when wars end, the scars and stories live on. Demanding justice through vengeance.

Anchoring Ray's production as Hecuba will be Anne DeAcetis, a New York actress who is no stranger to the play. She played Andromache during her undergraduate study, directed by Eric Hill, and appeared years later in the chorus as a guest artist at The Juilliard School, directed by Joanna Settle. The Juilliard production featured then-student Jessica Chastain as Helen of Troy.

"This play keeps giving me chances to do it justice," Anne concludes. "There's no such thing as a production of The Trojan Women that doesn't demand everything. But I'm especially grateful right now for how my history has prepared me for this process. It's a privilege to tell a war story directed by someone who truly understands war, who is going to insist that we all understand it."

The play will also feature local actress Erica Towe, recently of Oregon Contemporary Theatre's Blackberry Winter, Silent Sky, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Opening night is June 3rd at 8pm. Performances will be on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8pm, with a Saturday matinee at 3pm, from June 3rd to June 18th. For tickets, visit brownpapertickets.com, or visit the box office during show times.

For more information, email media@warriorpoetarts.com or call 202-425-4501.

Contact:
Julie Meyer, Media Relations
Warrior Poet, Inc.
media@warriorpoetarts.com
202-425-4501