The Department of Theatre Arts at SUNY New Paltz presents Euripides’ tragedy, The Trojan Women, Feb. 26 – March 8, in Parker Theatre located on the New Paltz campus. The production, directed by Associate Professor Nancy Saklad, is an adaptation by American playwright and actor Ellen McLaughlin.
The Trojan Women has long been considered an innovative and artistic portrayal of the aftermath of the Trojan War. First produced in 415 BCE, the play is said to have been inspired by the classic tale of The Trojan Horse. It addresses contemporary ideas about war and the roles of women and the production has a timeless feel inspired by war and genocides of the past one hundred years.
“What I think this play is doing now is very similar to what it was doing when it was written,” McLaughlin said of her version of the tragedy. ” The deeply felt anti-war play first staged in an Athens that had recently invaded and ravaged a small island state, and was on the verge of a larger, ill-fated military adventure, has a great deal to say to an American audience today.”
A post-show talk-back, with some of the cast, crew and creative staff of the production, will be held on Friday, Feb. 27, in the theatre after the evening performance. This event is free and open to the public.
Saklad’s directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing at Boston’s Publik Theatre, How I Learned To Drive at Durham Center Stage and Other People’s Money at Seacoast Repertory Theatre. She also directed the Professional Division Moss Hart Award winning production of The Diary of Anne Frank at Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, N.H., and numerous other plays. Saklad has taught acting, voice and directing at the University of Miami, Fla., the University of New Hampshire, Regis College in Mass., Queens College in N.Y., and The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. Over the past few years she has been affiliated with the acclaimed Pearl Theatre in New York City as a Fitzmaurice Voicework coach and consultant for the Half Moon Theatre in Poughkeepsie. Saklad is also the author of Voice and Speech Training in the New Millennium: Conversations with Master Teachers and has created a new acting technique called “Acting with the Felt Sense.” She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival Bronze Medallion for service to the New England Region. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and the Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival.
Tickets for The Trojan Women are $18 for general reserved, $16 for seniors (62+), New Paltz faculty and staff, non-SUNY New Paltz students, and $10 for SUNY New Paltz students. The Box Office, located in Parker Theatre, is open Monday – Friday, from 11:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased online at http://www.newpaltz.edu/theatre. For additional information call (845) 257- 3880 or email boxoffice@newpaltz.edu.
