THE O’NEILL NATIONAL THEATER INSTITUTE PRESENTS
TROJAN WOMEN (REMIX), DECEMBER 12 & 13

Waterford, CT, December 1, 2003 —Students from top colleges and universities around the country will culminate a semester’s study at the O’Neill National Theater Institute (NTI) with an original “collective creation,” free and open to the public, on December 12 & 13 at 8 p.m.. NTI’s Final Project will combine music, found text and movement with award-winning playwright Charles Mee’s THE TROJAN WOMEN: A LOVE STORY and Euripides’ classic Greek drama. After eight days of rehearsal and development the curtain goes up on this work-in-progress at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford.

Charles Mee provides the texts of his plays online as part of “the (re)making project” and invites artists to use them as a resource. At the core of Mee’s modern, lyrical drama are the women in the wake of their country's conquest. They struggle to understand and accept their fates, which they do not yet know ñ will they be killed, enslaved, made concubines? The students, with the guidance of NTI Director David B. Jaffe, will take on this challenge using the skills they’ve honed during their 14-weeks of intense training in acting, movement, voice and various theater techniques.

Each class of NTI students culminates the semester by creating a Final Project. Chosen specifically for them, it may be the presentation of an established piece, an adaptation of a literary work, or an original creation. Recent NTI classes have created ETUDES ON HERACLES in collaboration with St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy in Russia, and WORKING ON LEFTY, a play with music, suggested by Clifford Odets’ play WAITING FOR LEFTY.

Jaffe commented, “The (re)making project invites us to express our creativity through the work of one of the boldest playwrights today, Charles Mee. Earlier this semester, the students saw BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA, Mee’s collaboration with SITI Company director Anne Bogart, and spoke with Bogart about her experience. This blend of professional exposure and classroom experience is part of what makes NTI so unique. The goal of the final project is to utilize their strengths as an ensemble and apply the skills they’ve learned to uncharted territory. Mee’s text serves as a foundation for the exploration of their newfound ideas and abilities.”

NTI is a college-accredited training program for theater artists. Founded in 1970 with the goal of pairing emerging artists with working professionals in the belief that this method of study would best prepare them for the pursuit of a theater career, NTI has since been home to students from top universities all over the country, in addition to those seeking training independent of college studies. The seven-day-a-week schedule includes classes in acting, directing, playwriting, movement, voice and design. This challenging curriculum is enhanced by special workshops, guest artists and theater trips. Two weeks of the semester are spent abroad. In the past, NTI students have traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to study with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Moscow to train with master teachers from the Moscow Art Theater School and the Vakhtangov School. In 1992 NTI began a collaborative relationship with the Moscow Art Theater (MXAT), offering a semester of study at MXAT in addition to its stateside program.

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center a learning community dedicated to advancing the American Theater through programs that encourage creative excellence and develop diverse voices and new work. These include the Puppetry Conference, Playwrights Conference, Critics Institute, Music Theater Conference and the National Theater Institute. The O’Neill also owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, childhood home of America’s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O’Neill, and holds an annual celebration honoring the life and works of its namesake every October.

TROJAN WOMEN (REMIX) contains mature themes. For more information about the performance or NTI, call (860) 443-5378.