Theatre of War Project

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Bryan Doerries, artistic director of the Theater of War Project, introducing a reading of An Enemy of the People: A Public Health Project at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. Theater of War Productions reading introduction.jpg
Bryan Doerries, artistic director of the Theater of War Project, introducing a reading of An Enemy of the People: A Public Health Project at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.

The Theater of War Project is a social impact theater project that led to the founding of Theater of War Productions. The Theater of War Project consists of readings of Sophocles's Ajax and Philoctetes for military and civilian communities followed by a facilitated discussion. [1]

Contents

Since the company's founding in 2008, their offerings have expanded to include readings of other classic plays aimed at addressing other subjects, such as dementia, police brutality, homelessness, addiction, and the COVID-19 pandemic. [2]

History

The Philoctetes Project

The story of Philoctetes deals with the wounded man and the interwoven relationships with others. In 2005, Bryan Doerries, writer and director, began a series of readings of the Sophocles play in the New York City area: the Philoctetes Project. He had noted the reactions of the audience to the reading, especially the reactions of audience members to the interaction of the suffering soldier and the conflicted caregiver. The project revolves around presenting such readings, especially to audiences of medical professionals and students. [3]

A number of readings were followed by a panel discussion about doctor-patient relationships, involving presenters in psychiatry, physicians, and military medical personnel. [4] [5]

This model was first extended in 2007 with a presentation of Philoctetes for the first year medical class at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Following the reading, students and faculty discussed the difficulties students face when caring for patients with incurable diseases [6] The presentation included a discussion of an actual case dealing with the patient-caregiver interactions that parallel the situation Sophocles presented.

Theater of War

In 2008, at a conference in San Diego dedicated to finding new ways to help US Marines recover from post-traumatic stress and other disorders after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, four New York actors presented a dramatic reading from Philoctetes and Ajax. The plays focused on physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the warrior. [7] [8]

Doerries began presenting the readings of the two plays as the Theater of War project, co-founding Theater of War Productions with Phyllis Kaufman. In 2009, they began presenting the project at US military installations abroad, including in Kuwait, Qatar, and Guantánamo Bay. [9]

Theater of War have performed in the UK presented by the military charity Glen art with actors Lesley Sharp and Jason Isaacs at Edinburgh Castle and The Southbank Centre in London in 2015. [10] [11] [12]

In March 2018, Glen Art presented Theater of War’s first performance in Scotland for a serving military audience. [13] [14]

In July 2020 the Scottish charity Bravehound joined with The Theater of War Project presenting an online performance with Jason Isaacs, Nyasha Hatendi, Lesley Sharp and David Elliot. [15] [16] [17]

Other projects

Theater of War Productions has performed readings of Prometheus Bound in prisons, The Bacchae in rural communities to affected by the opioid crisis, The Madness of Heracles in neighborhoods impacted by gang and gun violence, and The Women of Trachis to speak to end of life care. [8] [9]

Antigone in Ferguson was first performed on September 17, 2016 at Normandy High School, which Michael Brown had attended. The project toured to New York City, Athens, Greece, and across the US. [9] [18] [19]

Also in July 2020, the company presented The Oedipus Project, an online reading of scenes from Oedipus the King, translated and directed by Doerries, aimed at addressing the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The reading was presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library and the office of the New York City Public Advocate, and featured Oscar Isaac, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Frankie Faison, and John Turturro as well as Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. [20]

An online reading of The Nurse Antigone, a translation of Sophocles's Antigone, was produced by the company in March 2022 as the first of twelve readings in partnership with nursing organizations in the US. The reading, intended to address the challenges of frontline healthcare workers, featured three nurses, as well as the actors Bill Camp, Taylor Schilling, and author Margaret Atwood. [2]

In February 2023, a reading of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People was presented at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, intended to speak to difficulties in communicating science to the public. The reading featured former National Institute of Health director Francis Collins alongside actor David Strathairn. [21]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "Project".
  2. 1 2 Gupta, Alisha Haridasani (16 March 2022). "Confronting Grief, With Margaret Atwood, in 'The Nurse Antigone'". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  3. ↑ Wright, Robin (12 September 2016). "Theatre of War: Sophocles' Message for American Veterans". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "Theater of War: Soldiers and Citizens Tour - National Council". www.thenationalcouncil.org. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
  5. ↑ Doerries, Bryan (Spring 2008). "About the Philoctetes Project, The Key Reporter (Phi Beta Kappa)". Archived from the original on 2006-11-29.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ Zuger, Abigail (6 March 2007). "The Difficult Patient, a Problem Old as History (or Older)". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  7. ↑ Perry, Tony. "Through drama, toll of war resonates across the ages". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020.
  8. 1 2 Shapiro, James (2015-10-02). "'The Theater of War,' by Bryan Doerries". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-12-12.
  9. 1 2 3 Batuman, Elif (1 September 2020). "Can Greek Tragedy Get Us Through the Pandemic?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  10. ↑ "A US theatre project that helps war veterans". Scotsman. 5 December 2015.[ dead link ]
  11. ↑ "Theatre of war explores masculinity and the impact of war" (PDF). Press Release Southbank Centre. 5 November 2015.
  12. ↑ Farmer, Ben (13 May 2017). "Army turns to Greek tragedy to help troops open up about PTSD". Telegraph.
  13. ↑ "Eddie Mair-BBC Radio4 PM Show - Theatre of War". BBC Radio4. 28 March 2018.
  14. ↑ Stewart, Stephen (26 March 2018). "New War on Stress Is All Greek to Us" (PDF). Daily Record. p. 28.
  15. ↑ "Jason Isaacs in online performance of Greek tragedies to help charity". Belfast Telegraph. 15 July 2020.
  16. ↑ "Lesley Sharp talks about her Edinburgh roots". The Scotsman. 26 May 2021.
  17. ↑ "We've never needed Gene Roddenberry's vision more than we need it now – Isaacs". The Irish News. 11 September 2021.
  18. ↑ Mandell, Jonathan (3 August 2017). "Antigone in Ferguson". HowlRound Theatre Commons. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  19. ↑ Mason, Bruce A. (15 October 2016). "Antigone in Ferguson: When Life Imitates Art". HuffPost. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  20. ↑ Phillips, Maya (15 July 2020). "A Plague on Your Houses: Reading Covid-19 Into Disease Onstage". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  21. ↑ Beans, Carolyn (4 June 2024). "Can the 19th-century An Enemy of the People speak to today's science communication challenges?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (23): e2409349121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2409349121 . Retrieved 10 January 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  22. ↑ Zuger, Abigail (28 September 2015). "Review: 'The Theater of War': Applying Greek Tragedies to Our Own". New York Times. Vol. 163. p. D3. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  23. ↑ Romeo, Nick (8 October 2015). "Book review: 'The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today' by Bryan Doerries - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
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