Wednesday, April 14, 2010
{The Blue Banner}
Page 7
Theatre UNCA debuts ‘Trojan Women’ as outdoor play
By Katherine Walker
Staff Wriher
KPWALKER@UNCA.EDU
Unlike the indoor plays Theatre
UNCA usually performs, “Trojan
Women” is set to debut in a more tra
ditional manner on the lawn in front
of Carol Belk Theatre.
“The reason why we’re doing it
outside is to get a little closer to the
way it would have been done in the
traditional period. So, we’re doing it
with masks, historical-like costumes
and somewhat traditional set wise,”
director Rob Berls said.
Berls, now in his fifth year as an
associate professor of drama at UNC
Asheville, said he realizes there will
be unprecedented challenges for his
actors.
“This is something our students
haven’t run into yet. So, it’s a very
good educational experience. With
outdoor theater, a lot of times you
don’t have amplification, mics or
anything like that. So this is another
unique opportunity for our students
to get a little bit more involved,” he
said.
Stacy Hines, one of six chorus
members in the play, also considers
the outdoor set a unique learning ex
perience.
“By moving outside, it makes us
more able to learn as theater students
what it means to not get familiar with
one space,” she said.
Berls said allowing free admission
and an outside performance makes
the play more accessible to students
and members of the community.
Katherine Palm, who plays the part
of Kassandra, said she believes per
forming the play outdoors adds sym
bolism to the production.
“We’re starting at six o’clock,
and usually plays here start at eight
o’clock, which is when the sun goes
down, so it’s like the sun is going
down on Troy,” the UNCA freshman
said.
Berls said holding the play outside
also adds a degree of eco-conscious-
ness to the production.
“Very little light will be used. This
will lower the production cost, using
Megan Dombroski- Staff Photographer
A Theatre UNCA actress rehearses for “Trojan Women" the week before
the outdoor play opens In front of Carol Belk Theatre.
less electricity. The stage that is out
side, on the mini quad, is disassem
bled each night so it will not kill the
grass it’s sitting on. Some theaters
just leave the sucker set, and then you
have this dead spot forever,” he said.
Berls said an important aspect of
the play is the story told by the wom
en who are survivors of the Trojan
War.
“It’s incredibly important to make
that known. I would call it an anti
war piece, but really what I would
call it is a thought-provoking piece.
To go look, when you start a war, you
have all this stuff that happens after
ward. It’s very fitting for our time,”
he said.
Hines said she feels the chorus is
important because they are the char
acters who face the aftermath of the
war.
“It’s important that the audience
identifies with the chorus and not
Menelaus, the sacker of Troy, because
it kind of gives you that behind-the-
scenes look at what happens to the
people we fight in wars. We never re-
“By moving outside, it
mokes us more able
to learn as theater
students what it means
to not get familiar
with one space."
- Stacy Hines,
chorus member in Theatre
UNCA’s “Trojan Women”
ally see the dirty mess that we don’t
have to clean up,” the senior drama
student said.
Berls said he wanted to take the
focus off Hecuba, the main woman
telling the story, because she tends to
whine about her life too much in the
play.
“We are trying to make it more
along the lines of how the playwright
intended, as in, ‘Look at this, these
are the survivors of war. They are
the true casualties of war. The dead
people don’t have to worry about it,”’
he said.
“It’s also interesting to see an
other side of it. I feel like ‘The Iliad’
started off all about the men. Hector
and Achilles, but this is all about how
their wives have to suffer after they
die,” Palm said.
Berls said Andromache, played by
Katherine Lancaster, has to make a
difficult decision in the play. She fac
es the choice of letting her son fight
and not gaining entrance to the after
life or not intervening.
“It’s very important to the student
body, freshman to senior, because we
all make choices every day that are
not as powerful as this. We have op
tions though,” he said.
Theatre UNCA’s “Trojan Women”
runs April 21 to 25 at 6p.m.
Free admission.