FREE play reading: THE PErsians by Aeschylus
Saturday May 13th in the Dowling Theater PROVIDENCE, RI: Trinity Rep is proud to announce a staged reading of The Persians, the oldest surviving play in history by Greek playwright Aeschylus. Under the direction of Laura Kepley, this staged reading features the cast of Trinity’s current production Boots on the Ground: Anne Scurria, Stephen Thorne, Rachael Warren, Joe Wilson, Jr., and Richard Donelly. The reading is Saturday May 13th at 2PM in the Dowling Theater, Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington Street, Providence, and admission is free. Subscribers receive preferred seating. Space is limited, so reservations are required: (401) 521-1100 x411.DETAILS AT-A-GLANCE
The Persians, an ancient Greek Tragedy by Aeschylus
DIRECTOR: Laura Kepley
CAST: Richard Donelly; Anne Scurria; Stephen Thorne; Rachael Warren; Joe Wilson, Jr.
WHEN: Saturday, May 13, 2PM
WHERE: Dowling Theater, Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington Street, Providence
PRODUCED BY: Trinity Repertory Company
ADMISSION: free- Subscribers receive preferred seating. Space is limited, so reservations are required: (401) 521-1100 x 411
This free play reading enhances our world premiere Boots on the Ground (Dowling Theater, April 14 – May 21). Aeschylus (472 BC), the Greek playwright (and many in his audience) had fought in the war against the Persians, yet the story follows the point of view of the vanquished enemy. Aeschylus gave his foes and his homeland the same degree of honor and respect. Don’t miss this opportunity to find common ground in these “war plays,” written two millennia apart. Aeschylus (playwright), known as ‘the founder of Greek tragedy’, was born in Eleusis, near Athens, Greece. He served in the Athenian army in the Persian Wars, and was wounded at Marathon (490). The first and gravest of the great dramatists (winning the victory in 485 BC), he increased the number of characters in the action and introduced new staging. He won 13 first prizes in tragic competitions, before being defeated by Sophocles in 468. This may have induced him to leave Athens and go to Sicily. Out of some 60 plays ascribed to him, only seven are extant: Persians (472), Seven against Thebes (467), Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, and the trilogy of the Oresteia (458), three plays on the fate of Orestes, comprising Agamemnon (perhaps the greatest Greek play that has survived), Choephoroe, and Eumenides. Aeschylus’ pivotal contribution to the structure of Greek tragedy was the introduction of a second actor, where there had previously been only one actor and the chorus, and the subordination of the chorus to the dialogue of the actors. Laura Kepley (director) is Trinity Rep’s Artistic Associate and this year’s Peter Kaplan Fellow. Laura served as assistant director on Trinity Rep’s 2004 A Christmas Carol and was the assistant to Oskar Eustis on The Ruby Sunrise both at Trinity and Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the assistant to Amanda Dehnert on her wonderful production of Annie. Laura is a proud graduate of the first class of the Brown /Trinity Consortium where she directed such shows as The Seagull, Top Girls, The Winter’s Tale, and Iphigenia and Other Daughters. For the Brown New Play Festival, she directed Laura Schellhardt’s Shapeshifter and Deborah Stein’s Aerodynamics of Accident. This spring Laura will be working with Ms. Schellhardt again on her play The K of D at The Orlando Shakespeare Festival and The Kennedy Center. Last fall she directed an evening of new work called On the Threshold at The Public Theatre in New York. Her work has been seen in the New York, Seattle, and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals.
