The final work of Theater of War Productions in its virtual residency at Kenyon College will be presented on Thursday, May 6.
Readings from the last play written by a Greek dramatist will offer Knox County and international participants a chance to discuss issues such as eldercare in a pandemic and immigration.
The Oedipus at Colonus Project will be livestreamed free of charge on Zoom from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. After local, film and television actors give readings, a community-driven conversation will begin.
The project premieres Bryan Doerries’ new translation of Sophocles’ “Oedipus at Colonus” that was workshopped during the residency with students, faculty and Knox County community members earlier this year; Doerries, the artistic director of Theater of War Productions, told the Mount Vernon News.
Sometimes it takes up to 50 performances to determine what themes audiences consider with these projects, Doerries said.
“But we have a hunch that this particular project will speak to themes such as homelessness, immigration, and the challenges around immigration and elder care, especially during and after the pandemic,” he said.
Through Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr and other connections, they are building a community panel with members from the Mount Vernon community and other parts of the country. The panel will include former residents of the Winter Havel Shelter, an executive from a shelter in Illinois and two formerly incarcerated individuals from New York City who work for a transitional reentry program called Exodus.
“They both did time in prison, and now they’re working to help people who’ve been incarcerated find their feet and transition back to civilian life,” Doerries said.
Local actors include Starr; Kenyon College drama professor Jonathan Tazewell; and Lars Hanson, Kenyon College Class of 1986.
Actors from film, television and Broadway participating in the project include Taylor Schilling, who starred in “Orange is the New Black”; and Emmy Award-winning actor David Strathairn, who was an Oscar nominee for “Good Night and Good Luck.”
Theater of War Productions has forged deep connections with a cross section of Kenyon College students, faculty and staff, and members of the Knox County community, Doerries said.
This latest project comes two weeks after Theater of War Productions presented “Oedipus the King” to an international audience as part of the Nobel Prize Summit. Local farmer Tim Morris represented Mount Vernon virtually on the international stage in the discussion panel. Doerries said that would not have happened without the Kenyon College residency.
“So much of our work has been focused on Mount Vernon,” he said. “And we’re really excited about deepening the collaboration there and, hopefully, presenting a live event in a physical space in 2022 — maybe early 2022 — in Mount Vernon.”
A $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will help Theater of War Productions with its new hybrid production model they call a digital amphitheater.
“And also do something that, maybe even a deeper community collaboration where we work with more local actors and develop material together in ways that we scratched the surface of [in] our virtual residency,” Doerries said. “But if we were to physically be present for some period, we can go deeper.”
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