StreetSigns’ 2014-2015 season concludes with a production of Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans, directed by StreetSigns Artistic Director, Joseph Megel. This time-bending, car-crash collision of the past and present, based on Euripides’ Trojan Women, challenges our notions of gender, war (both ancient and modern), and politics. Past and present violently collide as the dreams of women and their fierce hunger for life are played out in the larger context of war. Lyrical, funny, and tragic this work is a collaboration among UNC’s department of communication studies, performance studies, and StreetSigns featuring Equity, local, and student actors.
Originally from Australia, Christine Evans is an internationally produced playwright now resident in the U.S. Her work has been produced and developed at the American Repertory Theater, New Vic (London), Belvoir St. Theatre (Sydney), the Adelaide International Festival of the Arts, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Magic Theatre, Perishable Theatre, New Jersey Rep, Ohio Theatre (NYC), The Irish Rep (NYC), Boston Playwrights Theater, Rattlestick Theatre, and the Women’s Project. In 2013, HERE presented in NYC an Equity showcase production of her newest work, You Are Dead. You Are Here., which StreetSigns will produce in 2015-2016, a cutting-edge collaboration with media designer Jared Mezzocchi and director Megel.
Megel, who also heads the Process Series at UNC, says, “In our 2014-15 Season, StreetSigns is focusing on the artists who make the work and celebrating our partnership with the Process Series. Trojan Barbie was among the first plays developed in the Series and has gone on to productions all over the world. We are thrilled to bring it back to Chapel Hill and to spend a semester examining its context in class.”
The students of communications studies class “Advanced Projects in Performance Studies,” are working with outside actors Jade Arnold, Elisabeth Lewis Corley, Bonnie Gould, and Amber Wood to bring Evans’s ambitious play to life. Rob Hamilton designs the set and props, assisted by UNC students Grace Brewer and Rachel Davis, Liz Droessler designs the lights, Joseph Amodei designs the media. Costumes are by Danielle Elizabeth Preston, assisted by Marissa Erickson.
StreetSigns producer Elisabeth Lewis Corley adds, “It is a great pleasure to work in this way with students alongside professionals. The wider conversation about war benefits greatly from young voices. We look forward to sharing this with audiences.”
Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans
April 9-19 at UNC’s Swain Hall 101 E. Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill, NC
- Wednesday, April 8, 8 pm – Pay-What-You-Can Preview
- Thursday, April 9, 8 pm – Opening Night (Reception Follows)
- Friday, April 10, 8 pm
- Saturday, April 11, 8 pm
- Wednesday, April 15, 8 pm
- Thursday, April 16, 8 pm
- Friday, April 17, 8 pm
- Saturday, April 18, 3 pm and 8 pm
- Sunday, April 19, 3 pm
Tickets
Tickets $10 – $20. All opening night tickets are $25. Other Wednesday/Thursday performances are $10 for all seats. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, tickets are $20.00, with some discounts available: $15.00 tickets for Seniors, UNC Faculty and Staff and $10.00 tickets for Active Duty Military, Veterans, and Students. To purchase tickets follow the links on the website www.piedmontperformancefactory.org or visit https://streetsigns.tixato.com/buy/trojan-barbie. For further information, please enquire: streetsignscenter@gmail.com.
Visit www.piedmontperformancefactory.org or www.facebook.com/streetsignscenter for more information.
About StreetSigns
StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance is an award-winning professional performing arts and educational center based in Chatham County, North Carolina. Founded in Chicago in 1992, StreetSigns has presented more than fifty productions in its twenty-plus-year history. StreetSigns has worked in partnership with Northwestern University, the department of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Georgetown University, always dedicated to the development and presentation of new literary adaptations, company-created theatrical works, innovative new plays, and bold re-imaginings of classics. StreetSigns is committed to celebrating the region’s rich oral and written traditions and to engaging cultural and political issues through the performance of literature. www.piedmontperformancefactory.org
About The Process Series: New Works in Development
Dedicated to the development of new and significant works in the performing arts, The Process Series features professionally-mounted, developmental presentations of new works in progress. The mission of the Series is to illuminate the ways in which artistic ideas take form, to examine the creative process, to offer audiences the opportunity to follow artists and performers as they explore and discover and by so doing to enrich the development process for artists with the ultimate goal of better art and a closer relationship between artists and audiences. The Series is a program of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. www.processseries.unc.edu
