THE WOMEN OF____ (a Song Not Song)Comes to Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents The Women of _______ (a song not song) by I-Chia Chiu, Kt Shorb and the ensemble February 13-17, 2019 at the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre.

The Women of _______ (a song not song) is inspired by Euripides' The Women of Troy, a tragedy in which the Trojan women mourn their fates after their husbands are killed and Troy burns. The play invites the audience to join a group of nameless ghosts on a multilingual journey through poems and tales, to restore dead memories, to trace linguistic and cultural annihilation and to speak for the silenced voices in history. As a partially-devised work collecting the voices of historically marginalized people, the play explores trauma, political wars and our personal battles against ourselves.

"The Women of _______ (a song not song) is about transition, trauma, gender and memory," explains director Kt Shorb. "It investigates how we both consciously and subconsciously tell stories about our past and examines who has been in a position to tell these stories and why. By design, we cast the show in order to focus on the oft-buried stories of women and try to excavate something that is both universal and unique to this ensemble. This piece examines war, both on a personal level and a larger global scale, and questions how we narrate our own lives, begging the question, 'what is lost in translation?'"

Kt Shorb is a director, writer and performer. They are a Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice candidate and the founder and producing artistic director of Generic Ensemble Company. Directorial work includes: 893 | Ya-ku-za, Scheherazade; Voices from Death Row; The Mikado: Reclaimed and Radio Kaduna. They sit on the Board for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists and have been an invited fellow for the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation. ktshorb.net

"The production team has drawn from a wealth of cultural traditions to create the world of the play, focusing most heavily on Euripides' Greek tragedy, The Women of Troy," shares the play's dramaturg, Alexis Riley. "In rehearsals, the ensemble disassembled the myth, generating monologues, short stories, soundscapes and movement sequences built around important characters, settings and ideas. The resulting production is not a retelling of The Women of Troy, nor does it offer a linear story. The Women of _______ (a song not song) is a meditation on themes of longing and loss, presenting audiences with a collage of theatrical moments. It invites us to metaphorically fill in the blank, remaining mindful of each memory and emotion that arises within us as the piece unfolds."

Alexis Riley is a Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice candidate at The University of Texas at Austin whose work focuses on intersections of mental health and performance. She has presented her research at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the Comparative Drama Conference and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and has written reviews for Theatre History Studies, Theatre Research International and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre.

The Women of _______ (a song not song) features an all-star cast of University of Texas at Austin students, including Elizabeth George, Vivian Gonzalez, Guinevere Govea, Anapaula Guajardo, Natalia de Maar, Cat Palacios, Jane Elise Palacios, Andrew G. Rodriguez and Brisa Shaw.

The production's creative team includes I-Chia Chiu (Playwright), Kt Shorb (Director), Delena Bradley (Costume Designer), Iman Corbani (Scenic Designer), Kaiwen Fa (Projection Designer), Margaret Jumonville (Associate Director), Jessica Peña Torres (Movement Directory and Associate Dramaturg), Malyssa Quiles (Sound Designer), Aly Redland (Stage Manager), Alexis Riley (Dramaturg), Austin Shirley (Lighting Designer) and David Tolin (Technical Director).

For more information about The Women of _______ (a song not song), please visit JoinTheDrama.org.

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