Telling an ancient story in a modern light takes a lot of digging. Just like the archeologists that have unearthed the many layers of Troy, our team has taken the time to understand the many layers of AN ILIAD. We're happy to share with you some of our discoveries and sources:

Production Dramaturgical Study Guides:
https://www.courttheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PG_AnIliad.pdf
https://www.pcs.org/assets/uploads/ResourceGuide-aniliad2.pdf


Podcasts:
Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! by Liv Albert
Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! is a Greek and Roman mythology podcast.
But it’s not your average Greek and Roman mythology podcast, this one is told by a 30-something Millennial with a penchant for cursing and a feminist attitude. The stories are deeply researched, thoroughly told, and they don’t hold back the details that have been sugarcoated and treated with kid gloves over the millennia since they were originally told.
There’s violence, assault, and so, so many gods transforming into animals to have their way [with women and nymphs]. Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! is casual and fun but equally knowledgeable and will leave you with a deeper understanding of the myths and the people who told them those many, many years ago.


Myth Take: A Fresh Take on Ancient Myth by Alison Innes and Darrin Sunstrum
Our podcast is a little different from other myth podcasts out there. Rather than telling the stories, we focus on analyzing the literary material where those stories come from. Sometimes we choose a particular figure or theme from mythology and examine texts relating to it. Other times, we choose a passage from a play or poem and analyze it for its themes and ideas.
Our podcast is unscripted, so anything can happen! We keep it real–we want you to feel like you’re sitting down and having a conversation with us. We also welcome your input–questions, thoughts, suggestions, ideas.


Librivox: The Iliad by Homer; Translated by Samuel Butler
Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.
The Iliad, together with the Odyssey, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The poem is commonly dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, and many scholars believe it is the oldest extant work of literature in the Greek language, making it the first work of European literature. The existence of a single author for the poems is disputed as the poems themselves show evidence of a long oral tradition and hence, multiple authors. The poem concerns events during the tenth and final year in the siege of the city of Iliun, or Troy, by the Greeks. 


Youtube Channels:
Crash Course World History
https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse


Television/Film:
Empire Games
Interviews with scholars and dramatic reenactments bring to life the origins and history-making achievements of the world's greatest ancient empires.

Troy: Fall of a City
An epic story of love and war, intrigue and betrayal. When Helen and Paris fall in love, they trigger a chain of events that threatens their families and the city of Troy.


Further Reading:
​Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture-the stories of gods and heroes that have inspired human creativity from antiquity to the present.

We follow the drama of the Trojan War and the wanderings of Odysseus. We hear the tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Cupid and Psyche, and mighty King Midas. We discover the origins of the names of the constellations. And we recognize reference points for countless works for art, literature and culture inquiry-from Freud's Oedipus complex to Wagner's Ring Cycle of operas to Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra

Both a reference text for scholars of all ages and a book to simply enjoy, Mythology is a classic not to be missed.


Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
“Mary Renault lives again!” declares Emma Donoghue, author of Room, referring to The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.


Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Queen Briseis has been stolen from her conquered homeland and given as a concubine to a foreign warrior. The warrior is Achilles: famed hero, loathed enemy, ruthless butcher, darkly troubled spirit. Briseis's fate is now indivisibly entwined with his.
No one knows it yet, but there are just ten weeks to go until the Fall of Troy, the end of this long and bitter war. This is the start of The Iliad: the most famous war story ever told. The next ten weeks will be a story of male power, male ego, male violence. But what of the women? The thousands of female slaves in the soldiers' camp - in the laundry, at the loom, laying out the dead? Briseis is one of their number - and she will be our witness to history.


Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power―and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?


The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander

Composed around 730 B.C., Homer’s Iliad recounts the events of a few momentous weeks in the protracted ten-year war between the invading Achaeans, or Greeks, and the Trojans in their besieged city of Ilion. From the explosive confrontation between Achilles, the greatest warrior at Troy, and Agamemnon, the inept leader of the Greeks, through to its tragic conclusion, The Iliad explores the abiding, blighting facts of war.
Soldier and civilian, victor and vanquished, hero and coward, men, women, young, old--The Iliad evokes in poignant, searing detail the fate of every life ravaged by the Trojan War. And, as told by Homer, this ancient tale of a particular Bronze Age conflict becomes a sublime and sweeping evocation of the destruction of war throughout the ages.
Carved close to the original Greek, acclaimed classicist Caroline Alexander’s new translation is swift and lean, with the driving cadence of its source—a translation epic in scale and yet devastating in its precision and power.


The Iliad by Homer; Translated by Robert Fagles
Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.
 
Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.”


The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction by Eric H. Cline
The Iliad, Homer's epic tale of the abduction of Helen and the decade-long Trojan War, has fascinated mankind for millennia. Even today, the war inspires countless articles and books, extensive archaeological excavations, movies, television documentaries, even souvenirs and collectibles. But while the ancients themselves believed that the Trojan War took place, scholars of the modern era have sometimes derided it as a piece of fiction. 

Combining archaeological data and textual analysis of ancient documents, this Very Short Introduction considers whether or not the war actually took place and whether archaeologists have really discovered the site of ancient Troy. To answer these questions, archaeologist and ancient historian Eric H. Cline examines various written sources, including the works of Homer, the Epic Cycle (fragments from other, now-lost Greek epics), classical plays, and Virgil's Aeneid. Throughout, the author tests the literary claims against the best modern archaeological evidence, showing for instance that Homer, who lived in the Iron Age, for the most part depicted Bronze Age warfare with accuracy. Cline also tells the engaging story of the archaeologists--Heinrich Schliemann and his successors Wilhelm Dörpfeld, Carl Blegen, and Manfred Korfmann--who found the long-vanished site of Troy through excavations at Hisarlik, Turkey. 

Drawing on evidence found at Hisarlik and elsewhere, Cline concludes that a war or wars in the vicinity of Troy probably did take place during the Late Bronze Age, forming the nucleus of a story that was handed down orally for centuries until put into final form by Homer. But Cline suggests that, even allowing that a Trojan War took place, it probably was not fought because of Helen's abduction, though such an incident may have provided the justification for a war actually fought for more compelling economic and political motives. 


Homer: A Very Short Introduction by Barbara Graziosi
Homer's mythological tales of war and homecoming, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are widely considered to be two of the most influential works in the history of western literature. Yet their author, 'the greatest poet that ever lived' is something of a mystery. By the 6th century BCE, Homer had already become a mythical figure, and today debate continues as to whether he ever existed.

In this Very Short Introduction Barbara Graziosi considers Homer's famous works and their impact on readers throughout the centuries. She shows how the Iliad and the Odyssey benefit from a tradition of reading that spans well over two millennia, stemming from ancient scholars at the library of Alexandria, in the third and second centuries BCE, who wrote some of the first commentaries on the Homeric epics. Summaries of these scholars' notes made their way into the margins of Byzantine manuscripts; from Byzantium the annotated manuscripts travelled to Italy; and the ancient notes finally appeared in the first printed editions of Homer, eventually influencing our interpretation of Homer's work today. Along the way, Homer's works have inspired artists, writers, philosophers, musicians, playwrights, and film-makers. Exploring the main literary, historical, cultural, and archaeological issues at the heart of Homer's narratives, Graziosi analyses the enduring appeal of Homer and his iconic works.


Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson
Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times--from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes’s conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive--Victor Davis Hanson explains why the armies of the West have been the most lethal and effective of any fighting forces in the world.

Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, Hanson argues that it is in fact Western culture and values–the tradition of dissent, the value placed on inventiveness and adaptation, the concept of citizenship–which have consistently produced superior arms and soldiers. Offering riveting battle narratives and a balanced perspective that avoids simple triumphalism, Carnage and Culture demonstrates how armies cannot be separated from the cultures that produce them and explains why an army produced by a free culture will always have the advantage.

So as we enter our final few days of rehearsal, I find myself really grateful to be in this production and really excited to welcome audiences to share in the story of A Walk in the Woods. Our show is about friendship, about efforts to communicate with and find common ground with someone who does not share your political and cultural assumptions. As such, it’s a particularly thought-provoking piece for the current election season. I hope our audiences will enjoy the show in the moment and also that they will go home with lots of ideas to discuss with their friends.

Doing something that feels foreign to you can be an incredibly scary notion. It is so easy to live in the comfortable stasis of day-to-day life. What a safe choice! What stability! But what if complacency creeps in, building to boredom or discontent? A person in that position has two options: live in denial, coping with the mediocre, and trudging forward with blind hope for something better to fall in your lap. Or, do something about it! Take a risk. Try something new. Push yourself outside of the limits as you know them.
I have been thinking a lot recently about proactivity and the benefits that come from that kind of behavior. As described before, proactive behavior involves acting in advance of a future situation, rather than just reacting. It means taking control and making things happen rather than just adjusting to a situation or waiting for something to happen.
In acting training my classmates and I spent plenty of time focusing on listening and reacting in scene work. But characters in plays are also incredibly proactive - their circumstances force them into the mindset of Now or Never. As Emily likes to say in improv, Today is the Day. Today is the day I quit my job, Today is the day I tell my mom I'm dropping out of college, Today is the day I sell all of my belongings and tour the world with just a knapsack on my back, Today is the Day. This proactivity is what pushes the lives of the characters forward. It opens the door for new discoveries. It sets the stage for a new improvements and enlightenment.
I now teach this concept to students in acting classes and have made an effort to integrate proactivity into my own lifestyle as a result. I would feel rather hypocritical if I encouraged everyone else to try an acting or improv class or writing a play if I refused to try that as well. So this has been the year of doing theatrical things where I lack confidence. I jumped into improv, a skill that always terrified me. I wrote a play during a very beneficial workshop at ACTF. The workshop also gave me plenty of tools to drop the mental blocks and get writing on a regular basis. I have made it a goal of the summer to write a little something every day - and then to get up the courage to share that work.
That day came on the summer solstice of this year. The arts community of Laramie got together to create work of all styles and genres inspired by the Major and Minor Arcana of Tarot. Relative Theatrics' Playwrights Inc. group became involved with the help our tarot expert, Richard Morell. Each playwright was paired with an artist and/or card with the goal of writing monologues and scenes inspired by the artwork. I was paired with Ariana Kimble, a wildly talented artist who brings nature, power, and femininity into everything she touches. Two cards were assigned, the 10 of Swords and the Moon. I should preface, I know very little about tarot. I asked my tarot knowledgable friends endless questions, listened to podcasts (I highly recommend The Archetypal Tarot Podcast if you're in the market for listening material), read books, surfed the web, basically researched Tarot and these two specific cards without end. The newfound tarot knowledge, combined with the inspiration from Ariana's artwork, set a clear path into the tarot monologues. Did I have periods of writers block? Yes. Did I have moments of self-doubt? Absolutely. Did I ever give up? NO. I made a pact with myself to write something every day, whether I had the inspiration or not. The end result was pages of mediocre writing, and just enough nuggets of gold to assemble two strong, but very different monologues which were then performed by local actors at the Major Arcana Tarot Project Art Showing.
This is the second time I have ever shared my writing with the public. My heart was thumping. But the actors brought such life to the pieces and the work was so well received. And best of all, I left the evening with a newfound feeling of accomplishment and self-pride. I did it! I took the risk. I reaped the benefits. I may not be at a place where I will call myself a playwright, but I can say that I have had my own work produced. That is a pretty neat feeling.
​
Do you have something you have been wanting to do but are too scared/nervous/comfortable? What about a moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

And because I shared the story of my monologues, I suppose I will share the monologues as well:

Last month I was fortunate to fill a week entirely with forward-moving theatre performances, workshops, and conversations. Between the New Play Summit at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Region VII American College Theatre Festival, my mind was stretched and my craft developed. A major theme coursing through my notes from the week centers around casting consciousness, particularly when it comes to roles of diversity.

Diversity in theatre has been a hot topic in the theatre community, especially recently. Members of the discussion cite productions that made casting choices without respect to the playwright's intent; a production of Katori Hall's THE MOUNTAINTOP at Kent State in which a white actor portrayed Martin Luther King Jr.; a primarily caucasian cast in "yellow face" for THE MIKADO with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players; white actors as South Asians in the Clarion University production of Lloyd Suh's JESUS IN INDIA. This fuel, combined with positive responses to Lin Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON, has lit a fire about diversity on stage.

First, let me say, this is a controversy that does not have an easy fix. Seemingly every article I read and everyone I talk to about this quandary has a different opinion and a different solution.

Some point to "colorblind" casting (casting roles with disregard to race). The catch here is when "colorblind casting" is used as a justification for racial or societal implications. A great example of this in conversation is the recent buzz about Joseph Fiennes portraying Michael Jackson. In this case, you are viewing a specific role for a specific race cast by an actor not of that race. Indeed, it is easy to see how that may upset the masses and gives colorblind casting a bad reputation. 
Yet I also have always viewed the 1997 version of Roger and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA with Brandy and Whoopi Goldberg as a positive argument for colorblind casting in which the race of the actors is completely irrelevant to the story being told. Unfortunately, society doesn't always let those artistic choices go over so easily. When watching and discussing Shakespeare productions approached with colorblind casting, the conversation still comes back to race. I hear people asking, "now what was the directors intent with that casting choice. What is he saying about the relationship between these races?"

Other points of view (and I should emphasize that I do not agree with this mentality) believe that the right thing to do is nothing. To change nothing. That bringing up these issues only reinforces them and makes them more present. I bring this up because, unfortunately, the thoughts are out there in the world. My response to this approach often highlights the lack of recognition for the hardships that minorities have been faced with. While this conversation is a complex and difficult one, denial is not the answer.

I fear that the conversation of diverse casting may be a vicious cycle with many casualties and hurt feelings on the road toward progress. We all must strive to move forward in acceptance, tolerance, and empathy for other groups in society without forgetting the history of oppression and racism.

But perhaps a hopeful step is a push towards "color conscious casting." Teresa Eyring of Theatre Communications Group defines this as casting that "intentionally considers the race and ethnicity of actors and the characters they play in order to oppose racism, honor and respect cultures, foster stronger productions, and contribute to a more equitable world." This approach acknowledges that as a producer or director, what you put on stage has an impact on an audience. That power needs to be handled with care and with an ethically conscious respect for the playwright's intent. Eyring fears that without this change "we risk perpetuating a system that privileges whiteness with greater access and opportunity, and appropriates the cultures of communities of color."

The next step is making your own theatre community more inclusive. This is an area that I have struggled with for some time. I regret to say that I fell into the thought process that my geographic location makes diverse casting nearly impossible. In light of recent conversations, I have realized how limiting that mentality was. At a Casting Conscious Panel at ACTF I asked playwright Idris Goodwin how to escape the trap of thinking that your community lacks the diversity to tell a wide range of diverse stories. His advice? "Look beyond." While I felt a little silly at the obviousness of the answer that I somehow could not reach on my own, I am so very glad I asked. Goodwin expressed his belief that no community is without diversity, it simply is a matter of getting out of your tribe, "out of your nucleus," in order to develop an inclusive theatre community. That being said, if you are reading this and are inspired to do theatre but afraid of taking the risk, please contact me! Relative Theatrics welcomes everyone, regardless of ethnicity, gender, ability, or background.

Finally, it should be said that different playwrights have differing thoughts on how to approach this challenge with their work. In that case, it is crucial for the director/producer to develop a relationship with the playwright. Allow the correspondence to be a conversation where problem areas can be worked out. Perhaps casting a specific role is proving to be a major challenge. The solution may be to increase your outreach efforts and make sure you have the right people in the room to tell the story truthfully. Have an understanding the culture of your theatre and audience and give them an opportunity for discussion and expansion. As I'm planning the next season for Relative Theatrics, I came up against this question. While I cannot disclose the details at this point in time, I will say that I knew before proceeding I needed to have this conversation with playwright Larissa Fasthorse about Native American roles/actors. Her response: "Personally, I ask theaters to put a little effort into outreach to find Native actors. Many are surprised to find Native actors they were not aware of or discover actors they already know are part Native. That said, I prefer to have the play produced in the strongest way. Sometimes that means using different ethnicities in the roles. I understand that." This standpoint assuaged my worries in producing her work and encouraged me to up my outreach game, but I cannot forget that this is the opinion of one individual playwright and not a generalization about diverse casting. Asking the questions and having the conversation is crucial.

Most importantly, remember that you are in the right for asking. There is trust that both the playwright and the producer or director want what is best for the play and for the people. Doing so doesn't fully solve the problem, but it does pave the way for a move diverse and accepting future in theatre and society.

Lights up on a downtown Laramie coffee shop. On a table lies a half-consumed muffin, a pot of tea, a laptop, cell phone, and an open copy of Ayad Akhtar’s 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play, DISGRACED. The reader is absent. She fled to the bathroom holding back a flood of tears triggered by the play’s content. Even she is confused by what exactly stirred up such a visceral emotional reaction. In a strikingly emotional way, the play forces her to think deeper and ask why.

The reader is me.

I ordered DISGRACED over a year ago, yet it sat on the bookshelf unopened. Why? Because I was scared to read it. I have heard plenty about it - amazing reviews from the New York Times, Theatre Communications Group/American Theatre Magazine, and countless other publications. Friends who had seen productions raved about it’s probing nature and the deep questions it provoked. But I also recognized that content deserving of the Pulitzer Prize wouldn’t be safe. It would be powerful, challenging, bold, and dangerous. These are all the qualities I love in a good play, but they frighten me too. I couldn’t read it. I was comfortable in my complacency. But by not reading this play and venturing into dark waters, I turned myself into a hypocrite. I am the artistic director of a theatre company that loves to push the envelope and make its’ patrons face reality. What kind of a leader am I if I am unwilling to do so myself?

This self acknowledgment led me to question the Why.

Why write plays? Read them? Produce them? Attend them?

My biggest argument steals from a brilliant playwright, Terrence McNally. When addressing the League of American Theatres and Producers he postulated, “I think theatre teaches us who we are, what our society is, where we are going. I don’t think theatre can solve the problems of a society, nor should it be expected to … Plays don’t do that. People do. [But plays can] provide a forum for the ideas and feelings that can lead a society to decide to heal and change itself.” 

I believe this full-heartedly. However, this stance took a while to develop. As a younger actor, I was in theatre for myself. I wanted to be recognized and celebrated. I was selfish. What a terrible quality to bring to the theatre community - which is just that, a fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Theatre does not lie in the individual, it lives in the other. This is not to say that the individual is insignificant, for it can be a single person’s voice or actions that incite a movement, but the individual mentality must think outside of the self. Recognizing this fact was the catalyst in the evolution of my theatrical reasoning. The plays that I produce are not for me, they are for my community. The voices that are projected in a Relative Theatrics production have a goal to make audience members reflect on the world we live in and talk about the thoughts and questions that the material provokes. Don’t get me wrong, it is flattering to hear the positive reactions to a play that I have poured myself into while directing and producing; but I don’t do it solely for me. I do it for you. I do it for us. The community. The world.

This mission resonates in everything I do. It’s why I love the concept of the chat-back after a Relative Theatrics production and why I started a play-reading series where plays are examined by a diverse group of people and backgrounds. Discussing theatre with others fills me with momentum and drive. Dialogue incited by art gives me a sense of purpose. That is why I put my fear to bed and picked up a play that I knew would ask the instinctual, deep-rooted questions of human actions. I could face these issues through a number of other mediums: paintings, novels, essays, etc. But the play contains the magic to emotionally resonate with me in a dramatic way that packs a punch. I relate to the characters more than I do when viewing a portrait or reading a novel. And the events that befall these characters sweep me off my feet and can trigger sobbing in a public bathroom. 

We need to support the art that makes us think. We need to ask the hard questions that force us to look at the world with a wider scope. I thank all the community driven artists in the world for giving me avenues to societal rumination. Art cannot change the world, but it can change the way we individually view the world. In an interview that followed the text of DISGRACED, Akhtar proposes that “the only way we can change the world is by recognizing what it is, now.” Let us all take a risk and tackle the hard topics affecting our society. It may be unsettling, but it’s worth it.