Community Symposium: The Trojan War, Then and Now

As part of Stanford Repertory Theater's 20th Anniversary Summer Festival, "Nevertheless They Persisted: Euripides’ Hecuba/Helen," they are offering an all-day community symposium, “The Trojan War, Then and Now,” exploring the afterlife of the Trojan War in literature and art.

The symposium combines lectures, scenes performed by the SRT company, a panel discussion with the artists who have collaborated on the Hecuba/Helen production. The day beings with a continental breakfast, and we break for a delightful catered lunch (with the opportunity to talk informally with the lecturers and actors), and enjoy afternoon tea and cookies before our final panel.

Stanford Professor Richard Martin (Classics) will provide insights into the way the Trojan War has entered the mythic consciousness of the West, and Professor Heather Hadlock (Music) will discuss the Trojan War and opera. Professor Katerina Zacharia (Classics and Film, Loyola-Marymount University) considers how the Trojan War has influenced modern Greek literature and film, and symposium favorite Professor William Eddelman (Stanford Theater Studies) will talk about how visual artists and theater designers have adapted the Trojan War in their work.

We follow each lecture with a lively question and answer period, and the lectures are interspersed with short performances by the SRT company, including scenes from Euripides’ Orestes and Andromache, Marlowe's Faust, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, George Seferis’ Helen, and others, all dealing with the symposium theme, "The Trojan War, Then and Now."

Following afternoon tea and cookies, the day ends with a panel discussion with SRT artists who have brought Euripides’ Hecuba/Helen to life on stage. We encourage all symposiasts to see the production before the symposium, or you may join us at the theater that evening. Hecuba/Helen plays Thursday – Saturday, 8 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm, from July 26 through August 19, at Roble Studio Theater, in the historic Roble Gym, 375 Santa Teresa.