Claire Trevor Theater
University of California, Irvine
After Troy was created and directed by renowned Romanian director, Mihai Maniutiu, and is based on the Euripides tragedy, Hecuba. This provocative piece examines the destruction and degradation of the Trojan women after the ten year Trojan War, inflicted by the Greek soldiers that have decimated their land, slaughtered their men and made them slaves. Maniutiu explores the painful emotions surrounding war and the reality of our own world’s intimacy with violence in this post-apocalyptic piece.
Working with Maniutiu was an exhilarating process as he allowed the exploration of ideas to happen organically and intuitively. I sat in on many rehearsals and formed my design around the demands of the piece as well as my collaboration with the actors, designers and director. I really wanted to explore something different with this production so I decided to use a number of non-theatrical (architectural) lighting sources as I was interested in their raw quality of light. As this was a very harsh, brutal play, I was excited by the idea of using everyday lighting fixtures to represent the gritty atrocities of a war-stricken land. I used fluorescent, neon, metal halide, high pressure sodium, and incandescent lighting alongside my theatrical lighting fixtures.
Director: Mihai Maniutiu, Scenic Design: Robin Darling, Costume Design: Gwyneth Conway-Bennison, Sound Design: Patricia Cardona, Composer: Mark Caspary
Photography by Paul Kennedy
