Woe is Me (The Trojan Women)

Adapted by D. Lance Marsh from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, William Shakespeare, and Jean Racine

Oklahoma City University

Directed by D. Lance Marsh and Hal Kohlman

September 2020

Lighting Design by Clara Wiebe

Costume Design by Erin Wilson

Sound Design by Jacob Henry

Technical Direction by Cale Coffia

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, this play was intended to be a fully realized production of Euripides’ The Trojan Women. During the design process, the director, costume designer and I agreed to stage the play in an “ambiguously modern” world. The scenic side of the show would draw inspiration from modern war zones and sites of disaster, such as bombed out cities in Syria and the aftermath of domestic terrorist attacks like 9/11. The director wanted lots of levels to stage actors on, as the show originally had a chorus of around 20 ensemble members that would remain onstage for the duration of the play. I decided to set the show at the decimated entrance to the city of Troy, with a formal staircase that served as the city gates surrounded by the rubble of collapsed buildings. About two weeks into design meetings, the director approached me and the technical director and asked about the feasibility of putting a car onstage to serve as another piece of staging for the ensemble and principal cast. We originally planned on sourcing an old four-door sedan from a local junkyard, but after the technical director and I were unable to find one within budget we decided to dismantle the old shop truck that was slowly decaying in a parking lot at the school. Another important aspect of the set was the inclusion of two pieces of chain-link fences along the outside edges of the stage. These were inspired by temporary memorials erected at sites of crisis, like school shootings or bombings. This fence in particular was designed to look like the fences erected outside of the Oklahoma City bombing site, which still remains up as a part of the memorial today. Each of the women would have a small token that they took with them form their destroyed homes, which were to be left on the fence as they left for the Greek ships at the end of the play.

The show was fully designed, built, and painted, and was about 95% installed when our school shut down due to the pandemic in mid-March. While I completed my final semester from home, my professors and director assured me that they would find a way to stage the show in any way they could. While I was unable to return in person to help or see the final product, the show opened in September 2020 as Woe is Me, a collection of tragic monologues that was performed adhering to COVID-19 safety guidelines. With no ensemble, a socially-distanced cast, and no in-person audience, Woe is Me was very different from The Trojan Women. The set remained mostly unchanged, with minor adjustments to the paint treatment and finishing touches from before lockdown finally completed. The biggest change was that of the fences, which now remained decorated with memorial objects for the duration of the show, as actors were not allowed to leave props onstage due to safety concerns. While I was upset that we never got to see the production of Trojan Women that we originally designed, I am very happy that everyone’s hard work did not go to waste and that a show was able to go on in its place.

Design Process

Installation