Significant Work #1: The Oresteia

Context & Significance

In 2018, The Shakespeare Theatre began developing The Oresteia, a bold reimagining of Aeschylus’ classic tragedy, adapted by Ellen McLaughlin. Helmed by award-winning director Michael Kahn, the production sought to bridge the historical and the contemporary, exploring the cyclical nature of violence, justice, and fate through a modern lens. The adaptation streamlined Aeschylus’ trilogy into a singular, urgent piece that plumbed the psychological depths of its characters and spotlighted the lingering specters of war and revenge while reimagining the ritualistic role of the chorus for a contemporary audience.

The production marked both the end of Michael Kahn’s three-decade tenure as Artistic Director of STC and the fulfillment of his longtime wish to stage the original family drama. I had long aspired to work with Kahn, whose reputation as a formidable director was well-known. Ellen McLaughlin, a preeminent adapter of Greek plays and a formidable actor in her own right, was another dream collaborator. Getting the opportunity to work alongside internationally recognized choreographer Jennifer Archibald and Tony Award-winning designer Susan Hilferty (Broadway’s Wicked) was a career highlight. Though I had previously worked at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in a polarizing production of Macbeth, I knew Kahn could have his choice of actors for what would be his swan song. When I received an invitation to audition for a reading of the piece, I jumped at the chance.

My Role & Artistic Contribution

I originated the role of Chorus B and understudied Agamemnon. In the workshop process, I played a variety of characters, including the god Apollo, as we worked over two years and through several cast configurations and rewrites to unlock the play. With our choreographer and a composer, we engaged in a deeply physical and vocal exploration of what I can only describe as ritual theatre. This process required me to draw from my experience as a writer and director as much as my work as an actor, as we sought to modernize an ancient tale.

The production demanded a mastery of heightened text and physical ease to embody a shifting, omnipresent voice of judgment and commentary. The integration of classical technique with contemporary performance strategies meant we were performing a classic play for contemporary audiences, keeping one foot in each world. Our approach combined stylized movement with psychological realism, ensuring that the play’s ancient themes remained urgent and visceral.

Creative Challenges & Process

One of the primary artistic challenges was navigating the language while maintaining emotional immediacy. As part of the Chorus, I had to shift seamlessly between narration, direct address, and embodied collective experience, ensuring that the text remained clear and impactful. While each member of the Chorus had their own personality and history, Ellen and Michael were interested in maintaining the collective hive mind feel of the traditional Greek Chorus. The production’s staging incorporated an intense physical vocabulary, drawing on Greek traditions while modernizing them to create a unique, visceral experience.

This process aligned with my broader research interests in embodied storytelling and classical adaptation. The work required an active negotiation of how historical performance conventions translate to contemporary staging, furthering my inquiry into how actors bridge the textual and the physical to make ancient works accessible and vital.

In 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic that shuttered all performance venues, Theatre for a New Audience, a preeminent New York theater focused on producing Shakespeare and other classical works, mounted the virtual premiere of the play. Directed by Andrew Watkins, the production reunited many of the original cast members as we endeavored to translate the work from the stage to a digital (cinematic) format. Many theaters were grappling with being unable to gather in space with audiences. The result was the birth of “digital theater” productions. While much ink was devoted to exploring the virtues (and limitations) of this new genre of theatre-making, for us it was an attempt to keep the theatrical tradition alive. Despite the challenges of rehearsing and performing over Zoom, Oresteia 2021 allowed the production team to recalibrate performance practice for a different medium. As a result of hours spent synchronizing lighting and camera settings and underscoring, we were able to create an experience that was hauntingly intimate and highlighted McLaughlin’s poetic text in a way that the large-scale production in Washington did not.

Reception & Impact

The productions received critical acclaim for its bold adaptation and the ensemble’s rigorous, ensemble-driven performances. The Oresteia was noted for its intensity and compelling synthesis of movement, text, and spectacle.

• The Washington Post praised the production’s ability to make Aeschylus’ themes feel “urgent and unsettlingly relevant.”

• The production was nominated for many Helen Hayes Awards, including Best Ensemble.

• Audience response underscored the work’s emotional power, particularly in its handling of justice, vengeance, and redemption within the modern world.

Connection to My Research & Teaching

My work in The Oresteia reinforced my ongoing exploration of:

• The evolution of classical storytelling and contemporary staging in live/virtual spaces
  
  

• The role of the actor in navigating heightened text and collective storytelling
  
  

• How movement, voice, and physical embodiment interact in ensemble-driven work

This production has directly influenced my approach to classical text performance, acting technique, and adaptation. I continue to draw from this experience in my mentorship of actors engaging with heightened language and physical storytelling.

Why This Work is Significant to the Field

The Oresteia represents a synthesis of my performance practice and research into classical adaptation and theatrical innovation. My participation in these productions marks my ongoing investigation of the classical canon through a contemporary lens. The play has been produced numerous times since its premiere, in theaters across the country and contributes to ongoing discourse about the role of classic plays in contemporary theater.