Ajax in Iraq by Ellen McLaughlin

directed by John Farmanesh-Bocca

Audience Guide Fall 2012

Table of Contents Cast of Characters 2 Introduction to the Play – Postmodernism and Collage in American Theatre 3 Ellen McLaughlin on Ajax in Iraq 5 The Tragedy of Ajax 6 History of the Trojan War 7 Timeline of the United States in Iraq 7 Timeline of Women in the United States Military 10 Interview with Director John Farmanesh-Bocca 15

Cast of Characters

Ancient Greeks

Athena: The Greek goddess of war and wisdom. Athena narrates Ajax’s story and also causes him to go insane.

Odysseus: The Greek mythological hero of The Odyssey. In the myth of Ajax, he is Ajax’s rival for the armor of their fallen comrade, Achilles.

Ajax: Greek mythical hero of the Trojan War. Though he is the second-greatest warrior in the Greek army, he is not chosen to receive the armor of Achilles. He plots revenge against his Greek superiors, but is driven insane by the goddess Athena.

Chorus: A chorus of Greek sailors from Ajax’s hometown. See note on the Greek Chorus.

Tecmessa: A princess taken captive in the Trojan War. Ajax takes her as his war-bride and she bears his son.

Teucer: Ajax’s brother. Teucer tries to give Ajax a proper burial after his suicide.

AJ’s Unit

Sickles: A female solider in A.J.’s unit.

Connie Mangus: A female soldier in A.J.’s unit who is AJ’s closest and most trusted friend

Rebo: A female solider in A.J.’s unit.

A.J.: A female soldier in the US Army. She serves on the front lines in Iraq and is close to the end of her first tour of duty in the war.

Vincent Charles: A male corporal in A.J’s unit.

Pisoni: A male soldier in A.J.’s unit.

Sergeant: A.J’s immediate superior officer. He pursues AJ romantically.

Minister: A clergy member in A.J.’s unit

Other Americans

Chorus of Modern Soldiers, A-F: A chorus of modern American soldiers. See note on the Greek Chorus.

Captain: A superior officer in the American Army.

Patient: The wife of an American soldier who has served in Iraq.

Therapist: A counselor at a Veterans Affairs hospital.

First Man in the Dark, Second Man in the Dark: Two modern soldiers in Iraq who speak to each other about the mistreatment of captured Iraqis.

Nog Dream Soliders, A, B, and C: Three soldiers who appear in a dream. In the dream they murder a field of sheep.

Debbie: A female soldier in Iraq.

Fletcher: A Vietnam veteran who runs a shelter for homeless vets.

Judy: An American woman whose family member is serving in the war.

Larry: A veteran of the Iraq War.

Other Characters

Gertrude Bell: A British political analyst who leads the process to create the map of modern Iraq while the region was under British rule in the late 19th century.

Other Key Concepts

The Greek Chorus –a group of unnamed actors who speak or sing in unison. Ancient Greek plays use the chorus to help explain to the audience the significance of the events occurring in the play..

Kali—The Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, time, change, and death. In the past few centuries, she has become known as a mother goddess.

The Trojan War—A conflict between the ancient Greeks and Trojans. The Greeks laid siege to the city of Troy, which was surrounded by a wall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_chorus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali

Introduction to the Play – Postmodernism and Collage in American Theatre by Tiffany Moon

From the Greeks and the birth of theatre through the mid-20th century and the Modernists, a play’s structure generally relied on plot and a linear relationship to time. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, established a series of rules for drama c. 335 BCE that, for the most part, were adhered to in some form or another until the mid-20th century and the advent of Postmodernism. Immortalized in a volume called Poetics, these rules focused on the unity of action (one plot with no subplots), and elevated plot over character in determining a play’s impact. The characters were often noble or royal, as that was a requirement for a tragic hero. During the 16th century, the

Neoclassicists expanded upon Aristotle’s rules, adding to the unity of action the unities of time and place. The unity of time required the play to take place over twenty-four hours and the unity of place required to the play to take place in one location. Plays written through the 19th century, including the plays of Shakespeare, often followed most or all of these rules. For further information about Aristotle’s Poetics, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetics_%28Aristotle%29.

During the late 19th century, there was a movement in Europe called Realism during which playwrights began to focus on depicting everyday life in a natural, realistic way. Often the characters were average people rather than noble, which was a departure from classical theatre structure. Anton Chekhov, Constantin Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre were proponents of this movement, continuing the conventions that had been introduced by Scandivian playwrights Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. The Realists kept the linear movement of time in their works, and closely followed Eugene Scribe and Victorien Sardou’s concept of the “well-made play.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-made_play

Strindberg is an early explorer of surrealist techniques that helped usher in the Modernist movement of the early 20th century (see A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata). The Modernists began playing with the linear structure of time in their pieces, adding in flashbacks and dreams. They explored the movement of time from future to past, and experimented with re-ordering events in a play’s timeline. During the Modernist period, symbolism took center stage, and playwrights began to turn away from Realism in favor of metaphor and image to reveal the inner turmoil of humanity. Eugene O’Neill and Bertolt Brecht are examples of prominent Modernist playwrights.

The Post-Modernism movement appeared around the mid-20th century as a reaction to Modernism. Post-Modernism discards the linear movement of time completely, and focuses less on character and plot. Post-Modern theatre is not defined by any one style, but Post-Modern plays often explore the concept of history and the repetition of events throughout time. Samuel Beckett, a Modernist, is also often credited as being one of the first Post-Modernists. Beckett’s plays were known for their existential situations and disregard for plot and character. In plays such as Waiting for Godot and Endgame, the ideas and themes presented are more important than standard theatrical conventions. Beckett was associated with the Theatre of the Absurd, a movement that “expressed the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Absurd#cite_note-0

Around the same time, The Living Theatre formed in New York City under the leadership of Judith Malina and Julian Beck. The theatre was formed in 1947 as “an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater.” The Living Theatre was highly influenced by Antonin Artaud’s 1938 book The Theater and its Double, in which Artaud outlined his ideas for the Theatre of Cruelty. A summary by Albert Bernal states,

“The kind of theatre Artaud envisaged would use the classics but only after subjecting them to a radical overhaul. Lighting, sound equipment and other technical means would no longer subserve the text; they would partially replace it. The noises, music and colours that generally accompany the lines would in places substitute for them. They would be

fortified by a range of human noises- screams, grunts, moans, sighs, yelps- together with a repertoire of gestures, signs and other movements. These would extend the range of the actor's art and the receptivity of the spectator. To put it another way, they would enlarge the theatre's vocabulary…They would surrender themselves to a performance, live through it and feel it, rather than merely think about it.” (http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/siryan/academy/theatres/theatre%20of%20cruelty.htm)

Working from this manifesto, The Living Theatre’s work broke the fourth wall, and presented some of the first examples of collage plays (Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, The Connection). They are the oldest experimental theatre company in the United States and heavily influenced the off-Broadway theatre movement of the mid-20th Century. www.livingtheatre.org

Ajax in Iraq is an example of this, and is an example of a Post-Modern collage play. Collage is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as:

a : an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface b : a creative work that resembles such a composition in incorporating various materials or elements <the album is a collage of several musical styles>

Ajax in Iraq employs scenes that jump from modern day Iraq to Ancient Greece, with the occasional late 19th century character thrown in to the hodgepodge. Although a linear plot exists in the play through the story of AJ, and secondarily the story of Ajax, the overall structure of the play intersperses scenes that have nothing to do with the main plotlines between plot-driven scenes. The play also features choral pieces that do not further the plot of the play, but magnify the themes of the play.

Ellen McLaughlin on Ajax in Iraq http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/inside/articles/articles-vol-7-i1-ellen-mclaughlin-ajax-iraq

Ellen McLaughlin, an award-winning playwright and accomplished actress (the original Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America), has for the last year been developing a new play in collaboration with the A.R.T./MXAT Institute's second-year graduate acting and dramaturgy students. Her residence at the A.R.T. has been made possible by a grant from Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the National Endowment for the Arts. Below, McLaughlin shares her thoughts about the process of writing the play and the sources she's drawing from.

The idea of writing a piece with the A.R.T. Institute about the Iraq War occurred to me not because I thought I could do it, but because I thought I couldn’t not do it. We are five years into what may be an unending war and I, for one, have yet to make sense of it. I knew the only way I was ever going to be able to come to grips with it was through the medium I work in, the theatre. And I needed all the help I could get. Specifically, I needed the help of theatre artists from the generation of the people doing the fighting and dying in the war rather than from my own peers, the generation that is sending them over there. I wanted the play we came up with to be

something that spoke for the students at least as much as it does for me. I’ve had my say. My generation has been talking about itself culturally for some time now. It was time to listen. So I asked the students to tell me what they thought, not only about this war but about war in general.

We met for several hours twice a week for a few weeks in the fall of 2007 and then again in the spring this year, and the students generated a great deal of theatrical material based on research and interviews, all related to war. The range of response was wide, the work nuanced and smart. We saw pieces about Korean comfort women, Supermax prison, Kurdish poetry, and the Crusades, to name a fraction. The collaborations were generous and effective, the presentations theatrically astute. I was bowled over.

While looking for a means of shaping this enormously varied wealth of material, I began to think about Sophocles’ thorny and challenging play Ajax, a tragedy about a veteran’s madness and suicide. I’ve adapted many Greek plays over the years and find the ancient Greeks particularly trenchant when it comes to their treatment of war, which all the great tragic playwrights knew intimately as veterans. The plays speak of war with candor and the wisdom born of the suffering war inevitably causes, no matter which side you’re on. Ajax is a figure of pathos at the same time that he is adamantly complex and difficult. But his pain, however much we wish to turn from it, compels our attention and our empathy. Looking at this play in the light of our times, his agony suddenly seems terribly modern. His voice can be heard in the voices of veterans speaking now about their experiences in Iraq. I came to feel that this disturbing and impossible play might be the means of grappling with this disturbing and impossible war.

These Greek plays – so ancient as to belong to no one – provide structures durable and capacious enough to encompass and shelter the new. They are the stories people have been telling and retelling for thousands of years in order to make sense of what they are living through. The talented and passionate students at the Institute and I are, I figure, in the grand tradition. We are speaking for these fraught and perplexing times. And we need, as I say, all the help we can get.

The Tragedy of Ajax The story of Ajax appears in Homer’s Iliad, the epic of the Trojan War, and later in Sophocles’ tragedy Ajax.

In the Trojan War, the strongest and bravest of the Greek soldiers is Achilles. When Achilles is killed in battle, the other Greeks must decide who should take his armor, which has been made by the gods. Ajax, the next most powerful soldier in the army, believes that he should receive the armor, but other Greeks say it should go to the warrior Odysseus. The Greek leaders take a vote, perhaps influenced by Odysseus’ protector and war goddess Athena, and present the armor to Odysseus instead. Ajax is furious that he has been looked over, so much so that he plans to murder Odysseus and the other Greek army leaders. Before he can carry out his plan, Athena makes Ajax lose his mind, tricking him into believing that a herd of captive animals are Greeks. He slaughters the herd and takes a few animals back to his tent, where he tortures them.

The next morning, Ajax realizes that he has killed the innocent animals, and is incredibly ashamed. His wife, Tecmessa, fears that he will take his own life and abandon her and their child. He assures her he will not take his own life, but she has guessed correctly—Ajax leaves

the Greek camp, buries his sword in the sand, and jumps onto the exposed blade, escaping his shame and dishonor through suicide.

The rest of the play deals with the fate of Ajax’s body. The Greek commanders want to leave Ajax unburied as punishment for his disgraceful actions, but Odysseus himself takes pity on Ajax. He persuades the other Greeks to allow Ajax’s brother, Teucer, to give the warrior a proper funeral and burial.

http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_sophocles_ajax.html

History of the Trojan War Though scholars believe there may have been an actual battle that gave rise to legends of Troy and the Greek siege of the city, the story of the Trojan War is largely mythology.

According to myth, Paris, a prince of the kingdom of Troy, either kidnaps or seduces Helen, Queen of Sparta, and takes her to the great, walled city-kingdom of Troy. Helen’s husband, King Menelaus, and his brother Agamemnon lead a brave group of Greek warriors to Troy to bring the queen back home. The Greeks lay siege to the city for over 10 years and the ensuing battles cost the lives of Achilles, Ajax, and the Trojan prince Hector, but neither side can pull ahead. The Greeks finally devise a plan: they retreat to their camp, leaving a large, wooden horse outside the gates of Troy (the original “Trojan Horse”). The Trojans bring the gift into the city, only to realize too late that Odysseus and the Greeks have stowed away inside. The Greeks emerge from the horse and destroy the city from within.

http://www.history.com/topics/trojan-war

Timeline of the United States in Iraq (from Gulf War to Iraq War)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16183966

Invasion begins

19-20 March 2003

President George W Bush says the US is striking selected targets in an effort to disarm Iraq. The US and UK claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction he was capable of using. Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with a "shock and awe" campaign intended as a show of force. Bombs are dropped on a farming community outside Baghdad where intelligence incorrectly suggested Saddam might be hiding.

Baghdad falls

3-12 April 2003

It takes less than a month for US tanks to roll down the streets of Iraq's capital city. President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleisher offers this prophetic take: "As much as the president is pleased to see

the progress of the military campaign... he remains very cautious because he knows there is great danger that can still lie ahead."

'Mission accomplished'

1 May 2003

Two months into the invasion, President Bush appears on an aircraft carrier off the coast of California to declare victory. The Bush administration is careful to note that the president is not declaring a legal end to the war - in part because they had never officially declared war on Iraq, and in part because fighting continues. US military engagement in Iraq will last for more than eight years.

Saddam captured

13 December 2003

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," US administrator Paul Bremer tells Baghdad-based journalists. Saddam is found by US troops south of Tikrit, his hometown, in an underground cellar. In 2006, after a trial conducted by the new Iraqi government, Saddam is found guilty of

crimes committed during his regime and hanged.

Insurgency takes hold

2004

Late in 2003, insurgents begin targeting US-backed forces and fighting erupts between rival militias. US troops wage fierce battles against insurgents in Fallujah in April 2004. The second battle of Fallujah takes place in November 2004 and is the bloodiest of the war - at

least 1,200 insurgents and 800 civilians are killed, while coalition forces lose over 100 troops, with at least 600 wounded.

Abu Ghraib scandal

April 2004

Images of US service personnel humiliating and torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison circulate around the world after they are shown on a US TV news programme. US officials say the abuse was the work of a "few bad apples", but a 2008 Senate Armed Services committee

inquiry concluded that the abuse was part of a larger culture of aggressive techniques solicited by government officials.

Suicide bombing spreads

2005

Suicide bombing hits an all-time high in 2005, with 478 suicide attacks. The focus of the insurgency has now shifted away from military personnel and on to civilians. The country devolves into sectarian strife with Sunni insurgents targeting Shias, a portend of the civil war to come in 2007.

New government

May 2006

The prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, seeks parliamentary approval for the first full government since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In July, coalition forces transfer control of a province, Muthanna, to local Iraqi authorities for the first time.

UK combat troops leave

30 April 2009

British forces lower their flag over the city of Basra to signify the end of their combat operations. In 2011, the last

81 British troops in Iraq - sailors monitoring the port of Umm Qasr - turn over their duties to the Iraqi navy. A total of 179 UK service personnel gave their lives to the conflict.

US combat troops withdraw

31 August 2010

The last US combat troops leave Iraq, but 50,000 American service members remain in an advisory capacity, training and assisting the Iraqi military. To signify the end of combat, the US mission in Iraq, previously called Operation Iraqi Freedom, is renamed Operation New Dawn.

See also http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1967340,00.html for another timeline of events.

Timeline of Women in the United States Military

1775 – 1783

Women commonly served traditional roles within the U.S. Army such as cooks, laundresses, nurses and seamstresses. Many military garrisons counted on these roles to makes service members’ lives tolerable. However, even during the American Revolution some women chose to for-go traditional roles by serving in combat alongside their husbands or disguised as men, while other courageous women took on roles as spies.

1812

Mary Marshall and Mary Allen serve as nurses aboard Commodore Stephen Decatur's ship, the United States.

1861 - 1865

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker volunteers to care for wounded service members in the Union Army and is later appointed the first female surgeon. In 1865, she received the Medal of Honor for her work and was the first woman to receive the award.

1901

Congress officially establishes the Army Nurse Corps on February 2, 1901, under the Army Reorganization Act.

1908

The Navy Nurse Corps was established by Congress in 1908, but at that time no provision was made for rank or rating comparable to the Navy's male personnel. While they have never held actual rank, the Navy nurses have since been accorded privileges similar to those of officers. Under a congressional enactment approved by President Roosevelt on July 3, 1942, members of the Navy Nurse Corps were

granted relative rank.

1917

The Navy allows women to enlist and serve stateside during World War I. Most of the 11,000 female yeoman who enlisted worked in Washington, D.C., as draftsmen, interpreters, couriers and translators. Later in World War I, the Navy enlisted 24 African-American women who worked in the Navy Department building.

1918

Opha Mae Johnson becomes the first woman accepted for duty when she enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in Washington, D.C.

1942

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the creation of the Army, Navy and Coast Guard women’s auxiliary/reserves. The Army’s female auxiliary members become known as the WAACs; their Navy counterparts become known as the WAVEs.

1943

The WAACs transition into the Women’s Army Corps, giving the more than 76,000 women who had enlisted as WAACs full military

status. WAACs director, Col. Oveta Culp Hobby, continued in her post as the WAACs transitioned to WACs. The U.S. Marine Corps creates a Women’s Reserve.

1948

The Women's Armed Services Integration Act grants women permanent regular and reserve status in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and the newly created Air Force. In addition, Executive Order 9981 ends racial segregation in the armed services

1953 Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Barbara Olive Barnwell becomes the first female Marine to be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism for saving a fellow Marine from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean in 1952.

1967

Marine Corps Master Sgt. Barbara Jean Dulinsky becomes the first female Marine to serve in a combat zone in Vietnam. She was assigned to U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam combat operations center in Saigon.

1974

Navy Lt. j.g. Barbara Ann (Allen) Rainey earns her wings as the first female Naval aviator.

1975

President Gerald R. Ford signs Public Law 94-106 on Oct. 7, 1975, permitting women to enroll in U.S. military academies beginning in the fall of 1976.

1976

Women enter U.S. military academies as students for the first time; 119 women entered West Point, 81 entered the US Naval Academy, and 157 enrolled at the US Air Force Academy. Women also enrolled in the Coast Guard Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy.

1977

The U.S. Coast Guard assigns its first co-gender crews when 24 women are assigned to serve aboard the CGCs Gallatin and CGCs Morgenthau. Each ship receives 12 women -- two officers and 10 enlisted personnel -- as members of the crew.

1978

Marine Corps Col. Margaret A. Brewer becomes a brigadier general - the first female general in the Corps’ history. Navy nurse Joan C. Bynum becomes the first African-American woman to be promoted to the rank of captain.

1980

The first coed classes graduate from the U.S. service academies.

1990

Navy Lt. Comm. Darlene Iskra becomes the first woman to command a commissioned naval ship when she assumes command of the USS Opportune in Naples, Italy.

1994

Defense Secretary Les Aspin announces the new policy regarding women in combat that rescinds the 1988 “risk rule” and replaces it with a less restrictive ground combat policy. As a result of this policy, 80% of all military positions can now be filled by either men or women.

1995

Gilda Jackson becomes the first African-American woman to achieve the rank of colonel within the Marine Corps and the first woman to command the Naval Aviation Depot at Cherry Point, N.C.

1996

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Carol Mutter becomes the first female three-star officer in the U.S. Armed Forces when she assumes the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C.

2001

Marine Corps Capt. Vernice Armour becomes the first female African-American pilot in the Marine Corps, and later becomes the first woman in Defense Department history to fly combat missions in Iraq.

2005

Left: Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Jeanine McIntish-Menze becomes the first female African-American U.S. Coast Guard pilot. Right: Air Force Maj. Nicole Malachowski becomes the first female pilot to join the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron.

2006

After enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1974, Angela Salinas works her way through the ranks to make history by becoming the first female Hispanic brigadier general in the corps.

2009

The first all-female U.S. Marine Corps team conducts its first mission in Southern Afghanistan. Lt. Felicia Thomas becomes the first female African-Amercian commander of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter when she assumes command of the CGC Pea Island.

2010

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announces that for the first time, women can be assigned to submarines. Lt. j. g. La'Shonda Holmes becomes the first female African-American helicopter pilot in the Coast Guard. Navy Rear Adm. Nora Tyson becomes the first female commander of a carrier strike group.

2011

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz assumes command of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy as the school's first female superintendant. As she assumes her new role, Stosz becomes the first woman to lead any U.S. military academy.

Interview with John Farmanesh-Bocca by Monica Miklas

8/30/12

MM: What drew you to this story, to the story of Ajax and to the story of the modern soldier, AJ?

JFB: I’ve had a lot of experience with working with military veterans on plays. In our play we actually have two students who have been deployed and what draws me to the play and what draws me to the character of AJ—AJ is a female combatant and there are parallels in this play to the great warrior Ajax who lost his mind, which is the first recorded example of PTSD that there is. It’s a play about the Greek warrior Ajax, who when he comes home from the Trojan wars, loses his mind and he starts killing the farm animals, thinking they’re soldiers. The parallel is drawn to this female character of AJ--Ajax, AJ. What draws me to her primarily is this: she is a hero in the play. She does extraordinary things; she shows extraordinary bravery in the face of really extreme circumstances in a fictitious fire fight in the play. What’s extraordinary about it is that there are female combatants right now who’ve shown a lot of courage and valor in battle, but not enough people really, truly know that the Iraq war was the first war where we officially had female combatants. Before the Iraq war women could be in the military, but they couldn’t pick up an M-16 and go into the field. There were women on the front line. Not only sharp-shooting and being soldiers, but being commanders and being generals and being sergeants and training people.

War is volatile, and being in enemy territory is volatile. People are hyper-vigilant, people are in constant fight or flight mode, and when you have men and women serving side-by-side in some

of these really hostile, very aggressive, very brutal areas, things happen. The fact that your superior officer, if you’re a female combatant, could be a man. These men often exhibit sexual aggression. What do you do when they demand you to do something that you don’t want to do?

Something that is not sufficiently well-known is that when you become a soldier, your Bill of Rights is stripped from you. You don’t have the Bill of Rights. You don’t have First Amendment rights. You don’t get to say what you want to say as a soldier. That priviledge is saved for citizens. This play recognizes that this is the first-ever time when there are female combatants, and women are being stripped of their rights. As a soldier, you can’t question your chain of command; it’s bad for the military, it’s bad for winning, it’s bad for—it doesn’t work, right? You can’t have a free society in a military. That’s why it doesn’t work. You have these incredibly brave women, very strong women who are enlisting, and it’s not like a job at the mall, where you say, “You know, there’s too much abuse involved, I’m quitting.” You don’t. You can’t quit the military like that. You are discharged honorably or dishonorably. There’s a rule of conduct, there’s a code that you want to live by. You’re there because most of the time you actually want to be there.

We have an all-volunteer military. So, if a woman is there, it’s because they want to be. It’s because that’s the career they chose, it’s because that’s their identity. They are strong women fighting for their country. But then, they’re faced with a superior officer who’s asking them to do things that they don’t want to do. It’s like, “Tough.” It’s either that or you speak out, and if you speak out, you risk losing everything that you worked so hard for. If you speak out, nine times out of ten you’re going to either be dismissed or be called a liar. Your superior officers are usually men, but even if they’re women, it’s sometimes even worse because they don’t want to have women in the company be seen as victims. You’re in this double-indemnity situation: the untenable situation of being in war-time, you’re going on night patrols, you don’t know who’s around any corner, you’re in this really dangerous environment, and then the danger could continue on the base.

Now by all means this play doesn’t suggest that all female combatants are treated this way. This play and I are not suggesting that the military is bad. My father is a General, my brother serves in the Army, and lots of my dearest friends are Army people and Army brats. I have great respect for the military and armed services, but it is a really extreme environment. So what draws me to the character of AJ is that she is an incredibly brave soul, who finally cracks, just like the character Ajax. It’s really fascinating to see her spiraling out of control and how she handles herself in the face of everything because I’m sure it is very reminiscent of how women, and men for that matter, have had to deal with abuse of all sorts.

MM: What do we gain from having the Greek myth, and all of its connotations, in AJ’s story?

JFB: The Greek mythology being involved does a couple of things for us. It lets us know that stories like this, about having post-traumatic stress, about the horrors and brutality of war, are ancient. They’re not just now, they’re always. The power of mythology, the Greeks, the ancient writing, is to say, “Oh, we’re not much different. Oh, wow, the same lessons that applied then, apply now.” We have different scenarios, there’s different technology obviously, but those same rules of war, the same rules of engagement still really apply. What happens when you invade a foreign country that’s not your own? The people who live there can wait you out. The people who live there will fight ten times harder than somebody coming in who doesn’t have the heart to do it.,

The Greek myths also lend an epic quality to the drama. Now epic is really fun for me, because the entertainment value makes you pay attention. You definitely open your eyes and ears when something is so big and epic. However, there’s more value to it than that, than the entertainment value. By making it epic, all our lives are epic. We stand in line at Starbucks, but inside we could be screaming out. We’ve learned how to silence and how to kind of blend in, but inside of our minds, we live pretty epic lives, so by doing an epic story, what we’re saying is this isn’t life; this is what life is like. Life is like an epic tale. It doesn’t give us distance between the piece if you see classical or mythological characters in it. It actually should draw you closer to it, because there’s going to be something about it that feels true, there’s going to be something about it that feels timeless. There’s going to be something about it that feels exciting and closer to the way we think and feel as people in an everyday situation.

MM: This play is epic in terms of the number of actors involved and characters and scene changes. Can you tell us how you’re going to approach all the different pieces of the work?

JFB: It is a tapestry and the only way I’ve been able to describe it to people, this play, is calling it three-dimensional chess, because it does take place in three different time periods. Simultaneously, there’s a Victorian English time period, there’s the modern day Iraq, there’s the ancient mythological time, and they kind of all parallel each other. It’s like three-dimensional chess in that way, or that’s how I’m approaching it. I’m staging three plays really, but they all kind of blend in and just miss each other and just kind of mirror each other. How I’m approaching it is to just keep everything in track, keep everything in order in my head, and make sure that I stage it in a really beautiful , exceptional way that will draw people into it and at the same time you’ll be able to really see the dissemination between scenes and what makes them very much alike and what makes them different. I hope to draw upon the great talent of the students and my eye and see what I can do with it.

MM: Are there any exciting design elements that will be incorporated in that?

JFB: I’ll be giving away a secret if I tell you one of them. The coolest one is this design element that occurs at the end, because otherwise it’s a very plain set. It’s an open space.The stage is painted red, which is beautiful, but that’s pretty much it. The stage is the stage, and it’s open. It’s

the actors’ bodies that are really going to create the story, and the costumes and the lighting. There’s no big set pieces that come in, there’s nothing like that. The conviction of the actors and the story is just going to kind of unfold in front of you. We just have minor design element--it’s not minor, a pretty cool design element that happens at the end, which I don’t want to tell you because it’ll give it away.

MM: Are there any other things about this piece that excite you?

JFB: What excites me about the pieces I try to do, I try to add a lot of movement, and a lot of dance into what I do. I started my career as a dancer, so I really enjoy bringing a little bit of the dance world into every play I do and so what excites be about this play is it’s really open. It has room for me to do those kind of things that I really like to do. It’ll have contemporary, very rock and roll music in in it. Very physical, athletic dancing, and movement: it is a very, very visceral play to watch, and that’s what excites me.

Discussion Questions • What are the key parallels between the Greek storyline and AJ’s story? What

are the key differences? • The killing of animals versus the killing of civilians in Iraq – Why is AJ’s act

somehow more horrific than that of the shadowed soldier? • Although Ajax is driven mad through the divine influence of Athena, AJ’s

madness is entirely human. Dramatically, which tale is more compelling? • What purpose does the chorus of modern soldiers serve in AJ’s story? How

effective or ineffective is their function? • According to the Washington Post, “The Pentagon in February announced that

the military is formally opening up thousands of jobs to women in units closer to the front lines to better reflect the realities of modern warfare. Women already are fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan, and they did the same in Iraq. The new rules will allow women to perform many of the jobs they have been doing, but in smaller units that are closer to the fighting and were once considered too dangerous.” Yet, few women have volunteered, and one female Marine wrote a compelling article about how women should NOT be allowed to pursue combat roles: http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/get-over-it-we-are-not-all-created-equal. Where do you stand on this issue? Has Ajax in Iraq influenced your opinion in any way?