A&E
March 2, 2018
“The Trojan Women”
Euripides’ Greek tragedy explores traditional female roles
HALLE MORRELL
Writer
The newest play to reach Rice
Auditorium is Euripides’ “The Trojan
Women.” Boasting extreme amounts
of woman empowerment, the Ancient
Greek tragedy explains the fall of the
city of Troy and all that came with it.
Associate Professor of Theatre
Tom Heiman, the play’s director,
chose “The Trojan Women” for many
reasons, one of which was due to a
“
news clip he saw. The clip was over
how Al-Qaeda and ISIS are forcing
women into slavery and telling them
who they can and cannot marry.
Heiman immediately thought of
how these issues in the Middle East
compare to the women depicted in
“The Trojan Women.”
“I thought, ‘this is how these
women are being treated,’” Heiman
said.
Heiman explained that Baker tries
to rotate play genres every few years
and it had been a while since Baker
had done a play on Ancient Greece.
Heiman explained that the play also
fit perfectly with the available actors.
There are many women to choose
from and a limited amount of men,
making this play a perfect fit.
Sophomore Erynne Jamison was
chosen for the lead role of Hecuba.
This is Jamison’s fourth play at Baker,
but her first time in a leading role.
“The work aspect of it is all new to
me, so it is all very exciting,” Jamison
said. “It’s also very nerve-racking.”
Jamison is very passionate about
the message “The Trojan Women”
conveys.
Comedian Jenny Zegrino cracks up students
LILY STEPHENS
Multimedia Editor
Comedian Jenny Zegrino visited
Rice Auditorium on Feb. 15 to
perform a set for students and was
hosted by the Student Activities
Council.
Zegrino is originally from the
Midwest, but has lived in New York
and is now located in Los Angeles.
She has been featured on the
hit shows “@Midnight”, “Conan”,
“MTV’s Girl Code” and “Adam Ruins
Everything.” Along with a college tour
circuit, Zegrino performs at comedy
“I think that this show is very
empowering for women. Even at
the end, you’ll see how Hecuba’s
strength continues and I think that is
something that I really care about and
I think that makes this show special
in itself. I love that I get to share with
the audience a message that is dear
to my heart,” Jamison said.
Alongside Jamison is senior
Destiny Bruno. Bruno plays the role
of Andronache, Hecuba’s daughter-in-
law. One of Bruno’s favorite parts of
this play is the cast.
I think that
this show is very
empowering for
women ... I love that I
get to share with the
audience a message
”
that is dear to my
heart.
- Erynne Jamison
“As far as cast bonding, this is
probably one of my favorites,” Bruno
said. “I always like when we have a
slightly larger cast. We always get
really into each other.”
Bruno also mentioned the amount
of underclassmen that are part of this
year’s cast. Around half of the cast is
made up of freshmen. Although there
is a large amount of underclassmen,
the play still went according to plan.
Auditions were held the first
Monday of the spring semester and
clubs and private events.
Her set featured a variety of topics
about her life, her work and the
“crusty” nature of Kansas. She also
tested a few jokes out on the crowd.
This was not Zegrino’s first stop
in Kansas as she had visited several
other smaller schools in the area.
Zegrino was not afraid of audience
involvement and asked the crowd
about some risqué topics.
Zegrino is of Jewish descent and
asked if there were any Jewish people
in the audience. Freshman Dylan
Kort was pointed out by his friends
and Zegrino took notice, striking up
page 10
From left to right is sophomore Erynne Jamison, freshman Dani Holland and junior Alyssa
Glover. Three Trojan women face the loss of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. The
play continues with Hecuba (Jamison) learning what has happened to her children. | Photo by
Elizabeth Hanson
the cast has been practicing ever
since. There was even a last-minute
recast that brought senior Clay Sears
to the group, but Heiman still kept
things running smoothly.
“What was thrilling to me was
we lost several days due to ice and
other commitments,” Heiman said.
“Usually, when you lose that kind of
time so close to the show, it’s deadly.
The show was actually better when
we came back from where we had
left it. That’s because of this cast
were excited and were willing to
work on it.”
Along with new strides in casting,
the renovation of Rice Auditorium
allowed for Heiman to utilize the
new thrust stage. This type of stage
a conversation. Kort is not devout to
Judaism, but rather culturally Jewish.
“So you are a Jew-ish Jew?”
Zegrino asked.
Kort confirmed and then Zegrino
went into a conversation about
inappropriate pictures, asking Kort if
he had ever sent one. The comic also
picked on senior Spencer Brown and
asked him the same question.
While Zegrino was in college
her father had another child, Olivia.
She made several jokes about the
questions Olivia asked her.
“She was like ‘Jenny, why do you
have hair on your legs?’” Zegrino
allows for the audience to sit on
three sides of the stage rather than
just in front of it.
Freshman Hannah Brown is
this year’s stage manager. Brown
explained that this type of stage
allowed for the cast to do more
when it comes to interacting with
the crowd.
“The thrust stage makes things a
little bit more intimate – especially
with this play,” Brown said.
“The Trojan Women” will be
performed Thursday through
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at
2 p.m., with each lasting just over an
hour.
quoted. “And I was like, ‘Well Olivia
when you get older, you’re going to
get lazy. Next question.’”
Overall there were positive
reviews of the performance, with lots
of laughs from the audience.
Freshman Brett George said he
enjoyed the show.
“My favorite part was when she
called out Dylan,” George said.
Senior Brittany Crittenden also
enjoyed the audience participation.
“I liked it because she called out
Spencer and I think that was really
funny,” Crittenden said.