For the past four years, the social justice-focused Theater of War troupe has brought together the worlds of ancient Greece and the contemporary American Midwest in “Antigone in Ferguson,” created after black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead in 2014 by white police. Officer Darren Wilson.
This year, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the production team’s work online, creating virtual performances of Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old text and honoring Brown’s memory.
Dated 442 or 441 BC, “Antigone” tells the story of Oedipus’ daughter and her quest to honorably bury her brother Polyneices, killed in a civil war, against the decree of her uncle Creon, the new king of Thebes. The play deals with themes of divine justice and human law, family and civic loyalty, and gender power dynamics. In the theater of war production, which premiered in 2016, actors perform a staged reading of the work alongside a chorus of community members; the reading is followed by a lively public debate on racism and police violence.
On Friday, Theater of War will stage its second digital performance of “Antigone in Ferguson,” sponsored by Harvard’s Departments of Theater, Dance and Media, and Classics, as well as other universities, including Duke and Georgetown. A related artist talk and question-and-answer session with Bryan Doerries and Phil Woodmore, the show’s artistic director and composer/conductor, respectively, will take place Monday and is open to Harvard affiliates and other sponsoring institutions.
This week’s production includes an hour-long reading of “Antigone” with actors including Tracie Thoms and Nyasha Hatendi, as well as New York Public Defender Jumaane Williams. The show also includes music from the “Antigone in Ferguson” choir, directed by De-Rance Blaylock, Michael Brown’s former teacher. Doerries and social worker De-Andrea Blaylock-Johnson will host a community panel discussion on the play’s themes and their connection to racism and police violence, with a panel including Harvard lecturer on somatic and performance art Shamell Bell contemporary world.
“Michael Brown wasn’t the thug everyone made him out to be…he was a kid who just graduated high school and was ready to take care of business when it came to his life.”
De-Rance Blaylock
For many involved with “Antigone in Ferguson,” the Theater of War production was personal: Lead singer Blaylock and soloist Duane Foster both taught Brown at Normandy High School, where the show premiered.
“His murder took a heavy toll on me,” said Blaylock, who now sings professionally in St. Louis. “So when I was given the opportunity to be a part of Antigone in Ferguson, I jumped at the chance, because I wanted to let people know that Michael Brown was human. Michael Brown wasn’t the thug everyone made him out to be. He was a human being, he was a kid who had just graduated from high school and was ready to take care of business when it came to his life.
“Being able to interpret Greek mythology and compare it to what happened to Mike is incredible. Hearing the responses from so many people around the world and still hearing the responses from those who saw our previous performance in August is incredible,” she said. “I am glad that his name and his life are not and have not been in vain.”
Naomi A. WeissGardner Cowles, associate professor of humanities, and Debra Levine , lecturer in theater, dance and media, spearheaded Harvard’s sponsorship of the production. They said they wanted to support a project that engaged audiences with classic texts while providing an avenue for artistic expression and community engagement on pressing social issues.
“The play itself is so fertile because its messages regarding justice, gender and death are quite ambiguous. It’s quite difficult to untangle,” said Weiss, an associate professor of humanities at Gardner Cowles, noting that “Antigone” has been used in many media in the 21st century to explore issues of power and resistance. “I think that’s also what makes the production of Antigone in Ferguson potentially very powerful, because it raises questions of interpretation which hopefully can then challenge and complicate our views and our actions regarding racialized violence and social injustice.”
Weiss emphasized the importance of the chorus, made up of educators, police officers, religious leaders and activists from St. Louis and New York. Although separated by the pandemic, the choir continued its work on Zoom for performances, including Woodmore’s powerful anthem “I’m Covered.”
“This kind of performance is very powerful, precisely because of the chorus. When these plays were originally performed in Athens…the choir sang and danced, and it was made up of members of the community. So in the ancient context there is a very strong connection between the audience and the choir,” Weiss said. “It is striking that “Antigone in Ferguson” not only embraces the musicality and musical potential of the choir, but also embraces its role as a community voice and how the audience might have a deep relationship with it. This then helps make the questions raised by the production much more powerful.
Levine added that his department was happy to be able to share resources to convene a hearing for “Antigone” and help ensure Brown’s life is remembered.
“Theatrical collaborations that include community members and professional actors, which incorporate gospel choirs, classical Greek texts, and question-and-answer conversations, are ways of imagining the assemblage differently, rather than valorizing the “work purely as a perfectly realized aesthetic object,” Levine said. “I think letting go of these aesthetic and commercial values and having different goals for what online performance can achieve helps us understand what is successful and what is not successful when it comes to digital performance. The best digital performances help us transcend our feelings of isolation during the pandemic.
“Antigone in Ferguson” is designed to spark serious, uncomfortable conversations about social issues, but for Blaylock, it’s also a space for healing.
“I dedicate every performance to Mike, because I wouldn’t have this platform without his life and death,” she said. “I’m using my gifts and letting people know that even during this pandemic, we have to maintain that there is some hope left. »
