The Trojan Women

Welcome to the inaugural production of Eos Theatre Company! Our mission is to shine light into the darkness of the human condition and to amplify women’s voices and stories. We have chosen Euripides’ ancient anti-war tragedy The Trojan Women because it so brilliantly does both. Written more than 2,000 years ago, the play concerns a war that happened more than 600 years before its author was born. The story of the Trojan War was ancient history for the ancient Greeks; yet some 3,000 years later, we find it uncannily relevant to the world we find ourselves surviving in 2026.

I first encountered The Trojan Women as an actress in a production I was in during my Hampshire College days. The play had a profound effect on me and has been on my mind ever since. Today, my sons, ages 14 and 16, are fearful they will be drafted into yet another war in the Middle East. I share their fear. As a mother, as a woman theatre director, this play feels brutally necessary to bring to the stage.

Euripides’ The Trojan Women takes place at the end of the war. Troy is burning while the city’s captive women wait to be told their fate by the victorious Greeks, who penetrated the city walls hiding inside the famous Trojan horse. Euripides’ audience would have known the story, would have instantly understood that the Trojan women had seen their men butchered, temples desecrated, and the body of their greatest warrior, Hector, publicly debased in an unspeakable manner. Euripides used the women’s plight to hold a mirror up to his countrymen, who were embroiled in the Peloponnesian War, a fierce conflict that raged for 27 years. Euripides’ play challenges the Athenians to face the reality that is war; the rape, murder and humiliation which is inherent to the enterprise. The Trojan Women centers the trauma and grief of women non-combatants shattered by defeat, but Euripides also demonstrates that the victims of war include soldiers, embodied by the character Talthybius. A Greek soldier ordered to guard the Trojan women prisoners facing a future of enslavement to his generals, Talthybius too is destroyed by the horrors of war.

Caroline Bird’s modern adaptation sets the play in a Trojan hospital turned prison by the Greek invaders. Her work is a fierce exploration of the complex intersections of class, gender, patriarchy and nationality. It is timely and timeless. Sometimes comical. Often absurd. Ultimately heartbreaking. We hope you find the Midwest premiere of this new version of The Trojan Women illuminating, and we are so very grateful you have chosen to spend some time with us in the theatre.

Caroline Bird (Playwright) is a playwright and poet. Caroline began writing plays as a teenager when she was the youngest ever member of the Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, tutored by Simon Stephens. She has been shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and as Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards. In Spring 2022, her play *Red Ellen* about the life and work of Ellen Wilkinson, was produced by Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse and Royal Lyceum Theatre and received four-star reviews in The Guardian, The Times, Whatsonstage and The Stage. Red Ellen was shortlisted for the 2021 George Devine Award, recognising new writing and powerful voices. Caroline’s new version of *The Trojan Women* premiered at the Gate Theatre at the end of 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Caroline’s play *Chamber Piece* featured as Show 3 in the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre season, premiering in October 2013, before touring the country. Her Beano-inspired musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace, was performed in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre. Other plays: Chamber Piece (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith) and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage). She has had eight volumes of poetry published by Carcanet: Looking Through Letterboxes (2002); Trouble Came to the Turnip (2006); Watering Can (2009); The Hat-Stand Union (2013); In These Days of Prohibition (2017), which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award; The Air Year (2020), which won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2020 and was shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the Polari Prize; her Selected Poems Rookie (2022); and Ambush at Still Lake (2024). She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023, for sustained excellence across a body of work. She was named one of the five official poets at the London Olympics 2012.

Rachel Sledd (Director, she/her) is a co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of Eos Theatre Company. Recent acting credits: Highway Patrol (Goodman Theatre – U/S) and Junk (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre). Recent directing credits: The Trojan Women, The Pavilion, Sweat and Exit Strategy (Loop Players at Harold Washington College). TV/film credits include NBC’s Chicago Med, Chicago PD, and Bride of Frankie, which has screened at over 100 film festivals internationally and for which Rachel won Best Actress in a Short at the Sydney Indie Film Festival. Rachel earned an M.F.A. from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program in Seattle and is head of Theatre at Harold Washington College. She is represented by DDO Artists. rachelsledd.com

Garrett Bell (Lighting Designer, he/him) is an award-winning lighting and scenic designer based out of Chicago, and a lecturer at the University of Chicago and the City Colleges of Chicago. Some of his recent lighting design credits include The Posthumous Trial of Giulia Tofana (Larkspur Productions), The Official Biography (Scenic, Her Story Theatre), Black Bone (Definition Theatre, world premiere), Queen for a Day (Hell in a Handbag), Coronation (world premiere, Joseph Jefferson Award) and A Play About David Mamet Writing a Play About Harvey Weinstein (Refracted Theatre Company), Tecumseh! (The Scioto Society), The Outgoing Tide (Buffalo Theatre Ensemble), and Heisenberg (Lighting & Scenic, Griffin Theatre). More of his work can be seen at garrettmbell.com.

Shayna Patel (Scenic Designer, she/her) is a scenic designer based in Chicago. Her credits include Mainstage 114, E.T.C 50, The Chaos Theory of Everything, Judy’s Beat Lounge, Oh The Places You’ll Glow and The Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone! (The Second City), Come Back, Little Sheba, Misery and Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues (American Blues Theatre), The Kid at the Edge of Everything (COCA – St. Louis), A View From The Bridge (Shattered Globe), Last Stop on Market Street, Junie B. Jones and Dory Fantasmagory (Young People’s Theatre Chicago), Las Borinqueñas, Jocey Y Las Mariachis, That Must Be The Entrance To Heaven, and Sancocho (Vision Latino Theatre Company), National Merit (Boho Theatre Company), and Subaru Forester Exhibition (Chicago Auto Show & New York International Auto Show 2024). shaynadesigns.com

Mason Absher (Sound Designer, he/they) is a theatre artist, designer, and performer who completed an MFA in Theatrical Design and Acting from Randolph College in January 2026. He works across sound design, scenic design, and performance, creating theatrical environments that support emotionally driven storytelling. They are particularly interested in how sound can shape atmosphere, rhythm, and audience experience in both classical and contemporary work. Mason has collaborated on productions ranging from classical theatre to new works and devised performance. He is grateful to the Eos Theatre team for the opportunity to help shape the sonic world of The Trojan Women.

Michael Lesko (Stage Manager, he/him) is very delighted to be a part of Eos Theatre Company’s premiere show The Trojan Women. His previous credits include Loop Players productions of Ike Holter’s Exit Strategy, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, and Stage Wright productions of Stephen Karam’s The Humans, Jacob Richmond’s & Brooke Maxwell’s Ride The Cyclone, and Keythe Farley’s & Brian Flemming’s Bat Boy: The Musical. He would like to thank Eos Theatre and his friends and family for their unwavering support.

Andersonville Scenic Studios (Technical Direction) is a custom fabrication shop that has been working with theaters across the Chicagoland area since 2019 to produce professional, high-quality scenery. Visit andersonvillescenicstudios.com for more information!

Jackson Mikkelsen (Master Electrician, he/him) is based in Chicago and a 2023 graduate of CCPA/Roosevelt. He’s a full-time freelance theatre artist, working as an actor, lighting designer, electrician, and production manager. Catch him hanging lights and singing ’lil diddies in a storefront theatre near you. Love to Brian! jacksonmikkelsen.com

Kevin Reodica (Filmmaker, he/him) is a Chicago-based filmmaker specializing in documentary-style storytelling. Through visually driven narratives, he captures stories of people, craft, and culture with the goal of creating work that is both inspiring and thought-provoking. View more of his work at kevinreodica.com.