A Trojan Woman by Sara Farrington
Directed by Meghan Finn
SARA FARRINGTON (Playwright) Playwright and co-founder of Foxy Films theater co. w/ Reid Farrington. Sara is the mind behind Theater Is Hard, her popular subscription-based weekly Substack. MFA: Brooklyn College w/ Mac Wellman. Sara’s plays have been called "dazzling" by The New Yorker and "brave, almost foolhardy" by The New York Times. Publications: The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde (53rd State Press), A Trojan Woman, Mickey & Sage (both @ Broadway Play Publishing, Inc), Leisure, Labor, Lust (Next Stage). Sara wrote the book & lyrics for Dr. Uncanny Presents: Moreau '96, a musical composed by David Van Tieghem and directed by Reid Farrington, adapted from Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, directed by David Gregory, courtesy of Severin Films. Sara’s play CasablancaBox was commissioned as part of HARP @ HERE and nominated for two Drama Desk Awards. Sara's new play Look Out will be developed as part of The Deep Space Residency at NaCL, Fall 2026. Sara’s play Dora Maar, about the making of Guernica, is currently in development with support from Luna Stage, NJ. Sara is also developing and performing Careless People, a 100-year-old found text with Zack Calhoon and Melissa Firlit. Other favorite plays include: BrandoCapote, Mendacity, Leisure, Labor, Lust, The Return (commissioned by The Met Museum) Near Vicksburg and The Rise & Fall of Miles & Milo (FringeNYC Award for Outstanding Playwriting). My deepest gratitude to the A Trojan Woman team and Stop The Wind Theatricals. You do the impossible. Thanks also to my unpaid consigliere Reid, the fierce Levi and fearless Jack. www.ladyfarrington.com//https://substack.com/@theaterishard
MEGHAN FINN (Director) is a director of theater and film and an Artistic Director at The Tank, a New York City-based nonprofit theater. In this role, she accepted an OBIE Award for The Tank’s excellence in service to artists. Her directorial work has been seen at The Tank, the V&A, Serpentine Galleries, The Wexner Center, Powerhouse Theater, SCAD, The Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, Museo Jumex Mexico City, Canadian Stage Toronto, Montana Rep, Clubbed Thumb, HERE, The Brick, The Bushwick Starr, Soho Gallery, the Walker Art Center Minneapolis, PS122, Dixon Place, Ars Nova, Montclair State, New Georges, The Flea, Canadian Stage, Carnegie Mellon, Brooklyn College, MIT, NYU, the Great Plains Theater Conference, The King’s Head Theater London, the MAC Belfast, the Roes Theater Athens, and for OnSTAGE! Festival in Rome/Milan and others. She collaborated with photographer Mitch Epstein on a live performance with cellist Erik Friedlander, entitled AMERICAN POWER. Recently, she co-created the immersive film installation NINE DREAMS: Blake and the Apocalypse with writer Nick Flynn in Houston featuring Lili Taylor. She has directed celebrated premieres by Mac Wellman, Erin Courtney, Peggy Stafford, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter, Soomi Kim, Lillian Isabella, Kaaron Briscoe, Caitlin Saylor Stephens, Laurel Haines and Steph Singer, Karinne Keithley Syers, Jerry Lieblich, Stan Zimmerman, Barbara Cassidy, Darwin Del Fabro, Gary Winter, Ben Gassman, Alexandra Collier, Carl Holder, Ariel Stess, Eliza Bent, and Cori Copp among others. Finn directed the OBIE Award-winning KARA & EMMA & BARBARA & MIRANDA by Ariel Stess in 2024. She is the recipient of a 2023 Prelude Frankie Award, a 2020 Brooklyn College Theater Department Alumni of the Year Award, and a 2021 Lucille Lortel Visionary Award from The League of Professional Theater Women, and a 2024 Recipient of The David Prize for extraordinary New Yorkers. BA University of Southern California, MFA Brooklyn College.
MADELYN ROBINSON (The Civilian) is a performer and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She has been with A Trojan Woman since its U.S. premiere at Luna Stage in West Orange NJ, also serving as standby for subsequent runs at Powerhouse Theater in Arlington NY and The Tank in Manhattan. Previous work includes the premiere of the children's musical Simon and His Shoes at The Tank; the short horror film Night Out; and When We Went Electronic, which toured the Roes Theatre in Athens, Menotti Teatro Filippo Perego in Milan, and Off Off Theatre in Rome. She received her M.F.A. in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University, and her B.F.A. in Acting from UC Santa Barbara. Madelyn is honored to take the stage for this iteration of A Trojan Woman, and grateful to continue the creative journey with this team and all of their brilliance, dedication and heart.
INDIA SHEA (The Civilian) is a Brooklyn based theater maker and performer. A member of Columbia’s MFA Acting Cohort ’25, graduate of Fordham University’s Theater Program, and Duffy Fellow, they are most at home when working with heightened text or in the trenches of new-works development. Credits include Julius Caesar, The Matchmaker, The Tempest, and Comedy of Errors at Hudson Valley Shakespeare, As You Like It at Shakespeare on the Sound, Pride and Prejudice at the Hangar Theater, and bonefruit at the Tank. @indiasheaa wherever you scroll.
CHRISTOPHER SWADER & JUSTIN SWADER (Scenic Design) NYC & Off-Broadway credits include Primary Stages, Red Bull Theater, Fiasco Theater, Tectonic Theater Project, Mint Theater, The New Victory Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center Education, York Theatre Company, Trusty Sidekick, Mason Holdings. Regional credits include designs at: Hartford Stage, Goodspeed Musicals, Signature Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Two River Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Everyman Theatre, People’s Light, Miami New Drama, Resident Ensemble Players at UD, Dorset Theatre Festival, Weston Theater Company. Other projects include designs for A$AP Rocky, Sotheby’s, 2020 Summer Olympics, Big Apple Circus, National Geographic. www.cjswaderdesign.com
CLAUDIA BROWN (Costume Design) has designed costumes for theater, dance and film. She has worked in New York City theaters for forty years largely on new works by contemporary playwrights at The Flea Theater, The Signature Theater, Playwrights Horizon, The Alley Theater, MCC Theater Company, and En Garde Arts. She has designed costumes for Lava Dance, Hartford Ballet, and Arizona Ballet as well as nine movies including ‘River’s Edge’ and ‘Copycat. She is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama.
MIKE CASSEDY (Composer and Sound Design) is a Brooklyn-based composer and pianist. Theater Composing Credits: Primordial (2024), Mahinerator (2023), Body Through which the Dream Flows (2022), Behind the Attic Wall (2022), The Invention of Tragedy (2019), The Lesser Magoo (2019), Manufacturing Mischief (2016), Daredevil (2014), Detroit Blues (2014), Him (2008). Film and Television Credits: To Love a Narcissist (2024), The Lone Piper (2024), How I Learned to Fly (2023), Great White Summer (2024), Prometheus Bound (2021), Sidelined (2019), Change for Change (2019), The Movie House on Main (2018), Madre Maria (2018), Sucker (2018), Barren (2018), Half Life (2018-2019), 16 Words or Less (2017)
CLAIRE ALDERFER (Production Coordinator and Stage Manager) she/they (Production Coordinator/Stage Manager) is a NYC-based stage manager for theatre and dance. Credits include Off-Broadway: And Then We Were No More (La MaMa); Regional: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera House Arts); The Count of Luxembourg, The Gondoliers, The Sound of Music, and Guys and Dolls (Ohio Light Opera).
STOP THE WIND THEATRICALS/CAROL OSTROW (Producer) is a Drama Desk award winning producer and the founder of Stop The Wind Theatricals, an independent production company dedicated to the development of new work for the American theater. Ostrow began her producing career when she developed and founded the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar, now in its 45th season. She went on to become the producing director of the award-winning Classic Stage Company, where she produced Sigourney Weaver and other notable artists in re-imaginings of the classics. In the wake of 9/11, Ostrow became the producing director of The Flea, where she produced over 150 world premieres, including plays by A.R. Gurney, Elizabeth Swados, Will Eno, Thomas Bradshaw, Adam Rapp, Taylor Mac, Mac Wellman and Sara Farrington, amongst others. While producing at The Flea, she spearheaded the construction of a three-theater performing arts complex in Lower Manhattan. Carol has also been an adjunct professor of theater at Vassar College, Chatham College and McGill University. Ostrow holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College and also serves on the David Geffen Yale School of Drama Board of Advisors.
MIXED BLOOD (Co-Producer) is a theater dedicated to removing any and every barrier we find. Mixed Blood has invited the global village into its audience and onto its stage to experience its unique brand of challenging, inclusive and predictably unpredictable theater since 1976. The company was founded by Jack Reuler who served as artistic director from inception to June 2022. A winner of numerous awards for its human rights and artistic accomplishments, Mixed Blood celebrates differences and champions access. Mixed Blood achieves it mission through strategic programming at its own Alan Page Auditorium, within its Cedar Riverside neighborhood, and in off-site locations throughout the Twin Cities Metro area and the State of Minnesota. Throughout its 50 years, Mixed Blood has been sustained by its adaptability and relationships. Programming has grown to include disability communities, immigrant and refugee populations, Minnesota Latinx, transgender and biracial Twin Citians, and the East African Muslims who reside in proximity to Mixed Blood’s converted firehouse home.
MAGIC THEATRE (Co-Producer) Since the company’s founding in 1967 by John Lion, the Magic Theatre has identified and cultivated writers on the cutting edge of American theatre, serving as a vital center for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard developed and premiered his Pulitzer Prize-winning play and his seminal classics, forever altering the shape of American drama. The Magic Theatre is now about the last home standing of Regional Theatres committed to the development, creation, and premiere of new plays. The Magic has been in a new age with the appointment of Sean San José as the Lead Director in 2021. With this leadership the dedication has been to make the Magic Theatre a home to more people by rightfully centering People of Color throughout the organization, all the while focusing on invaluable creation and communing around new performances and plays. The Magic Theatre, while continuing to premiere bold and new plays, has expanded its vision and programming with creation and inclusion of the Resident Companies Program, which includes: Home Company Campo Santo, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience, Play On Shakespeare, Rainbow Zebra Productions and new companies: SFBATCO and San Francisco Civic Art Project (led by Erika Chong Shuch and Jonathan Moscone), as well as the home for the legendary Saint John Coltrane Church; and Resident Artists: Playwright In Residence Star Finch, Resident Curator Juan Amador, and designers Russell Champa, Tanya Orellana, Joan Osato, and Brittany White. The Magic Theatre has aesthetically shifted the whole space in ethos and activation of the spaces (lobby, cathedral, and theatres), including multiple new wall sized murals by local amazing artists Mister Bouncer (Miguel Perez), and Cece Carpio from the Trust Your Struggle collective, Adrian Arias, Ka’Halla, and a space filled with legendary Black art from the Saint John Coltrane Church by Emory Douglas, Mark Roman, and Deacon Mark Doox. The space is open year-round for engagement and entertainment, arts and activation from the plays to the people- the Magic Theatre is Home for bringing the City inside. This year the Magic Theatre will launch a new initiative towards paving a new way forward to continue to sustain and evolve.