Warrior Chorus: American Democracy
The Warrior Chorus is a national initiative that trains military veterans to present innovative public programs based on ancient literature, presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its American Democracy program creates a national discussion around democracy, led by the people who fight for it. Staged readings, workshops and a series of discussions around the meaning and future of democracy toured in tandem with Aquila’s main stage touring productions of including William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Macbeth, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and stage readings of Sophocles' Antigone.
Veteran and Civilian Public Programming
Aquila is known for its innovative public humanities programming, beginning with its Page and Stage Program in 2008, which then developed into the National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman's Special Award-winning program, Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives (AGML). These national public programs have placed live theatrical events, reading groups, and lectures in often underserved cultural institutions, with a particular emphasis on the veteran community and their families. The You/Stories program, which ran through the fall of 2015, was built on the work of AGML while incorporating a mobile application. The app made the programming content accessible with online programmatic elements and encouraged people to engage with program content and create and submit their own stories. The premier of Aquila's A Female Philoctetes, featuring veterans, presented at New York City's Brooklyn Academy of Music Fisher's Hillman Studio in April of 2014, was part of the You/Stories program and was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" (www.npr.org). National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman, William "Bro" Adams, can be heard discussing Aquila's work in his interview on "The Diane Rehm Show" (thedianerehmshow.org). Warrior Chorus, Aquila's applied theatre program, received a generous $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and provided a new model for veteran engagement in public programming. Warrior Chorus trained over 100 veterans in three regional centers to present scholar-led public programming based on classical literature. Programming performed by veterans focused on critical social issues, including war, conflict, comradeship, home, and family, and includes veteran-led readings and discussions. A blog was created to share a more intimate account of how the program worked and its impact. http://www.warriorchorus.org/blog
Warrior Chorus
Warrior Chorus is an award winning national initiative that trains veterans to present innovative public programs based on ancient literature. Programming conceived and performed by veterans will focus on critical social issues including war, conflict, comradeship, home, and family and will include veteran-led readings, dialogue groups, and post-performance audience talk backs. Training has occurred in New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, TX, and Miami with programming nationwide.
For more information, please visit us at www.warriorchorus.org.
“I liked that the experiences were filtered through classical literature. This distance allows both performers and audience members to use their imaginations in an empathetic way, rather than merely evoking sympathy. . . Classical literature places the emphasis back on character and story, and helps reject the laziness of labels. The abstract nature of myth also allows individuals to flesh out their owns experiences with some combination of memory and imagination.”