Bryan Doerries: Answering the Call to Help Our Soldiers Heal
[The writer is a New York-based director and translator. In 2009, he co-founded, with producer Phyllis Kaufman, Theater of War Productions, a company that aims to use theater and community to inspire awareness and action.]
After a reading of Sophocles' "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" for members of the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Stewart, Ga., a soldier approached me. His hands were trembling and he was fighting back tears....
For the past year, Phyllis Kaufman and I have been presenting readings of ancient Greek plays by a general officer named Sophocles as a catalyst for town hall discussions with service members, veterans and their caregivers and families about the invisible wounds of war. Our project, Theater of War, aims to destigmatize psychological injury by placing it in an ancient warrior context. Fully funded by the federal Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, Theater of War has been called a groundbreaking public health initiative by Defense Department officials. Our project is presenting 100 performances of Sophocles' plays at military bases throughout the United States and Germany.
Sophocles' "Ajax" tells the story of the strongest warrior in the Greek army who, suffering from a "divine madness," or what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder, attempts to murder his commanding officers but enters into a dissociative state in which he slaughters harmless animals instead. When he awakens from his rage and sees what he has done, he takes his life, plunging upon his enemy's sword. The play also describes how Ajax's wife and fellow soldiers attempt to intervene and save him before it is too late....
Read entire article at WaPo
After a reading of Sophocles' "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" for members of the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Stewart, Ga., a soldier approached me. His hands were trembling and he was fighting back tears....
For the past year, Phyllis Kaufman and I have been presenting readings of ancient Greek plays by a general officer named Sophocles as a catalyst for town hall discussions with service members, veterans and their caregivers and families about the invisible wounds of war. Our project, Theater of War, aims to destigmatize psychological injury by placing it in an ancient warrior context. Fully funded by the federal Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, Theater of War has been called a groundbreaking public health initiative by Defense Department officials. Our project is presenting 100 performances of Sophocles' plays at military bases throughout the United States and Germany.
Sophocles' "Ajax" tells the story of the strongest warrior in the Greek army who, suffering from a "divine madness," or what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder, attempts to murder his commanding officers but enters into a dissociative state in which he slaughters harmless animals instead. When he awakens from his rage and sees what he has done, he takes his life, plunging upon his enemy's sword. The play also describes how Ajax's wife and fellow soldiers attempt to intervene and save him before it is too late....