Staging Ancient Greek Plays

Author : Michael Ewans
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Electronic books
ISBN : 1350381349

Get Book

Staging Ancient Greek Plays by Michael Ewans Pdf

Merging the theoretical framework with the practical elements of staging an ancient Greek play, this indispensable guide offers directors and actors an excellent starting point for mounting their production. Considering the conditions of ancient Greek performance and the conventions of the Greek theatre, the book examines large questions, including those related to ancient Greek values, myth and the individual ('characterization'), and the gods and fate - all of which must be taken into consideration when approaching a contemporary production. This practical guide also explores with analysed examples, the issues that today's theatre-makers should consider in order to successfully stage ancient Greek drama. These topics include: - choice of translation - setting - costumes - masks - mode of delivery - acting style for both tragedy and comedy - handling of the chorus - solutions to staging Greek drama.

Author : Stephen Wilmer,John Dillon
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014-07-04
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781408150177

Get Book

Rebel Women by Stephen Wilmer,John Dillon Pdf

A collection of essays by many distinguished contributors, focused on the portrayal of rebel women in ancient Greek drama. Ancient Greek drama provides the modern stage with a host of powerful female characters who stand in opposition to the patriarchal structures that seek to limit and define them. For contemporary theatre directors their representation serves as a vehicle for examining and illuminating issues of gender, power, family and morality, as germane today as when the plays were first written. Rebel Women brings together essays by leading writers from across different disciplines examining the representation of ancient Greek heroines in their original contexts and on today's stage. Divided into three sections, it considers in turn international productions, Irish versions, and studies of the original texts. The articles explore how such characters as Iphigenia, Medea, Antigone and Clytemnestra have been portrayed in recent times and the challenges and provocation they offer to both contemporary audiences and dramatists alike. 'Seamus Heaney and Athol Fugard are brought together as contributors by the inspiration that ancient Greek tragedy has offered to them both. There are offerings here on Iphigenia, edea, Antigone, Clytemnestra, film, drama, Greece, Russia ... and especially Ireland. Amidst all this variety, the level of interest and of scholarship are consistently high.' Oliver Taplin, Professor of Classical Languages and Literature, Oxford University

Author : Peter D. Arnott
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2002-09-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134924035

Get Book

Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre by Peter D. Arnott Pdf

Peter Arnott discusses Greek drama not as an antiquarian study but as a living art form. He removes the plays from the library and places them firmly in the theatre that gave them being. Invoking the practical realities of stagecraft, he illuminates the literary patterns of the plays, the performance disciplines, and the audience responses. Each component of the productions - audience, chorus, actors, costume, speech - is examined in the context of its own society and of theatre practice in general, with examples from other cultures. Professor Arnott places great emphasis on the practical staging of Greek plays, and how the buildings themselves imposed particular constraints on actors and writers alike. Above all, he sets out to make practical sense of the construction of Greek plays, and their organic relationship to their original setting.

Author : Michael Ewans
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-19
Category : Drama
ISBN : 9781350381339

Get Book

Staging Ancient Greek Plays by Michael Ewans Pdf

Merging the theoretical framework with the practical elements of staging an ancient Greek play, this indispensable guide offers directors and actors an excellent starting point for mounting their production. Considering the conditions of ancient Greek performance and the conventions of the Greek theatre, the book examines large questions, including those related to ancient Greek values, myth and the individual ('characterization'), and the gods and fate – all of which must be taken into consideration when approaching a contemporary production. This practical guide also explores with analysed examples, the issues that today's theatre-makers should consider in order to successfully stage ancient Greek drama. These topics include: - choice of translation - setting - costumes - masks - mode of delivery - acting style for both tragedy and comedy - handling of the chorus - solutions to staging Greek drama

Author : Simon Goldhill
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-15
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9780226790725

Get Book

How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today by Simon Goldhill Pdf

From the stages of Broadway and London to university campuses, Paris, and the bourgeoning theaters of Africa, Greek tragedy remains constantly in production. This global revival, in addition to delighting audiences, has highlighted both the promise and the pitfalls of staging ancient masterpieces in the modern age. Addressing the issues and challenges these performances pose, renowned classicist Simon Goldhill responds here to the growing demand for a comprehensive guide to staging Greek tragedy today. In crisp and spirited prose, Goldhill explains how Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles conceived their works in performance and then summarizes everything we know about how their tragedies were actually staged. The heart of his book tackles the six major problems facing any company performing these works today: the staging space and concept of the play; the use of the chorus; the actor’s role in an unfamiliar style of performance; the place of politics in tragedy; the question of translation; and the treatment of gods, monsters, and other strange characters of the ancient world. Outlining exactly what makes each of these issues such a pressing difficulty for modern companies, Goldhill provides insightful solutions drawn from his nimble analyses of some of the best recent productions in the United States, Britain, and Continental Europe. One of the few experts on both Greek tragedy and contemporary performance, Goldhill uses his unique background and prodigious literary skill to illuminate brilliantly what makes tragedy at once so exciting and so tricky to get right. The result will inspire and enlighten all directors and performers—not to mention the growing audiences—of ancient Greek theater.

Author : Bloomsbury Publishing
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2013-11-20
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781472519788

Get Book

Theorising Performance by Bloomsbury Publishing Pdf

This exciting collection constitutes the first analysis of the modern performance of ancient Greek drama from a theoretical perspective. The last three decades have seen a remarkable revival of the performance of ancient Greek drama; some ancient plays - "Sophocles", "Oedipus", "Euripides", and "Medea" - have established a distinguished place in the international performance repertoire, and attracted eminent directors including Peter Stein, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, and Katie Mitchell. Staging texts first written two and a half thousand years ago, for all-male, ritualised, outdoor performance in masks in front of a pagan audience, raises quite different intellectual questions from staging any other canonical drama, including Shakespeare. But the discussion of this development in modern performance has until now received scant theoretical analysis. This book provides the solution in the form of a lively interdisciplinary dialogue, inspired by a conference held at the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama (APGRD) in Oxford, between sixteen experts in Classics, Drama, Music, Cultural History and the world of professional theatre.The book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Classics and Drama alike.

Author : Stuart Douglas Olson,Oliver Taplin,Piero Totaro
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2023-06-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783111248615

Get Book

Page and Stage by Stuart Douglas Olson,Oliver Taplin,Piero Totaro Pdf

Our knowledge of the ancient theatre is limited by the textual and iconographic character of the evidence available to us: we cannot watch or otherwise experience an Athenian tragedy or comedy. These essays, by a distinguished group of international scholars, bridge the gap between the surviving literary and iconographic evidence and the realities of performance on the ancient Greek stage. This ambitious goal is reached by means of a detailed examination of several case-studies: the construction of dramatic space in Sophocles’ Antigone; the significance of the use of deictic pronouns in Sophocles’ Trachiniae; the theatrical and religious dynamics of the appearance of divine figures on stage; the relationship between the victory celebrations at the end of Aristophanic comedies and their counterparts in the after-performance real world; the investigation of nude or semi-nude female characters in Aristophanes; the staging of Clouds and the opening scene of Acharnians; the meditation on the metapoetics of the use of props in 5th-century comedy; the relationship between performance context and text through a close reading of a number of Aristophanic fragments; the way the scholia vetera on Frogs imagine and use questions of staging practice; and the potential Aeschylean authorship of some of stage-direction traceable in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Diktoulkoi.

Author : Alena Sarkissian,Pavlína N. Šípová
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2009-03-26
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781443809276

Get Book

Staging of Classical Drama around 2000 by Alena Sarkissian,Pavlína N. Šípová Pdf

Classical drama on the modern stage as a cultural and political phenomenon is scholarly trailed since the 1950s and 60s and intensified in the last third of the twentieth century. The evidence is being extensively documented, pioneered by Walton (1987) and McDonald (1992) and subsequently developed by collaborative research projects which include published databases. It is clear from the work of these projects that performance of classical drama is a major feature in all types of theatre – avant-garde and experimental, student, international and fringe, epic and classical, commercial, popular and canonical. This means that it is closely intertwined with the politics of locale, environment and geography as well as of language, translation and culture. Each of the essays has a specialised contribution to make. However, the total impact of the whole section will be even greater than the sum of the parts because the authors not only intersect in their discussions of common concerns in modern performance of ancient drama but also provide case studies that will add to the knowledge base and critical acumen of everyone working in the field.

Author : J. Michael Walton
Publisher : Heinemann Educational Books
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Electra (Greek mythology) in literature
ISBN : IND:30000026046288

Get Book

Greek Theatre Practice by J. Michael Walton Pdf

Author : David Taylor
Publisher : Bristol Classical Press
Page : 112 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 1999-12-09
Category : History
ISBN : STANFORD:36105110391666

Get Book

The Greek and Roman Stage by David Taylor Pdf

This text sets out to bring to life the Greek and Roman plays and their staging, evoking the visual and emotional character of performances and dramatic festivals and offering a clear account of the plays and their writers. It attempts to re-create the excitement of the competitions and analyses the practical challenges faced by the playwrights and actors in staging the plays, whether tragedies or comedies. It also aims to bring to life the costumes, masks, stage and scenery, as well as the audience's reactions to the experience. The book gives clear summaries of well-known Greek and Roman plays and their authors, and explores in depth some of the best-known, particularly "Antigone" and "The Clouds". There are many suggestions for further study, including additional reading for both the teachers and pupils, topics for discussion, subjects to write about, and activities for individuals and groups.

Author : J. M. Walton
Publisher : Greenwood
Page : 456 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1987-11-13
Category : Drama
ISBN : UOM:49015000658907

Get Book

Living Greek Theatre by J. M. Walton Pdf

While there is clearly no dearth of material on Greek theatre, until now no systematic effort has been made to integrate the Classical tradition with our modern perceptions and adaptations of it. Professor Walton's unique guide to Greek drama takes on this task, bringing together a wealth of information on Athenian tragedy and comedy as performed and appreciated in its own time and as embodied on the modern stage. The introductory section highlights some of the characteristic features of Greek tragedy and comedy and suggests how and under what conditions plays were first performed. The following section consists of analyses of the thirty-three surviving plays attributed to Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Each essay provides information on dates, characters, size of roles, and plot, together with an assessment of staging problems and a review of dramatic and theatrical qualities. The section concludes with a discussion of the influence of Greek tragic tradition on Roman drama.

Author : Laura S. Lieber
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 425 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : History
ISBN : 9780190065461

Get Book

Staging the Sacred by Laura S. Lieber Pdf

"In this volume, Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan liturgical poetry from Late Antiquity (ca. 3rd-4th c. CE) is examined not only from within the context of religious traditions of biblical interpretation and conventions of prayer but also through the lenses of performance, entertainment, and spectacle. Recognizing that liturgical poets were as invested engaging their listeners as orators and actors were, this study analyses hymnody as a performative genre akin to oratory and theatre, the two primary modes of public performance from the wider societal context. Attention to liturgical poetry's "theatricality" draws our attention to a range of subjects, from how biblical stories were adapted to the liturgical stage, much in the way that the classical works of Greco-Roman antiquity were themselves popularized in this Late Antique period; to the adaptation of physical techniques and material structures to augment the ability of performers to engage their audiences. Specific techniques associated with both oratory and acting in antiquity will offer concrete means for elucidating the affinities of liturgical presentations and other modes of performance: indications of direct address, for example, and apostrophe, as well as the creation of character through speech (ethopoeia); and appeals to the audience's senses, including vivid descriptions (ekphrasis), a technique especially popular in antiquity. A serious consideration of performance also demands that we make the difficult leap to imagining the world beyond the page. While Late Antique hymnody has come down to the present primarily in textual form, the written word constitutes something quite remote from the actual experience these scripts reflect. We will thus attempt to consider more speculative but recognizably essential elements of these works' reception, including ways in which liturgical poetry could have borrowed from the gestures and body language of oratory, mime, and pantomime, and how poets may have used the physical spaces of performance and accelerated changes visible in the archaeological record"--

Author : Eric Csapo,Hans Rupprecht Goette,J. Richard Green,Peter Wilson
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 590 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9783110373684

Get Book

Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century BC by Eric Csapo,Hans Rupprecht Goette,J. Richard Green,Peter Wilson Pdf

Age-old scholarly dogma holds that the death of serious theatre went hand-in-hand with the 'death' of the city-state and that the fourth century BC ushered in an era of theatrical mediocrity offering shallow entertainment to a depoliticised citizenry. The traditional view of fourth-century culture is encouraged and sustained by the absence of dramatic texts in anything more than fragments. Until recently, little attention was paid to an enormous array of non-literary evidence attesting, not only the sustained vibrancy of theatrical culture, but a huge expansion of theatre throughout (and even beyond) the Greek world. Epigraphic, historiographic, iconographic and archaeological evidence indicates that the fourth century BC was an age of exponential growth in theatre. It saw: the construction of permanent stone theatres across and beyond the Mediterranean world; the addition of theatrical events to existing festivals; the creation of entirely new contexts for drama; and vast investment, both public and private, in all areas of what was rapidly becoming a major 'industry'. This is the first book to explore all the evidence for fourth century ancient theatre: its architecture, drama, dissemination, staging, reception, politics, social impact, finance and memorialisation.

Author : Stratos Constantinidis
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 425 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2016-11-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9789004332164

Get Book

The Reception of Aeschylus’ Plays through Shifting Models and Frontiers by Stratos Constantinidis Pdf

In The Reception of Aeschylus' Plays 15 scholars explore new methods and frontiers for studying and staging Aeschylus’ plays by showing the tensions between traditional scholarship and innovative analysis in reception studies and performance studies.

Author : Gary Chancellor
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 28 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 1979
Category : Electronic
ISBN : STANFORD:36105121771088

Get Book

Implicit Stage Directions in Ancient Greek Drama by Gary Chancellor Pdf