Workshop: Reconstructing & Adapting Ancient Greek Fragmentary Tragedy
Cyborphic is proud to co-sponsor the following workshop, organised by our associate director, Dr. Andriana Domouzi and funded by the Classical Association.
This one-day workshop on “Reconstructing & Adapting Ancient Greek Fragmentary Tragedy” will be the first of its kind and will look at the Methodologies & Challenges for Classicists and Theatre Practitioners bringing to life the lost Greek plays.
Experts from Classics, English and Drama as well as playwrights and theatremakers will discuss their own take on the lost plays, producing an engaging and informative workshop addressed at colleagues, students, theatre artists and members of the public interested in the undiscovered plays of Greek civilisation.
The speakers will explore past and current trends in the reconstruction of lost Greek tragedies and will look at the creative and interdisciplinary potential of reimagining these plays. Each of them will showcase their methodology on the plays they chose to reconstruct and the benefits and practicalities of their approach. The event organiser, Dr. Andriana Domouzi, defines these trends as follows:
• The “faithful” reconstruction, resulting in a new play trying to appear as if it was written by the ancient tragedian (pastiche).
• The imaginative/creative reconstruction, resulting in a new play that might not be close to the original, but still makes use of available ancient sources; the action is often transferred to the contemporary era.
• The Classicist’s reconstruction, one that does not usually produce a fully formalised new play, but prefers to dramatically explore and experiment with the potential scenarios, reflecting the classicist’s struggle to deal with usually contradictory sources on the same lost tragedy.
The event will be hosted by the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome of the Department of Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London. Registration is free: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-reconstructing-adapting-ancient-greek-fragmentary-tragedy-tickets-45919159442
Confirmed speakers:
Timberlake Wertenbaker (playwright, translator)
Adam Roberts (author, Prof. of English at Royal Holloway, University of London)
David Stuttard (author, classicist, director, founder of Actors of Dionysus theatre company)
Colin Teevan (playwright, Prof. of Playwriting at Birkbeck, University of London)
Martin Wylde (director, Lecturer in Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama)
Leta Koutsohera (poet, playwright)
Lily Karadima (director, dramaturg, artistic director of Atrapos theatre company)
Plays under discussion:
Sophocles' Tereus (Wertenbaker, The Love of the Nightingale)
Euripides' Phaethon, Hypsipyle and Telephos (Roberts)
Euripides' Alexandros, Palamedes and Sisyphus (Stuttard)
Euripides' Alcmaeon in Corinth (Teevan and Wylde)
Euripides' Cretans (Koutsohera and Karadima)