Greek Drama in Canada (original) (raw)
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The Theatre of the Greek Diaspora: The Case of Canada
Études helléniques / Hellenic Studies, 2008
Le théâtre grec au Canada n'a pas été à étudié à ce jour et demeure donc terra incognita. Cet article se veut expérimental et tentera d'élaborer un portrait de la situation depuis le commencement des communautés grecques dans ce pays. Les hommes d'affaires grecs ont commandé les halls principaux de théâtre dans les années 20 à Montréal mais il semble qu' ils étaient seulement les propriétaires des bâtiments et n'avaient pas de relation avec le théâtre de répertoire. Nous en savons peu au sujet de l'activité grecque de théâtre au Canada avant la deuxième guerre mondiale. Curieusement les racines de ce théâtre sont tracées dans les petites communautés canadiennes occidentales. Ce n'est que seulement après la deuxième guerre mondiale que nous commençons à avoir des informations limitées sur l'activité de théâtre. Les années 60 sont la période où nous pouvons mieux l'étudier. Dans tous les cas nous parlons du théâtre d'amateur exécutés principalement à Montréal. Il a été établi par les groupes d'amateurs de théâtre et il a été exécuté dans les écoles grecques. Nous proposons une distinction entre deux genres de théâtre grec au Canada, le patriotique-folklorique et le social-politique.
This collection of essays from new and established scholars explores the translation, performance, and reception of ancient Greek drama in the period between and around the two world wars—so, broadly speaking, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1950s. Taken together, the essays demonstrate that the first six decades of the twentieth century present a significant and fascinating period for the study of modern engagements with Greek drama, one that, although hitherto somewhat overlooked, repays close study. The essays have a particular focus on how acts of translation, performance, and reception of Greek drama represent and encourage reflections on international dialogues in this period. As will be seen, the authors have interpreted international dialogues in a variety of ways, including commentary on war and global politics, the creative exchange of ideas and promotion of ideologies, trends in performance, and internationally touring theater productions. Common themes arising from these discussions include the often interlinked concepts of tradition, identity, and migration. ESSAYS Greek Drama in the First Six Decades of the Twentieth Century: Tradition, Identity, Migration read first paragraph Amanda Wrigley Toward a National Heterotopia: Ancient Theaters and the Cultural Politics of Performing Ancient Drama in Modern Greece Eleftheria Ioannidou Oedipus, Shmedipus: Ancient Greek Drama on the Yiddish Stage Debra Caplan ‘The Kingdom of Heaven within Us’: Inner (World) Peace in Gilbert Murray’s Trojan Women Simon Perris Touring the Ivies with Iphigenia, 1915 Niall W. Slater Is Mr Euripides a Communist? The Federal Theatre Project’s 1938 Trojan Incident Robert Davis Oedipus and Afrikaans Theater Betine Van Zyl Smit "Now the struggle is for all!" (Aeschylus's Persians 405): What a Difference a Few Years Make When Interpreting a Classic Gonda Van Steen Oedipus, Suez, and Hungary: T. S. Eliot’s Tradition and The Elder Statesman Michael Simpson RESEARCH NOTES African-American Classicist William Sanders Scarborough and the 1921 Film of the Orestia at Cambridge University Michele Valerie Ronnick Alberto Savinio’s Alcesti di Samuele in the Aftermath of the Second World War Giulia Torello Politics, War, and Adaptation: Ewan MacColl’s Operation Olive Branch, 1947 Claire Warden Aristophanes and Douglas Young C. W. Marshall AFTERWORD Lorna Hardwick
The Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas
Oxford Handbook of Greek Drama in the Americas, 2015
This chapter reports on how Greek drama is being used outside of traditional theatrical contexts to promote civic discourse and address public health needs. In Ancient Greeks/Modern Livesand Theater of War, Greek tragedy is applied to speak directly to issues of war and trauma and to engage American military veterans. These activities are illustrative not only of the ways in which ancient material is circulating to new audiences, but also of the multiplicity evident in the reception of classical work and
2018
At the end of the Fall 2013 academic term, I assigned the students in my postgraduate seminar on dramatic criticism the performance reviews in Theatre Journal. In keeping with the journal's mission, the productions reviewed are international, often off the beaten path, and, presumably, significant in some aesthetic or ideological way. The students' collective response could roughly be paraphrased as "Why don't we know more about theatre like this? Why don't we do more work like this at our university? These shows take on racism and history and gender inequity with guts. Who supports these artists?" One might well have the same response to the productions Helene P. Foley discusses in her synoptic Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage, the project of which is to "try to define and isolate central developments in the history of America's ambivalent relation to Greek tragedy on the professional stage from the nineteenth century to the present" (3). Foley is in a unique position for this huge undertaking. She is among the best-known and most influential of American classics scholars of the last two decades (prior to Reimagining Greek Tragedy her most recent book was Female Acts in Greek Tragedy); she is, also, the New York Times' "go to" person for comments on reworkings of the classic Greek plays on the New York stage. In Reimagining, Foley deploys both areas of expertise, albeit with a light touch. She foregrounds major socio-cultural themes and illustrates them with dozens of rich production examples. Her own critical voice regarding any individual show is generally muted. (My only minor disappointment in the book is that the author does not speak out more often, but for purposes of what she wants to accomplish she doesn't really need to, as her exhaustive sleuthing and lucid reporting do the job.) The book's overarching thesis is that "American theater has tended to respond to Greek tragedy and its central figures in an idiosyncratic fashion that reflects its own changing history and ideology and modifies our understanding of the possibilities for and implications of the tragic genre itself in the modern world" (11). Rather than opting for either a strictly chronological or a strictly thematic arrangement, Foley does both, gracefully intertwining chronologically arrayed case studies under topical rubrics. Two of these rubrics are characterological-a chapter on Medeas and one on Oedipuses. Two are political-a chapter looking at uses of Greek tragedy during the revamping of progressive aesthetics largely under Modernism's aegis and a chapter on the use of Greek tragedy to lobby for the pursuit of a better American democracy, especially during times of war.
Introduction to the Classical Greek Theater
Note: this document presents a bare-bones initial resource for students encountering 5 th-century Athenian tragedy and comedy for the first time. There is much here that will have to be illustrated, teased out, and, often, qualified in the course lectures. Where feasible, images provided in the text below are embedded with active links to my sources; clicking on the image will allow you to examine the original, which often provides greater detail. Contents
Theatre Journal, 1980
When this book was first published, its burden-that Greek tragedies make more sense when they are treated as plays for performance-was fairly novel, or at least it was preached more than it was practised. In the few years since then, it has become an orthodoxy, and stagecraft is now given due attention in nearly all new books. While happy about that, I am not happy that my name is cited as a 'ringleader' of those who maintain that we should concentrate on performance rather than words. I do not endorse that: the power of the Greek theatre rests on its extraordinary combination of word and embodiment. To neglect one is to impoverish the other. I trust that this book does not encourage anyone to set the performative dimension in competition with the verbal. I hope it does not seem fickle to say that there are things here which I would not write in the same way today. The revised bibliography gives some idea of how fast the water is flowing under the bridges of scholarship. I would also acknowledge more openly in chapter 1 the selectivity of any account of the 'author's meaning'. And in the last chapter I would stress more that it is the place of books like this to suggest and to prompt rather than to dictate to the professional theatre. The use made of my work by the National Theatre Oresteia in London in 1981-2 shows that such a relationship can work. This book is, in fact, about ancient Greek culture and about the theatre, and it is meant for the 'general reader' who is interested in either or both. I hope professional Hellenists will read it, but it was not written primarily for them. While I have had students in mind above all, students of drama or English literature or Classical civilization, any student who encounters Greek tragedy, anyone who is fascinated by the Greeks, who loves the theatre, anyone who is prepared to be enriched by the great literature of the past may find these pages worth while. But there is a condition. The core of the book (chapters 3-9) demands and assumes that the reader already knows all, or at least some, of the nine tragedies it concentrates on (they are listed on p. 22). Furthermore, it is probably best read with a translation (or text) open to hand, preferably a translation which has the line numbers in the margin (there are recommendations on pp. 197-8). This book is in no way a substitute for reading the plays themselves-and, if possible, seeing them. Indeed, I should like to think that the book has encouraged and will encourage theatres to stage these great dramas, and might help to find them audiences. I quote from the tragedies liberally. All quotations are translated and all the translations are my own. I am only too aware how stilted and imperfect they are; but I thought it essential to translate high poetry into something which suggests its lofty and arresting style. The language of Greek tragedy was not that of everyday speech, and I had rather turn it into bad verse than into pedestrian prose. In the earlier Preface I stressed how much this book owed to the inspiration and to the help of Colin Macleod. Since his death in December 1981, at the age of 38, everything that preserves his insight, however diluted, has become that much more concentrated. If this study succeeds at all in getting beneath the surface, that is owed to him. Magdalen College, Oxford March 1985 Oliver Taplin viii 1 The visual dimension of tragedy Behind the dialogue of Greek drama we are always conscious of a concrete visual actuality, and behind that of a specific emotional actuality. Behind the drama of words is the drama of action, the timbre of voice and voice, the uplifted hand or tense muscle, and the particular emotion. The spoken play, the words which we read, are symbols, a shorthand, and often, as in the best of Shakespeare, a very abbreviated shorthand indeed, for the actual and felt play, which is always the real thing. The phrase, beautiful as it may be, stands for a greater beauty still. This is merely a particular case of the amazing unity of Greek, the unity of concrete and abstract in philosophy, the unity of thought and feeling, action and speculation in life.