Review of Van Zyl Smit, B. 2016. A Handbook to the Reception of Greek Drama

The Introduction begins by providing a brief overview of the reception of Greek drama by under-represented communities in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. After situating the book’s topic within this historical timeline, it proceeds to explain the development of the project, the focus on live theatre, the choice of productions, and the reasons for them. It defines terms, provides disclaimers, explains the methodology used, clarifies the topic, situates it within its historical moment, summarizes each of the chapters, describes the development of the ‘democratic turn’ in Greek drama, and finally speculates on the reasons for the appeal of Greek drama to artists working with under-represented communities.

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Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage

10.1093/oso/9780198777359.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Melinda Powers

Keyword(s):

Cross Section ◽

Performance Studies ◽

Greek Tragedy ◽

Live Performance ◽

Greek Drama ◽

The Us ◽

Social Concerns ◽

Performance Context ◽

Historical Identity ◽

Ancient Drama

Demonstrating that ancient drama can be a powerful tool in seeking justice, this book investigates a cross section of live theatrical productions on the US stage that have reimagined Greek tragedy to address political and social concerns. To address this subject, it engages with some of the latest research in the field of performance studies to interpret not dramatic texts in isolation from their performance context, but instead the dynamic experience of live theatre. The book’s focus is on the ability of engaged performances to pose critical challenges to long-standing stereotypes that have contributed to the misrepresentation and marginalization of under-represented communities. Yet, in the process, it also uncovers the ways in which performances can inadvertently reinforce the very stereotypes they aim to challenge. This book thus offers a study of the live performance of Greek drama and its role in creating and reflecting social, cultural, and historical identity in contemporary America.

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Between Jerusalem and Athens

10.1093/oso/9780198746676.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nurit Yaari

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Social Conditions ◽

Cultural Events ◽

Greek Drama ◽

The Past ◽

Key Points ◽

Mise En Scene ◽

Dramatic Writing ◽

Artistic Performance

How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real time—and how? What was the contribution of classical Greek drama to the evolution of Israeli theatre? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures—and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This book, the first of its kind, attempts to answer these and other questions, by examining the reception of classical Greek drama in the Israeli theatre over the last seventy years. It deals with dramatic and aesthetic issues while analysing translations, adaptations, new writing, mise-en-scène, and ‘post dramatic’ performances of classical Greek drama that were created and staged at key points of the development of Israeli culture amidst fateful political, social, and cultural events in the country’s history.

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The Classical Tradition in University Theatre

10.1093/oso/9780198746676.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nurit Yaari

Keyword(s):

Art Education ◽

Classical Tradition ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Theatre Arts ◽

Tel Aviv ◽

Greek Drama ◽

Mise En Scene ◽

History Of ◽

Stage Performance ◽

And Performance

This chapter surveys the history of classical Greek drama productions at the Department of Theatre Arts of Tel Aviv University as the basis for an exploration of the issue of theatre and art education. By analysing the students’ approach to classical Greek drama, we can see how they deal with the interpretative reading, translation, and performance of such texts on stage. We also see how the ancient works invite the students to delve more deeply into their distinctive content and forms; to draw links between theory and practice, and between text and context; to gain a deeper understanding of the issues of style and styling; and to engage in a richer experimentation with various aspects of stage performance—such as pronunciation, diction, voice, movement, music, and mise-en-scène.

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Wilde and the Emergence of Literary Drama, 1880–1895

10.1093/oso/9780198789260.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Clare L. E. Foster

Keyword(s):

Greek Drama ◽

Social Elite ◽

The Social ◽

New Ideas ◽

Made In ◽

Performance Text

This chapter examines Wilde’s championship of serious theatre and the authentic performance text by analysing his reviews of the first so-called ‘archaeological’ productions of Greek plays and Shakespeare. It offers a wider context in which to understand the rapidity of his disaffection with Greek plays, as practised among the social elite; and it suggests some ways in which his early enthusiasm for authentic Greek drama and Shakespeare is related to his own later classically informed playwriting, which combines old ideas of theatre as about and for its audiences with new ideas of drama as the appreciation of a literary object. Wilde’s own work as a dramatist straddled that change, prefigured by a comment he made in 1885: ‘An audience looks at a tragedian, but a comedian looks at his audience.’ He combines both these directions of gaze in his 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.

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