Basics
Location: Split between in-person at USC and via Zoom
Meeting Days:
Tuesdays
Saturday – All-day intensive (11am-5pm)
Time: 7:00pm-9:30pm
Performances (2 total):
Weekly Schedule
(subject to change based on needs of workshop and participants)
Introduction
Introductory Meeting
Unit I: Reading the Plays
Theme 1: Coming Home
Aeschylus, Agamemnon & Plautus, Amphitryon
Theme 2: The Idea of the Hero
Sophocles, Ajax
Theme 3: Ethics at War
Sophocles, Philoctetes
Theme 4: The Dilemma of War
Euripides, Hecuba
Unit II: Brainstorming, Development, Planning Projects
Sunday - All-day creative intensive from 11am-5pm: This time will be used to develop artistic responses to the readings to prepare for the public performances.
Unit III: Project Finalizing
A final prep week will scheduled for our participants to spend time completing their projects prior to the performances.
Field Trips
Previous years’ outings have included:
USC Trojans vs Stanford Cardinals
at the Los Angeles Memorial ColiseumThe Heal - Veterans Performance
at the Getty Villa
Performance of “The Heal” at the Getty Villa, September, 2019
Resources
Video of Sir Peter Hall’s 1981 production of Aeschylus’ Oresteia: Agamemnon at the National Theatre in London. Translation by Tony Harrison.
Here’s a link to a New York Times review of the production: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/20/theater/peter-hall-stages-a-london-oresteia.html
Here’s a link to an article from the Irish Times profiling playwright Marina Carr and her work on a retelling of Hecuba.
Greg wanted to add this as context: “It shows one way of adapting ancient texts to modern conditions, by reacting against them (in this case Euripides’ portrayal of Hecuba, or her interpretation of it). But it wouldn’t hurt if she, or the writer of the article, got a few basic facts straight (Hecuba was not “made love to by Apollo”: that was her daughter Cassandra. And the polis was not just getting established in the fifth century; that had been happening over the preceding 200 years or more).”
Cacoyannis’ Iphigenia, 1977
*We screened and discussed the scene @ 1 hour 35 minutes into the film.