T. Moore uses NEH Summer Institute videos in various lectures

The NEH Summer Institute Videos have proved a priceless asset to Tim Moore as I have given various lectures this year.  In lectures on "Roman Comedy on Stage" at Illinois Wesleyan University and Truman State University I showed videos from the institute to demonstrate stage space, masks, music, and the relationship between performance and tone; and I used them to show a group of donors at Washington University what Classics is all about.  I introduced the videos as a classroom tool to the Illinois Classical Conference.  I append below part of the handout from the Illinois Classical Conference talk, which may prove useful to those wanting a handy guide to the videos.

Videos from the NEH Summer Institute on Roman Comedy in Performance: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmBs1K1ruw2i48CmDku1HrQ?feature=mhee

(or search for “Roman Comedy” and “Sharon James” in Youtube).

Performed in Latin

01 Pseudolus Latin: Plautus, Pseudolus 133-234, with ancient style costumes, an all-male cast (except for mutes), and clarinet accompaniment, played as background music.

Bacchides 1 Latin: Plautus, Bacchides 1116-1206, with ancient style costumes and masks, sung a capella.

PersaLatin: Plautus, Persa 753-858, in modern costumes, sung to the accompaniment of a clarinet. 

Truculentus 1 Latin: Plautus, Truculentus 775-854, in modern costumes, sung with a repetitive melody to the accompaniment of a clarinet, in the style of melodrama.

Eunuchus 1 Latin: Terence, Eunuchus 739-816, in masks and ancient style costumes, with elaborate stylized gestures.

Performed in English Translation

Plautus, Bacchides 1116-1206

            Bacchides 2 English in Masks: with ancient style costumes and masks, spoken.

            Bacchides 3 English Without Masks: with ancient style costumes, spoken.

Plautus, Casina 353-423

Casina English Version 1: with ancient style costumes and masks created for the NEH Summer Institute.

Casina English Version 2: with ancient style costumes and large full masks used elsewhere in performances of Greek tragedy.

Casina English Version 3 Improv: with ancient style costumes and half-masks used elsewhere in performances of commedia dell’arte, performed as a scenario to which the actors improvised, as in commedia dell’arte.

Plautus, Mercator 691-802

Mercator English A: in modern costumes. Dorippa is furious, and the cook appears to be deliberately “playing dumb” to aggravate Lysimachus.

Mercator English B: in modern costumes. Dorippa is traumatized, and the cook appears to be clueless

Plautus, Pseudolus 133-234

02 Pseudolus Commedia: with modern style costumes, and the half-masks and style of commedia dell’arte.

03 Pseudolus All Female cast: with modern style costumes and a “breakout scene” in which the performers discuss questions raised by the scene and its performance.

04 PseudolusHipHop: with ancient style costumes and some masks, in the style of hip-hop, with percussion and recorder accompaniment.

05 Pseudolus Slapstick/Mocking Slaves: with ancient style costumes, half-masks as in commedia dell’arte, and a slapstick.

Truculentus 2 English: Plautus, Truculentus 775-854: in modern costumes, spoken, in the style of melodrama.

Terence, Eunuchus 739-816

Eunuchus 19^th century: using Henry Thomas Riley's 1853 translation, with costumes suggesting a 19^th-century British garden party.

Eunuchus 3 sit-com: in modern costumes. An adaptation in the style of a 21^st-century American situation comedy.

8,000 Views in 92 countries!

We have reached 8,000 views, in 92 countries and all U.S. states (plus Washington, D.C. and "unknown region"), except for South Dakota!  There has been a big uptick in viewing since mid-September.

Here's our current viewing list:

Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy,  Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

In the last 6 weeks, international viewership has risen by about 4%, from about 33% of the total views to 37%.  

This blog has been visited over 3,100 times.

DVD sets are still available for sale—see below. 

Meredith Safran presented Roman Comedy at Trinity College faculty seminar

Meredith Safran writes:

On Thursday October 3rd, I participated in the first installment of the Trinity Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies' Faculty Seminars, on the topic "Between Text and Performance." There are four seminars each year and they consist of Trinity faculty plus an invited guest speaker addressing a topic of cross-disciplinary interest; both faculty and students attend. I spoke about the textual and performance-based issues in the study of Roman comedy and specifically used our work in the NEH seminar to exemplify how scholars are engaging with these questions in an experimental format. The visiting speaker was Rebecca Schneider, professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Brown. There was a turnout of about 50 people, including faculty from many different departments and the new Dean of Faculty.

There wasn't time for clips, so I showed some stills and talked about production choices. Here's the program:

http://www.trincoll.edu/Academics/centers/TIIS/Pages/Workshops.aspx

7,000+ views! Institute Featured on NEH Education Division Website!

We are now at 7,007 views on YouTube, in 85 countries and 46 states (plus D.C. and an "unknown region"):

Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

This blog has been visited 2,780 times.

The NEH has been very enthusiastic about the whole program—enough to feature us last month on the NEH's Education Division website, in an interview with Tim and Sharon: 

http://www.neh.gov/divisions/education/featured-project/roman-comedy-in-performance

DVD sets are still available, for $10 in the U.S. and $12 internationally.  See below....

6,000 views!

We're up to 6,000 views now, in 80 countries!

Here's the current viewing list:

-->

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

This blog has been visited over 2,300 times.

Remember that DVD sets are for sale; see below....

 

Utah State students' production of Terence's Adelphoe ("The Brothers"), spring 2013

To complete an assignment on the reception of Roman culture in the post-ancient world, ten students in the Roman History course at Utah State University last term (Spring 2013) collaborated with two of their peers from an upper-division Latin class in producing an adaptation of Terence's Adelphoe (“The Brothers”).  These students were encouraged to reflect the play’s themes freely and in a modern idiom, not to be bound to the details of the Latin original but to change what they felt necessary to create theatrically effective analogues. The goal of this reception project was to show the class what there is about this over two-millennia-old play that still seems relevant and meaningful today.

The recording of the play itself is now available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0hkvKbchI), along with a post-production class discussion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEBjgaC3k2M&feature=youtu.be) in which the performers, playwrights and costume designer outline their goals and methods in staging this adaptation. Each recording runs about 50 minutes.

The students’ viewpoints and what they gained from this project are abundantly clear on the recordings.  There is no point here in rehearsing them. What stands out to me is how much of what we covered in the NEH Institute last summer occurred to the students naturally and without any provocation from me: the importance of the lower-class figures, how effective New Comedy is at addressing important social issues, the inherent fun in multiple-role playing and, perhaps most of all, the horrific abuse of the female characters. During the process of creating this adaptation, I pressed the playwrights, both women, about why they didn’t want to include anything equivalent to Pamphila’s rape. They said it simply wasn’t funny. I then noted that they included the beating of a pimp. Their opinion? That was funny, in fact, funny enough that they felt comfortable not only pummeling but killing him – on the phone, of course. Another thing they learned: keep the violence off stage.

The post-production discussion demonstrates that those in the class who did not participate in the play also benefited.  The reception part of the course had begun several weeks earlier with a lecture by Prof. Christopher Pelling of Oxford University about the various incarnations of Cleopatra in drama, cinema and modern literature. With that insight, the students were primed to approach this adaptation as another example of how Roman culture can and does illuminate our lives today.

Mark Damen, Utah State University

Order your DVDs here!

The DVDs are ready to order, via PayPal.  This deluxe set of two disks comes in a hard plastic fitted case. 

The cost is U.S. $10 for shipping in the U.S., and U.S. $12 for shipping to international destinations.

Order information:
U.S. Shipping-1 set $10.00 USD U.S. Shipping-2 sets $20.00 USD U.S. Shipping-3 sets $30.00 USD U.S. Shipping-4 sets $40.00 USD U.S. Shipping-5 sets $50.00 USD International Shipping-1 set $12.00 USD International Shipping-2 sets $24.00 USD

5,500+ views!

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

We're at 5,635 views now, in 76 countries outside the U.S.

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

This blog has been visited over 2,000 times.

The DVDs are ready to be ordered—see the next post, above!

I had the privilege of listening to the NEH Institute Panel at CAMWS this last weekend.  The papers were excellent, and I learned more about a number of the videos.  Well done, NEH Summer Scholars!

5,000+ views on YouTube!

Something strange is going on out there—we've had about 750 views in the last month, so we're up to 5,011 now, in 71 countries:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

One more U.S. state has checked in—Alaska—so we've been viewed in 45 states, plus D.C., and an "unknown region."

CAMWS is next weekend, so be sure to go to the panel about the Institute, Friday at 10.15—see old friends, tell everybody what you've been up to, get caught up.  And then post stuff here!  This is the place to let us all know what you've been doing, what you're planning to do, in classes, on stage, in print. 

Check in here for an announcement about the DVDs, in the next couple of weeks.

Another month, another 500 views—we're up to 4,500 now!

The videos have been seen in 68 countries (including that "Unknown Region") now:

-->Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia,the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sudan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

This site has been visited over 1,200 times.

If you're going to CAMWS, don't miss the panel organized by NEH participants Erin Moodie and Chris Bungard, Friday morning at 10.15:

Section D: Panel -- Beyond the OCT: Reflections on the NEH Summer Institute on Roman Comedy in Performance

Erin Moodie (DePauw University), co-organizer and presider, Chris Bungard (Butler University), co-organizer

1.     Pseudolus at the Ludi Megalenses: Re-creating Roman Comedy in Context. Nancy Sultan (Illinois Wesleyan University)

2.     Devised Theater and Metatheater: The "Actor" as Commentator on Roman Comedy. Meredith Safran (Trinity College) 

3.     "There are no small parts, only small actors": Spotlighting the Mute Characters of Roman Comedy. Sophie Klein (Boston University)

4.     Silent and Boisterous Slaves: Considerations in Staging Pseudolus 133-234. Christopher Bungard (Butler University) and Daniel Walin (University of California, Berkeley)

5.     A Mask is Worth a Thousand Words. Erin Moodie (DePauw University) and Mike Lippman (University of Arizona)

If you aren't going to CAMWS, you can find their fabulous abstracts here: http://www.camws.org/meeting/2013/files/panels/008.Panel.BeyondtheOCT.pdf

Finally: the DVDs are here!  When a PayPal arrangement has been set up, this will be the place to order them.  The cost, including all shipping expenses, will be $10 to U.S. destinations and somewhat more for international destinations.  

Over 4,000 views on YouTube!

Our videos have been watched in 63 countries, one of which is an "unknown region"—very mysterious.

Here's the list:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, China, Colombia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S.A., “Unknown Region,” Vietnam.

In the U.S., the videos have been watched in 43 states, plus Washington, D.C., and another "unknown region."  

Most of the views have taken place in the U.S., but there's been a lot of viewing activity in Spain, the U.K., Italy, Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, France, and the Ukraine (that's our top ten list).

This blog has been visited over 1,000 times.  Visitors, please feel free to leave comments and questions!

 

3,500 views in four months!

We're up to 3500 views now, in 57 countries and 44 states (one of which is listed as "Unknown region, US"--??).  Here is where our videos have been watched:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the U.K., the U.S. A., Vietnam.

This blog page has been visited more than 750 times.

The APA Workshop led by Tim (with a tiny bit of assistance by Sharon) was a great success, and created a big spike in viewership.  

If you're going to CAMWS, be sure to go to the Comedy panel organized by our participants!