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.