10,000 views, in 100 countries!

Our global superstars have been viewed ten thousand times since we went on YouTube eighteen months ago!  The viewing list now has 100 countries:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, 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, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM), Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reúnion, 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 U.S., the list remains the same: 49 states, plus D.C. and an "unknown region."  (If you drive through South Dakota some time, find a wifi hotspot and pull up one of our videos!  That way we'll have views in all 50 states.)

U.S. viewership accounts for 66% of the total, but international viewing continues to increase.  Here are the nations in the top 20:

U.S.

U.K.

Italy

Australia

Canada

Spain

Greece

Germany

France

Cyprus

India

Russia

Brazil

Switzerland

Japan

Netherlands

Ireland 

Belgium

Czech Republic

Portugal

The Latin videos account for 3,002 of the 10,002 views, and their international viewership is significantly higher than the 34% of the total views.  (Google Statistics did not give figures for all 20 videos, but for some of the Latin scenes, international views amount to 51% of the total viewership.)

Overall, the viewing patterns suggest that our videos are really seeing a lot of classroom use.

This blog has been visited 4,250 times. 

Congratulations to all our participants—faculty experts, composer (Ted Gellar-Goad), program assistant (Serena Witzke), costume designer (Adam Dill), and especially the hardworking NEH Summer Scholars.  Ten thousand views!  We never dreamt of such numbers when we were designing this program, and we're just amazed.

Tim and Sharon 

Seth Jeppesen's class, Ancient Drama and Performance

Here's what NEH Summer Scholar Seth Jeppeson is up to this semester!


This semester at BYU I am teaching a course entitled Ancient Drama and Performance, which is based to a large extent on my experience with the NEH Institute on Roman Comedy in Performance. One thing that the institute demonstrated quite well is how important performance is to the understanding of ancient drama. Though most people would agree with this statement, it is still rare in the field of Classics to find classes that incorporate performance in the course work and assessment to a significant degree. In teaching this class, I hope to illustrate that such an approach can work. Riffing off of my experience in the institute, I came up with the following plan: with a group of Classics, Humanities and Theater students, we will read a number of plays in translation - Greek and Roman, tragedy and comedy - and then read a survey of scholarship about how these plays were performed anciently and how they have been translated, adapted, and performed in the modern world. Using the tools gained through this survey of the primary and secondary material, the students will choose scenes to perform at the end of the semester.

We will document our process along the way on our blog: http://technitaidionysou.blogspot.com/



Please feel free to look over our posts on the blog and provide comments on what you see. Thanks!

Mimi Kammer to give a talk about the Institute at conference, in March

Mimi Kammer, of Simpson College in Iowa, will be giving a talk about the Institute this March:

“Performance as Research and Pedagogy:  Revising the Procedures of the National Endowment for the Humanities”

Mid-America Theatre Conference
Upcoming, March 2014

Here's the abstract:

Performance as Research and Pedagogy: 

Revising the Procedures of the National Endowment for the Humanities

            Each summer, the National Endowment for the Humanities offers a series of programs designed for scholars to engage in collaborative, intensive research and study of “ideas central to undergraduate teaching in the humanities.”[1]  The 2012 summer institute, “Roman Comedy in Performance,” attracted scholars from a range of fields, including classics, literature, religious studies, modern languages, acting, directing, and theatre history.  It was considered an unconventional experiment among NEH officials not only for its interdisciplinary nature, but also because it combined more traditional academic techniques (e,g, close readings, seminar discussions, etc.) with mandates for performance:  to be a fellow at this institute, each scholar, regardless of his/her field, would have to act.  Setting aside the more usual means of scholarly articulation such as the publishable paper, this institute culminated with professionally filmed performances of scenes from the works of Plautus and Terence, each featuring scholars as actors. 

This paper will iterate the methodologies of the Roman comedy institute, particularly those predicated on a scholarship of “doing” via embodied knowledge-experiences of performance; relate the findings of the institute, particularly if humor could—or should—be found in these plays[2]; and from a first-person point-of-view demonstrate that our success as humanities students and instructors would not have been possible if we had not utilized performance as a tool of research, scholarship and potential practical  pedagogy.

---

[1] “NEH Programs for School and College Educators”  (Washington:  National Endowment for the Humanities, 2012).

[2] Although Roman comedic formulas inspired much of the comedy we have today, from stock characters to common scenarios, acting in these plays is difficult.  Most include storylines of rape, slavery, and violence which seem more disturbing than comical, particularly to 21st century sensibilities.  Debate also remains over whether or not these plays were funny in their own time.  Teaching them is difficult, and public performances of Roman comedies are rare.

9,000 views, in 97 countries!

YouTube records 9,000 views--in 97 countries!  Here is where our superstars have been seen:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, 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, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Martinique, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, 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.

All U.S. states have checked in, except South Dakota!

This blog has been visited more than 3,700 times.

Remember: DVD sets are still available for sale: 
http://romancomedyinperformance.blogspot.com/search/label/DVDs

 

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