Greco-Roman Theater Project

"Is there anything more wonderful on earth, our marvelous planet, than the miracle of man?"     - Sophocles' Antigone, Choragos

"Yeah - Everquest" - anonymous source

This is the second of the jig-saw group projects we do in class.  These projects are called "Jig-Saws" because they use a two-group technique - a "friends" group (the Jig group) to whom you will report what you learn,  and a "performance or study" group (the Saw group).  All the pieces should fit together nicely in the end, like a completed jig-saw puzzle.  In this Jig-Saw the class will be performing scenes from Greek and Roman plays.  Grades will be based not merely on a quote identification test, but on how effective your performance is.
 
Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to give you a sense of some the variety of Greek and Roman literature, particularly theater, which have had a profound impact on literature, drama, storytelling, and even television and film in our time.  Since theater is intended for performance, and not merely academic study, we will be performing scenes from these works.
 
Materials (What you will need):
  
 A. Get a Group (of, preferably, friends) -
These are the "Jig" groups.  Depending on class size, groups will generally consist of  4 people.  Once you have formed your group, get out a piece of paper (only one for the whole group) and list everybody's name in your group, first and last.  Each group member will chose an individual author to focus on, a play by whom each person will then read and later perform (in their "Saw" groups).

B. Pick a playwright: (see the list below)                                      Each member of your "friends" group will select a different author from the list below.  The teacher will explain a bit about each one's works, but will allow the students to ultimately chose what play or literary work they wish to perform. The four authors you have to choose from are as follows:

     Sophocles - Considered by many to be the true cornerstone of Greek Drama, Sophocles is today best known for his trilogy concerning Oedipus.  His play Oedipus Rex has been used as a model of tragic drama for over two centuries, influenced the philosophy of psychologist Sigmund Freud, and is still performed on stages around the world today.  Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone complete the trilogy, but there do remain a handful of the many plays he wrote, though, tragically enough, most have been lost through time.

     Euripides - Noted for his focus on human behaviour and psychology, Euripides remains the most popular of the Greek tragedians.  His plays explore the dark side of human nature and the gods are frequently altogether absent from the action, except to be called upon in prayer.  The Bacchae (about religious zealotry and impiety) and The Trojan Women (about the casualties of war) are still regularly performed today.

     Aristophanes - A comic author, his life spanned the Golden Age of Athens, through its loss in the Peloponnesian War, and he is partly blamed by some for the outcome of Socrates' fate due to his satirization of him in The Clouds.  Best known, perhaps for his play Lysistrata (involving a sex-strike by the women of Greece to get their men to end their war), his is also the author of numerous other comedies such as The Frogs.

     Ovid - While Ovid is not a playwright, he is among the most significant of the Roman authors.  His work The Metamorphoses is an amazing compendium of Greek and Roman mythology strung together through a variety of narrative techniques.  You may chose to write your own scene for performance, based on one of his mythological re-tellings, or you may chose to read all of and perform a single scene from Erysichthon, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses.  (Copies can be downloaded as a Word Document here.  Or you can view the work scene by scene in html  or you can view the whole thing as one big html document.

C. Get in your Performance Groups (based on the  four authors) -               Once you have re-formed from your "friends" group to your "performance" group - decide on what play you want to read and perform a scene from.  You will need to read the play first, then choose a scene or pair of scenes which will be approximately 7 - 10 minutes in length.  The scenes need to be memorized and costumed. These scenes will be graded on the basis of five things (20 points each)-

   (1) projection - this is the most difficult of the five parts of the grade.  Performances will be in the school amphitheater and it is poorly designed for acoustics.  You should definitely rehearse at least once in the amphitheater and have friends sit in the back of the seating area to see how difficult it is to hear if you speak softly.  You should also take care to articulate and enunciate so people canunderstandandit'snotjust a jumble.

   (2) memorization - everybody has to have their lines and movement memorized; nervousness is understandable and it is best to have someone in the audience who can shout a phrase or two to you as an emergency back-up.

   (3) props and costumes - every member on stage must be in costume.  On the other hand, not every member of the group must perform:  some may be in charge of costumes, props, choreography, music, etc.  "Costume" is defined as having at least one identifiable costume element on your neck or head, another worn between the waist and neck, and at least a third one from the waist down.  Bare feet, a toga and a crown of laurel leaves or a mask would do perfectly well.

   (4) acting - related to projection, this is how well you emphasize and articulate your character's traits.  Do you move like they would?  Does your voice reflect the emotions of the character you are portraying?  Do you stay "in character"?  Are there huge gaps between speeches?  Or is it fluid and believeable?

   (5) handbills - (which you will distribute to the teacher and the audience the day of the performance) have several components.  You need to make it clear what play you are performing, what class period you are in, and what day it is (Oct. 31st, 2003, for example).  You need to create a cast of characters which explains who is playing the part of what.  You need to include a brief synopsis of the play and an explanation of the particular scene(s) you are performing.  Last of all, you need to include a brief biographical sketch of the author.

 D. Inform the Teacher                                                                   Let the teacher know what play and scene you will be performing.  You will need to give the teacher a copy of the specific scene you plan to do a full week before the performances.  These scene selections will be used on the Unit Test.

The Day of Performance:

Plays will be performed, periods 4 and 5 on Halloween.  You will be given 3 minutes to set-up, 7 - 10 minutes of performance time, and 3 minutes to clean up.  We will have, as a class, 10 minutes to get assembled and ready outside.  Performances will be given in the following order:  Sophocles, Euripides, Ovid, and Aristophanes - it was customary for the Greeks to present four plays in a theater festival, three tragedies and a comedy.  We are following the same model here.  Former and Future Honors students are invited to attend, as are school administrators, parents, and the teachers and classes who have accommodated us with room changes.  You will be graded on a 100 point basis. 

Want to see what it's looked like before?  Check it out.

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Greco-Roman Performance Jig-Saw FAQ’s:

Question: How much time will we have to practice in class?

Answer:  Virtually none.  I allow only one day for dress-rehearsal.  All the rest of the work is done by you outside of class.  Get together with your group after school (I'll make my room available on Wednesdays generally), and on the weekends.  This is a project which is to be done outside of class time.

Question:  Is it going to be on the test?
 
Answer: Of course.  Life is the test.  (A smart-assed teacher retort to that inevitable and weary question.)  On the other hand, if you are asking if you will need to know information about each play or scene for the test the answer is: yep.  There will be quote identifications taken from the scenes you give me (see D. above).

Question: I was comparing my version of the play with the someone else's in the group.  I noticed that sometimes the translation was different, in fact, his version even had swear words in it!  Which one of our versions is the right one?  Which one should we use?
 
Answer:  Use whichever one you want.  Mix and match.  Whatever you do, get modern translations and don't stick yourself with some ungodly early 19th century British translation which deliberately uses archaic expressions to invoke the sensation of being with Socrates in Classical Athens (which would mean you were probably drunk).   

Question: Why don't you tell us which version to buy or get on line?  Can we buy one from you?

Answer: I sell Bibles, not Greek plays.  What do you think I AM?

Question: So we can use the version with lots of swear-words?  Can we go on stage naked, too, if it calls for it in the directions?

Answer: Do what you want.... just remember - your parents are all invited, so, with that in mind, don't do anything that would (a) embarrass you in front of your parents and (b) will get me in trouble with the school administration (who are also invited, kinda like *my* parents).  It's okay to be crude and tasteless, just don't be tastelessly tasteless.  If you have specific questions, check with me and I'll be happy to play the Morality Adjudicator for your presentations.

Question: Do we have to do the playbill?

Answer: Absolutely.  And if you don't, I simply deduct 20 points from the possible 100 for the project.  You're responsible for teaching your friends and classmates through that playbill.  Do it any way you want, beautiful work often gets extra credit - but remember, you need a copy for everyone in class - and you will pass them out in the 3 minutes set-up time you have.