Final Report on “Aristophanes Now” Project
Final report, July, 2001:
The group project, “Aristophanes Now,” a collaborative effort involving Classics faculty and students from Denison, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, Oberlin, and Wooster, has been a signal success. The project was designed to foster collaborative educational programming between the five colleges, focused on Aristophanes’ play “The Women of the Thesmophoria.” Faculty and students on each campus studied the play in various curricular venues, history and classical civilization courses (Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, and Wooster), an advanced course in ancient Greek (Kenyon), and a special course on the production of ancient drama in contemporary settings (Oberlin). The latter two classes were able to collaborate closely, as Kenyon students produced English translations of scenes from the Greek, which Oberlin students then staged. At Wooster, students and faculty also staged an “Aristophanic dinner” at the Wooster Inn, recreating some (!) aspects of the ancient symposium, including some samples of updated Aristophanic humor.
The centerpiece of the program was an modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ play, “The Julie Thesmo Show,” which was directed by Mary Kay Gamel, Flora Stone Mather Professor of Classics at Case Western University. On Sunday, February 18, over 100 students and faculty from the five colleges attended a matinee performance of the play, and then participated in a discussion with the cast and director of the play. To prepare for this event, Professor Gamel traveled to four of the five campuses, to lecture on the challenges of producing ancient drama in a modern setting, and to meet and talk with students and faculty. These campus visits were extremely successful, sparking lively exchanges of ideas and introducing students to concepts they would see realized in February at the performance.
The project concluded with a meeting at Kenyon on May 17, attended by students from Kenyon and faculty from the five colleges, where participants discussed the impact of the programs on their campuses. There was general agreement that the project had been a success, fostering interest in the material and laying the groundwork for further collaborative efforts. Though all the goals of the project were realized, the work was done under budget. Finally, we are grateful to Todd Burson in the Controller’s Office at Kenyon, for handling the funds for the project, and to Scott Siddall at Denison, the Program Director for the collaborative project, for his encouragement and sound advice.
Thomas Van Nortwick
Project Director