Past Conferences

1st December 2007
International Perspectives at Cambridge, UK

Keynote Speakers: Emily Greenwood (St Andrews), Geoffrey Hawthorn (Cambridge), Jon Hesk (St Andrews), Kinch Hoekstra (Oxford), Ned Lebow (Dartmouth), Jennifer Roberts (CUNY), Johannes Süssman (Frankfurt), and Nadia Urbinati (Columbia). One of a series of AHRC funded research workshops on Thucydides: Reception, Reinterpretation & Influence, taking place at Bristol, Cambridge & Oxford. For more information please contact the series organiser Neville Morley, University of Bristol (n.d.g.morley AT bris.ac.uk).

14th - 15th September 2007
Theorising Performance Reception at APGRD Conference, Classics Centre, University of Oxford, UK

Issues that the conference will address include theories of 'authenticity', the body, semiotics, Shakespearean reception, post-structuralism, anthropology of performance, phenomenology of theatre, and the relationship between theory and practice. Speakers will include:

Dr. Felix Budelmann (Open University)
Prof. Freddy Decreus (University of Ghent, Belgium)
Prof. Erika Fischer-Lichte (Freie Universität, Berlin) Keynote Speaker
Prof. Helene Foley (Barnard College, COlumbia University)
Prof. Mary-Kay Gamel (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Prof. Simon Goldhill (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Lorna Hardwick (Open University)
Prof. Charles Martindale (University of Bristol)
Prof. David Wiles (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Registration fee is £25. This will include lunch on Friday 14th September and all refreshments during the conference. To register, please follow the link to the electronic booking facility for registration, bursaries and payment online at www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events/conftheory.htm.

Owing to the generosity of the Classical Association and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies up to 16 bursaries of at least £70 are available to students working at any University except Oxford. Deadline is Friday 13th July 2007.

12th July 2007
Ancient Drama in Modern Opera, 1600-1800 at APGRD Conference, Classics Centre, University of Oxford, UK

The importance of Greek drama for the evolution of European opera is well known but tends not to be distinguished from the influence of Greek mythology more generally. In keeping the focus of this conference on the influence of ancient drama in the first 200 years of opera's development we hope to shed new light both on that development and on the reception of Greek drama. The speakers are drawn from the worlds of Classics, Modern Languages, and Music, and they include people involved in the performance of operatic works as well as some of the leading academics in this field. The provisional speakers and paper titles for this conference are as follows:

Dr. Michael Burden (Director of Productions, New Chamber Opera), 'Myth in Metastasio's works'
Mr Bruno Forment (composer and performer; PhD student at University of Ghent), 'The gods out of the machine ... and their come-back'
Prof. Wendy Heller (Department of Music, Princeton University), 'Playing with fortune: the fate of Pyrrhus in seicento Venice'
Prof. Robert Ketterer (Department of Classics, University of Iowa), 'The influence of Agostino Piovene's translations of Greek tragedy on his opera libretti in the first quarter of the 18th century'
Dr. Suzana Ograjenšek (Research Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge), 'Andromache in late 17th and early 18th century operas'
Prof. Ellen Rosand (Department of Music, Yale University), 'Classical themes in Monteverdi'
Prof. Reinhard Strohm (Faculty of Music, Oxford University), ' "Addio Tebani!" Oedipus Tyrannus as opera seria (1729)'
Ms Jennifer Thorp (Archivist, New College, Oxford), 'Dance in Lully's Alceste'
Dr. Amy Wygant (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Glasgow University), 'The Ghost of Alcestis'

After the papers there will be a wine reception and then a short recital of arias from eighteenth-century tragic operas by Ensemble La Falsirena (Suzana Ograjenšek, soprano; Luke Green, harpsichord; Henrik Persson, baroque cello). We currently expect the papers to run from 9.30 to 6.15, and the recital to be over by 8.00.

Enquiries about the conference are welcome at apgrd AT classics.ox.ac.uk. We can provide advice on accommodation in the local area if required, but we regret that we cannot undertake to make bookings on behalf of conference delegates.

The £20 registration fee includes lunch and all refreshments on the day. Student bursaries are also available. For more information on the student bursaries, please visit our website. To register for this conference, please either:

(i) go to www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events/confopera.htm, and follow the link to the electronic booking facility for registration and payment online (n.b. there is a surcharge of 50p for credit/debit card bookings) or
(ii) complete the registration form which is available at www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/events/confopera.htm and send together with a cheque to 'Opera Conference: Registrations', APGRD, Classics Centre, 66 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3LU. Please contact the APGRD if you would like a paper version of the registration form.

3rd - 6th July 2007
Greek Drama IV Conference at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Victoria University of Wellington invites papers and panels for a conference on Greek Drama. This will be the fourth of the Greek drama conferences held in Australasia. The first was in 1982 in Sydney, the second in 1992 in Christchurch and the third in 2002 also in Sydney. Papers are welcome on all aspects of Greek Drama including Nachleben. Deadlines for submissions will follow in due course, but in the meantime inquiries for further information can be made to:

Professor John Davidson (john.Davidson AT vuw.ac.nz)
Dr Matthew Trundle (matthew.trundle AT vuw.ac.nz)
Classics, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

5th - 6th May 2007
The Body and the Mask in Ancient Theatre Space: Perceptions, Coincidences and Diversions
at Handa Nô Studio, Royal Holloway University and King's College London, UK

This symposium is being organised by the AHRC-funded project "The Body and Mask in Ancient Theatre Space", a research collaboration between King's Visualisation Lab at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London and the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University. The project concerns ancient masked performance - specifically in terms of spatial environments, intercultural performance and perceptual experience. Using leading-edge 3D technologies it addresses fundamental questions concerning the conditions and actualities of the ancient theatre. What can be inferred of the actor's technique and use of mask and body? How does their semiosis relate to other performance traditions and to constants of human perception? How were these phenomena experienced in the various indoor and outdoor performance spaces of Greece and Rome? How can one productively integrate the study of practice and of the surviving iconography in this research process, and how can 3D technologies be brought to bear at their interface? How does perception of masks compare with that of living human faces, and how far can methodologies concerning visual perception inform an understanding of the ancient mask? How is perception of body and physical movement related to how the mask is 'read'?

The work of the project includes the creation of full-sized masks for performance based upon terracotta miniature artefacts, complemented by other sources of material evidence, and the use of 3D motion-capture to record movements of performers and placing performers in virtually-realised ancient theatre spaces. In addition the research team is collaborating with artists from Asian mask theatre traditions whose insights into the use of masks we hope will illuminate performative aspects of lost Western traditions. The first collaboration has been with the renowned Japanese Nô performer, Matsui Akira who will attend and present a workshop/performance at the conference.

The conference will provide an opportunity for members of the team to present some of the underlying research questions as well as initial results and insights. The project is headed by Professor Richard Beacham, Director of King's Visualisation Lab at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities. Members of the research team include Dr. Hugh Denard (KCL), Dr. Richard Williams (Durham), Dr. Margaret Coldiron (Durham) and Martin Blazeby, Drew Baker and Michael Takeo Magruder of KCL.

CALL FOR PAPERS and PRESENTATIONS: Presentations are invited from scholars and practitioners in fields related to the work of the project including (but not limited to) Classics, Art History, Theatre and Performance Studies, Digital Art and Media, Psychology and Perception Studies, Dance, Mask making and Scenography.

Please send a brief abstract (250 words max.), brief biography and details of AV requirements to the conference organiser:

Margaret Coldiron: margaret.coldiron AT durham.ac.uk

EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: FRIDAY 20th APRIL 2007

5th - 7th February 2007
28th Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference at Newcastle, Australia

Newcastle is hosting the 2007 ASCS Conference, ASCS 28 at Noah's on the Beach from 5th - 7th February. At this conference, there will be two special sessions (eight papers) devoted to the afterlife of Greek and Roman drama, epic and poetry in and after the Renaissance. Offers of papers are invited for these sessions. The papers may be devoted to any work or works which translate, adapt, imitate or were inspired by classical literature. For further information, please visit the conference's website: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/hss/ascs28homepage.html

26th - 27th September 2006
Pronomos: his vase and its world, APGRD Conference at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK

This conference brings together international experts on the cultural context of Athenian theatre and its relationship to vase-painting. Discussion will be centred around the Pronomos Vase, probably the most important artefact for the visual, social and cultic representation of Greek drama within antiquity. Although this vase has been known since the nineteenth century, and is widely referred to and reproduced, there has been an extraordinary lack of a coordinated discussion of its many aspects. The conference grows out of a sense that the time is ripe for a combination of approaches – theatre history, art history, music, politics, victory celebration – to bring to light unnoticed and neglected aspects of the vase and its world.

Speakers include: Dr Lucilla Burn (Department of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) Professor Claude Calame (école des Hautes études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) Professor Eric Csapo (Professor of Classics, University of Sydney) Professor Mark Griffith (Professor of Classics and of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley) Dr Klaus Junker (Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz) Professor François Lissarrague (école des Hautes études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) Professor Robin Osborne (Professor of Ancient History, University of Cambridge) Professor Dr Bernd Seidensticker (Freie Universität Berlin) Professor Peter Wilson, W. Ritchie (Professor of Classical Greek and Chair, University of Sydney) Professor Edith Hall (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Professor Oliver Taplin (University of Oxford)

Registration fee is £40 (student/concessionary £25). Lunch and refreshments will be included. All registration forms must be received by 1st September 2006. And Thanks to the generosity of the Classical Association and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, ten bursaries are available to postgraduate students who wish to attend the conference. Each bursary will cover all meals and refreshments, one night's accommodation (if required), and at least £20 towards travel expenses. Letters of application (which should include details of your programme of study and an outline of your research), together with an academic recommendation under separate cover, should be sent by Friday 30 June 2006.

For further information please contact: amanda.wrigley AT classics.ox.ac.uk.

19th - 23rd September 2006
"Close Relations - The 'Spaces' of Greek and Roman Theatre" at University of Melbourne, Australia

An international, multi-disciplinary conference linking theatre and performance studies, archaeology, classic studies and reception studies. Keynote speakers: Prof. Richard Beacham (King's College, London); Dr Dmitry Trubotchkin State Institute for Arts Studies & Russian Academy for Theatre Arts, Moscow); Prof. Lorna Hardwick (Open University, UK). Convenors: Prof. Frank Sear; Paul Monaghan; Jane Montgomery Griffiths. The Call for Papers is available at the conference website: http://www.sca.unimelb.edu.au/close/

17th - 19th July 2006
"Medea: Mutations and Permutations of a Myth Clifton Hill House" at Bristol, UK
Jointly organised by the Universities of Bristol and Nottingham

Speakers include: Richard Buxton (Classics, Bristol), Daniela Cavallaro (Italian, Auckland), Helene Foley (Classics, Barnard, Columbia), Edith Hall (Classics, Durham), Elizabeth Prettejohn (History of Art, Bristol) and Amy Wygant (French, Glasgow). For further information, contact:

Dr. Heike Bartel (heike.bartel AT nottingham.ac.uk)
Department of German Studies, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, England

Dr Anne Simon (a.simon AT bristol.ac.uk)
Department of German, University of Bristol, 21 Woodland Roa, Bristol BS8 1TE, England

Athol Fugard (Playwright) will appear in conversation with Professor Marianne McDonald (Professor of Theatre & Classics, University of California, San Diego) on the subject of 'The Return of the Myth: Athol Fugard and the Classics', at 2.15pm on Wednesday 14 June 2006 in Magdalen Auditorium.

12th July 2006
Greek Drama and Modern Dance, APGRD Conference at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK

This symposium inaugurates our research on dance by focusing on the wide-ranging impact of Greek drama in the twentieth century: on the pioneers of Modern Dance (Duncan and Fuller), upon the mid-century Greek-inspired ballets of Martha Graham, and on the collaborative work of leading playwrights and choreographers today. The speakers include classicists, theatre practitioners, theatre specialists and historians, dance professionals, dance critics and dance historians. This event is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to be devoted to the subject of ancient dance in the modern world.

Speakers include: Yana Zarifi (Artistic Director, Thiasos Theatre Company), Dr Ruth Webb (Associate Lecturer in Classics, Université de Paris X – Nanterre), Professor Anne Cooper Albright (Professor of Dance & Theater, Oberlin College), Dr Henrietta Bannerman (Lecturer in Dance, The Place), Nadine Meisner (Dance Historian & Freelance Journalist), Professor Janet Lansdale (Professor of Dance, University of Surrey), Professor Richard Cave (Professor of Drama & Theatre Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London), Struan Leslie (Freelance Movement Director, Director, Choreographer, & Lecturer).

Registration fee is £25. Lunch and refreshments will be included. All registration forms must be received by 16th June 2006. And thanks to the generosity of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies five £45 bursaries are available to postgraduate students who wish to attend the conference. Each bursary will cover the registration fee and £25 towards travel expenses. Letters of application (which should include details of your programme of study and an outline of your research), together with an academic recommendation under separate cover, should be sent by Wednesday 31 May 2006 to: 'Dance Conference: Bursaries' at the APGRD address.

For further information please contact: amanda.wrigley AT classics.ox.ac.uk.

14th June 2006
APGRD Lecture: Athol Fugard at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK

Athol Fugard (Playwright) will appear in conversation with Professor Marianne McDonald (Professor of Theatre & Classics, University of California, San Diego) on the subject of 'The Return of the Myth: Athol Fugard and the Classics', at 2.15pm on Wednesday 14 June 2006 in Magdalen Auditorium.

1st June 2006, 5pm
"Enacting Medea: Theatre, Opera, and Film." at New York University in Hemmerdinger Hall, USA

The Center for Ancient Studies at New York University and the Aquila Theatre Company invite you to attend this annual Rose-Marie Lewent Conference. Free of charge and open to the public, the event will include a wine reception. For more information, please visit www.nyu.edu/fas/center/ancientstudies or call +001 212 998 8017.

This conference complements a concert performance of Cherubini's Médée on 3rd June 2006 at Carnegie Hall. Peter Tiboris will be conducting the Manhattan Philharmonic, soprano Irini Tsirakidou will be singing the role of Medea, and the Aquila Theatre Company will perform. For ticket information call +001 212 247 7800 or visit www.midamerica-music.com.

19th - 20th May 2006
"Sophoclean Drama and its Continuing Cultural Impact" at University of California, Davis, USA

This Conference will include talks by scholars and practitioners of Classics, Theater Studies, and Comparative Literature. The Department of Theatre and Dance will stage Athol Fugard’s The Island in coordination with the conference. Enquiries to Seth Schein (Dept of Classics, University of California at Davis, USA).

10th April 2006, 4pm
"The Future of Greek Tragedy" at Trinity College, Dublin

A panel discussion on The Future of Greek Tragedy will take place in the Beckett Theatre of the School of Drama at Trinity College Dublin. Panelists will include Marina Carr, Athol Fugard, Seamus Heaney and Marianne McDonald, and it will be chaired by Brendan Kennelly. The panel discussion will be followed by a presentation to Marianne McDonald of a festschrift: *Rebel Women: Staging Ancient Greek Drama Today* (Methuen, 2005), and a wine reception in the foyer of the theatre.

28th Sept - 1st Oct 2005
Theatre and Theatre Studies in the 21st Century

First International Conference on Theatre and Theatre Studies in the 21st Century at Dept. of Theatre Studies, University of Athens, Greece. For further information email Panagiota Pramantioti: ppramantioti AT hotmail.com

16th - 18th Sept 2004
Peace, Birds, and Frogs at Oxford, UK

Sponsored by the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford
Speakers: Ewen Bowie, Mary-Kay Gamel, Malika Hammou, Nikos Hourmouziadis, Charalampos Orfanos, Francesca Schironi, Margot Schmidt, Bernd Seidensticker, Michael Silk, Matthew Steggle, Martina Treu, Gond Van Steen, Betine Van Zyl Smit. In addition there will be a panel on translating Aristophanes which will include Sean O'Brien (poet and translator) and Mike Poulton (playwright and translator).
To be added to the mailing list in order to receive further information on this event, please email APGRD Contact name: Amanda Wrigley (amanda.wrigley@classics.oxford.ac.uk, telephone: 01865 288 210).

Classical Subjects and Modern Subjectivities
25 June, 2004 -a one-day conference on reception to be held in the Department of Classics at the University of Reading.
Contact name Maria Wyke

17th - 18th June 2004
4th Annual Postgraduate Symposium on Ancient Drama: Adaptations of Ancient Greek Drama [Call for Papers]

This two-day event will take place on Thursday, 17 June, at Royal Holloway, Egham and Friday, 18 June at the Classics Centre, Oxford. Hosted by Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London and Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford.
Contact name : Eleftheria Ioannidou

19th - 20th May 2004
Classics in Post-Colonial Worlds at The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

An international, interdisciplinary conference, jointly hosted by The Reception of the Texts and Images of Ancient Greece project, directed by Lorna Hardwick, and the Ferguson Centre for Research into the Cultures of Africa and South Asia, directed by David Richards
Contact name: mailto:c.a.gillespie AT open.ac.uk

14th May 2004
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia: A Colloquium at University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

The colloquium is held under the joint auspices of the APGRD, Oxford, and the Centre for the Classical Tradition, Bristol. Speakers will include Helene Foley, Edith Hall, Anna Linton, Fiona Macintosh, Susanna Phillippo, Melissa Sihra, William Vaughan, and Amy Wygant.
Contact Pantelis Michelakis for further details.

11th - 12th March 2004
Studying the Ancient Theatre: A Colloquium in London at Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London, UK

The Institute of Classical Studies, London and The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies are to hold a colloquium on the theme of ‘Studying the Ancient Greek Theatre’. The purpose of the event is to celebrate the work of the ICS and SPHS, and to ‘show-case’ current research and research projects based in the UK. Participants will include Chris Carey, Richard Green, Alan Griffiths, Edith Hall, Nick Lowe, Gregory Sifakis, and David Wiles, and there will be space devoted to the work of postgraduates and ‘young scholars’. Proposals of 250 words are invited for (a) the two ‘young scholars’ sessions, one on archaeological, dramatic, and literary themes, and the other on performance, practice, and reception themes; and (b) exhibitions and other visual presentations of graduate work-in-progress.
Contact: Email hellenic@sas.ac.uk by 15 November 2003.

Events in 125th Anniversary Session

25th - 26th June 2003
The Chorus in Modern Performances Of Greek Drama
Classics Centre, 67 Street Giles, Oxford, UK [25th June]
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK [26th June]

Organised by the Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford.
A third annual postgraduate symposium on the theme of 'The Chorus in Modern Performances of Greek Drama' is to take place over two days in Oxford and Egham. Papers will be presented by postgraduates from across the globe. In addition, there will be a special guest lecture by the renowed mask-maker Thanos Vovolis.
Contact Amanda Wrigley: amanda.wrigley AT classics.ox.ac.uk and George Sampatakakis: g.sampatakakis AT rhul.ac.uk.

11th - 14th April 2003
Classical Association Centenary Conference at University of Warwick, UK

For further information see the conference website, or the Classical Association Web-Site.

4th - 5th April 2003
CAM Conference: The Reception of Greek Tragedy Since Antiquity at Columbia University, USA.

Organized by Helene Foley, speakers include: Clemente Marconi (Columbia), Sophie Rabau (Paris), Wendy Heller (Princeton), Yopie Prins (Michigan), Peter Campbell (Columbia), Suzanne Said (Columbia), Edith Hall (Durham), Helene Foley and Mae Smethurst (Pittsburgh). Concluding with a panel on performance and adaptations of Greek tragedy in New York moderated by Helene Foley and including Ellen McLaughlin, Richard Schechner, and Andrei Serban and/or Elizabeth Swados.
5 April, a performance of Sophocles' Ajax (in Greek with supertitles) by the Barnard-Columbia Classical Drama Group in the Minor Latham Theatre, Barnard College, 7.30 p.m.
Contact Helene Foley: hf45@columbia.edu

8th - 11th July 2002
Greek Drama III at University of Sydney, Australia

The Conference will allow for discussion of all aspects of Greek Tragedy and Old and New Comedy, including Nachleben in the Roman and later theatres, and Performance. Keynote addresses will be given by Professor Patricia Easterling and Professor-elect Richard Hunter of Cambridge. For further information, see http://www.sfca.unimelb.edu.au/orality/gkdrama.htm.

19th - 22th June 2002
Symposium on the Contemporary Performance of Ancient Greek Drama at J. Paul Getty Museum, USA

This major symposium was addressed by leading international theatre researchers and practitioners including Helene P. Foley, Peter Hall, Tony Harrison, Jocelyn Herbert, Peter Sellars, Ellen Stewart (La MaMa), and David Wiles.

20th - 21st April 2002
The Greek Theatre Mask in Ancient and Modern Performance at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

This conference will bring together practitioners who have made and worked with Greek masks, as well as academics in the fields of Classics and Theatre Studies. The agenda for discussion will include techniques of making masks for optimum acoustical and visual results, techniques of acting in a Greek-style mask, the range of twentieth-century experimentation, and the effect of masked performance on an audience. The conference is jointly organised by the Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway University of London and the Institute for Art History, University of Glasgow. The conference organisers will host related online discussions in Didaskalia's Discussion Group for Researchers and Practitioners. For further information about the conference, see www.iah.arts.gla.ac.uk/masks/conference or contact Angeliki Varakis, Dept. of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX. E-mail: a.varakis@rhul.ac.uk. See publicity materials.

13th - 14th Oct 2001
Complex Electra at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, UK

An Interdisciplinary Weekend Symposium at Peterhouse, Cambridge (held in conjunction with Sophocles' Electra, the 2001 Cambridge Greek Play), bringing together theatre practitioners and academics to discuss Sophocles' Electra in theory and performance. Panellists include Fiona Shaw, Deborah Warner, Oliver Taplin, David Wiles, Fiona Macintosh, David Leveaux, Lorna Hardwick, Simon Goldhill, Paul Cartledge, Adrian Poole, Neil Sissons, Jennifer Wallace, Graham McLaren, Jane Montgomery, Mary Jacobus and Thalia Valeta. For further information, contact jm273@cam.ac.uk, see the website at www.cambridgegreekplay.com or telephone 01223 741 942. See production publicity materials.

20th - 22nd Sept 2001
Agamemnon in Performance 458 at Oxford, UK

Major conference in Oxford, to take place from Thursday 20 September to Saturday 22 September 2001. This follows the success of a previous Medea conference in 1998, the proceedings of which have now been published by Legenda (Oxford, 2000). This three-day interdisciplinary meeting will bring together scholars from many countries and with a wide range of interests.