Open Forum

I'm looking for a 'cool' and more modern and accessible translation of classic Greek plays that maintains the spirit of the original. Any suggestions from the hive mind?

I'm thinking about how the humor in the frogs needs a witty playwright to make it hit with a modern politically savvy audience.

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Bryan Ringsted
Theater Teacher
Notre Dame High School
CA
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This might not be the direction you want to go in, but my favorite version of Antigone is Too Much Memory: https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=4081#:~:text=THE%20STORY%3A%20A%20theatrical%20explosion,Greek%20tragedy%20and%20modern%20storytelling.

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Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/

Theater kills ignorance
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My favorite version of Antigone is by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney - "Burial at Thebes"
just a beautiful version to stage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burial_at_Thebes

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William Gardiner
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Hey Billy. Where is your adaptation available? I'd love to purchase it. Thanks!

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Bryan Ringsted
Theater Teacher
Notre Dame High School
CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-16-2022 21:33
From: Billy Houck
Subject: Needed: great Greek play translations

Hey Brian-

A hip young kid named Stephen Sondheim wrote a musical adaptation of The Frogs in 1974. The premiere production was done in a swimming pool at Yale. Really.

It's available through MTI.

If you don't want to do it, you'll have to settle for my adaptation of Lysistrata.

Have a great year,

Billy

Original Message:
Sent: 8/18/2022 2:02:00 PM
From: Bryan Ringsted
Subject: RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

Hey Billy. Where is your adaptation available? I'd love to purchase it. Thanks!

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Bryan Ringsted
Theater Teacher
Notre Dame High School
CA
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Mine are more accurately labeled "adaptations" than translations, but I did THE FROGS, published through Dramatic Publishing, and THE BIRDS, published through Playscripts. 

The Frogs required more adapting than the Birds, since the play is a bit of a mess (the Frogs, for instance, bare little thematic resonance with the actual subject of the satire) - the finale, where they argue over which dead playwright is better, is also pretty weak. So I like to think I fixed that - (I'm also not a fan of the Sondheim version) 

Water Kerr's adaptation of the Birds is decent, but it's not terribly funny, especially for your kids. In both the Birds and the Frogs, I differentiated the members of the Chorus, which makes them a ton more fun to play in my experience. 

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Don Zolidis
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If you want super simple, "Cliffs Notes" style scripts, try The Odyssey, Oedipus, and Others or Greek Story Theatre.


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Rosalind Flynn
Head of the M.A. in Theatre Education
Director, The High School Drama Institute
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC
drama.cua.edu/graduate/MATE
drama.cua.edu/summer
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My students loved: Jason and Medea by Barbara Lindsey - it was published in the EdTA Dramatics magazine March 2015.  My class got into a big debate over Medea's choices - it was heated!  Don't know who publishes - but maybe someone from EdTA does.  (BTW EdTA - miss getting hard copies of the Dramatics magazine because plays like this and other articles that were really helpful to the teaching process.)

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Marla Blasko
Director/Teacher Theatre Arts
Long Reach High School
Columbia, Maryland
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I'd highly recommend the adaptations of Aristophanes by Don Zolidis. I love his version of The Birds and it follows the original with a few updates. My students loved it and it is written in scenes that are easy to schedule for rehearsal. I also like his adaptation of The Frogs (which he wrote for my students). It's a problematic play to adapt to modern tastes and he did a great job. There are some scenes that are hilarious especially if you have students with good comic timing.  The Birds is Playscripts and The Frogs is Dramatics Publishing. 
While I'm a big Sondheim fan I think his version of The Frogs lacks something. I saw the revival with Nathan Lane and it didn't move me.

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John Perry
Retired Theatre Teacher
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I highly recommend Liz Lockheed's version of Medea...so powerful!!!!

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[Brian] [Cappello]
Shawnee Mission East HS]
Prairie Village] [KS]BrianCappello
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Original Message:
Sent: 8/23/2022 1:57:00 PM
From: Brian Cappello
Subject: RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

I highly recommend Liz Lockheed's version of Medea...so powerful!!!!

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[Brian] [Cappello]
Shawnee Mission East HS]
Prairie Village] [KS]BrianCappello
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Original Message:
Sent: 8/23/2022 1:57:00 PM
From: Brian Cappello
Subject: RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

I highly recommend Liz Lockheed's version of Medea...so powerful!!!!

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[Brian] [Cappello]
Shawnee Mission East HS]
Prairie Village] [KS]BrianCappello
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