Open Forum

 View Only

Needed: great Greek play translations

  • 1.  Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-15-2022 18:19
    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.

    ------------------------------
    Bryan Ringsted
    Theater Teacher
    Notre Dame High School
    CA
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-16-2022 06:06
    Try Walter Kerr's version of The Birds. Very funny. I also like the hundreds of versions of Antigone, especially Jean Anouilh's and the bizarre one by Cocteau. Robinson Jeffers has a terrific Made a. And Sarah Ruhl has Eurydice. There are also lits of free options online. I think it is Charless Mee who wrote the modern versions online.





  • 3.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-16-2022 07:47
    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.

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

    Theater kills ignorance
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-16-2022 09:15
    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

    ------------------------------
    William Gardiner
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-16-2022 21:33
    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





  • 6.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-18-2022 14:02
    Hey Billy. Where is your adaptation available? I'd love to purchase it. Thanks!

    ------------------------------
    Bryan Ringsted
    Theater Teacher
    Notre Dame High School
    CA
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-18-2022 15:30
    Brian-
    I'll send it to you today.
    Anyone else want a free perusal of "My Name is Lysistrata!"?
    Billy





  • 8.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-17-2022 08:32

    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. 



    ------------------------------
    Don Zolidis
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-19-2022 12:21
    If you want super simple, "Cliffs Notes" style scripts, try The Odyssey, Oedipus, and Others or Greek Story Theatre.


    ------------------------------
    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
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-20-2022 10:16
    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.)

    ------------------------------
    Marla Blasko
    Director/Teacher Theatre Arts
    Long Reach High School
    Columbia, Maryland
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-22-2022 21:35
    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.

    ------------------------------
    John Perry
    Retired Theatre Teacher
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-23-2022 13:57
    I highly recommend Liz Lockheed's version of Medea...so powerful!!!!

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



  • 13.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-23-2022 14:15
    You guys are AWESOME. Thank you so much. I have some reading to do!

    --
    Bryan Ringsted (he/him) Theater Teacher/Director  Notre Dame High School 596 South Second Street San Jose, CA  95112 www.ndsj.org  A distinctive Catholic, college-preparatory  education for young women in the heart of  downtown since 1851





  • 14.  RE: Needed: great Greek play translations

    Posted 08-30-2022 13:03
    Here's another recommendation: any Greek play translated by Robert Fagles. His work accomplishes exactly what you're looking for, in my opinion. Look for Sophocles' THE THREE THEBAN PLAYS.

    Nancy L. Bernhard
    retired, Salinas High School