Instructors

Instructor:  Dr. R. Drew Griffith
Email: griffitd@queensu.ca
Office: 513 Watson Hall

Course Description

Intensive study (in translation) of representative works from the ancient theatre, both tragic (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca) and comic (Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence).  Comparative study of English drama of the classical tradition encouraged.

Required Texts

• Greene, D. and Lattimore, R. - Aeschylus II
  ISBN: 0226307794
• Greene, D. and Lattimore, R. - Sophocles II
  ISBN: 0226307867
• Greene, D. and Lattimore, R. - Euripides I
  ISBN: 0226307808
• Meineck, P. - Aristophanes I
  ISBN: 0872203603

Assignments

Dr. Griffith will lecture every Monday to the entire class. The class will be divided into four roughly equal groups, each of which, meeting separately on Thursdays, will prepare to present an ancient play. The performances will take place in public during the last two weeks of classes, with the other three-quarters of the class forming the core audience for each play.

Marking Scheme

• Performance - 50% (In the course of the term students will keep a brief journal outlining their activities and contributions. At the end of the term you will submit this journal, along with any supporting materials, and assign yourself a grade. In so doing, you are required to identify at least one weakness in your contribution as well as your various strengths. Note that chronic absentees will lose the right to evaluate themselves.)
• Final Exam - 50%

Grading Methodology

All components of this course will receive numerical percentage marks.  The final grade you receive for the course will be derived by converting your numerical course average to a letter grade according to Queen’s Official Grade Conversion Scale:

                                          Queen’s Official Grade Conversion Scale

The Company or Troupe (thiasos, GREX, CATERVA)

Each kind of ancient drama had its own company. The kinds were:

1. Tragedy;
2. Comedy (do not volunteer for this if you don't like yucky language);
3. Melodrama

Each company consists of:

• Producer - BEFORE THE SHOW it will be your job to:
  1. obtain permission from the relevant authorities to use the venue chosen by the director, and if this is a public space, to alert the operations co-ordinator of Campus Security of your plans well in advance. Possible venues include the JDUC, the Biosciences Atrium or the Clark Hall pub. Theatre 5 (370 King Street West, tel. 546-5460) is available for rental.
  2. beg, borrow or steal whatever properties are necessary to stage the play (a modern dress version will greatly reduce the difficulty of this task, which must be done in consultation with the set-designer).
  3. raise whatever funds may be necessary to offset expenses. You may be inventive in this area, e.g., by hosting a coffee-house, holding a bake-sale under the aegis of Food and Beverage Services, etc. Such projects will also double as advertising. You must not, however, charge admission to the play. Grants of circa $50.00 are available from ASUS.
  4. advertise the play in the Journal, Gazette, Golden Words, Queen's radio (CFRC), Kingston This Week, Whig Standard, by posters or blackboard runs, esp. on the board outside Theological Hall 102, establishing a website, etc.
  5. you may be called upon, if need be, to assume a MINOR acting role.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. cope with emergencies such as visits by Campus Security, the Fire-Marshall and anyone else who would prevent the show from going on.
  
  Comment: Suggested reading is J. Green, The Small Theatre Handbook : a Guide to Management and Production, (Harvard University Press, 1981).

   

• Director/Directrice - BEFORE THE SHOW the buck will stop with you on all aesthetic decisions. You will need a gift for compromise, as you will need to obtain the consensus, good will and trust of your company. For this reason, yours is the only position that is elected by the group. You must decide:
  1. what translation of the play to use;
  2. where and when to perform it;
  3. what stage-directions to use (ancient playwrights, being their own directors, wrote no stage-directions and those that appear in modern editions are mere scholarly guesses);
  4. what kind of costumes and scenery to use;
  5. as rehearsals progress, you will be responsible for blocking (i.e. choreographing) the actors' movements on stage. It will also be your responsibility to demand out-of-class rehearsal time if it is needed (it may be). I have booked "lab" time for this purpose.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. sit with the audience and sweat.
  
  Comment: It will be very helpful if you have some global vision of the meaning of the play. To that end, you might sample some of the scholarship on the play and perhaps assign reports on it to other members of the company. Ideally, you will already have had considerable experience of the theatre, as a director of other plays, an actor, or even a frequent theatre-goer. Suggested reading is S. Vaughn, Directing Plays (New York, 1993); M. McCaffery, Directing a Play, revised ed., (London, 1993); and J.P. Wills, Directing in the Theatre 2^nd ed. (Metuchen, NJ & London, 1994).

   

• Stage-Manager and Prompter - BEFORE THE SHOW you must:
  1. block the off-stage movements of all actors and props to ensure that everyone and everything is ready to appear on stage on cue;
  2. draw up a pronunciation guide for Greek and Roman proper names and words or rare English words that occur in your play;
  3. remain "on book" during rehearsals to monitor the actors' adherence to the script so that the director/trice is free to devote his/her attention to the visual effects on stage;
  4. take attendance on my behalf during all rehearsals (in taking attendance, please bear in mind that certain persons, e.g., the producer, may contribute more by working the phones from home than by watching the actors rehearse);
  5. if need be, assist the set-designer with the practical aspects of the manufacture of the set.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. sit inside or behind the dummy altar/prompt box on stage with a copy of the script to whisper lines to any actor who forgets them;
  2. in case of emergency fill in for any actor who is sick.
  
  Comment: please note that both my office (Watson Hall 513) and the Classics Department slide-room (Watson Hall 508) are available for storing costumes and props. Suggested reading is B. Dilker, Stage Manager's Forms and Formats, (New York, 1982); P. Carter, The Backstage Handbook, (New York, 1988); and T.A. Kelly, The Back Stage Guide to Stage Management, 2^nd ed. (New York, 1999).

   

• Chorus-Leader - BEFORE THE SHOW it will be your job to:
  1. compose or select music for the act-dividing song-and-dance routines (stasima);
  2. choreograph the dancing (we are perhaps to think of folk-dancing rather than classical ballet).

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. speak the small amount of dialogue assigned to the chorus;
  2. lead the chorus in singing and dancing the stasima;
  3. accompany the choreutae on a guitar, oboe or tambourine (alternatively play taped music at appropriate intervals).

   

• Lead Actor - BEFORE THE SHOW
  1. memorize all your character's dialogue so you don't need to walk around during the performance holding a script.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. speak in a voice that is at once nuanced and clear (electronic amplification, available from Information Technology Services, may be needed for some venues);
  2. move with grace in large-scale gestures (intimate effects were lost to the giant cavea of the ancient theatre);
  3. sing arias if required.
  
  Comment: This may involve transvestism. In antiquity, as in Shakepeare's day, men played all female roles. We could ignore or reverse this procedure as aesthetic and practical considerations warrant. Suggested reading is K. Stanislavski (D. Magarshack, trans.), Stanislavski on the Art of the Stage, (London, 1950); J. Martin, Voice in Modern Theatre (London, 1991); D. Fo (J. Farrell, trans.), The Tricks of the Trade (London, 1991); K. Daw, Acting : Thought into Action (Portsmouth, NH, 1997); and R. Brestoff, Acting Under the Circumstances (Lyme, NH, 1999)

   

• Supporting Actor
  1. It will be your job to play the character(s) who are foils to the central role. You will have to do everything that the lead actor does, plus
  2. you will have to play more than one role. This will require quick changes of costume and masks or microphones (if they are used). It will also require bravura acting-changes (think of Dr. Strangelove, Dead Ringers and Austin Powers).

   

• Third Actor
  1. You will do what the supporting actor does, only with a greater number of less important characters, such as slaves, messengers and the like.

   

• Set Designer - BEFORE THE SHOW you must:
  1. design and fabricate, or otherwise acquire, all costumes, including either masks or makeup (which might range at the director's discretion from au naturel to Kabuki-style greasepaint);
  2. design, etc. all stage-properties;
  3. design, etc. a sandwich-board play-bill to be displayed during the performance, especially if it is in a public concourse, and any other advertising that the producer deems necessary.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. stay in the greenroom to help actors with costume and make-up changes.
  
  Comment: you will not be required to pay for any materials out of your own pocket. Fund-raising, if required, is the job of the producer. While the Drama Department has in the past been very generous about giving access to its prop-room, I would much rather you show independence and creativity in this matter, rather than taxing resources intended for Drama students and relying on prefabricated props. Suggested reading is H. Barris-Meyer & E.C. Cole, Scenery for the Theatre, 2^nd ed. (Boston, 1971); L. Pecktal, Designing and Drawing for the Theatre (New York, 1995); and J. Emigh, Masked Performance (Philadelphia, 1996).

   

• Chorus Member (x3) - BEFORE THE SHOW you must:
  1. establish a way - largely through pantomime - to represent your character;
  2. memorize the choruses and practise performing them in unison (music helps a lot in this).

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. perform.
  
  Comment: You will be required to take direction both from the director and the chorus leader.

   

• Extra/Spear-Carrier (x2) - BEFORE THE SHOW you must:
  1. act as a "roadie" transporting props.

  DURING THE SHOW you must:

  1. take on unspeaking roles.

   

• Professor - BEFORE THE SHOW, my task as professor is to serve as the Priest of Dionysus. In this capacity, I must:
  1. meet with all three directors in the first week and periodically thereafter;
  2. attend all of the rehearsals in rotation.

  DURING THE SHOW:

  1. I will sit and be amazed
  
  Comment: Suggested reading is D. Finkel, Teaching With Your Mouth Shut, (2000)

GENERAL COMMENTS:
*It will probably prove necessary to have rehearsals outside of class time.
*The Classics department can provide within reason:

1. room reservations;
2. storage space for props;
3. microphones and sound equipment.

 

---

Production Schedule

 

Week	Activity	Producer	Director	Other
1	forming groups	--	--	--
2 & 3	preliminaries: assigning roles, script editing (cuts, updating)	book rooms	assign roles, modify script	--
4	read-throughs	raise funds	--	chorus-leader composes music; actors memorize lines; set-designer designs props; actors establish spine
5 & 6	rehearsals	--	choreograph	stage-manager blocks offstage movements of people and things;
READING WEEK	--	--	--	--
7-10	rehearsals	advertise	--	set-designer makes props; actors get off book;
11-12	dress rehearsal & performance	--	--	--

 

Schedule of Readings

 

Week	Subject
1a	The eleven basic roles in production
1b	Space and time
2	Dionysus & the origin of drama
3	Turning points
4	People on stage and off
5	The basic plot-types
6	Theatre of the dispossessed
READING WEEK
7	Aeschylus, especially Suppliant Women
8	Sophocles, especially Women of Trachis
9	Euripides, especially Hippolytus
10	Aristophanes, especially Clouds
11	Plautus
12	Critique, Debriefing and Review (Note: this will be held during the last week of class)

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is constituted by the five core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility (see www.academicintegrity.org). These values are central to the building, nurturing and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the "freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas" essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate Report on Principles and Priorities http://www.queensu.ca/secretariat/policies/senateandtrustees/principlespriorities.html).

Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar (see Academic Regulation 1 http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academic-calendars/2011-2012-calendar/academic-regulations/regulation-1), on the Arts and Science website (see http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academics/undergraduate/academic-integrity), and from the instructor of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen's. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university.

Download the  Statement on Academic Integrity for Inclusion in Course Syllabi and Assignments  [PDF]

Copyright

The material on this website is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in CLST 312. The material on this website may be downloaded for a registered student’s personal use, but shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in CLST 312.  Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright, and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate’s Academic Integrity Policy Statement.

This page was last updated 11 January, 2012.