Funder: Classics Faculty, Mellon Foundation, Leverhume Trust, AHRC, Onassis Foundation
Partner organizations (inside or outside Oxford):
Gardzienice European Centre for Theatre Practices, Paris Ouest: Histoire des Arts et des Répresentations, Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX), Annual Joint Postgraduate Symposium with the University of London
Project Description:
Project description: Ancient drama has exerted a uniquely formative influence on cultural and intellectual life in the modern world, and today ancient plays are being performed in both the commercial and amateur theatre with greater frequency than at any time since antiquity. The APGRD (Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama) was founded in 1996 by Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin in response to the need for a coordinated research effort devoted to the international production and reception of ancient plays. Over the years the project has grown to include revivals and adaptations on stage, film and radio, and in opera and dance, and performances of Greek and Roman epic as well as translations of Greek and Roman plays. The purpose of the APGRD is threefold: (i) to serve as a repository of physical materials relating to the history of ancient drama and epic in modern performance, such as playbills, programmes, reviews, drawings, photographs and audio-visual recordings; (ii) to compile a comprehensive production history of ancient drama and epic on the ancient and modern stage, published electronically as the APGRD Databases. The databases provide an invaluable research tool for theatre practitioners and for an international body of scholars in a wide range of disciplines and specializations, from those investigating the performance history of a particular play, for example, to those seeking to map the cultural history of a particular country in a specific decade (iii) and to publish interpretative research based on these findings (the APGRD has published 16 volumes to date).
Other projects the participants have been involved in:
