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Sunday, November 21, 2004
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
On the occasion of the exhibition Games for the gods: the greek athlete and the olympic spirit Commentary by Dr. Gregory Nagy Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature, Harvard University
Dramatic Reading by Equity Actors Directed by David Muse Assistant Director, The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, D.C. Five distinguished actors bring to life outsized passions, mythic moments, and tragedies that echo through the centuries in pivotal scenes from the Iliad- Homer's timeless epic capturing the glory and viciousness of war and the acts of nobility it inspires.
Thursday, June 3, 2004
A dramatic reading of selected passages from Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War. The Spartans debate whether to go to war; Pericles urges the Athenians not to yield to Spartan threats. The two sides expose the issues and considerations that have often in history led competing states to fight. Pericles delivers his famous funeral oration setting forth the highest ideals of the civilization of Classical Athens.
Introduction and Analysis by Donald Kagan Sterling Professor of Classics and History, Yale University Dramatic reading by actors from the Yale School of Drama Directed by David Muse Yale School of Drama, Yale University
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Passions run high in war. The pain of battle brings out the best in people and also the worst. Enemies may be merciless, but they may also respect one another and find it in their hearts to show pity. The death of friends causes agony, yet the closest allies may quarrel. Three thousand years ago, Homer described the glory of war and its viciousness, the stress and strain and also the extraordinary acts of nobility, better than any poet has done since.
Commentary by David Konstan John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition and Professor of Comparative Literature, Brown University
Dramatic reading by professional actors
Directed by David Muse Yale School of Drama, Yale University
David Konstan is the John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and the Humanistic Tradition and Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His books include Roman Comedy (1983), Sexual Symmetry: Love in the Ancient Novel and Related Genres (1994), Friendship in the Classical World (1997), Greek Comedy and Ideology (1995), and Pity Transformed (2001). He is currently working on The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks. Professor Konstan has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies and a Research Grant from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation in Athens. He is a past president of the American Philological Association. David Muse most recently directed Antony and Cleopatra at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and Sanguine with the Double Helix Theatre Company in New York. He currently teaches Shakespeare at Yale University. Mr. Muse directed Coriolanus, Othello, Rough Magic, The Sungathers, The Muckle Man, and Dogg's Hamlet at the Yale School of Drama. He has studied, taught, acted, and directed at numerous theatres in Washington DC including Studio Theatre, Source Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, and Wooly Mammoth. David received a BA from Yale College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.