The 24th Annual Joint Postgraduate Symposium on Ancient Performance and Reception, hosted by the University of Oxford's APGRD and Royal Holloway, University of London, will take place on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 June 2024. This year’s theme will be: Bodies and Voices in the Theory and Practice of Greek and Roman Performance and its Reception(s).
The guest respondent on Day 1 in Oxford will be Sarah Cullinan Herring (Oxford), and Marcus Bell (Goldsmiths/Oxford) will be our guest respondent on Day 2 at Royal Holloway.
Day 1 will include a guest lecture by Konstantinos Thomaidis (Exeter): Voicing Unacoustics in Sophocles’ Ichneutai (all welcome, it is not essential to attend the rest of the symposium; this lecture will also be livestreamed).
Online Attendance
To attend the postgraduate symposium online, please email postgradsymp@classics.ox.ac.uk to receive a Zoom link. It is not necessary to register for in-person attendance for either day.
Programme
Download/View the Programme as a PDF>
Programme - Day One - Oxford (and online)
10am-4pm: St Hilda’s College @ 38 St Giles’, OX1 3LW
4.30-8pm: Faculty of Classics, Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles’, OX1 3LU
10.00-10.30 St Hilda’s College @ 38 St Giles: Tea and coffee, welcome
10.30-11.30 Panel 1: Tragic embodiment
- Grace Gunning (University of Cambridge), ‘(Dis)embodied Voices and Choral Temporalities in Two Philoctetes’.
- Shreya Dua (Durham University), ‘Embodying metre in Aeschylus’ Persians and Suppliants’
- Eugenia Nicolaci (University of Bristol), ‘“Voices from an alternative myth”: Body and voice in Anne Carson’s Norma Jeane Baker of Troy’
11.30-12.30 Panel 2: Voicing and embodying pain
- Léonore Finck (University of Tours), ‘Tragic voices in pain’
- Marta Martín Díaz (University of Salamanca), ‘Staging the Epiqueerean Body: Miguel Benlloch’s DERERUMNATURA. Quien canta su mal espanta’
- Katerina Maniou (University of Thessaly), ‘Voicing the undeliverable: A Performance on Aeschylean Kassandra’ (performance presentation, online)
12.30-1.45 Lunch 1.45-2.45
Panel 3: Body and voice in musical theatre
- Thomas Barrett (Royal Holloway), ‘The Importance of Voice in Hadestown’
- Natalie Francis (University of Michigan), ‘“The Word of Your Aeneid’s Body?”: dressing down Virgil’s Dido and Aeneas in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening (2006)’ (online)
- Ffion Smith (University College London), ‘The politics of bursting into song in the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962)’
2.45-4.00 Panel 4: Materialising the body in performance
- Rebecca Posner-Hess (University of Chicago), ‘Double-Casting and Bodies as Costumes in the Oresteias of Aeschylus and Robert Icke’
- Adeola Eze (Coventry University), ‘Carolee Schneemann’s “Interior Scroll”: A Performance of Embodied Memory and Historical Reconstruction’
- Philippos Karaferias (University of Grenoble-Alpes) and Charitini Tsikoura (University Paris Nanterre), ‘Embodying the bacchanal: Terzopoulos vs Freitas’ (performance workshop)
4.30-5.00: Lecture Theatre, Ioannou Centre for Classics
- British American Drama Academy (BADA) presentation
5.00--5.30 Tea and coffee break
5.30-6.00 Guest response
- Dr Sarah Cullinan Herring (University of Oxford)
6.00-7.00 Guest lecture
- Konstantinos Thomaidis (University of Exeter), ‘Voicing Unacoustics in Sophocles’ Ichneutai’
Programme - Day Two - Royal Holloway (and online)
Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance, Royal Holloway, Egham Hill, Egham TW20 0BQ
10.00-10.30 Tea and coffee, welcome
10.30-11.15 Panel 1: Bodies and voices between destruction and creation (I)
- Tyler Archer (Princeton University), ‘Antikoni and the Amplification of the Marginal Voice through Sacrifice’
- Daniele Xhani (University of Pavia and Oxford), ‘Carmelo Bene’s Penthesilea and Achilles, between phonè and “destruction of bodies”’ (online)
11.15-12.00 Panel 2: Bodies and voices between creation and destruction (II)
- Miriam Zeghlache (University College London), ‘The Creation of the Creator in Seneca’s Hercules Furens’
- Emmanuelle Jégo (University of Perpignan), ‘Demos in Aristophanes’ Knights: the civic body with a comic voice?’
12.00-1.30 Lunch
1.30-2.30 Panel 3: Queer bodies and voices
- Izzy Levy (Columbia University) and Lily Bickers (University of Bristol), ‘Mask4Mask?: Drag, Queer Reception, and Masked Performance’ (performance presentation, online)
- Zoë Jennings (University of Oxford) in-conversation with Jimmy J, director of Metamorphoses, Cockpit Theatre 2024
2.30-3.00 Tea and coffee break
3.00-4.00 Panel 4: Embodying the chorus
- Despoina Christianoudi (Royal Holloway), ‘Chorus training with the use of Greek folk dances’
- Gwyneth Fletcher (University of Pennsylvania), ‘Choreographing the Chorus: Putting Greek Dance in Practice’
- Maria Constantinou (University Paris Nanterre), ‘Singing steps and dancing voices: the practice of traditional repertoire as a reflection on the ancient chorus’ (performance presentation)
4.00-4.30 Tea and coffee break
4.30-5.00 Guest response
- Dr Marcus Bell (Goldsmiths, University of London)
5.00-5.30 Plenary and drinks reception
Contact
Please email postgradsymp@classics.ox.ac.uk with any queries.
Accessibility
The Ioannou Centre lecture theatre is located on the ground floor and the Centre is fully wheelchair accessible; an accessible toilet is located on the ground floor and on the first floor. The lecture theatre is equipped with a hearing induction loop. Please see the online Access Guide for more details about the building's accessibility.