Performance in Greek and Roman Theatre

Vayos Liapis, Ph.D. (1997) in Classics, University of Glasgow, is Associate Professor of Theatre at the Open University of Cyprus. He has published extensively on Greek literature, especially tragedy; his latest book is A Commentary on the 'Rhesus' Attributed to Euripides (Oxford University Press, 2012).

George W.M. Harrison, Ph.D. (1985) in Classics and Archaeology, Johns Hopkins University, is Assistant Professor of Classics at Concordia where he also teaches in Art History. He is active in productions in the Theatre Department. He has written extensively on Roman imperial tragedy and satyr drama.

Contributors: Vayos Liapis, George W.M. Harrison, Costas Panayotakis, Grigoris M. Sifakis, David Konstan, Martin Revermann, Robert Tordoff, Jocelyn Penny Small, A. J. Podlecki, Geoff Bakewell, Peter Meineck, Rosie Wyles, Judith Fletcher, Robert Ketterer, C. W. Marshall, Jeffrey Rusten, Graham Ley, Robert Cowan, George Fredric Franko, Richard Beacham, Dorota Dutsch, A. K. Petrides, Edith Hall, George Kovacs, Gonda Van Steen, and Fiona Macintosh.

All those interested in Greek and Roman theatre, theatre performance, Greek and Roman dramatic literature, as well as classical and theatre scholars, university teachers and postgraduate students in Classics and Theatre.

INTRODUCTION
Vayos Liapis
George W.M. Harrison
Costas Panayotakis


OPSIS, PROPS, SCENE
The Misunderstanding of ‘Opsis’ in Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’
Grigoris M. Sifakis

Propping Up Greek Tragedy: The Right Use of Opsis
David Konstan

Generalizing about Props: Greek Drama, Comparator Traditions, and the Analysis of Stage Objects
Martin Revermann

Actors’ Properties in Ancient Greek Drama: An Overview
Robert Tordoff

Skenographia in Brief
Jocelyn Penny Small


GREEK TRAGEDY
Aeschylean Opsis
A.J. Podlecki

Casting votes in Aeschylus
Geoff Bakewell

Under Athena’s Gaze: Aeschylus’ ‘Eumenides’ and the Topography of Opsis
Peter Meineck

Heracles’ Costume fromEuripides’ ‘Heracles’ to Pantomime Performance
Rosie Wyles

Weapons of Friendship: Props in Sophocles’ ‘Philoctetes’ and ‘Ajax’
Judith Fletcher

‘Skene’, Altar and Image Euripides’ ‘Iphigeneia among the Taurians’
Robert Ketterer

Staging ‘Rhesus’
Vayos Liapis


GREEK COMEDY
Three Actors in Old Comedy, Again
C. W. Marshall

‘The Odeion on his head’: Costume and identity in Cratinus’ Thracian Women fr. 73
Jeffrey Rusten

Rehearsing Aristophanes
Graham Ley


ROME AND EMPIRE
Haven’t I Seen you Before Somewhere? Optical Allusions in Republican Tragedy
Robert Cowan

Anicius vortit barbare: the Scenic Games of L. Anicius Gallus and the Aesthetics of Greek and Roman Performance
George Fredric Franko

Otium, Opulentia and Opsis: Setting, Performance and Perception Within the mise-en-scène of the Roman House
Richard Beacham

Towards a Roman Theory of Theatrical Gesture
Dorota Dutsch

Lucian’s ‘On Dance’ and the poetics of the pantomime mask
A.K. Petrides

Pantomime: Visualising Myth in the Roman Empire
Edith Hall


INTEGRATING OPSIS
Stringed Instruments in Fifth-Century Drama
George Kovacs

Bloody (Stage) Business: Matthias Langhoff’s Sparagmos of Euripides’ ‘Bacchae’ (1997)
Gonda Van Steen

From Sculpture to Vase-painting: Archaeological Models for the Actor
Fiona Macintosh