Theatron - Ancient Theatre at Sapienza
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Theatron on Facebook (in Italian)
The Clouds by Aristophanes 2021
After a long period of online activities, the more than 30 performers/translators of the Theatron - Ancient Theatre at Sapienza project are back and ready to perform live Aristophanes'comedy "Nuvole" (Clouds). In full compliance with anti-Covid rules, the staging aims to provide food for thought and authentic comedy. Please click on the Italian version of this page for more.
Theatron Call 2021
Theatron - Ancient Theatre at Sapienza project has announced a competition open to students, PhD students, academic and administrative staff of our University, for the production and staging of the play The Clouds by Aristophanes. Professor Anna Maria Belardinelli, head of the Theatron project, will translate and adapt the text and Maestro Adriano Evangelisti will coordinate the staging. The deadline for applications is Monday, February 15, 2021.
Ancient theatre at Sapienza
Project Theatron – Ancient Theatre at Sapienza, which was conceived and is coordinated by Anna Maria Belardinelli, Professor of Classical Philology at Sapienza University, has translated and staged ancient theatrical texts since 2010.
The project holds two workshops: a translation workshop (with students from the Masters Programme in Philology, Literature and History of the Ancient World) and a theatrical workshop (open to all Sapienza faculties).
The translation, which is based on rigorous literary criticism, exegesis and the dramaturgic reconstruction of the play, is staged by the theatrical workshop. The translation workshop adapts ancient texts for the students in the the theatrical workshop, who come from a wide range of backgrounds and studies and may not be familiar with ancient language and culture, as well as to a public audience.
The spirit of Theatron is based on communication and creates a strong synergy between the two workshops to revitalise the true nature of ancient theatre, where dramas were staged in a choral dimension for a collective, rather than elite, audience.
Theatron workshops are open to all Sapienza students, staff and personnel, who must apply. Participants for the translation workshop, which is directed by Prof. Anna Maria Belardinelli, are selected through interviews to evaluate their linguistic-philological skills. The theatrical workshop is directed by Adriano Evangelisti. Candidates are selected via auditions to evaluate their their level of experience with regard to performing, directing, set design, lighting, costume design, singing, dance, acrobatics and choreography. Students attending both workshops receive academic credits and a certificate of attendance.
Since Academic Year 2015-16, the theatrical workshop has also been open to candidates from high schools and Project Theatron is also part of the school-work programme that Sapienza organises for high schools in Rome and Lazio.
Theatron also promotes research through seminars organised to discuss issues related to the cultural and educational objectives of the project. The work carried out during Academic Years 2012-13 and 2013-14 has been collected in a volume entitled "Scienze dell'antichità, 2013-2014," which includes the translation of Agamemnon.
Project Theatron is held in collaboration with the Fondazione Roma Sapienza and is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics (Director Emanuele Caglioti) which provides its courtyard for the debut of each theatrical performance.
After Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (2013-14), Euripedes’ The Trojan Women (2014-15), Euripedes’ Hippolytus (2015-16), in 2016-17, he Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes (2016-2017), Theatron staged The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus.
Theatron also collaborated with MuSa (Music at Sapienza) to arrange the libretto of the "The Fair of Sinigaglia" by Carlo Goldoni with Music by Domenico Fischietti. Moreover, on January 24, 2017, Theatron collaborated with MuSa and the Choir of the “Angelo Sacerdoti” School of the Jewish Community in Rome to stage the children’s opera “Brundibar” for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
