Center for Classical & Near Eastern Studies of Australia Hosts Greek Theatre Conference

The Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA), as part of the University of Sydney, will be hosting a two-day conference on Greek theatre in the fourth century BC.

Various guest lecturers, historians and archaeologists from all over Australia and the world will be present at the conference, titled “Death of Drama or Birth of an Industry? The Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century BC”. Greek archaeologist Dr. Christina Papastamati von Moock of the Greek Ministry of Culture will also give a talk on the theatre and sanctuary of Dionysos on the south slope of the Athenian Acropolis.

Professor Peter Wilson, William Ritchie who is a Professor of Classics at the University of Sydney, stated that this conference has finally taken place, as it has been on the cards for a long time.

“The University of Sydney has had for a very long time, a very strong concentration on research expertise on the history of Greek theatre, going back a number of generations. At the moment, myself and a number of colleagues of mine are running a project into the early history of the theatre, in particular the spread of the theatre from Athens out into the wider Greek and beyond the Greek world. So the very earliest phases of the incredible expansion of the Greek theatre as a cultural phenomenon from the fifth and fourth century on”, he stated.

He also added: “This conference really grew out of a strong perceived need to look at that first big phase, which is after the great classical period of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes, the century immediately following them, which is really when the theatre took off as an institution. It’s interesting that most people switch off in the history of the Greek theatre at the end of the fifth century when all the famous names of poets have gone, but as a part of the wider Greek world, and as an industry, it really explodes at that point and there are hundreds of theatres all around the Greek world starting to be built in the fourth century. So we focus on the fourth century for that academic reason and we just brought together a whole series of experts from around the world looking at the various sub-categories of evidence and issues arising out of that.”

Specifically, the conference will host the following sessions:

THEATRE AND SANCTUARY ARCHITECTURE

• Christina Papastamati-Von Moock
  Greek Ministry of Culture, Committee for the Study and Restoration of the Sanctuary and Theatre of Dionysos and the Asklepieion in Athens
• Hans Rupprecht Goette
  Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin
• Jean-Charles Moretti
  Institut de recherche sur l’architecture antique, University of Lyon

DRAMA IN THE FOURTH CENTURY

• Sebastiana Nervegna
  Australian Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, CCANESA
  Andrew Hartwig
  Australian Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, CCANESA
  Johanna Hanink
  Assistant Professor, Brown University

THEATRE AND MACEDON

• Brigitte Le Guen
  Professor, University of Paris 8
• Eoghan Moloney
  University of Adelaide

THEATRE IN THE WEST

• Ted Robinson
  University of Sydney
• Zachary Biles
  Associate Professor, Franklin & Marshall College
• Jed Thorn
  Visiting Assistant Professor, Franklin & Marshall College
• Richard Green
  Emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Sydney

THEATRE FINANCE

• Robert Pitt
  Assistant Director, The British School at Athens
• Peter Wilson
  Ritchie Professor of Classics, University of Sydney
• Eric Csapo
  Professor of Classics, University of Sydney

The conference will take place on Tuesday, July 19th and Wednesday, July 20th at the University of Sydney, Level 4, Madsen Building, F09.

(Source: neoskosmos, CCANESA)