Clever slaves, braggart soldiers and cooks, enticing courtesans, and shouting fathers from ancient times are now on YouTube. The product of Sharon James’s National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute: Roman Comedy in Performance, these experimental videos will serve as teaching and learning tools for those studying the often troubling but funny genre.
Co-directed by alumnus Timothy Moore, the institute was a collaborative project involving 23 professors and three graduate students and visiting faculty members. Participants created multiple performance versions of scenes from Plautus and Terence by experimenting with staging, actors, translation, choreography, and more. By doing so, they crafted an excellent series of scenes that relates the ancient plays to our modern society.
Click here to use the performances for your own teaching, research, and learning.