KU News Release

Greek production to be re-staged Aug. 23 at KU

LAWRENCE — Participants in the 2008 Summer Theatre in Greece program, sponsored by the University of Kansas Office of Study Abroad, are returning to Lawrence and will re-stage the production they performed in late July during the Oiniades Summer Theatre Festival in Katohi, Greece.

A modern adaptation of Aeschylus’ “Agamemnon,” translated and directed by Dennis Christilles, KU associate professor of theatre and film, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, in Swarthout Recital Hall. A portion of the play is performed in Greek, but most lines are spoken in English. The event is free and open to the public.

A tragedy first performed in 458 B.C. in Athens, “Agamemnon” is part of the trilogy “The Oresteia,” which explores how the justice system of ancient Greece evolved to a civilized system with courts and trials.

“Agamemnon” tells the story of the conquering Greek hero who returns from the Trojan War to his Queen, Clytemnestra. She is bent on avenging the death of her daughter, Iphigenia, whom Agamemnon sacrificed to the god Artemis to obtain a favorable wind for the Greek fleet. When Agamemnon arrives at the palace with Cassandra, a Trojan princess he has taken as his slave and concubine, Clytemnestra welcomes him and professes her love. But the queen and her lover, Aegisthus, plot to kill Agamemnon and Cassandra to avenge Iphigenia and take over the government.

The Summer Theatre in Greece program, led by Christilles and Katohi resident Dimitra Pitsikou, gave KU students the opportunity to learn the Greek culture and language in Katohi, a rural farm community, and to experience performing a Greek tragedy in the ancient outdoor theatre of Oiniades.

Students earned six hours of academic credit while studying theater production, classical Greek culture, history of ancient Greek theater and architecture, and Greek song and dance. During the program, Pitsikou, who will visit KU for this month’s production, taught a daily session in modern Greek language. Participants, who lived in a school building on the edge of Katohi, also engaged in cultural activities in English language, song and dance, acting or arts and crafts for the children of Katohi.

While in Greece, the group toured Athens, where they visited the Theatre of Dionysos, the Acropolis and the National Museum before departing for Katohi. The program also included excursions to historical sites such as Delphi, the seat of the Delphic oracle featured in most Greek tragedies; Epidaurus, where they saw a professional production at the most famous and well-preserved of the ancient theatres; Mycenae, the legendary home of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and the site of the famous Bronze age fortress with its “Lion Gate”; Corinth, where they visited a temple to Apollo; Nauplion, the first capital of Greece after it gained its independence in the 19th century; and Messolonghi, the birthplace of modern Greek independence.

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