Issue 2          September 2010

Translation, Rewriting and Staging:
Scholarship and Creativity in the Reception of Greek and Roman Poetry and Drama

Josephine Balmer, Poet and Translator
Josephine Balmer's latest collection is The Word for Sorrow, based around Ovid's Tristia (Salt, 2009) Previous poetry collections include Chasing Catullus: Poems, Translations & Transgressions, alongside the classical translations Catullus: Poems of Love and Hate, Classical Women Poets and Sappho: Poems & Fragments (all published by Bloodaxe). She has written widely on poetry and translation and from 2004-2009 was reviews editor of the journal Modern Poetry in Translation. Chair of the Translators' Association from 2002-2005, she was also a longstanding judge for the The Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation. A former Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of Sussex, she studied Classics and Ancient History at University College, London and gained a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

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Maureen Almond, Poet
Maureen has been writing poetry since 1992. A former Administrator and Personnel Manager, she now earns her living as a poet and poetry tutor. She graduated with an MA in poetry from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2002.
You can read details of Maureen's publications including her latest Chasing the Ivy, which modernizes thirty-eight poems of Horace from his Odes (Bk 1) at her website:     www.maureenalmond.com

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Oliver Taplin, Academic, Translator and Writer
Oliver was Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford from 1973 to 2008; he was given the title of Professor in 1996. As an Emeritus Fellow and Professor, he remains actively involved with the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) and related projects. His books include The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (1977), Greek Tragedy in Action (1978), Comic Angels (1993), and Pots and Plays (2007). He has also worked with productions in the theatre, including The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1980-81), The Thebans at the RSC (1991-92), and The Oresteia at the National Theatre (1999-2000). The APGRD (www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk) combines his interests both in performance and in reception.

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Martin Wylde, Theatre Director
Martin read Drama and English at the University of Bristol. He is currently Senior Lecturer at Central School of Stage and Drama where he teaches acting on both MA and BA courses.
Martin trained as a director at The Orange Tree with Sam Walters, the Donmar Warehouse with Sam Mendes, and at the Royal National Theatre Studio. He worked as assistant director, director, associate director and artistic director for over ten years working on more than 40 productions.
Martin has focussed on text-based theatre, both classical work and new writing. He has considerable experience in the commissioning and development of new plays.

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Helen Eastman, Theatre Director
Helen trained as a director at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, after graduating in Classics and English from Oxford University, with the Passmore Edwards Prize. Her career as a director has spanned theatre, opera and occassionaly circus. Work includes Dido and Aeneas (ETO), The Cure at Troy (UK tour and Delphi International Festival), Cloudcuckooland (UK tour), Live Canon (UK tour). She is Literary Associate and Senior Reader at Soho Theatre, Guest Fellow in Contemporary Performance Practice at Westminster Theatre, Producer of the Onassis Programme at Oxford University and Director of the Greek Play at Cambridge University. She has written a number of librettoes for children's operas.

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Michael Ewans, Academic, Translator and Director
Michael Ewans specializes in translating Greek tragedy and comedy, directing plays and chamber operas, and writing books and articles which explore how operas and dramas work in the theatre.
He has recently completed Aristophanes: the Last Years of the War - an edition of Lysistrata, The Women’s Festival and Frogs in his own new translations with theatrical commentaries; and he is currently working on Aristophanes on War and Peace, an edition of Acharnians, Knights and Peace.

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Ian Ruffell, Academic and Translator
Ian's main interests are in Greek drama (especially comedy), Roman satire and cultural and political theory. His DPhil was on the absurd in Attic Old Comedy (1999), and an expanded and revised version is due to appear in 2010 with OUP, entitled Politics and Anti-Realism in Attic Old Comedy.
In 2007, he provided the literal translation for the National Theatre of Scotland's production of the Bacchae, adapted by David Greig and directed by John Tiffany, which opened the 2007 Edinburgh International Festival (reviews from the Herald, Independent and Telegraph).

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