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Technologies in the Theory and Practice of Greek and Roman Performance and its Reception

Venue
Oxford / Royal Holloway / Online
Date
to

The 26th Annual Joint Postgraduate Symposium on Ancient Performance and Reception, hosted by the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London, will take place on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June 2026. This year’s theme will be: ‘Technologies in the Theory and Practice of Greek and Roman Performance and its Reception.’

About the symposium

This Symposium focuses on the reception of Greek and Roman tragedy, comedy, satyr play, epic, lyric, and other texts in performance, exploring their afterlives through re-workings by writers and practitioners across all genres and periods. This year’s theme seeks to explore how technology, broadly conceived, has shaped ancient drama and the modern reception and performance of Greek and Roman drama. The relationship between technological innovation and ancient drama is discernible in both the ancient and modern worlds. Its implications range from questions surrounding ancient stage technologies such as the mēkhanḗ (μηχανή); to the relationship between ancient performance and the development of literary and material cultures; and to the role that digital technologies play in and around modern performances of Greek and Roman drama, for example the 2021 Oxford Greek Play, Orestes. The word ‘technology’ itself derives etymologically from the ancient Greek word téchnē (τέχνη), defined variously as ‘art’, ‘skill’, ‘craft’ and ‘cunning’. The link between this concept and the performance of ancient drama is visible in the name given to the performers of Greek drama during the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire: ‘hoi peri ton Dionuson technitai’ (οἱ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον τεχνῖται) or ‘Artists of Dionysus’. We invite responses which consider such expanded understandings of ‘technology’ in relation to the study and performance of Greek and Roman drama in antiquity and modernity. 

Participants

Masters and PhD students from around the world are welcome to participate, as are those who have completed a doctorate but have not yet taken up a post. The symposium is open to speakers from different disciplines, including researchers in the fields of classics, classical reception, modern languages and literature, and theatre and performance studies. Practitioners are welcome to contribute their personal experience of working on ancient drama. Papers may include demonstrations or recorded material. Undergraduates are very welcome to attend. This year’s symposium will be in person and online, although we encourage participants to attend in person where possible. We hope to be able to offer a small bursary for travel from afar. 

Call for papers

We are delighted to circulate our call for papers, the deadline for submitting abstracts is Friday 20th March. Full details can be downloaded as a PDF.

Contact for enquiries

Please email all enquiries to: postgradsymp@classics.ox.ac.uk