{"id":64503,"date":"2013-04-04T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=64503"},"modified":"2018-04-06T16:09:26","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T20:09:26","slug":"words-of-ancient-greek-and-latin-fill-stage-and-screen-at-mount-david-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/04\/words-of-ancient-greek-and-latin-fill-stage-and-screen-at-mount-david-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Greek and Latin fill stage and screen at Mount David Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

As President Clayton Spencer kicked off Mount David Summit in Pettengill Hall\u2019s poster-filled Perry Atrium, she described the day of student presentations as an \u201cacademic Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flash forward to later in the afternoon, when ancient languages filled a Pettengill classroom for a session featuring works by Greek and Latin students of Laurie O\u2019Higgins, the college’s Euterpe B. Dukakis Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies,\u00a0including a student video that transported the audience to ancient Thebes.<\/p>\n

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Chuck Munn ’14 (left) and Andrew Carranco ’14 perform Plautus\u2019 comedy Captivi<\/em> in the original Latin during a Mount David Summit presentation. Munn and Carranco are majoring in classical and medieval studies. Photograph by Mike Bradley\/Bates College.<\/p><\/div>\n

First up were Latin poetry students, with Michael Creedon \u201915 of Medfield, Mass., giving an English introduction of the prologue to Plautus\u2019 comedy Captivi<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Plautus was a Jon Stewart of his day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Creedon explained how one could almost see the Roman playwright as a Jon Stewart of his day, offering ironic political commentary and incisive inquiry into familial love and loyalty among masters and slaves.<\/p>\n

Creedon then joined fellow students to execute the prologue in costume, shackles and graceful Latin. Behind them, student-prepared subtitles appeared on a projection screen.<\/p>\n

Performing the scene were Creedon, Emily Clark \u201915 of Readfield, Maine; Andrew Carranco \u201914 of Laredo, Texas; Michaela Brady \u201914 of East Walpole, Mass., Chuck Munn \u201914 of Norway, Maine; and Nick Steverson \u201915 of Englewood, Colo.,<\/p>\n

Following the Latinists came students of ancient Greek and their video \u2014 directed and edited by John Goodman \u201915 of Larchmont, N.Y. \u2014 featuring two scenes from Euripides\u2019 Greek tragedy Bacchae<\/em>, filmed during a late winter snowstorm and featuring student-prepared subtitles.<\/p>\n

Watch students act two scenes from Euripides’ Bacchae:<\/em><\/p>\n