C.W. Marshall

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Faculty Profile

C.W.

Marshall

Professor of Greek

Graduate Advisor (CLAS)

contact information

Office:

BUCH C217

Phone #:

604-822-4048

Email:

toph.marshall@ubc.ca

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Research

Research Interests:

Ancient Theatre and Stagecraft
Greek and Latin Poetry
Performance, translation, and adaptation
Classics and Popular Culture

Work in Progress:

My research falls into four broad categories. All of these research areas can provide material for intelligent and interested graduate students in Classics and related fields.

• Ancient Theatre and Stagecraft
The bulk of my research has concentrated on understanding and interpreting the physical dimension of ancient performance. Role doubling and masked acting are of particular interest, but I have also published on rehearsal practices, costumes, props, the use of extras, actor delivery, and the representation of space in performance. This has involved study of all the extant playwrights from Greece and Rome, and on the theatrical images on South Italian red-figure vases. My work in this area has been generously supported by SSHRC since 2000.

• Greek and Latin Poetry
I am also interested in ancient poetry generally. Questions I have addressed in my research concern the nature of genre (including what is Euripides’ Alcestis, and how are we to understand it?), the dating of specific works (including arguing for an earlier date, pre-415, for Iphigenia in Tauris), the nature of literary allusion (including the impact of the Oresteia in antiquity on literature and art), and fragmentary works (especially the lost plays of Sophocles). Studying how verse was received by its original audience, whether through public performance or through the mechanism of ‘the book’, also leads to an interest in metre and other formal elements of poetry.

• Performance, translation, and adaptation
For texts to continue to have meaning, they must be adapted and re-interpreted for each new audience. I have directed a dozen ancient plays for the modern stage, and done translations for others to direct. My productions (with MASC, Modern Actors Staging Classics) are historically informed, seeking to convey ancient meaning effectively today, and draw on my experience performing in improv comedy, Shakespeare, etc. I have founded improv comedy groups in Montreal (1987), Edinburgh (1989), and Sackville, NB (1993), all of which are still performing. I also regularly consult on productions of classical plays. Associated with this is an interest in how others have addressed these questions, both theoretically and through practical examples and reception: this has involved study of Thomas Heywood’s mythological plays and the Cambridge Greek Play.

• Classics and Popular Culture
The questions discussed above ought to be applicable to any text, and understanding develops when the texts are closest to ourselves. Cinema, television, comic books, and video games reveal many aspects of contemporary society that aspire to ‘myth’ (in a classical sense). How this process works requires academic study. I have published on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica, and delivered talks on Wonder Woman, Sandman comics, and My So-Called Life; my interests are not limited to these texts, however.

Current Book Projects

1. Tragic Direction: Structure and Performance in Euripides’ Helen

Funded by a SSHRC Standard Research Grant, this book examines Euripides’ Helen (412 BCE), with particular focus on Euripides’ use of humour, allusion, performance context, and stagecraft. The emphasis on performance context means that Helen’s companion play, Andromeda, will also be examined. The manuscript is finished and currently under review.

2. Son of Classics and Comics

A co-edited volume with George Kovacs. This collection will follow our pioneering study in the reception of the classical world within the medium of comics, Classics and Comics (OUP, 2011). The manuscript is finished and under review.

3. The Cambridge Introduction to Greek and Roman Theatre

This short volume will provide tools to understanding how stagecraft and performance shape the interpretation of ancient scripts. It will be of use to theatre scholars with limited background in Classics and to classicists who have limited practical theatre experience. The manuscript is in preparation.

Future projects for which I have received research funding include studies of the following:

* sex slavery as represented in Greek and Roman comedy, using the modern realities in Cambodia and the rest of Southeast Asia as a point of comparison

* representations of the classical world in modern popular culture, including television, videogames, and comics.

Publications

Publications:

(Edited, with J. Porter, E. Csapo and R. C. Ketterer), Crossing the stages: the production, performance, and reception of ancient theater (= Syllecta Classica 10, 1999), pp. 282 (reprinted 2002)

The stagecraft and performance of Roman comedy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006, pp. xiii + 320
Editor (with T. Potter), Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica, Continuum: London and New York 2008, pp. x + 278

Complete list of published work
(books in bold type)

1993
‘Status transactions in Aristophanes’ Frogs’, Text & Presentation 14, 57–61

1994
‘The rule of three actors in practice’, Text & Presentation 15, 53–61
‘The so-called false digamma in Bacchylides Ode 5.75’, Mnemosyne 47 (1994) 373–75

1995
‘Idol speculation: the protean stage of Euripides’ Helen’, Text & Presentation 16, 74–79

1996
‘Plautus’ Pseudolus: the long and the short of it’, Text & Presentation 17 (1996), 34–38
‘Literary awareness in Euripides and his audience’, ed. I. Worthington (ed.), Voice into Text (Leiden), 81–98
‘Amphibian ambiguities answered’, Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 15, 251– 65

1997
‘Comic technique and the fourth actor’, Classical Quarterly 47, 77–84
‘Shattered mirrors and breaking class: Saturio’s daughter in Plautus’ Persa’, Text & Presentation 18, 100–09

1998
‘The children of Heracles' in The Children of Heracles. Text & Presentation 19, 80–90 ‘In Seneca’s wings’, in J. P. Bews, I. C. Storey, M. R. Boyne (eds), Celebratio: Thirtieth Anniversary Essays at Trent University(Peterborough [ON]), 86–95

1999
(Ed., with John Porter, Eric Csapo and Robert C. Ketterer), Crossing the stages: the production, performance, and reception of ancient theater (= Syllecta Classica 10, 1999), pp. 282
‘Some fifth-century masking conventions’, Greece & Rome 46, 188–202
‘Quis Hic Loquitur?: Plautine delivery and the ‘Double Aside’', in J. Porter, E. Csapo, C. W. Marshall, R. C. Ketterer (eds), Crossing the stages: the production, performance, and reception of ancient theater (= Syllecta Classica 10), 105–31

2000
‘Alcestis and the problem of prosatyric drama’, Classical Journal 95, 229–38
‘Theatrical reference in Euripides’, in M. Cropp, K. Lee, D. Sansone (eds), Electra. Euripides and tragic theatre in the late fifth century (= Illinois Classical Studies 24–25, 1999–2000), 325-41
‘Location! Location! Location! Choral absence and dramatic space in Seneca’s Troades’, in G. W. M. Harrison (ed.), Seneca in Performance (Swansea), 27–51
‘Female performers on stage? (PhV 96 [RVP 2/33])’,Text & Presentation 21, 13–25
‘Rotting timbers: Medea 1386–7 and the mission to Delos’, Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 19, 351–57
‘The point of Sophocles, fr. 453’, Eranos 98, 1–8

2001
‘The consequences of dating the Cyclops’, in M. Joyal (ed.), In Altum: Seventy Five Years of Classical Studies in Newfoundland (St. John’s) 225–41
‘The costume of Hecuba’s attendants’, Acta Classica 44, 127–36
‘The next time Agamemnon died’, Classical World 95, 59–63
‘A gander at the Goose Play’, Theatre Journal 53, 53–71
‘What’so funny about ancient comedy?’, Social Identities 7 (2001) 13–35, and errata 471–72

2002
‘Chorus, metatheatre, and Dyskolos 427-441’, Scholia 11, 3–17
‘Remembering Rhesus’, Amphora 1.2, 1–3
‘Comment’, Symbolae Osloenses 77, 75–78 [part of SO Debate, ‘Patrick Kragelund, Historical drama in ancient Rome: Republican flourishing and Imperial decline?’ SO 77, 5–105]

2003
‘Casting the Oresteia’, Classical Journal 98, 257–74
‘Sophocles’ Nauplius and Heron of Alexandria’s Mechanical Theatre’, in A. H. Sommerstein (ed.), Shards from Kolonos: studies in Sophoclean fragments (Bari), 261–79
‘Aeneas the vampire slayer: a Roman model for Why Giles Kills Ben’, Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies 9 (August 2003, 3.1), 34–39 http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage9/Slayage_3.1.pdf

2004
‘Alcestis and the ancient rehearsal process (P. Oxy. 4546)’, Arion 11.3 (Winter 2004), 27–45
(with Stephanie van Willigenburg) ‘Judging Athenian dramatic competitions’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 124, 90–107
‘William Beare (1900–63)’, in R. B. Todd (ed.), Dictionary of British Classicists, 1500– 1960 (Bristol), I, 59–60

2005
‘The sophisticated Cyclops’, in G. W. M. Harrison (ed.), Tragedy at play: satyr drama and its contexts (Swansea), 103–17

2006
The stagecraft and performance of Roman comedy (Cambridge), pp. xiii + 320
‘How to write a messenger speech (Sophocles, Electra 680–763)’, in J. Davidson, F. Muecke, P. Wilson (eds), Greek Drama III: Essays in Honour of Kevin Lee (London), 203–21
‘Sappho. On oldness’, Arion 13.3 (Winter 2006), 87–88

2007
‘Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1391–7’, Classical Quarterly 57, 749–52

2008
Edited, with T. Potter, Cylons in America: critical studies in Battlestar Galactica (London and New York), pp. x + 278
(with T. Potter) ‘“I see the patterns”: Battlestar Galactica and the things that matter’, in T. Potter and C. W. Marshall (eds), Cylons in America: critical studies in Battlestar Galactica, 1–10
(with M. Wheeland) ‘The Cylons, the singularity, and god’, in T. Potter and C. W. Marshall (eds), Cylons in America: critical studies in Battlestar Galactica, 91– 104

Forthcoming
‘Sophocles’ Chryses and the date of Iphigenia in Tauris’, in J. R. C. Cousland (ed.), In Fragments (Toronto)
‘Audience address in Roman comedy’, in P. Johnston and C. W. Marshall (eds), Early Latin Comedy, c. 22 pp. typescript
‘The works of Seneca the Younger and their dates’, in A. Heil and G. Damschen (eds), Brill’s Companion to Seneca, 19 pp. typescript

OTHER
• Reference articles, ‘Hipponax’, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘Lucan’, ‘Lucian’, ‘Martial’, ‘Menander’, ‘Persius Flaccus, Aulus’, ‘Plautus, Titus Maccius’, ‘Stesichorus’, ‘Theophrastus’, ‘Timotheus of Miletus’, in A. G. Traver (ed.),From Polis to Empire — the Ancient World c. 800 B.C. – A.D. 100: a Biographical Dictionary (Westport CT 2002)
• 24(+) reviews in Classical Review, Phoenix, Mouseion, Scholia, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, American Journal of Philology, etc.
• Various non-refereed editorials and articles for theatre programmes, newspapers, interviews, etc.

Performances:

CLASSICAL THEATRE PRODUCTION

Further details are available at http://www2.cnrs.ubc.ca/masc/.

Leonida in Asinaria, Victoria

Sophocles, Philoctetes   Director                    Montréal, 1988
Euripides, Cyclops           Director, Translator Montréal, 1988
Aristophanes, Birds          Co-Director              Edinburgh, 1990
Sophocles, Electra            Director, Translator Edinburgh, 1990
Aristophanes, Clouds        Director, Producer   Edinburgh, 1991
Euripides, Children of Heracles Director, Translator   Sackville 1993
Sophocles, Women of Trachis Director * Montréal, 1994
Euripides, Trojan Women Translator * Vancouver, 1995
Euripides, Medea  Co-Director, Chorus Translator Peterborough, 1995
Plautus, Curculio  Director, Producer * Peterborough, 1996
Euripides, Hecuba  Translator * Peterborough, 1997
Plautus, Asinaria  Director, Producer * Victoria, 1997
Euripides, Helen  Director * Vancouver, 1997
Plautus, Miles Gloriosus Director, Producer * St. John’s, 1999
Euripides (?), Rhesus  Producer, Actor * St. John’s, 2001
Aeschylus, House of Atreus Dramaturg Vancouver, 2005
Euripides, Hecuba  Dramaturg * Vancouver, 2007–08
    * indicates my involvement was professional or semi-professional.

PERFORMANCE AND CONSULTATION

Acting roles since 2000 include Bassanio in Merchant of Venice, Antony in Julius Caesar, Aeneas, Rhesus, and the Charioteer in Rhesus, and Miles Gloriosus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Staged readings include the following: Pisthetaerus in Aristophanes’ Birds. APA 2007, San Diego; Preposterus in W. S. Gilbert, Thespis. APA 2006, Montreal; Einstein in Iran Man (= Sagaristio in Plautus, Persa). APA 2005, Boston; Einstein in Iran Man (= Sagaristio in Plautus, Persa). Feminism and Classics IV 2004, Tucson AZ; Lycaon and Neptune in Thomas Heywood, The Golden Age. APA 2004, San Francisco; Housman in Stoppard, The Invention of Love. APA 2002, Philadelphia.
Improvisation. 1986–97. Founded and performed with a variety of unscripted/improvisational theatre groups, in Scotland, Canada, and the U.S. Basic Actor Combatant certification (Fight Directors Canada, 2003), with training in unarmed, quarterstaff, and rapier stage combat, with additional workshops for stage and screen in knife fighting, gun fighting, and katana.
Consultation on Theatrical Productions. 1994–2005. Workshops, script consultation, casting assistance, and production ideas to nine productions of classical plays in Canada and the U.S.

Teaching

Courses taught 2012W

Bio

Degrees

BA Classics (Classical History and Archaeology), McGill University, Montréal 1989; DipCS Regent College, Vancouver 1992; PhD University of Edinburgh 1993

Career
1993–1998 Sessional Positions at Concordia University, University of Victoria, Trent University, McGill University, and UBC
1998–2000 Assistant Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Classics
2000–02 Associate Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Classics
2002–05 Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies
2005– Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies

Grants, Honours, Prizes:

Awards for Scholarship

2001 President’s Award for Outstanding Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2003–04 Early Career UBC Scholars program, Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, Assistant Professor level
2006 UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellowship, University of British Columbia

Awards for Service
1992 Life Member of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company

Competitive Research Grants
1999 Memorial University of Newfoundland, VP Research/Dean of Arts Award
2000 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Standard Research Grant. Project Title: ‘Backstage Plautus: Comic Stagecraft and Troupe Dynamics in the Roman Republic’
2002 University of British Columbia, HSS-UBC Small Grant Bridging Program. Project title: ‘A Roman Rehearses Alcestis (P. Oxy. 4546)’
2003 University of British Columbia, HSS-UBC Large Grants Program. Project title: ‘Myth and Text in Thomas Heywood’s The Ages’
2004 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Standard Research Grant (three years). Project title: ‘Euripides’ Helen and the Audience of Athenian tragedy’
2006 Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (UBC), co-investigator with Ulrich Rauch (primary), Dietmar Neufeld, Linc Kesler, Marvin Cohodas, Michael Griffin. Project title: ‘Ancient Spaces: student-driven reconstructions of ancient civilizations’
2007 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Standard Research Grant. Project title: ‘Studies in Classical Athenian Acting’
University of British Columbia, HSS-U.BC Large Grants Program,. Project title: ‘Classics and Comics’
University of British Columbia, HSS-UBC Conference Travel Grant

Other Awards and Distinction
1986–89 Undergraduate Awards: University Scholar, McCullagh Prize in Greek, Greek Embassy Prize in Archaeology, Barclay Scholarship in Classics
1990–92 Overseas Research Fellowship, at the University of Edinburgh
1992–93 Crake Doctoral Fellowship in Classics, Mount Allison University
1995 Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC; five-week Summer Scholars Program
1995 The Translation of Ancient Greek Drama in All the Languages of the World: delegate for Canada at this international conference, held under the auspices of the Greek Ministries of Culture and Tourism, Athens
1996 Convocation speaker, Change and Tradition Program, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN
2000 Overseas Research Fellowship, at the University of South Africa.
Keynote speaker at conference on ‘Humour in Antiquity’, with associated Lecture Tour of other South African universities and schools
2004 Keynote Speaker, University of Alberta 2004 Inaugural Classics Undergraduate Conference
Forthcoming Featured Scholar at ‘Scholar Meets Critics’ plenary session, Comparative Drama Conference, Los Angeles, CA, 2008

Service:

Selected other professional activities
1996–2007 Electronic Journal Editing: Associate editor for ten issues of Didaskalia: Ancient Theatre Today http://www.didaskalia.net/
1998–2001 Member, Editorial Board, Phoenix
1997– Manuscript reviewer (in English and French) for Helios, Phoenix, Scholia, Amphora, Classical Philology, Classical Journal, Theatre Journal, Echos du Monde Classique, Mouseion, American Journal of Philology, Acta Classica, Security Dialogue, Religion and the Arts, Religon and Popular Culture, Oxford University Press, Hackett Press, SSHRC Research Grants Programme, HSSFC Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (UVic), Sessional teaching award (U Alberta)