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CU 色吧亚洲 associate professor Tamara Meneghini, a contributor for new textbook on acting, explains why you might give Greek tragedies a second look

Can a play written more than 2,400 years ago about a despairing mother seeking revenge for the deaths of her children teach modern performers anything new about not only their art, but also about conveying broader themes of power and justice?

贵辞谤听Tamara Meneghini, an associate professor in the University of Colorado 色吧亚洲 Department of Theatre and Dance, Euripides鈥� play 鈥淗ecuba,鈥� written around 424 BCE about a grief-stricken queen of the fallen city Troy, has much to teach performers about the interaction between power and powerlessness in times of extreme conflict. Conveying those themes, however, requires specific physicality and preparation from actors.

Meneghini听elaborates on these themes in a听chapter written听for the new听听鈥淏uilding Embodiment: Integrating Acting, Voice, and Movement to Illuminate Poetic Text.鈥澨齌he chapter, titled 鈥淕race, Gravitas and Grounding鈥揂pproaching听Greek Tragedy through a New Translation of Hecuba,鈥� focuses on helping actors 鈥済et close鈥� to the original Greek performance style, Meneghini says.听听

鈥淚 also wanted to add some newness鈥搕o make the performance style and the text [of 鈥楬ecuba鈥橾 more accessible to actors with a newer translation, so that actors can integrate breath and movement into the poetic text,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also about giving readers lessons and tools they can use in the rehearsal process.鈥澨�

Meneghini was chosen to contribute to the textbook by Karen Kopryanski, associate professor and head of voice and speech at Virginia Commonwealth University and one of the book鈥檚 editors. She鈥檚 known Meneghini since 2005 and says she chose Meneghini to write the chapter because she was inspired by Meneghini's work on the new translation of听鈥淗ecuba鈥澨齮hat she features in the anthology. She says she felt that others would benefit greatly from her expertise and artistic process.

Meneghini says she spent the better part of a year writing the chapter.听

鈥淚鈥檇 write some and send it to Karen, and she鈥檇 help me sharpen it and improve it. We went back and forth like that for many months,鈥� Meneghini says. 鈥淚 had been playing with the ideas that ended up in the chapter in my classes for some time, and I felt that when the ideas worked for the students, then I was capturing something that might work for all actors.鈥澨�

She adds that writing was 鈥渁 new thing鈥� for her. 鈥淚鈥檓 an actor and director, but writing was a great exercise for me鈥攊t was a lesson in specificity and a lesson in the value of 鈥榣ess is more鈥�.鈥澨�听

Meneghini says she was seeing evidence that the chapter was proving helpful to audiences months before it was published. In March, she taught a workshop in San Deigo using contents from the chapter.听

鈥淚 actually gave them a copy of the chapter, and we used it during the workshop, and it was well received,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hese were graduate, professional actors, so I believe it will be helpful beyond students who are studying theater in college.鈥�

She had the same result after teaching with information from the chapter at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. 鈥淚t proved to be useful to the students there, too.鈥�

Meneghini is intimately familiar with Greek tragedy and with 鈥淗ecuba.鈥� In 2018, she directed the play at CU 色吧亚洲, where nearly 1,000 people saw the performance.

She says she believes there鈥檚 much to be gained from watching or reading tragedies, particularly today.听

鈥淥ur world today is not so unlike the tragedies in literature,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think tragedies are also very freeing for actors because they require actors to go to that place of tremendous size鈥攖o go to that public domain and to be creative with it and to connect with the themes behind the poetry. I know with 鈥楬ecuba,鈥� some people told me they felt transported to a different time and different place.鈥澨�

She adds that in 鈥淗ecuba,鈥� the lead character of the same name faces many misfortunes, including losing her children.听

鈥淎ll these things are done to her, so she has to change her destiny,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very relatable story.听听Her fate was in the hands of the men around her, and the audience has to decide if she鈥檚 a good or a bad person. The audience members have to ask themselves if they would kill if someone killed their family.鈥�

Up next for Meneghini is a sabbatical to create a documentary film about Loyd Williamson, the creator and author of The Williamson Technique, a system of training for the body and its role in the communication process; and Deborah Robinson, a renowned theatre movement and period style specialist, choreographer, actor, director and writer.听听听

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