Classics Ph.D. student, Cristina Perez Diaz, was awarded a summer grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) at Columbia University.
Of this distinction, Ms. Perez Diaz wrote:
With the support of this SNFPHI grant, I am “translating” into a multimedia book the production of Euripides’ Andromache that I directed this year for the Barnard-Columbia Ancient Drama Group. Our show could not run because of the pandemic outbreak. Yet, unexpectedly, the topics we were underscoring took on a new relevance because of the social distancing and the new dimensions that domesticity has taken in everyone’s life at home. The production focused on the domestic elements of the tragedy (or the tragic elements of domesticity), having the house and domestic labor at the core of the stage’s symbolism and semiotics. The chorus are domestic employees, their costumes floral smock aprons, gloves, a sponge, a cleaning brush, a duster, their “dances” gestures related to cleaning and housekeeping. Andromache holds a broom, Hermione is moved around the stage by the chorus like a piece of furniture. My original English translation, in turn, fleshes out all the ways in which the female characters’ actions and dilemmas were also, in a sense, domestic labor. Our composer, Alejandro Kauderer, worked with the soundscape of the house (someone washing the dishes, the vacuum cleaner, running water, a dog panting), and sounds of the house’ exterior (a street vendor, birds, frogs, a motorcycle). In this multimedia book, I will remix pictures of the characters, now in quarantine as each actor is at home, with the Greek text, the original English translation, links to the music, and recordings of the actors saying the text in ancient Greek. To these elements, we are also adding a more personal note, bringing into the mix short monologues written by the actors as they re-interpret their characters in quarantine.
The Department extends its sincere congratulations to Cristina on this award.