SCIT 2009 – The first 45 days

The new year has pushed SCIT into new directions. Our original translation of Aristophanes' Acharnians, composed in large part by Rachel, James, and Matt continued apace through the fall, but apart from a handful of planning meetings and the creation of our website, very little work has actually been put into the production proper.

This was in part a problem of conception.   Though we had always intended to use the Fall quarter to write our translation/transformation, I don't think we realized in September that many of the details of our show could not proceed until the translation was finished—or at least, nearly finished. Questions of venue, cast size, date, funds, and countless other considerations could not be answered before we knew: (1) when and where the play would be set, (2) who and what would be satirized, (3) whether any major cuts (or extensions) would be made to the original Greek text. As such, the SCIT project seemed as if it was on hold. We did not want to rush composition—we knew we would need time to decide what modern parallels would be best suited to the Greek Lamachus, Euripides, the Megarian, etc.--nevertheless, it was frustrating to wait.

Booking performance space on campus also proved difficult. Attempts to pursue the Stanford Humanity Center's Levinthal Hall were met with initial success, but as SCIT's goals turned further away from a formal academic symposium toward an large-scale, successful, and fully dramatic production, Levinthal's multi-use capabilities (suitable for lectures as well as a final production) seemed increasingly unnecessary.  [Thanks to the SHC for holding the space until we decided we probably needed to turn elsewhere].  But where else to turn? The many outside venues at Stanford are enticing, but a late April or early May production does not have guaranteed sunshine, and a night-time performance would require outdoor lighting, seating, possible security/janitorial services, which all come with a price-tag. At the moment, less than two months before our show, we are still without a secured venue, and this will certainly be our next big step, since blocking and artistic conceptions of the show are dependent upon our facilities.

We began 2009 by hosting two early evening information sessions about our production: one for a general audience and one targeted specifically at classics undergraduates, whom we wanted to include as much as possible. Our hope is that, for future iterations of the SCIT project, productions can be a way to bridge the current graduate/undergraduate divide. One of the goals of the SPICE initiative, which has so graciously funded this project, is to enhance our department's intellectual community—the acronym SPICE stands for Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement. Though SPICE funds were awarded to support graduate students specifically, we see it as an important additional benefit that the Acharnians will also bring together Classics graduates with their undergraduate colleagues.

SCIT would like to extend its thanks to Dr. Maud Gleason, who allowed us to give a 5 minute introduction to our project to the two majors seminars which she is teaching. Her support was integral in drumming up undergraduate interest in either auditioning, helping out back-stage, or just attending the production.

Both evening information meetings were poorly attended (we recognized later that people are often too busy on the farm to attend an information meeting when they could have their questions answered by a website or e-mail). However, they had the benefit of laying a publicity groundwork for our eventual auditions during the second week of February. For future SCIT projects, less emphasis perhaps should be placed on information meetings, and more on “informative publicity”. A thoroughly informative flyer/poster or website is able to get our message across. Perhaps, however, there could be an event a few weeks before auditions to focus interest and get word about the production out in the Stanford community, so that people can look forward to auditions.

To dispel the disappointment in low-turnout at the information meetings, a strong gust of confidence and renewed purpose filled up SCIT's sails after last weeks' auditions, held 7-9pm in the Classics Department on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. We had, again, low attendance the first two evenings, but a bumper crop of talent on Thursday, including a handful of declared Classics undergraduates. We are impressed (and relieved!) by the influx of talent, and since we now have a body of people outside the core SCIT members to whom we are responsible, our inner organization must respond by becoming more pro-active and disciplined—a necessity, when our show is (potentially) only 9 weeks away.

This last week, Foivos, Rachel, James and Matt worked tirelessly on the translation to bring it to completion! A great thank you to all translators—it is perhaps all to obvious to say that we couldn't do it without you. We are planning on having a final collective read-through of the translation together in the department lounge this Friday to streamline the text and add any new jokes we can.

Our thoughts are now turning to our first Colloquium, to be held 26 February 2009. A number of us will be presenting briefly on a number of books and articles relating to Aristophanes, the Acharnians, and modern performance. This will be a collective idea-session to bring us together before our first rehearsal and read-through the following day. We will have posters around the classics department to open our round-table discussion up to a larger audience.

So, to sum up the last 45 days of SCIT's project: (1) the long-awaited script is finally finished, (2) the show is finally cast, and accordingly (3) our momentum and spirits are high, and we are encouraged by the palpability and immediacy of a project that seemed so distant and abstract back in September. The current desiderata: (1) a secured performance space (2) a clear sense of available funding for lighting, costumes, etc., all quite dependent on desideratum 1, and (3) rehearsals.

Until the next update,
-Al