Outreach Prize
The Outreach Prize Committee unanimously and enthusiastically recommends for the 2005 Outreach Prize Professor Marianne McDonald of the University of California at San Diego.
Those classicists are rare whose work manages not only to satisfy the rigorous scrutiny of their professional peers but also to bring the beauty and power of classical drama to general, non-professional audiences. Over the years Professor McDonald has done this with unusual vigor and boundless enthusiasm. She blends the training of a classicist with considerable experience in drama and theatrical performance. Her dramatic translations are not mere exercises in bookish precision but imaginative adaptations in contemporary language and setting calculated to illuminate their ancient substance. The test of their success has been the stage. The performance list of McDonald's translations and adaptations is long and impressive. Since 1999 there have been over 30 such performances. Of the Athol Fugard staging of her Antigone, a critic for the London Times wrote, "It is McDonaldÕs text that is the star of the evening, lending the play plenty of punch without depending too heavily on anachronistic language. The translatorÕs focus on the central ideas has an emotional clarity that is entirely seductive."
Her books follow the same pattern, whether introducing general readers to Greek tragedy, as in The Living Art of Greek Tragedy (2003), or elucidating operatic renditions of classical themes, as in Sing Sorrow: Classics, History, and Heroines in Opera (2001). Of the latter, one reviewer said, "It flows with such apparent effortlessness and zest that one can almost overlook how formidable that scholarship actually is. Learning so lightly worn is such a pleasure." In Ancient Sun, Modern Light: Greek Drama on the Modern Stage (1991), she explored the way in which modern directors such as Tadashi Suzuki, in his Japanese adaptation of Greek tragedy, have called upon classical drama to confront contemporary issues. She has also edited a volume which focuses specifically on Irish versions of Greek tragedy (Amid Our Troubles [2002]).
For the quality and quantity of this work the profession expresses its gratitude by presenting the 2005 APA Outreach Prize to Professor Marianne McDonald.
Helene Foley
Maria Pantelia
John Peradotto, Chair