Event Description
Chas Libretto: Rewriting The Dead
March 22, 2022, 12pm EDT
Want to write but can’t seem to think of any ideas? Well, you’re in luck, because even writers are luminous as Shakespeare and Ovid weren’t terribly picky about which plots they stole from dead writers.
In point of fact, adaptations are a useful way to grapple with the present moment. Why are so many of the biggest musicals, films and plays adaptations? Name recognition is part of it, certainly and in the “IP era” this has never been truer, but there are myriad other reasons artists engage in dialogue with material already living on their bookshelves. All artists stand upon the shoulders of giants and sometimes the only way to look towards the future is by looking at the past.
In this lecture, Chas LiBretto will engage with some of his own work, looking at a Greek Satyr play turned rock opera, a Roman satire turned pulp adventure serial, and a Euripdean fragment made whole, while also peppering in discussions with colleagues (writers, composers, and directors), discussing genre, style, “ways in,” and some techniques for getting started.
N.B. - You can view a recording of this, and other past events on Paideia's Youtube Channel.