Orestes Translation : Call for applicants
Paid Translation Opportunity
Paid Opportunity
- Commission available for 3 artists at £200 each.
- Seeking translations/adaptations/responses to three sections of Euripides’ Orestes, to be performed as a part of the Oxford Greek Play in January 2021.
- Application deadline: Friday 21st August.
We particularly encourage applications from queer, trans, non-binary, and BIPOC writers. There is no requirement to be able to read Ancient Greek, and no requirement to have studied ‘Classics’ in any capacity.
Orestes resonates with 21st century anxieties: the show is about navigating catastrophe, coming to terms with inherited trauma, and pursuing alternative forms of justice within a crumbling society. Our production is committed to feminist, queer, and anti-racist interventions on the ancient source material and its past translations. As such we are seeking ethical and intentional responses to the following sections of text. We are not necessarily looking to commission ‘faithful’ translations but instead want to foreground the voices of student writers, poets, and translators.
The three passages we have selected for commission each represent a core moment in the show that we think deserve critical (and creative) attention:
- Monologue from Electra (1--71) [CW: violence, references to mental illness, threat of death, grief].
- Dialogue between Orestes and Pylades (729--806) [CW: violence, references to mental illness, death].
- Scene featuring the Trojan prisoner of war (1370--1537) [CW: slavery, violence, racial stereotyping, misogynistic language, ableist language].
Feel free to work with any existing translation that you are able to access – so far we have worked alongside versions of the play by Anne Washburn and Anne Carson (for more information on these texts please get in touch).
Free access to E. P. Coleridge edition of an English translation & the ancient Greek text can be found here.
To apply, please email us by Friday 21st August with a short paragraph or two about you, your writing experience, and why you’re interested in this particular project. We’d also love to see an example of your own creative writing. This could be a link to your work/website/social media, or an email attachment. There are no word limits or content requirements, including form or medium – whatever you feel best represents you. If you are thinking about applying but would like to know more about the project, please get in touch with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!
Contact (for applications, please CC all):
