The Cornell Undergraduate Classics Society began a new chapter this fall semester. With the return of in-person instruction, the Classics Society meets in Goldwin Smith Hall every Friday afternoon.
Christopher Chandra, a Cornell senior majoring in Classics, English, and Information Science, has led the Society this past semester. He recalls fond pre-COVID memories of attending Classics dinners during his sophomore year at Risley Hall with Professors Courtney Roby and Ben Anderson, and he has enjoyed returning to Cornell’s campus. He says, “This fall has been a major highlight, having everyone in the Classics Society together again.”
Boasting about ten regular attendees, the Society has also decided to undertake an exciting new project: the staging of Terence’s Adelphoi. This play was written in Latin in the 2nd century B.C.E. and includes fourteen different characters, about half of whom have already been cast.
Cornell Classics has a long history of performing ancient plays, most recently a rendition of Seneca’s Trojan Women in 2019 (you can watch the full performance here). Professor Daniel Gallagher, a strong advocate of spoken Latin initiatives and a former Latinist at the Vatican in Rome, served as the faculty advisor for the previous production of Trojan Women, and he will continue in this role for the staging of Terence’s Adelphoi. After the events of recent years, Gallagher says that “everyone is ready for a comedy” and that “the play deals with timeless issues of youth, parenting, urban and rural life, discipline, and free-spiritedness.”
Dante King, a first-year PhD student in Classics, is eager to lend his experience acting in eleven prior theater productions to this project. He also looks forward to performing the play in its original Latin, saying, “Since Latin is a dead language, it's easy for us to forget that it was once very much alive… My hope is that our production will revive Latin a bit in the eyes of all the students who participate, as well as the audience.”
The play’s debut is currently planned for the end of March 2022, and Chandra, Gallagher, and King want to encourage all parties to participate! Keep an eye out for further updates this spring.
Undergraduates interested in joining the Classics Society or participating in the staging of Terence’s Adelphoi can contact Christopher at cwc99@cornell.edu and sign-up via Campus Groups. Inquire as well about the Society’s striking new stickers, pictured below!
