What do you get when an experimental Polish director mixes New Orleans voodoo, African-Caribbean dance and pulsating live music with a classic Greek comedy? A tribal take on Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria, one of the most exciting and original theatre productions to perform in Atlanta this year.

Oglethorpe’s Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Miroslaw Kocur will direct this rarely performed brilliant Greek comedy, in a new translation by Jeffrey Henderson, December 1 through 3 at 8:00 p.m. in the Conant Performing Arts Center on the campus of Oglethorpe University.

Kocur studied with Tadeusz Kantor and Jerzy Grotowski, two seminal theatre practioners from Eastern Europe, and became Director of the Second Studio of Wroclaw, former site of the Polish Laboratory Theatre. Dr. Kocur is also a prize-winning scholar on Greek and Roman theatre; his book Ancient Greek Theatre is used as a primary text in Poland universities. Currently, he teaches Cultural Studies at the University of Wroclaw and Acting at the Theatre Academy of Cracow.

Kocur has always been intrigued and stimulated by American culture and was drawn immediately to incorporating aspects of voodoo and music from New Orleans to this often bawdy 5th century play.

Kocur’s work also has been influenced by the time he spent teaching and directing in northern California at World College West, where he was Artistic Director of Broken Walls: Festival of Eastern European Drama. According to Dr. Deborah Merola, Director of the Oglethorpe University Theatre Department, the Fulbright grant is a happy continuation of that earlier collaboration with Kocur, and his talented wife, Dagmara. Further collaborative efforts are being explored.


What: Women at the Thesmophoria, by Aristophanes, translated by Jeffrey Henderson and directed by Miroslaw Kocur
When: December 1-3 at 8:00 p.m.
Where: Conant Performing Arts Center, on the campus of Oglethorpe University (4484 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta)
Tickets: $7, free for Oglethorpe students, faculty and staff. For ticket information call 404.504.1074.