Metamorphoses (play)
''Metamorphoses'' is a play by the American playwright and director Mary Zimmerman, adapted from the classic Ovid poem ''Metamorphoses''. The play premiered in 1996 as ''Six Myths'' at Northwestern University and later the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. The play opened off-Broadway in October 2001 at the Second Stage Theatre. It transferred to Broadway on 21 February 2002 at the Circle in the Square Theatre produced by Roy Gabay and Robyn Goodman. That year it won several Tony Awards. It was revived at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago on 19 September 2012 and was produced in Washington, DC at the Arena Stage in 2013. Background Mary Zimmerman's ''Metamorphoses'' is based on David R. Slavitt's free-verse translation of ''The Metamorphoses of Ovid''. She directed an early version of the play, ''Six Myths'', in 1996 at the Northwestern University Theater and Interpretation Center. Zimmerman's finished work, ''Metamorphoses'', was produced in 1998. Of the m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mary Zimmerman
Mary Zimmerman (born August 23, 1960) is an American theatre and opera director and playwright from Nebraska. She is an ensemble member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Manilow Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, and also serves as the Jaharis Family Foundation Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. She is currently a faculty member in the Performance Studies department at Northwestern. She has earned national and international recognition in the form of numerous awards, including the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship (1998). She has received more than 20 Joseph Jefferson Awards for her creative work in the Chicago Area and won a 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction for her adaptation of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. Other notable productions include ''Eleven Rooms of Proust'' and ''The Secret in the Wings''. Early life and education Although Zimmerman was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, she spent muc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cupid And Psyche
Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche (; , ) and Cupid (, ) or (, Greek Eros, ), and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. Although the only extended narrative from antiquity is that of Apuleius from the 2nd century AD, Eros and Psyche appear in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale, '' Märchen'' or fairy tale, and myth. The story of Cupid and Psyche was known to Boccaccio in c. 1370. The '' first printed version'' dates to 1469. Ever since, the reception of ''Cupid and Psyche'' in the classical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aphrodite
Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. Aphrodite's major symbols include seashells, Myrtle (common), myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was largely derived from that of the Ancient Canaanite religion, Phoenician goddess Astarte, a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian religion, Sumerian cult of Inanna. Aphrodite's main cult centers were Kythira, Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. Her main festival was the Aphrodisia, which was celebrated annually in midsummer. In Laconia, Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess. She was also the patron goddess of Prostitution in ancient Greece, prostitutes, an association which led early scholars to propose the concept of sacred prostitution in Greco-Rom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poseidon
Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes, with the cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia, he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters.Seneca quaest. Nat. VI 6 :Nilsson Vol I p.450 Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs (the terms for horses and springs are related in the Greek language).Nilsson Vol I p.450 His Roman equivalent is Neptune. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea when, following the overthrow of his father Cronus, the world was divided ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alcyone
In Greek mythology, Alcyone (or dubiously Halcyone) (; ) and Ceyx (; ) were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of the god Zeus for their romantic hubris. Etymology Alkyóne comes from alkyón (), which refers to a sea-bird with a mournful song or to a kingfisher bird in particular. The meaning(s) of the words is uncertain because ''alkyón'' is considered to be of pre-Greek, non-Indo-European origin. However, folk etymology related them to the ''háls'' (, "brine, sea, salt") and ''kyéo'' (, "I conceive"). Alkyóne originally is written with a smooth breathing mark, but this false origin beginning with a rough breathing mark (transliterated as the letter H) led to the common misspellings ''halkyón'' () and ''Halkyóne'' (), and thus the name of one of the kingfisher bird genus' in English Halcyon. It is also speculated that Alkyóne is derived from ''alké'' (, "prowess, battle, guard") and ''onéo'' (, from , ''onínemi'', "to help, to please"). Kéyx as referring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''baccheia''. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''thyrsus'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In Orphism, he was variously a son of Zeus and Perseph ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Midas
Midas (; ) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. His father was Gordias, and his mother was Cybele. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into pure gold and this came to be called the ''golden touch'', or the ''Midas touch''. The legends told about this Midas and his adopted father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city Gordium and tying the Gordian Knot, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the Trojan War. However, Homer does not mention Midas or Gordias, while instead mentioning two other Phrygian kings, Mygdon of Phrygia, Mygdon and Otreus. Midaeum was presumably named after him, and this is probably also the Midas that according to Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias founded Ancyra (today known as Ankara). Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cosmogony
Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe. Overview Scientific theories In astronomy, cosmogony is the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used in reference to the origin of the universe, the Solar System, or the Earth–Moon system. The prevalent physical cosmology, cosmological scientific theory, model of the early development of the universe is the Big Bang theory. Sean M. Carroll, who specializes in Physical cosmology, theoretical cosmology and Field (physics), field theory, explains two competing explanations for the origins of the Gravitational singularity, singularity, which is the center of a space in which a characteristic is limitless (one example is the singularity of a black hole, where gravity is the characteristic that becomes infinite). It is generally accepted that the universe began at a point of singularity. When the universe started to expand, the Big Bang occurred, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vignette (literature)
A vignette (, also ) is a French language, French loanword expressing a short and descriptive piece of writing that captures a brief period in time. Vignettes are more focused on vivid imagery and meaning rather than plot. Vignettes can be stand-alone, but they are more commonly part of a larger narrative, such as vignettes found in novels or collections of short stories. Etymology The word ''vignette'' means "little vine" in French language, French, and was derived from Old French ''vigne'', meaning “vineyard”. In English, the word was first documented in 1751, and was given the definition “decorative design". This definition refers to decorative artwork of vine-leaves and tendrils used in books as a border around the edges of title pages and the start of chapters. In 1853, the word was used to describe a popular 19th century photographic style, where portraits had blurred edges. The definition of a vignette referring to a “Sketch story, literary sketch” was first re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jane Alison
Jane Alison (born 1961) is an Australian author. Early life and education Born in Canberra in 1961, Alison spent two years in Australia as a small child, growing up mainly in the United States as a child of diplomatic parents. She attended public schools in Washington, D.C., and then earned a B.A. in classics from Princeton University in 1983. Before writing fiction, she worked as an administrator for the National Endowment for the Humanities, as a production artist for the Washington City Paper, as an editor for the Miami New Times, and as a proposal and speech writer for Tulane University. She also worked as a freelance editor and illustrator before attending Columbia University to study creative writing. Literary career Alison's first novel, ''The Love-Artist'', was published in 2001 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and has been translated into seven languages. It was followed by ''The Marriage of the Sea'', a New York Times Notable Book of 2003. ''Natives and Exotics'', from 20 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Last World
''The Last World'' () is a 1988 novel by the Austrian writer Christoph Ransmayr. Set in an inconsistent time period, it tells the story of a man, Cotta, who travels to Tomi to search for the poet Naso, who had settled there in political exile, after hearing rumours that Naso has died. In the town, Cotta encounters a number of characters from Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. ''The Last World'' was published in English in 1990, translated by John E. Woods. Reception ''Kirkus Reviews'' called the book an "ambitious, stylish historical work". Robert Irwin wrote in ''The New York Times'': "This remarkable second novel by Christoph Ransmayr, a young Austrian novelist, carries the conviction of an ominous dream". Irwin first compared it to the works of surrealist painters, after which he wrote: "But the shape-shifting world in which Cotta conducts his quest owes more to Latin literature than to Surrealist theory. ... ''The Last World'', with its careful anachronisms and deformations, is a br ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |