The Mission
Out of Chaos are raising funds to make Greek tragedy and performance more accessible for students all around the globe. Born out of an ambitious project, ‘Reading Greek Tragedy Online’, we’re now looking to connect with students, academics and performers around the globe to truly bring ancient texts to life in a whole new way.
We’re raising £5,000 to film, produce, edit and host freely available masterclass videos online. The masterclasses will explore the themes behind the most famous classical texts, while harnessing the skills of professional actors and the knowledge of brilliant academics to bring a deeper level of understanding and appreciation to students internationally.
The Story
When lockdown began we wanted to create a community of artists from around the world, reading and responding to Greek tragedy. It was our way to foster conversations, create art and to respond to the social issues which affect us all today. We also wanted to create a free online resource for anyone who might be interested in ancient plays but who doesn't have easy access to learning about them. We partnered with the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC and Joel Christensen from Brandeis University to start the series with a reading of Euripides' Helen in March 2020.
We ended up live streaming 45 (and counting!) episodes of
Reading Greek Tragedy Online
, bringing together 120 artists and academics from around the
world - all of whom very generously gave up their time to make this
possible. Our videos have been viewed more than 100,000 times on
Youtube. It has been an amazing project for those involved and for
its viewers, and it has inspired us to think further about what
we're able to achieve. We're proud of what we created during
lockdown, and we now want to make higher quality videos which
explore tragedy more closely, and which will harness the talents of
the incredible ensemble which has arisen from this venture. We want
to make sure our amazing artists are properly paid, and we want to
continue to create work which draws on the skills of a diverse and
brilliant cast.
Our aim is to create three masterclass videos, freely available online. These will be the pilot films which we'll use for applying to major institutions, with the eventual aim of creating a significant free online repository of videos which can be used by students, teachers or anyone with an interest in theatre.
The Company
Out of Chaos is an international theatre company based in the UK, creating work which is exciting, bold and accessible. Our aim is always to make truly communal events with the power to move, entertain, edify and enthral. We're strongly committed to outreach, having run workshops for more than 20,000 students in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and the USA.
