"Lysioidia: ˜Transgendering' Actresses/Actors in Hellenistic Greek & Roman Theater eOctober 23, 2014 at 7–8 p.m.

This year's annual CAM (Classical Association of Minnesota) speaker will feature Professor John Starks from SUNY-Binghamton University. Starks' study examines the tiny fragments of ancient commentary on a lost genre of dramatic song (lysioidia) whose female and male actors captivated their audiences with a virtuoso display of gender ambiguity. As an ancient theater historian and director of musical comedies, Starks applies comparative evidence (both visual and textual) from modern dramatic art forms, such as German cabaret acts, Elizabethan theater, kabuki, and baroque opera, to reconstruct what effects these performers may have presented to their audiences, and to explain how lysioidia can inform us on the movement of popular theater styles between the Greek and Roman worlds of the second to first centuries BCE.