This spring, the National Endowment for the Humanities gave gave Peter Meineck, the NYU classics professor shown at left, a grant of $800,000 — one of its largest-ever in any category and the largest-ever in theater. It follows an earlier grant of nearly $300,000.
Why?
What does he have that proved so convincing to the NEH (which I constantly hear is tough to get money from)?
As I write in today’s Wall Street Journal, in a Cultural Conversation with Meineck, he’s got a program called Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives — Poetry-Drama-Dialogue. It will take staged dramatic readings of works by the Athenian playwrights to 100 public libraries and art centers in 20 states. Actors like Olympia Dukakis and Gary Sinise — hopefully — will read from Homer’s Odyssey, Sophocles’ Ajax, and Euripides’ Trojan Women, among others; afterwards, classics scholars will lead “town-hall” discussions examining the connections between the classics and contemporary America. The program also includes scholarly lectures, reading groups, master drama classes and a resource-laden website. And it’s aimed especially at combat veterans, inner-city residents and rural communities — all underserved by the arts.
Meineck’s story is enlightening. For example, his trip to the Brooklyn Public Library, prompted by the NEH’s desire to involve libraries, showed him a way to attract new audiences to theater.
There’s more in the full article. Meineck’s mission — to make the classics relevant — is compelling, and so is his own story — from expulsion at 15 from a tough South London boys’ school to an exuberant evangelist in many ways for the ancient Greeks.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Page and Stage