Event

Speaker: Maria Dahvana Headley, Novelist and Translator

Abstract: It's 19BC, and Vergil has been commissioned to write an epic poem - meant to glorify Augustus and Rome - but Vergil isn't remotely done writing. Instead, he's eleven years into a bout of writers block. His former student, Sulpicia boards Vergil's ship and demands to hear the Aeneid, with her own agenda - or that of Augustus. This musical reinvents Rome's national poem as a tale of two writers figuring out how to change the world. Vergil and Sulpicia embark on a voyage through the history of both epic poems and empire, as they try to finish the poem before the emperor catches up with them. Together, they'll braid a subversive narrative into the Aeneid.

This is an informal talk about Maria Dahvana Headley's creative translation and adaptation of Vergil's Aeneid into Vergil: A Mythological Musical - a ten-episode full cast musical for Audible. Headley will play clips from the piece, and discuss the joys and challenges of working with Vergil's poetry. The piece is a narrative braiding of the content of the Aeneid with Roman history, and bits of Vergil's own life story: as in, it's Man of La Mancha, with classical content!  As well, Headley will discuss the methods she used when working with the Aeneid, and also with Beowulf, as someone who is both a creative writer and a translator. Vergil's words were applied here to several different forms - song lyrics, scenes, straightforward recited poetry - and all of them came with their own challenges. This talk will be followed by a Q & A.