Becky Kolacki '10

2009 Soar Student

"This project allowed me to see how a playwright works—how he or she creates and edits a play. It’s something I might want to try myself in the future."

Hometown: Blue Point, NY

Major(s): English, Secondary Education

Project: Finding Clytemnestra's Daughters (with Alanah Cervantes ’12)

Faculty advisor: Christopher Shorr, visiting assistant professor of English and theatre director

Goal: Study, transcribe, and compile more than forty translations of three Greek plays: Sophocles' Electra, Aeschylus' The Oresteia, and Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis. The research was used to help Professor Shorr edit and revise Agamemnon's Daughters, his adaptation of the three plays. The finished work, Clytemnestra's Daughters, will be published and available to be performed by the Moravian University Theatre Company and others.

What I learned: a lot about translations and how the same play can differ depending on who translated it. This is important to keep in mind when working with any literature not originally written in English. After transcribing and analyzing nine different translations, I now can recognize which of these translations are good and which are not.

Future plans: I hope to continue to study English in graduate school. I also have a large interest in theatre, and this project gave me the opportunity to see how a playwright works—how he or she creates and edits a play. It’s something I might want to try myself in the future.