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At the recommendation of the Outreach Prize Committee the SCS Board of Directors has awarded the 2012 Outreach Prize to James T. Svendsen, Professor Emeritus of the University of Utah, for his work with the Classical Greek Theatre Festival of Utah. Prof. Svendsen has been the producer and dramaturge of this festival since he helped found the group in 1971 with a production of Prometheus Bound. Since his retirement, the festival has been hosted by Westminster College in Salt Lake City (http://www.westminstercollege.edu/theatre_arts/index.cfm?parent=4081&detail=12660P). In the last ten years, Prof. Svendsen has produced the following plays: Oedipus Rex (2002), Oedipus at Colonus (2003), Agamemnon (2004), Iphigenia in Aulis (2005), Elektra (2006), Helen (2007), Medea (2008). Bakkhai (2009), Alcestis (2010), and Iphigenia in Tauris (2012). This fall he will continue this tradition with a performance of Antigone.

These performances have been supported financially by an impressive list of sponsors, including the McDonald Foundation, the Sarah Beth Coyote Foundation, the Greek Orthodox Community of Salt Lake City, Westminster College, the Utah Humanities Council and the Utah Arts Council. Such support not only demonstrates Prof. Svendsen’s promotional energies but also the recognized cultural value of the festival itself.

The audiences for these performances have encompassed not only the university community but also a wide range of people, including high school groups, retirees, and general theater lovers, from Salt Lake City, from surrounding rural communities, and, especially, from the local Greek-American community. The 2012 production of Antigone will be performed not only in Salt Lake City, but also in Provo, Odgen, and Zion National Park, as well as at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Prof. Svendsen is more than producer of these plays. As the dramaturge, he also insures that the director uses modern translations accessible to general audiences, provides detailed on-line study guides and study questions, such as this one for the upcoming production of Antigone (http://www.westminstercollege.edu/greek_theatre/index.cfm?parent=12220&detail=13812) and gives pre-play lectures before every performance. In the words of his nominator, “he is a gifted lecturer, not only because he himself has a dramatic flair, but also because he is able to give the audience, most of whom have no background in Greek drama, a framework for understanding the play they are about to see.”

For all of these outreach efforts to promote Greek theater and classical culture in the American West, the SCS is pleased to present the 2012 Outreach Prize to James T. Svendsen.

Thomas J. Sienkewicz, Chair, Outreach Prize Committee
Nancy Rabinowitz
Ruby Blondell