A basic connection between the texts of theater and their staging as performance is undeniable. Yet, in most universities today, these disciplines tend to be rigidly divided into separate colleges and departments – literature and languages; the performing arts. In an effort to join together what should have never been separated, Arts & Sciences French professor Suzanne Pucci from the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures, Languages, and Cultures and Fine Arts professor and chair of Theater Department Nancy Jones are collaborating on a class which celebrates the connection between written text and performance.

Their interdisciplinary partnership centers around the translation and production of an 18th century French play to be staged at the end of the spring 2011 semester. Pucci’s French students have provided the English translation and contextual material necessary for understanding and interpreting the comedy, Marivaux’s Arlequin Polished by Love (Arlequin poli par l’amour). At the other end, Jones’ theater students bring the translated written text to life on stage, endowing this eighteenth-century French play with an embodied contemporary reality.

photos by Dana Rogers