Capitol Hill Village presents “Sappho was a Lady” with Marcus Kyd, Monday, January 8, 2018, 7-8 p.m. at the Northeast Public Library, 330 Seventh St. NE.
Perhaps the most quoted poet in the classical world, the poet most commonly referenced throughout the ages from ancient Greece through the early Roman empire is Sappho. Plato called her “the Tenth Muse,” and today’s Poetry Foundation says the lyric poems are “repeatedly praised as spontaneous, simple, direct, and honest.” And yet we have only scant evidence of her work. A lyric poet, a musician, a singer, she was a composer from the isle of Lesbos. Of all her great accomplishments we have only one poem in its entirety among countless fragments that offer only seductive suggestions of her work’s breadth and power.

Taffety Punk, the theater company at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, is currently workshopping the fragments of Sappho’s poetry as opportunities for micro theatrical events. Come and hear the director and dramaturg, Marcus Kyd, discuss Sappho, the decision to perform her poetry as theatre, and the choices the company made as they worked through the surviving lyrics.

Marcus Kyd is an actor, director, musician and teaching artist. The Artistic Director and co-founder of Taffety Punk, he has performed in many productions in the Washington Area. He received his BFA in acting from Emerson College in Boston and his MFA in classical acting from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University.

Meet and learn from your illustrious Capitol Hill neighbors in informal, free, public discussions about social, economic, and political topics in this latest installment in the Village Voices series.