Rate My Professor Michael Ewans

Michael Ewans, MA (Oxford), PhD (Cambridge), is an Honorary Professor in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Originally appointed as Lecturer in Classics in 1973, he shifted to the newly founded Department of Drama in 1974, lecturing on Greek theatre and modern drama and opera from Ibsen and Wagner. In 1981, he became Associate Professor and Head of Drama, initiating three cycles of productions of Greek tragedies and comedies in his own translations within a half-size replica of the ancient theatre space, starting with Aeschylus' Libation Bearers in 1983. His career included Visiting Professorship at Boston University (1986-1987), Wardenship of the Ourimbah Campus (1989-1993), and Assistant Dean (Research) for postgraduate programs in Music (1995-2009). From 1998-2004, he directed chamber operas, followed by Aristophanes comedies (2005-2009), and his final pre-retirement production was Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck in 2011. He retired as Professor of Drama in 2011 but continues as Conjoint/Honorary Professor. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities since 2005, Ewans specializes in the ancient Greek theatre, focusing on translation, staging, and performance analysis of tragedy and comedy. His expertise extends to opera, particularly twentieth-century examples and adaptations from Greek sources.

Ewans' scholarly output includes pioneering books such as Janáček’s Tragic Operas (1977), Wagner and Aeschylus: The Ring and the Oresteia (1982), and Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck (1989). He produced complete actable translations with theatrical commentaries for Aeschylus (1995, 2024 ed.), Sophocles (2000), and Aristophanes (2011-2012). Notable later works are Opera from the Greek: Studies in the Poetics of Appropriation (2007), Performing Opera: A Practical Guide for Singers and Directors (2016), Staging Ancient Greek Plays: A Practical Guide (2023), and Euripides: Medea (2022). He has contributed chapters to major handbooks, including Wiley-Blackwell’s Reception of Greek Drama (2017) and Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Aeschylus, and edited A Cultural History of Comedy: Antiquity (2020). His performance-based research has significantly influenced understandings of how Greek dramas and operas function in theatre, bridging scholarship and practice.