BADA Studio: Performing Tragedy Today

Performing Tragedy Today led by Paul O'Mahony

Tragedy was created in the context of a radical democratic experiment. It was confronting, contentious and radical. How do we capture that spirit, to create work which responds to and addresses modern issues and political concerns? This workshop will explore a scene from an original Greek tragedy alongside a contemporary adaptation to investigate the conventions of Greek drama and the ways tragedy is reinvented today. In the process we’ll look at how to embody roles which experience such extreme scenarios, sharpening our responses and instincts to meet the characters in the moment. We’ll explore rhythm, character relationships and our connection with the audience - all with the intention of harnessing your skills to unlock these texts by creating powerful and truthful performances.

DATE/TIME: Saturday, November 8th. 3:30-6:30pm

CLASS LIMIT: 15

FEE: $50

REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS WILL OPEN OCTOBER 8TH.

Paul O’Mahony is a director, actor and writer based in the UK. For BADA, Paul has taught and directed on the London Theatre Program, and taught on Midsummer in Oxford. He is the Course Director of BADA’s Greek Theatre Program, a unique summer course which combines theory and practice with leading theatre practitioners and academics in the UK and Greece. Students receive acting, movement and voice training from BADA faculty, and participate in academic classes led by Oxford University’s Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama. The course takes place in London, Delphi, Athens, Nafplio and Oxford. In Greece students work with members of the National Theatre and have the opportunity to visit ancient sites.

He is the artistic director of the award winning theatre company Out of Chaos, with whom he has devised, written and performed Out of Chaos, Unmythable and Norsesome and played leading roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hippolytus. Their 2025 production of Macbeth toured major venues in the UK and will be touring the US in 2026. Other acting credits include productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company, English Touring Opera, Out of Balanz and The Orange Tree Theatre. His directing credits include Unmythable, The Suppliants, Much Ado About Nothing, A History of Sound and The Problem With the Seventh Year. In 2026 he will be directing The Tempest for Vache Baroque.

In response to the first lockdowns of 2020, Paul collaborated with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies to create Reading Greek Tragedy Online, a landmark series which brought together 120 artists from around the world, along with academics and audiences, to perform and discuss every extant Greek tragedy in a weekly live stream over 40 consecutive weeks. The series has garnered more than 300,000 views online and is now embedded in multiple syllabuses in US universities.

The success of this series has led to multiple collaborations in the US and Greece, with residencies at UIUC, Brandeis, Harvard, Emory and UT Austin. In Illinois he has directed public readings of Nambi E. Kelley's Xtigone and Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad working with professional artists, students, high schoolers and community groups to foster dialogue on issues connected to gun violence and systemic racism. In 2026 he will be the George A. Miller Visiting Artist at the University of Illinois, collaborating on a mass participatory Greek tragedy project inspired by Aeschylus’s Suppliants.