James T. Svendsen receives 2009 Madeleine Award

SALT LAKE CITY — Madeleine Arts and Humanities Council chairman Mike Stransky has announced that James T. Svendsen will receive the 2009 Madeleine Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts and Humanities. This award is presented annually as part of the Madeleine Festival of the Arts and Humanities to individuals who have made comprehensive and long-term contributions to the arts and humanities in Utah. The Madeleine Award was first presented in 1980, and James T. Svendsen will be added to am impressive list of 21 past awardees who have contributed so much to our state’s vibrant arts and humanities programs.

Dr. Svendsen, an associate professor of classics and theatre at the University of Utah, is the founding father and currently artistic director and executive producer of The Classical Greek Theater Festival of Utah (CGTF), the annual production and tour of an ancient Greek tragedy with a broad outreach program to colleges and high schools. While classical Greek theatre is not new, CGTF is unique in its efforts to bring ancient Greek theatre to a broad American audience through modern American translations, original music, song and dance, and an utterly entertaining theatricality. Additionally, this Greek Festival also goes on tour – the only one of its kind in the United States.

Dr. Svendsen received his PhD in classics from the University of Minnesota, where he specialized in Greek and Roman theatre and was actively involved in several stage, film, and radio productions. He has received several University of Utah awards for teaching and a national award for teaching excellence in classics from the American Philological Association. Additionally, Dr. Svendsen is the author of several articles on Greek drama and the ancient novel and has lectured widely on those topics throughout the United States and abroad.

His current research project is a book on the letter device in the history of the theatre, a project that combines his interests in literature and theater production.

Dr. James T. Svendsen will be presented the 2009 Madeleine Award at a dinner in his honor to be held on Sunday evening, May 10, 2009, at the New Yorker in Salt Lake City. Additional information concerning the award dinner reservations are available by calling the Cathedral of the Madeleine office at 328-8941.