The U of A Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce that Lizzie Fox, a third-year M.F.A. student in literary translation, will premiere two new translated plays by 10th-century medieval playwright Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim. Fox will present The Martyrdom and The Resurrection at the Community Creative Center in Fayettevillle at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 28. The event is free to the public.

The premiere of the plays is supported by the Medieval Academy of America. Fox won a prestigious Centennial Award to produce the plays last fall — one of only eight given to scholars across the country — for her project "The Plays of Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim: Bringing the Medieval to Arkansas." Centennial Grants, the academy's website explains, are awards "up to $5,000 each, supporting the planning and implementation of local events and projects celebrating and promoting medieval studies in education and the arts in North America."

The plays, directed by New York-based director Molly Rose Clifford, will feature graduate actors from the U of A. Fox and Clifford first collaborated on a 2022 off-Broadway production of Hrotsvitha's play The Martyrdom.

"I studied Latin and theater as an undergraduate, and yet I never heard about Hrotsvitha — the first-known female playwright in the Western tradition and the first post-Classical Latin playwright," said Fox of her translations. "In my work, I hope to rectify that, at least a bit. In these plays, we're preserving Hrotsvitha's original intentions — to make people laugh and think — while bringing her words into a contemporary idiom. I'm fortunate to have a wonderful team with me, including the entire cohort of M.F.A. actors and Molly Rose Clifford."

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c. 935-1000 CE) is the first-known female playwright in the Western tradition. She was a Saxon canoness and wrote in Latin. Despite her standing in theater history, Hrotsvitha is often forgotten, and her plays are rarely produced. As part of her work with the Medieval Academy of America, Fox hopes to bring Hrotsvitha's importance to light and encourage future productions of her plays.

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About the Program in Creative Writing and Translation: Founded in 1966, the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences consistently ranks in the top 40 M.F.A. programs nationwide, according to Poets & Writers magazine. The Atlantic Monthly named the U of A among the "Top Five Most Innovative" M.F.A. programs in the nation. Noteworthy graduates include Barry Hannah, C.D. Wright, Lucinda Roy and Nic Pizzolatto.