Michael Elliot Rutenberg, PhD
Michael Elliot Rutenberg is a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He received a BA from Brooklyn College and an MFA and DFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. Rutenberg is a lifetime member of the famed Actors Studio, where he has developed and directed both new plays and revivals for public presentation. Rutenberg has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, Lynn University, and Digital Media Arts College, and a guest director at the Annual Theatre Festival in Key West, Florida. In 2004 and again in 2005 he was awarded the New York City Chancellor's "Certificate of Recognition" for Scholarly Achievement. From January to June 2005 he received a State Department Fulbright Grant to Haifa University in Israel as Writer/Artist-in-Residence. In March 2008 at the "First International Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" at Central Connecticut State College in Connecticut, Rutenberg delivered a paper entitled "Teaching and Directing In Israel." Rutenberg is the author of The Oedipus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1998).
Books by Michael Elliot Rutenberg, PhD
Oedipus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- 4592
- 978-0-86516-459-8
Rutenberg's adaptation of Seneca's Oedipus is the first translation of this Roman tragedy to interpolate excerpts from Seneca's moral philosophies into the text. This juxtaposition of Seneca's calm, rational thought with the passionate, highly theatrical language of his play creates an exciting synergy of powerful emotional and intellectual appeal. Seneca believes that human beings live at the whim of blind chance or divine will. He is interested in how we face a tragedy not of our own making, how we respond to something beyond our control. His central tenet is that we must try to accept suffering with dignity, grace, and mercy. This philosophy is as relevant today, in a world filled with repeated horrors against innocents, as it was in ancient times.
Oedipus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca
- 4630
- 978-0-86516-463-5
Rutenberg's adaptation of Seneca's Oedipus is the first translation of this Roman tragedy to interpolate excerpts from Seneca's moral philosophies into the text. This juxtaposition of Seneca's calm, rational thought with the passionate, highly theatrical language of his play creates an exciting synergy of powerful emotional and intellectual appeal. Seneca believes that human beings live at the whim of blind chance or divine will. He is interested in how we face a tragedy not of our own making, how we respond to something beyond our control. His central tenet is that we must try to accept suffering with dignity, grace, and mercy. This philosophy is as relevant today, in a world filled with repeated horrors against innocents, as it was in ancient times.
