On Thursday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 25, Handuo (Leo) Sun ’26 held two performances of Aristophanes’ comedy “Clouds” in Ancient Greek. The production was a passion project, separate from the theater department. Leo adapted, performed, and taught the play to a group of ten “intellectually joyful” Swatties. Among his other talents, Leo was a former arts editor for The Phoenix, developing a close relationship with the arts scene before his semester at the University of Oxford. Abroad, he refined his goal of putting on a production at Swarthmore. However, his passion for Ancient Greek spans far beyond his adaptation of “Clouds.” Moreover, his enthusiasm for learning expands beyond academic spaces.
Corinne Lafont: What’s your relationship with drama and the arts?
Handuo (Leo) Sun: I never had any formal training or experience in drama productions, but the first sort of amateur play I was in was back in middle school. It was a student play on a mystery story someone had adapted, which was kind of fun, but thrilling. My passion for classics, though, started in middle school. This is a privilege for sure, but I’ve been studying Ancient Greek since I was twelve. The idea [for putting on a play] has always been there, and after I got to source more, I started reading this Ancient Greek comedy, Aristophanes’ “Clouds,” which became my production.
CL: So wait, was the play in Ancient Greek?
HS: Yes, Ancient Greek. For me, it wouldn’t be as interesting if I read it in English. Roughly a year ago, I read the play, and then I went abroad. The day I got to Oxford, the first thing my professor said to me wasn’t about the class, but whether I wanted to be in a Sanskrit play. It was surprising, because I literally just got there. I said, “Okay, sure.” I ended up doing the Sanskrit play, and that was an amazing experience as [well as an amazing] community. That [production] made the experience very different from visiting students who were [also] at Oxford at the time, because I spent most of my time with the [drama] community. It’s small, but people are very welcoming and everyone is dedicated to performing an ancient adaptation of the play [no matter what your Sanskrit level is].
After that production, I was really adamant [about putting on a play at Swarthmore]. During Spring Break, I spent a lot of time cutting down the scripts [of “Clouds”]. The original play was roughly 1,500 lines, and that’s a lot to memorize. I cut that down by half. It’s a play from many centuries ago, and has subjects that are not acceptable by modern values. A lot of the jokes can be misconstrued as xenophobic and homophobic. There was an urgent question of how you deal with this? You think about these issues in classrooms at Swarthmore, but it is completely different in real life. That really got me thinking, “How should I adapt this for American audience[s] in the 21st century?” That was a process [that] took a while.
Afterwards, I started advertising for the play [online, while still at Oxford]. Before the end of last semester, I reached out to the theater and classics departments. Both of them helped advertise the play and gauge interest. I was slightly worried that not enough people would be interested in doing this, which I think is a valid concern. So I reached out to the classics department and the registrar, wrote a whole syllabus, and made a 0.5-credit, student-run class. People [would] take the class, learn about the play’s historical and literary background, rehearse it, and, later, perform.
We ditched the class, but went forward with the play. Since then, it’s been Ancient Greek reading sessions and rehearsals. Half of the performers don’t actually know Ancient Greek, so I had to teach them how to read it. I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s so hard to put on any non-English productions in their original language, because our school is much smaller than most other colleges. Most of the time, there aren’t that many people who know the language who’re also willing to be in a drama production. I had to teach people how to speak. That was something I wasn’t expecting, but another [cool] experience.
CL: Why run an independent project like this? What were your goals going into the production?
HS: There’s a philosophical reasoning behind this that’s tied to how I believe learning takes place at Swarthmore. It’s a rigorous place, and there’s a lot of work. But what I think is sometimes lacking is a certain joyful learning. I’m talking about a specific kind of joy here, intellectual joyfulness, which I don’t think is [as prominent here]. I’m trying to restore a sense of intellectual joyfulness. I’m deliberately leaving the definition of this vague. I imagine this joyfulness to include any learning experiences that are fulfilling, [but] exempt from rubrics and [teacher-student] power imbalances in traditional classrooms. We had ten people in the cast. People came from all sorts of academic backgrounds: math, engineering, philosophy, etc. We did this play. No one is going to grade us. It’s really about bringing a small, very passionate community together, which we did.
CL: Before we go on to intellectual joyfulness, could you provide us with a definition?
HS: Anything that is a learning experience without a strict rubric to measure. It’s something you do for fun in your free time … that’s not part of school, but is related. It’s not completely detached from learning [either]. I’ve come to realize that maybe a certain joyfulness is actually a prerequisite for even better learning. In the words of the Ancient Ancient Greeks, you are so passionate that you feel like you’re close to the divine.
CL: What was your experience putting on the production?
HS: The play was the week after Fall Break. We only had rehearsal during that week and the week before [break]. In the months before those two weeks, I offered optional reading sessions, two to three per week. I told everyone, “Okay, if you’re confident in learning Ancient Greek yourself, sure, you can go ahead; these aren’t compulsory. But if you want to learn Ancient Greek with me, then I’m here on this day.” This one student knew no Ancient Greek, and by the end, he was speaking very well. From a learning perspective, this experience really complements what you study in class.
CL: Do you think Swarthmore students are craving intellectual joyfulness, but don’t know that nonacademic educational spaces exist?
HS: I do think people here have an intellectual craving, and this play demonstrates that. Still, it was hard to gauge interest because people are too busy to pursue those cravings. Swat’s known for its intellectual rigor, but in a way, that’s killing our intellectual cravings [which then kills academic interest]. People’s energy and time are spread out across so many classes and clubs. [For example,] instead of being involved in five projects and taking five credits every semester, sometimes I wish people could be in one or two clubs they’re really passionate about and go deep into them. Again, it goes back to people needing something to justify their interests. I’m not trying to provide a value judgment, in that this kind of approach is good or bad. I’m simply trying to say that busying ourselves with too many tasks sometimes can come at the price of compromising our intellectual cravings.
I was here over the summer, and I was just here reading a ton. Stuff that’s related to my study and not, which was great. I don’t want to say [the study experience I had] over the summer is better than what I’m doing right now. It’s just different. Sometimes, not all comparisons are just, and not all comparisons can or should be made. If you forcibly try to make a comparison that’s not really comparable, it’s going to end in epistemic injustice.
CL: Is there anything we didn’t cover that you wanted to say?
HS: We had two performances, one in the fragrance garden on Thursday, which had some hiccups but was good, and one on Saturday in the amphitheatre. That day was really awesome. Lots of people actually came, definitely more than I thought. It was around 40 people, a good number for a very amateur production. Some audience members knew the language very well and laughed along, and others had no idea. I think everyone had a good time. It was fun. Academic spaces aren’t the only way to [cultivate community at an intellectual level].
