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Marianne McDonald, a professor of theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded the American Philological Association's Medal for Distinguished Service "in recognition of outstanding contributions to scholarship and extraordinary service to the profession." She is only the fifth person to receive the award since its inception in 1984.

McDonald, a pioneer in the field of modern versions of classical Greek drama, has founded projects that computerize literatures of Greece and Ireland. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, an Adjunct Professor at University of Dublin (Trinity) and a fellow at University College Dublin, where she taught last year as a Fulbright scholar. She has honorary degrees from the University of Dublin, American College of Greece, and the University of Athens. She has received the Order of the Phoenix (Greece), and medals from the City of Athens, Piraeus, the University of Thessaloniki, and the University of California, Irvine.

McDonald's version of Trojan Women will be performed this fall at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, and her version of Antigone will be performed this year in Ireland and Greece and at the Old Globe in 2001.