The Greek Play Project New York 2021

Soula, a hairdresser from Kokkinoplos, a village on Mount Olympus. An alter ego of Beautiful Helen, a fantasy, or a woman who lived a different life. It doesn’t matter. These two women, in "parallel lives", show not only their faces, but also the faces of Greece itself.

The play has been awarded by the Greek Play Project in 2015.

Despina Kalaitzidou is a playwright, director and teacher. In recent years she has been dealing with the therapeutic aspects of theater and creative writing.

Seven snapshots illustrate relationships between friends, genders and races of people.

A story that is not told in words.

It happens, it develops underground, it matures and breaks out. Between the words, behind the faces, under the roles.

Seven one-act plays that compose a complete work.

A journey from momentum to maturity.           

From the social contract to the freedom of conscience.

And from the vital lie to the entropy of the unconscious.

Nina Rapi is a bilingual playwright (Greek-English). Her plays have been produced or presented as staged readings at venues such as: Southbank Centre (London Literature Festival), Soho theatre studio, Lyric studio, Tristan Bates (Modern Greek Plays Festival/TheatreLab), ICA, Riverside studios, Gielgud theatre/West End Shorts/New Play Festival & University of Oxford [U.K.; National theatre & Theatro Technis (Festival Analogion), Theatro Empros (Queer Festival), Aggelon Vima [Greece]; Portugal (Estaca Zero Teatro, 10X10 Festival) & India (Bits Festival, Pirani).

The play “Passage” is an existential drama, or, even better, an existential farce. Action takes place in a dirty, filthy apartment where everything is out of place. Open boxes, suitcases and bags are everywhere… It’s the apartment of the main character Peter, a bachelor, who is about to leave his place and move to a bigger and better –as he believes and mentions several times during the play- house! 

The main theme of the play “Passage” is the procedure that one has to go through in order to reach maturity. It’s the “passing” from childhood to adulthood, from immaturity to maturity, from pain and trauma to being healed. Of course, one can only walk this road if he/she is truly determined to do so and, inevitably, pay the price.

n 2017 the play “Passage” was awarded a Prize from the Greek Authors’ Association and in 2020 won the First Prize from the literary magazine Kefalos and was declared “Book-Play of the year 2018”

Delina Vasiliadi:  www.delinavasiliadi.gr

Walk on Air PRESENTS a preview of Medea Redux, a conversation with Euripides' Medea - investigating the political, cultural and social context of Medea's decision to destroy the House of Jason. Written and Directed by Helen E. Richardson, the play was originally workshopped at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, Medea Redux has metamorphosed into a digital music/theatre video production with the formation of Walk on Air, an ensemble focused on the convergence of digital and live performance. Walk on Air and other performers appearing in Medea Redux are associated with Brooklyn College and the Performance and Interactive Media Arts MFA, www.pima-brooklyncollege.info. This project is made possible through a grant from Brooklyn College's Bernard H. Stern Professorship in Humor.

Walk on Air: Deborah Latz, jazz vocalist, composer, actor and teacher, www.deborahlatz.com, NYC. Andy Mason, composer, musician, audio engineer, actor and singer, www.a-mason.org, SC. Inkyoung Bae, video art, interactive performance, and illustration artist, www.ikbae.com, Seoul and NYC. Adrian D. Cameron, theatre, performance, and media artist, www.adriandcameron.com/about, NYC. Helen E. Richardson, theatre director, playwright, visual artist, and former director of the Performance and Interactive Media Arts, Brooklyn College, www.pima-brooklyncollege.info /team-3/helen-e.-richardson, (NYC).

Meet Sofia Apostolou; born in an urban family, once a French teacher working in the public sector. Sofia has studied philology and is a speaker of English and Russian. She is the widow of a handsome communist and was fired from her job as a result of her alcohol addiction. She lives across the Korydallos Prison Complex, where her somewhat ugly and “slow” son is now imprisoned. This is a monologue filled with the powerful thoughts of a strong woman about life, hope and dreams that were shattered along with her principles and ideologies. It is a monologue of a mother who saw her child and herself getting involved with suspicious transactions that involved the illegal trafficking of women coming from former communist countries.

Loula Anagnostaki is considered one of the most renown female playwrights in Greece. Her plays were performed in major theaters of Greece such as The National theater and the Art Theater Karolos Koun.  Her plays have also been performed by theatre companies in Athens and municipal regional theatres, and produced abroad (France, Italy, England, Germany, Cyprus, Spain, USA).

The famous Greek actress Eleni Papadaki - victim of the civil war in Greece (1946-1949) - returns to her place, on the theatrical stage, to narrate the ‘’civil’’ power of theater, of her country, of her time.

But one thing is for sure: Papadaki was not the average.

Manos Karatzogiannis is a graduate of the G. Armenis School. He has worked at the Athens Festival, at Municipal theaters., At the National theater among others. Since 2015 he has been directing for the National theater, the Athens Festival, the Art theater, the Municipal of Piraeus, the IMK, the Vasilakou Theater, the DI.PE.THE Patras, etc. He was a playwright in the exhibition for L. Anagnostaki Memory Rooms, in the context of his dissertation (HULL UNIVERSITY). He has written: In the City of L. Anagnostaki, For Eleni, Witnesses of Athens. He wrote and directed the film Melina Stop Frame.

He has worked in television and film and has received awards as an actor and director. He teaches in drama schools. He is the art director of  Stathmos Theater.

Α dog΄s diary is an audiovisual narration by Violet Louise, about a woman searching in the internet for traces of her dog who passed away: Pictures from places she traveled, videos, music, photos, material from the internet compose her digital diary. From the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 til today, we follow the journey of this woman in a world between dream and reality. With the use of technology, computers, analogue and digital musical instruments, she sets up a time-capsule-like mechanism and revives memories and  stories of her past.

Ιn a world that changes dramatically, everyday life seems less painful, through human – animal bond. A dog’s diary is the diary of a woman who renegotiates her losses.

Violet Louise (Louiza Kostoula) is a director, performer, musician, writer, vocalist and multimedia artist whose research is on the field of multimedia narration. She graduated from Law School of Athens and studied classical piano and harmony at the National Conservatory of Athens. She took her diploma in performing arts by the Greek Ministry of Culture and worked as a performer at the National Theatre of Greece, the Experimental Stage of National Theatre of Greece, the Athens Festival etc.

Since 2012, Violet Louise has been experimenting on multimedia narration, creating every part of her multimedia synthesis (music, sound, visuals, scenery). Some of her projects have been presented at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival , Festival Vie, Festival Delle Colline Torinesi, Archaeological Museum of Ancient Olympia within the framework of events for the Olympic Torch Lightning Ceremony, Archaelogical Site of Delphi, Roman Conservatory of Nikopolis, Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation etc. She writes music for films, theatre and other projects.

Project “anti gone2” is a performance that explores the adversities Greek contemporary women face in their struggle to remain in their motherland during a period of deep financial and humanitarian crisis. Their fight to remain and their resilience needed to support their choice echoes the fight and resilience displayed by the tragic heroine Antigone. Their journey is one of personal discovery. It entails an inward quest, the coming of age: a presses that requires freeing herself of the restrictions imposed by her “gender” in order to discover the true identity. It is a journey from the present to the past, to a logical space where Antigone stand still. So renounces her House and city and stands into the light, a radiant everlasting presence that no power on earth can shake. She is never gone .

Tatou Dede is a pianist, dancer, choreographer, actress and the last 3 years is working mostly as a performing arts director. She is an active member of IETM, the multimedia art festival SCHMIEDE and the Greek MENSA.

She runs the nonprofit company “TATOU” with which she has produced 6 performances: Lilith? 2011, The return of Iphigenia 2012 (also presented at the United Solo Theater Festival in New York/2014), Seven7 2013, Modern and Topical 2015, anti gone and anti gone2 2014/ 2017, EN (SE RES)SEMBLE 2019, If I am late, go to sleep... by Akis Dimou 2020.

From the myth of Echo and Narcissus, where the concept of video and audio is first captured, to the 21st century of digital technology. The ‘new age’ Narcissus is mirrored on screens in the screen city where he lives. Modern Narcissus does not fall in love with himself but with the image. The narcissistic self, unlike the individualized ego of modernity, is getting more and more empty, without content, while Echo continues the play of heterogeneity and reflective mimesis.

The story of Ovid, adapted through the innovative and recently evolving practice of live coding, real-time programming on stage. The features of the opera are transcribed to their digital equivalents.

From the third book of the Transfigurations of Ovid, a myth of love about Narcissus, who enchanted by his reflection, remains staring his reflection in the lake. When he understands the impossibility of his desire, he freezes out of despair, a wonderful eternal statue next to which Echo will eternally wander. A story the about intense relationship between audio, video and image, sound. The legend hints at the power of the image absorbing the eidolon. Narcissus attempts an impractical and tragic entrance to the picture.

With a creeping pun between Medea and Media (the new media), Medea Electronique was founded in 2006 and consists of creative people who share the mood for innovation, moving in the greater field of contemporary art. Active in fields such as music, animation, multimedia, art installations, interactive technologies, and multimedia event production, the members of the group merge separate research and practice fields in an effort to develop a particular style.

Medea Electronique Website: http://medeaelectronique.com/

A phone call: “Hello, what’s going on?” A short film inspired by the communication with the salespeople of Shedia street magazine and by the search for a new space dedicated to companionship and coming together. When galaxies merge, cosmic phenomena force stars, planets, and black holes to move to other areas. Beyond their galaxy. So, some stars are exiled. As of Saturday, November 7, due to the second lockdown that was imposed, the people working for the street magazine “Shedia” withdrew from the streets and found themselves cut off. For some, such a condition is “self-isolation.” For others, exclusion. A phone call. A voice on the other end. And the space is now redefined. A simple “Hello”, a “What’s going on?” The unknown often frightens people. It makes them feel lost. Alone and insecure. Still others find their curiosity is piqued, making them feel like part of something bigger than themselves. Someday there will be other worlds, filled with other beings, made of the same material as us, to be born from the ashes of a dead star. We are all stardust and one day we will return to the stars. We need more Space!

Yiannis Panagopoulos. Born and raised in Athens, graduated from the Athens University of Economics and Business, the Drama School of the National Theater and the MA; "Theatre and Society: Theory, Staging and Didactics" of the University of Peloponnese (Faculty of Fine Arts). Since 2009, he has been working as an actor and director. He was also the artistic curator of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2011 Special Olympics and the deputy artistic director for the city of Mesolongi’s bid for Cultural Capital of Europe 2021. Alongside his performing path, he has been a part of several projects that worked towards a greater social solidarity.

Is it all dramaturgy?
By Dimitri Bampili, Angeliki Poulou and Ioanna Valsamidou 

Dimitris Bampilis is a stage director working exclusively in the realm of the “real”. Combining documentary theater with performance, he places a dramaturgy of violence at the heart of his theater practice, highlighting his performers’ uncertainties, weaknesses and shortcomings, with the aim of creating theater that demands a politics of the gaze, dialog and debate in the public sphere. He studied Theater Studies at the University of Patras, and Theater Direction at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has collaborated with Documenta 14, the National Theater of Greece, the National Theater of Northern Greece, Eleusis 2021 – European Capital of CULTURE, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, the Patras Municipal and Regional Theater, Semio Theater, and a series of theater companies – Noiti Grammi, ODC ensemble, Per-Theater-Formance, and the BelleVille Collective – on a series of performances in various roles, thereby putting his opposition to all hierarchical divisions of labor into practice. Select collaborations with such artists as Vasilis Papavasileiou, Włodzimierz Staniewski, La Pocha Nostra, Marina Abramović, and Rimini Protokoll have to date helped shape his perspective on theater.He is a co-founder of APARÄMILLON, a new space in ATHENS dedicated to the performing arts and research.

Georgina Kakoudaki, Director, theatrologist, dramaturg. She is a director in professional theatre performances for adolescence/ young audiences since 2009 (in theatre venues and inside Secondary Schools) such as Vivid Film/After the foam (devised), Jack Thorne’s Burying your brother in the pavement, Αristophanes The birds, Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frank Wedekind X-Press Spring, Goethe Faust, Sophocles Antigone, Aristophanes The clouds, Euripides Helen and site specific walking and site specific performances such as “Traces”/ Swharz Foundation, Samos, “Public Signal: an old dilemma in contemporary times”/ Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, Ancient Keramikos Cemetery, “On the way”/ Municipality theatre of Corfu,  as well as theatre walks under the tittle “A walk in the park” with various topics and artists inspired by the park of Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre.  Has collaborated as a dramaturg in dance and theatre productions since 1994 with artists such as SineQuaNon dance co. (France), Siamese Cie dance co. (Belgium) etc.

She has worked as a visiting professor in graduate and postgraduate courses in Greek Universities. Has taught drama and theatre education in Primary schools, Athens Art High school and professional drama schools since 1993 as well as in a series of workshops for the Net for the theatre in Education, Greece. Author of books: Theatre Education/course book for Adult Education/KEE, Teaching History through Drama/Kedros pbl., High school Textbook “Theatre Direction”,  “Film Direction and Cinematic Aesthetics” for Institute of Higher Education.  He has worked in the Achive/ library and has created relevant educational programs for National Theatre of Greece (1997-2004).  Co-curator of educational programs in the Athens and Epidaurus Festival and Artistic director of the international school for actors in Ancient drama “Lyceum Epidaurus” (2016- 2019).    Since 2021 she is the artistic and educational director of the ancient drama research programme of Municipality Theatre of Ioannina/Dodoni “Summer oracle”.

www.georginakakoudaki.org

A Modern Greek Play at the basement of Lincoln Center Theater: Reflections on a Directing Workshop

Menelaos Karantzas is a theatre director and dramaturg. He holds a BA(Hons) in Theatre Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Greece, and an MFA(Merit) in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School of the University of Essex, UK. He is currently a PhD Candidate at the Theatre Studies Department of the NKUA and his research focuses on fragments of ancient Greek drama and their use in contemporary performances. He has directed more than 20 full productions and stage readings of plays in Athens and in London and he teaches Acting, Dramaturgy, and Directing at various drama schools in Athens.

Irene Moundraki obtained a BA, a MA and a PhD in Theatre Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Faculty of Theatre Studies). She also studied Arts at the University of Milan, Italy.

She is head of Drama, Library, Archive and International Collaborations Departments of the National Theatre of Greece. She is visiting professor at the Departments of Theatre Studies of the Universities of Athens and Peloponnese. Since 2015 she teaches History of Theatre and Dramaturgy at the Piraeus Society Drama School. She taught Theatre in the Army (SAN) for five years and has directed several plays with her students.

She is the founder and head of the Greek Play Project (www.greek-theatre.gr) a dynamic platform in greek and English for the promotion and study of contemporary Greek theatre. Is a dynamic network of collaborations and activities; the annual Greek Play Project New York is part of it.

She is a theatre critic and her texts, critiques and essays have been published in various editions, theatre programs and magazines in Greece and abroad. She has participated and lectured in many conferences about theatre, in Greece and abroad. 

Her books  «Carlo Goldoni. His life, his work and its reception in Greece» (2019) and "Entos, Ektos kai Epi ta afta" (2021) are published by Egokeros Editions.  

She has translated various texts and plays from Italian. In 2019-2020 National Theatre performed The New House by Carlo Goldoni translated by her.

She has been a member of several Committees; She is President of the Consultative Committee on the Theatre Grants of the Ministry of Culture (2017-present). She is Vice President of the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics.

Constructing a haunted building into a (non) theatrical stage

Leonidas Papadopoulos was awarded his doctorate from Kings College London/UK in 2016 (Scholarship by Onassis Foundation and the Greek State Scholarship Foundation). He taught Theatre History at the Department of History, Ionian University/ Greece, Theatre Directing, Ancient Greek Drama, and Performance Analysis in undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He participated as a dramaturge in National Theatre of Greece’ history project It happened in Greece (2016-2018) and in Contemporary Greek Play Festival at Municipal Theatre of Piraeus (2018-2020). He was a member of the organizing committee of the European Network of Research and Documentation of Performances of Ancient Greek Drama/ Arc-Net (2009-2017). His main research interests focus on ancient Greek drama and stage directing. His credits, as a director, include a string of critically acclaimed productions such as Endgame by Samuel Becket, Little Eyolf  by Henrik Ibsen, The Double Bass by Patrick Suskind, Bury the Dead by Irwin Shaw, The Thrill of Love by Amanda Wittington, Sofia by Ignacio Garcia May, Donna abbandonata or You really disappointed me Mr George by Glikeria Basdeki, The Building by Panagiota Phylaktaki, Bakersfield Mist by Stephen Sachs, He also worked as an actor with directors as Robert Sturua, Nikita Milivojevic, Slobodan Unkovski and Michalis Kakogiannis. He is artistic director of Athens-based In-Between Art Theatre Company.

Rethinking Greek Theatre: The Day After

Savas Patsalidis, Professor of theatre and performance history and theory in the School of English (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki), the Hellenic Open University, the Drama School of the National Theatre  of Northern Greece, and also regular lecturer on the Graduate  Programme of the Theatre Department at Aristotle University. He is the  author of fourteen books on theatre and performance criticism/theory  and co-editor of another thirteen. His two-volume study, Theatre,  Society, Nation (2010), was awarded first prize for best theatre study  of the year. His latest book-length study Theatre & Theory II: About Topoi, Utopias and Heterotopias was published in 2019 by University  Studio Press. In addition to his academic activities, he writes  theatre reviews for the ejournals parallaxi and thegreekplay project.  He is currently the president of the Hellenic Association of Theatre  and Performing Arts Critics, member of the curators’ team of Forest  Festival (organized by the National Theatre of Northern Greece) and  the editor-in-chief of Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, the journal  of the International Association of Theatre Critics.

Is it all dramaturgy?
By Dimitri Bampili, Angeliki Poulou and Ioanna Valsamidou 

Angeliki Poulou is curator and theorist of Media & Performance Art. Dr. in New Media & Performing Arts (2017, Co-direction: University Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III & National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). She is a member of Medea Electronique Art Collective, focusing on curation and dramaturgy.  Currently she is adjunct lecturer (academic fellow) at the Departments of Digital Arts & Cinema and of Theatre Studies, University of Athens, delivering lectures on digital performance, transmedia storytelling & New Media Dramaturgy. As curator and dramaturge she has collaborated with independent artists and art institutions in France and Greece. She is founding collaborator of Greek Play Project. 

Is it all dramaturgy?
By Dimitri Bampili, Angeliki Poulou and Ioanna Valsamidou 

Ioanna Valsamidou graduated from the Athens University of Economics and Business, from the Athens Drama School G. Theodosiadis and holds a master of science degree from Panteion University of Political & Social Sciences. Today she follows the postgraduate program ‘Dramaturgy & Performance’ at the Department of Theatrical Studies in the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, while in parallel she is a PhD. candidate at the European University Viadrina, Germany. She has been working in Germany and Greece as a dramaturg and theatre researcher. 

She collaborated with the German collective Rimini Protokoll on several projects. She also collaborated with the directors Prodromos Tsinikoris and Anestis Azas, Nada Gambier and Mark Etchells, Lola Arias, Barbara Ehnes, Sophia Marathaki, Yolanda Markopoulou. Since 2012, she has been actively involved in applied theatre, having worked with theatre groups of homeless, refugees, prisoners, addicts. She co-directed Choros Drasis (Space for Action), in collaboration with the actress Stella Rapti, a co-production by the National Theatre of Greece and KETHEA Therapy Center for Treatment of Addiction, initiating and applying theatre workshops with vulnerable groups. She co-founded with Yolanda Markopoulou the artistic initiative and festival mind the fact, while they directed the performances: I/The Gamber and Rouletenburg. 

She designed and directed the audio walk Stories from a parallel reality.  She directed the inter-disciplinary project on the digital spatial Allothroe Europe:  Polyphony, Echo, Solidarity (www.allothroe.com), with the collaboration of international artists. She is the chief editor of the digital magazine about theatre ACT II (www.act2mag.com).