Εθνικό ΘέατροΕθνικό Θέατρο

Lygourio, 11 - 25 July 2023

The National Theatre of Greece held its International Ancient Drama Workshop for a sixth consecutive year. This summer’s Workshop took place in Lygourio from 11 to 25 July 2023, inaugurating a partnership between the NTG and the Municipality of Epidaurus.

This year, the Workshop was directed by the actress Aglaia Pappa, with the collaboration of the Italian actress and trainer at the Ronconi School of the Piccolo Teatro, Diana Manea.

The Workshop is aimed at students of drama schools as well as young theatre professionals, including actors, directors, choreographers and stage practitioners in general who want to focus on and deepen their study of ancient drama. It offers specialised knowledge while at the same time opening up a dialogue about contemporary insights into and ways of staging ancient drama.

The Workshop was established on an annual basis in 2016 and is run under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport. It is part of the ministry’s Ancient Drama Network.

 

POWER & CORRUPTION
The starting point for this year’s workshop was Euripides’ tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis.  Written in 407 BC, while the poet was a guest at the court of King Archelaus I of Macedon, the tragedy is one of his later works. Shortly before the end of the disastrous (for Athens) Peloponnesian War (431 BC-404 BC), Euripides grapples with the poetic narration of a mythic war, investigating the results of choices made by corrupt political and religious leaders who are incapable of meeting the challenge before them.

In a world that has been rocked to its foundations, a world that is on the verge of collapse, only a young person who has not yet been corrupted by the games of power can find a solution. And that solution acquires a special symbolism when the person chosen is a young woman.

Taking tragedy and the concept of sacrifice as its central pilar, the workshop begins with some fundamental questions about ancient drama.
What is tragedy? What is tragedy today? What is its structure and how do we perceive it? 

An in-depth analysis of the ancient text was accompanied by practical exercises, making the transition from a simple reading of the text to its expression on stage effortless. Systematic rehearsals, intensive physical and vocal training, and improvisation will help the participants discover the potential of their 'instruments' and how to control them.

The final goal is the presentation of a ritual enactment involving all the participants.

 

MASTERCLASS (Sunday, 16 July) by Georgina Kakoudaki
Artistic Education in ancient drama in the open space; an experience of democracy.
What do we need to be taught about ancient drama? A critical review of the trends and the necessities of ancient drama in the open space, with the case study of the ancient theatre of Epidaurus and a discussion about the necessity of performative studies in the open space and in education in democracy, with the example of Epidaurus Lyceum.

The Masterclass will be attended by a group of artists from the USA, who are attending the "Artists Tour of Performance Arts in Greece" program of Ariela-Performance Consultancy in collaboration with the Hellenic Education & Research Center.

 

INTERVENTIONS (Thursday, July 20)
The International Workshop of Ancient Drama, inaugurates its collaboration with the Master's Programme in Creative Writing, Theatre and Culture Industries  at the Theatre Studies Department of the University of the Peloponnese, welcoming the interventions of Angeliki Spiropoulou,  Professor of European Literature and Theory, Chair of the Theatre Studies Department and Director of the MA Programme and Ioanna Papadopoulou, Assistant Professor of Classical Philology at the lTheatre Studies Department of the University of the Peloponnese on the topic: ‘’Notes on Iphigenia: sacrifice, gender, and the letter’.

 

Working languages
English & Greek (knowledge of English is also essential for Greek participants).

Academic Head of the Workshop: Dr. Irene Moundraki

 

The National Theatre of Greece International Ancient Drama Workshop is a member of the International Ancient Drama Network created, coordinated and financed by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, with the aim of educating people working in the theatre at different levels and categories about ancient drama, familiarising the general public with the genre, and developing the conditions under which theatre people from different countries can work together.

 

Professors 

Aglaia Pappa
Aglaia Pappa is a graduate of the School of French in the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Thessaloniki and of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece. Her schooling was in France (Externat Saint-Louis). She teaches at the NTG Drama School in the Departments of Acting and Directing. At the same time, she is a guest teacher at the Luca Ronconi School of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan and at the Iolanda Gazzerro Drama School of the National Theatre of Emilia-Romagna in Italy. She has also run workshops in Greece and at organisations abroad.
She has worked with major directors in Greece and abroad such as Jacques Lassalle, Anatoly Vassilief, Claudio Longhi, Michael Cacoyannis, Lefteris Vogiatzis, Dimitris Oikonomou, Thodoros Terzopoulos, Yannis Houvardas, Michail Marmarinos, Stathis Livathinos, Stavros Tsakiris, Elli Papakonstantinou, Angela Brouskou and Violet Louise.

 

Diana Manea
Diana Manea is an actress and acting trainer. She was born in Sondrio and graduated in 2002 from the School of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, where she trained with teachers such as Enrico D'Amato, Luca Ronconi, Franca Nuti, Giulia Lazzarini, Marise Flash, and Lydia Stix. She has worked with directors such as Luca Ronconi, Massimo Castri, Gianfranco De Bosio, Peter Stein, Roberto Guicciardini, Pietro Carriglio, Serena Sinigaglia, Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli, Luca Micheletti, Claudio Longhi, Alessandro Ferroni, Massimo Popolizio and Riccardo Frati. Since 2021, she has been an actor at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. She teaches at higher education drama schools.

 

Georgina Kakoudaki (masterclass)
Georgina Kakoudaki is a theatre director, theatre educator and theorist. She holds a Master’s degree in Theatre from the Theatre Studies Department of the Philosophical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and has co-authored, participated in and edited publications on directing, film and film aesthetics, experiential and theatre education and other subjects, published by prominent publishing houses in Greece and organizations like the National Theatre of Greece or the Educational Policies Institution. She has directed dramatic texts of Ancient Greek and world dramaturgy on the modern stage and has collaborated as a dramatist in over 30 theater and dance performances and has organized a number of Festivals of Young Creators in collaboration with organizations and theaters. She has taught courses on theater in education in Departments of Theatre Studies and Pedagogy and has presented lectures and experiential workshops at universities and theatre organizations abroad. From 1997 to 2004 she was in charge of the Library and Archives of the National Theatre of Greece. She teaches Theatre History and Dramaturgy in drama schools. From 2016 to 2019 she was a consultant for educational programs and Head of the Lyceum of Epidaurus - International summer school of ancient drama of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival.

 

Angeliki Spiropoulou
Angeliki Spiropoulou (BA Athens; MA; PhD Sussex) is Professor of Modern European Literature and Theory at the Dept. of Theatre Studies, University of the Peloponnese. She is also Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, where she convenes the Seminar Series ‘Comparative Modernisms’. Her research focuses on European and Comparative Literature; Critical and Cultural Theory; Gender, Culture, History;  Modernism/Modernity; the Classic and the Modern; and Literature, Theatre and the Arts. 

She has authored the monograph, Virginia Woolf, Modernity and History: Constellations with Walter Benjamin (Palgrave-Macmillan 2010), and co-authored History of European Literature 18th-20thC (Hellenic Open University 2008). She has edited or co-edited the volumes: Walter BenjaminCulture Agonistes, Contemporary Greek Fiction; and Representations of Femininity. She has recently contributed to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism; the Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism; and the volumes, Sentencing Orlando (Edinburgh University Press) and 1922: History, Culture, Politics (Cambridge University Press) while her more recent publication is entitled Historical Modernisms: Time, History, and Modernist Aesthetics which she co-edited with Jean-Michel Rabaté. She is Board Member of the refereed journals Theatre Polis; and European Journal of Comparative Literature. Chair of the Theatre Studies Department and Director of the MA Programme in “Creative Writing, Theatre, and Culture Industries. 

 

Dr. Ioanna Papadopoulou
Dr. Ioanna Papadopoulou was born in Athens. She studied Classics at the University of Athens and then completed her M.A. (in Classics) at the School of Philology of the University of Thessaloniki, where she also conducted her Ph.D. thesis on Ancient Greek Drama. Her Post-Doctoral Research on ancient Greek riddles was conducted (supported by a bursary from the State Scholarships Foundation) at the Department of History and Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Athens. Her main research interests and publications are focused on ancient Attic and Roman drama but also include ancient Greek metre and music, ancient Greek geography, and Open and Distance Education (in connection to teaching Attic and Roman Drama and Theatre) and exploitation of ancient Greek literature in creative writing. Her monograph “The Antiphonies in the Choral Songs of Aeschylus” (Athens 2006, in Greek) has been awarded by the Academy of Athens. Since December 2019 she is a faculty member of the University of the Peloponnese-The Theatre Studies Department as a Tenured Assistant Professor of Classics. Furthermore, she is the scientific director of the series “Ancient Theatre” of the “Metaichmio” publications, and, since 2016, she is a member of the Organizing and the Scientific Committee and also an instructor at the Summer School “The Ancient Greek drama as performance art”. She is a reviewer and member of the Editorial Board of international scientific journals on civilization and theatre. As a scientific advisor, she has collaborated in the performance of Greek dramas and the composition of play texts.

 

 

The participants of the 6th International Workshop on Ancient Drama are:

Anagnostopoulou Anastasia
Anastasiou Lenio
Datseri Marina
Drakou Maria
Fourli Vasilia
Georgiadou Nefeli
Giallourou Irini
Ireland Liam
Kallinikou Elena
Karnou Jenny
Kasioumi Alexandra
Kavasi Rafailia
Kleanthous Giorgos
Lekka Vivi
Lor Juana
Louvari Aggeliki
Mazi Dimitra
Natseway Jacob
Ntavarinou Anna
Okalidou Argietta
Palaiologou Posoula
Pappa Ilia
Pavli Evangelia
Polyzoi Lydia
Sarakanida Demy
Sefteli Maria Eleni
Serris Giannis
Sigalos Panagiotis
Skaroni Marialena
Spiliotis Gontoroza Maxim
Tsiakka Maria
Vlachou Nikoletta

 

___________________________________________________________________

Implementation team:
Academic Head of the Workshop: Dr. Irene Moundraki
Production manager: Thomas Harelas
Workshop assistant: Giota Panagi
Secretary support: Eftychia Charalampaki 
Photographer: Karol Jarek

Latest updated: 30/07/2024

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