Ninth International Ancient Drama Workshop
5 to 20 July in Lygourio, Argolis.
The National Theatre of Greece is holding its 9th International Ancient Drama Workshop from 5 to 20 July in Lygourio, Argolis, in partnership with the Municipality of Epidavros. This year’s workshop, entitled “Seeing and Being Seen”, will be led by Alexia Kaltsiki, an actress who has devoted many years to the in-depth study of ancient drama, supported by soprano and educator Maira Milolidaki, who will focus on the voice and the musicality of tragic speech.
Taking as its starting point the phrase “Ορών ορώντα” from Euripides’ The Bacchae (“seeing him as he saw me”, line 470), together with Gorgias’s reflection on truth and deception in the theatre, the NTG’s 9th International Ancient Drama Workshop offers an experience-based exploration of the mechanism of tragedy by which rhythm and narrative, vision and psyche, have a transformative effect on reality. The working texts will be The Bacchae, as well as excerpts from Electra, Medea, and Antigone, among others. The workshop is aimed at young theatre professionals, including actors, directors, graduates of drama schools, and stage practitioners who want on the one hand to deepen their knowledge of ancient drama and investigate how it functions, and on the other to work on specific topics. At the same time, the main objective of the workshop is to encourage a fruitful conversation about the reception of ancient drama in the modern world, approaches to staging it, and issues arising from it, while also strengthening the dialogue that tragedy itself has with the individual.
“Seeing and Being Seen”
Who sees and who is seen?
Gorgias famously viewed tragedy as a "deception" created through myths and emotions, in which the deceiver is more honest than the one who does not deceive and the one who is deceived is wiser than the one who is not deceived. This thesis, as it has been preserved in later writing, and is referred to, among others, by Plutarch (How the Young Man Should Study Poetry, 15), opens up a space for inquiry into the fluidity of identity, experience and perception — a space in which ancient drama functions not as a museum piece but as a living mechanism of displacement and transformation.
Central to this inquiry is the figure of the stranger: who is the Other and when does the Other become “us”? How does the line between the familiar and the unfamiliar shift? Through physical and vocal practice, but also through the function of speech, the actors will be called upon to move between the familiar and the unfamiliar, witness and participant, self and other.
A key focus of the workshop is the messenger speech – not only as a narrative device but as a state of being. The messenger is one who has seen. He returns from the event changed. He is at once witness, bearer of memory, and psyche. He is both foreign and familiar – someone who comes “from outside” to convey a truth of deep significance to the community.
Through this journey, ancient drama is approached not as a monument of the past but as a living encounter – a place where human beings even now test their limits in the face of collective experience, the Other, and the unknown within themselves. A place where they continue to see the Other seeing them.
The workshop’s intensive programme includes talks, discussions with artists, masterclasses, and activities such as a guided tour of the archaeological site of Epidaurus, to foster a connection with the place, its history, and its significance. Participants will also be able to watch performances at the two theatres at Ancient Epidaurus.
The International Ancient Drama Workshop was established on an annual basis in 2016. It is a member of the International Ancient Drama Network created, coordinated and financed by the Ministry of Culture to educate people working in the theatre at various levels and in diverse capacities about ancient drama, familiarise the general public with the genre, and develop the conditions under which theatre professionals from different countries can work together. The academic head of the workshop is Dr. Irene Moundraki.
Closing date for applications: 16 June
Working languages
English & Greek (knowledge of English is also essential for Greek participants).
Participation fee
€450 for Greek participants and €600 for participants from abroad. This covers tuition, transfer by coach from Athens to Lygourio (and return), accommodation in a hostel, breakfast and lunch, local transportation, a guided tour of the archaeological site, tickets to performances that are part of the programme.
Those interested should email their CV with one photo by 12 June 2026 to mstergiou@n-t.gr with “9th International Ancient Drama Workshop” in the subject line. Participants will be selected on the basis of their CVs. An interview will follow where considered necessary.
For more information about the workshop please contact Madga Stergiou at mstergiou@n-t.gr & 2105288109.
About the teachers
Alexia Kaltsiki, actress
Alexia Kaltsiki was born in Athens and graduated with honours from the National Theatre of Greece Drama School.
In the theatre, she has worked with artists including Anatoly Vasiliev, Dimiter Gotscheff, Anton Houan, Lefteris Vogiatzis, Yannis Houvardas, Aris Retsos, Thomas Moschopoulos, Dimitris Tarlow, Periklis Hoursoglou, Efi Theodorou, Konstantinos Rigos, George Skevas, Lilly Meleme, Katerina Evangelatou, Dimitris Karantzas, Thanos Papakonstantinou, and Zoe Chatziantoniou, on plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Yasunari Kawabata, Sarah Kane, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Ivan Vyrypaev, Tennessee Williams, Dimitris Dimitriadis, Michel Fais, and Yannis Mavritsakis, among others.
She directed I’m Left-handed, Essentially, a play about Manolis Anagnostakis (2012 Philippi-Thassos Festival & Thission Theatre), and The Bench of Any by Michel Fais (2014, Theatre 104).
In cinema she has starred in Delivery (official participation in the 61st Venice Film Festival in 2004), Athens-Istanbul (2008), Ta Oporofora tis Athinas (2010) and Daughter of Rembrandt (2015) by Nikos Panagiotopoulos, Quiet Hours by Katerina Evangelakou, Signature by Stelios Haralampopoulos, Norway (Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2014) and She Loved Blossoms More (2024) by Yannis Vesleme, and Interruption (72nd Venice Film Festival 2015) by Giorgos Zois. She has also collaborated on short films with Syllas Tzoumerkas, Ektoras Lygizos, Panagiotis Fafoutis, Bujar Alimani, and Georgie Grigoraki.
On the small screen, she has appeared in the shows Two Days Only by Christophoros Papakaliatis, and The Beach and The Child by Stefanos Blatsos and Panagiotis Josifelis.
Maira Milolidaki, soprano
Maira Milolidaki is an Associate Professor of Voice in the Francis Rich School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at The American College of Greece (Deree), a collaborator with the University of Macedonia on its lifelong learning programmes, a programme annotator for the Maria Callas Olympia City Music Theatre as well as a programme annotator and lecturer for the Publications Department and the Department of Educational Programs of the Athens Concert Hall. She is also a radio producer for the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT, Trito Programma).
As a soloist, she has collaborated with the National Theatre of Greece, the Greek National Opera, the Onassis Stegi, the Olympia Theatre, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro dal Verme (Milan), Carnegie Hall, Le Frank Concert Hall (New York), the Koleso Theatre of Kyiv, the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, the Athens Concert Hall, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Poreia Theatre, the Lefteris Vogiatzis Kykladon Street Theatre, among others, performing a wide-ranging repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to contemporary classical composers. She is a member of the music theatre ensemble Eutopia and a collaborator with the international contemporary composers’ group The Collective. She has performed with major Greek and international orchestras and chamber ensembles, and appears regularly at Greek and international festivals.
She has collaborated with electroacoustic composer Constantine Skourlis on productions such as Hildegard von Bingen – Splendidissima Gemma (directed by Themelis Glynatsis), Don Quixote (Res Ratio Network, directed by Efi Birba), Richard II – Requiem of a King (directed by Marlene Kaminsky), and Free at Last (choreographed by Danae Dimitriadi and Dionysios Alamanos, Rotterdam and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2021).
She has also appeared in films by director Nikos Kornilios and has contributed to recordings of works by Giorgos Kouroupos, I. Valette, Constantine Skourlis, Canto Soave (Baroque ensemble), among others.
She graduated with highest honours in classical singing from the Athens Conservatoire. As a scholarship recipient of the Onassis Foundation, she pursued advanced studies in Italy with Renata Scotto at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She also studied theatre at the Empros Drama School–Workshop and at the international workshop “The Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos”.
She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and is also a graduate of the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Latest updated: 11/06/2026
