EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Department of Directing

Montage

The students, having been tutored in the editing process from the editor and director Dimitris Gerardis and through the use of specific programs, created their own material for a short film. During the seminar, they worked on the script idea, the narration and the creation of image and sound.

May – June, 2023

Introduction to Stage Lighting

The seminar delivered by Christina Thanasoula tried to shed light on the process of lighting design and to offer a first contact with this intangible material of dramaturgy through theory and practice. The students studied the nature and properties of light, investigated its fundamental role in art, briefly reviewed the history of theatrical lighting and familiarized themselves with the dramaturgy of lighting design.

May – June, 2023

Use of Musical Techniques for the Development of Stage Drama

The seminar delivered by Dimitris Kamarotos was a dense laboratory course aimed at identifying new necessary techniques and tools for the development of stage dramaturgy. The lecturer made a theoretical and analytical approach on possibilities, necessities and techniques to enrich the means of dramaturgy with music as the central perspective.

May, 2023

Giving Face to the Audience or How to Direct a Sick Actor Actor

Actor and director Ilias Kounelas tried to turn the students’ gaze to the path that their weakness, their essential anguish, whatever they fail to achieve and what is not accepted in the society of the spectacle can provide for them. Having his experience with the National Theatre’s “Episkeptirio” activity and the performances he has given in hospitals and patients’ homes serve as a starting point, Ilias Kounelas seeks to apply theatre to small spaces and to a limited number of spectators.

May, 2023

Soundscape and Sound Composition in Theatre – Multimedia – Multi-Technical Performances

Composer and sound designer Manolis Manousakis taught sound production, recording techniques and sound synthesis for the needs of a theatrical performance. The filmmakers who participated in the workshop were taught recording techniques in order to become familiar with audio editing by using tools available on the internet as freeware. Participants also composed soundscapes and entered the aesthetic world of sound composition and programming.

July, 2023

For a Modern Narrative and Dramaturgy

Alexandros Mistriotis encouraged students to examine the confusion that surrounds dramaturgy and turn it into a source of inspiration. Participants talked about the history of the term, its contemporary use and the importance of context in any narrative. A narrative “script” was reviewed to test working hypotheses and to create opportunities for discussion and collaboration.

March, 2023

Online Theatre: The Whole World as a Stage

In the seminar delivered by Christina Papagiannouli (research fellow and lecturer at the University of Wales), participants were asked to consider examples of online theatre. The history of online theatre is part of the long relationship between theatre and technology, the roots of which can be traced back to the “deus ex machina” of the ancient theater. Shakespeare’s quote “All the world’s a stage” is made possible by the Internet which offers “performance spaces” such as blogs, social networking platforms, virtual environments and communication applications that include chat rooms, cameras and avatars.

June, 2023

Performing Arts and Digital Media

The seminar delivered by Angeliki Poulou (PhD in Theatre Studies) explored the field of digital arts and their intersection with performing contemporary art and experimenting on it through the curation, dramaturgy and co-production of hybrid works such as: performative and sound walks, augmented reality installations, VR projects, contemporary art exhibitions, digital arts festivals, multimedia performances, etc.

June, 2023

International Collaborations, Exchanges, Connecting Research and Artistic Practice

Aktina Stathaki (theatrologist and artistic director of the performing arts organization Between the Seas) delivered a seminar revolving around the following themes: international collaborations and exchanges with young upcoming artists, connecting research and artistic practice as well as emphasis on experimental – laboratory work.

June, 2023

Theatre Directing: Connection with the Labor Market

Dramaturg and director Nikoleta Filosoglou delivered a seminar about the connection between the students and the financial terms in the field of Greek state stages (Athens Epidaurus Festival, grants by the Ministry of Education, etc.) and of the private sector of the theatre market. During the meetings, the students worked with budget templates, gοt introduced to the process of starting a Non-Profit Theater Company – AMKE, to theatre production grant applications, to the preparation of directing proposals and timelines, and to the preparation of private agreements before the beginning of rehearsals.

March, 2023

Physical Preparation – Breathing Technique

Actor and director Taxiarchis Chanos delivered a seminar focusing on the physical preparation and freedom in breathing (inhalation – exhalation – apnea) and sound production techniques, on acoustic training, vocal training and elocution, with exercises and improvisations, all particularly useful tools for the performing arts professionals.

July, 2023

Handmade Cinema / Basic Principles of Direction, Script Writing and Production

Film director Kyriakos Chatzimichailidis introduced the students to the process of creating a short film by working on the idea of the script, the narration, the selection or creation of image and sound and the completion of a film project.

April, June 2023

Acting Department, I

Theory and Interpretation of Ancient Drama

Konstantinos Valakas, associate professor at the Department of Philosophy of University of Patras, delivered a seminar for the educational program. The subject of his lectures, courses and research concerns ancient Greek poetry and drama, genres and performances, with an emphasis on tragedy, as well as theoretical views on poetry, theatre and the arts in Greco-Roman antiquity and Europe from the 17th century onwards.

September, 2022

Movement, Voice and Rhyming Speech as Dramaturgical Tools

Lenia Zafeiropoulou delivered a seminar in tandem with Tasos Karachalios. How is stage movement born from simple, everyday movement? What are the laws of group stage movement? How are vocal range and volume, tempo, diction and rhythm of speech used as dramaturgical tools? How is the stage voice different from everyday voice? How is a non-theatrical text “theatricalized”? What dramatic possibilities does rhyming speech offer? The group worked on vocal and dance exercises and short non-theatrical texts and concluded with William Shakespeare’s long narrative poem The Rape of Lucretia.

September, December 2022

Interpretation of Poetic Non-Psychological Theatre. From The Cherry Orchard to Ion

Actress and director Lydia Koniordou delivered a seminar for the educational program of the School’s graduates. Lydia Koniordou has given a large number of seminars and lectures on ancient drama and Greek culture in Greece and abroad.

September – November, 2022

Discourse (Logos) in Ancient Drama, Interpreting Antigone

Amalia Moutousi delivered a seminar about discourse in the Ancient Drama in the pilot educational program.

November – December, 2022

Eumenides

Antzela Brouskou investigates the actor’s method and technique with a focus on ancient tragedy, as a teacher, actor and director (October – November, 2022). The aim of the seminar was to reveal the primordial memory hidden in the body of the actor – performer by using ancient drama as a vehicle. The team thoroughly engaged in the dramaturgy of the play through voice – breathing exercises and physical improvisations that emerged through the research.

October – November, 2022

Theatricality

Vasilis Papavasiliou, one of the most prominent Greek actors and directors, gave a training seminar entitled Theatricality. An actor, director, but also an author and translator, Vasilis Papavasiliou transmitted his rich experience as an experienced man of theatre and educator to the students.

November, 2022

The Drama of Storytelling: A Study of the Tragic Chorus

Eleni Papazoglou, associate professor of History, Theory and Reception of Ancient Drama at the School of Drama of the Fine Arts School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, delivered a seminar focused on the study of how the text becomes “the other” and how we open ourselves to the stimuli that it gives without imposing our intentions on it. How to create the conditions so that we don’t “give” to the words as we usually do, but listen to them as they suggest to us each moment.

September, 2022

Personal Experience and Acting – From K. S. Stanislavsky to A. A. Vasiliev

Director and actress Lena Filippova delivered a seminar for the graduates’ educational program which was focused on exploring and using the actor’s personal experience. Lena Filippova researches and practices the basic means of expression of the actor as suggested by the Russian School approach, with basic training exercises, text analysis and practical application.

September, 2023

From Ancient Drama to Performance

Director Giannis Chouvardas gave a seminar focused on answering the following questions: “Is there really such a thing as a ‘theatre teacher’? A ‘student’; Can art, and especially the inspiration of the theatre, be transmitted –even– from an experienced professional to a younger one without the risk of being misunderstood, distorted, or simply parroted or copied? How can each young actor find his own, personal path without imposed models and stereotypes? How can the director be left at the mercy of a creative chaos he does not control?”

September, November 2022

Acting Department, II

Ancient Drama / Modern Dramaturgies

Director Andreas Andreou delivered a seminar aimed at the compositional work on material drawn from the ancient drama. Starting from the texts of tragedy and comedy, the students approached the material derived from the various circles and themes of the ancient repertoire that reaches the present day. The participants worked with excerpts from texts with the same theme (e.g., Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus), but also through reflections on newer material (e.g., Anouilh’s Antigone, Brecht, Heaney, Žižek, Carson, Tóibín).

May, 2023

Τhe Utterance of Speech in Ancient Drama

The actress Katia Gerou, a key collaborator of the Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun for over 30 years, completed seminars in the training program. During the courses, with tools mainly choric from Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, work was carried out on speech and how to handle texts with simplicity and directness without losing the multiple meanings that arise and touch on ritual and metaphysics.

May, 2023

Acting with a Mask

Director and actor Simos Kakalas delivered a seminar on the use of a theatre mask at the educational program of the Drama School of the National Theatre. Working with masks, puppets, video projections and live music on stage, Simos Kakalas is constantly searching for new narratives and techniques.

May, 2022

Messenger speech in Ancient Drama

Actress Filareti Komninou delivered the seminar Messenger Speech in Ancient Drama. The study of messenger speech is a particularly interesting field of research. The codes of the narrative theatre are condensed in the material offered by the messengers. Elements of interest for the actor – performer are the way of expression, the emotional involvement with the narrated event, the distancing, the composed or delusional speech with memory gaps.

May, 2022

Aristophanes’ Frogs: Studying Attic Comedy

Director Georgia Mavragani delivered a seminar entitled Aristophanes’ Frogs: Studying Attic Comedy. In her work, the director explores the possibilities and techniques of documentary theatre as well as issues related to contemporary chorality.

May – June, 2023

Axes of Rhetoric in Ancient Drama

Evi Saoulidou searched for the axes of rhetoric in Ancient Drama together with the participants in the seminar and tried to guide the action of the actor by unlocking the meanings of the ancient text.

March, 2023

DasArts Feedback

method Manolis Tsipos, postgraduate student of the Theatre department of DasArts in Amsterdam, delivered a seminar based on the Feedback method of the Dutch school DasArt. The participants dealt with the following questions: In what ways can we discuss an artistic work collectively? What are the agreements that we (must) co-establish every time we meet and communicate with each other? Who do we choose to offer us his/her thoughts and/or doubts about our artwork? The DasArts Feedback method offers answers to these critical questions that arise every time we give and receive feedback. Philosophical practices such as Socrates’ maieutic method form the starting point of this approach.

April, 2022

Kung Fu

Dancer and martial arts teacher Ioanna Toumpakari taught the Ying Jow Fan Tsi Moon method (Ying Zhao Fan Tzi Men), known in Greece as “Eagle Claw” or Eagle Claw Kung Fu. The practice of “Eagle Claw” is based on the cultivation of Jing power. In Chinese philosophy the Jing force has two sides, Yin and Yang. The Yin side is about strengthening the internal organs, blood circulation and Qi energy, while the Yang side is about strengthening the muscles, tendons and skeleton. In recent years, Kung Fu has been included in the actor’s training by theatre luminaries such as Anatoly Vasiliev.

March, June, 2022

Acting on Camera

Actress, translator and dramaturg Marissa Triantafyllidou delivered a seminar for the educational program starting from the study of the script and of the character that the actor is asked to portray in front of the camera. The aim of the course was to begin from personal expressiveness and reach the connection/composition of the role by using the simplest of materials, and in this way to give life to the person the actor is asked to interpret on screen.

July, 2023

Physical – Creative Theatre and Ancient Drama

The aim of the seminar delivered by Kostas Filippoglou was the approach of dramatic texts of ancient Greek literature through the teaching and aesthetics of physical creative theatre. This approach has been influenced by the pedagogy and aesthetics of Jacques Lecoq and the Complicité theatre, but also by the personal experience of Kostas Filippoglou. The participants approached ancient drama by physical actions, image creation and a “narrative kinesiology”.

June, 2023

Making of a Theatrical Mask

Set designer, costume designer and mask maker Martha Foka delivered a training seminar on the making of theatrical masks. A hands-on workshop aimed at getting participants to “get to know” the theatrical mask, an acting and transformation tool used from ancient times to the present day. The participants designed and made their own mask, learning techniques that they can apply either for educational reasons or in performance context. The creative process starts with the selection of the character they want to create and extends to an anthropological study mainly related to the morphological/anatomical elements of the face but also to the expressive possibilities.

May, 2023