WORKSHOPS
|
Workshop 1: “Trojan Women and Foreign Lands” with Giorgos Biniaris & Margarita Mandaka
|
Workshop 2: “Sisyphus- contemporary variations” with Martin Scharnhorst
|
Workshop 3: “Young Theatre Voices: Ancient Myths & Contemporary Life” with Dimitris Sakatzis & Jenny Karaviti
|
Workshop 4: “Bestow me this stranger” with Takis Tzamargias
|
WORKSHOP 1
|
“Trojan Women and Foreign Lands”
|
Giorgos Biniaris, actor, director
|
Margarita Mandaka, choreographer
|
Language: Greek
|
The workshop will focus on the choral parts of the Trojan Women of Euripides, using tools such as the rhythmic utterance of the written word, movement and music. Great emphasis will be given at the modernity of Euripides’ work as well as at contemporary texts dealing with the issues of war and refugees. The participants are requested to have read the play in order to contribute creatively to the workshop. We also kindly ask them to bring along pieces of literature, refugees’ testimonies and pictures that demonstrate this all time issue. Finally all participants are asked to bring a large piece of cloth in a color similar to that of the sea depth (such as deep blue or green), as it will be used as a body scarf. The workshop is merely practical.
Giorgos Biniaris graduated from the drama school of Laiko Experimental Theatre and the Filming school of E. Hantzikos in Athens. He is an actor, director, theatre pedagogue and tutor with long experience in teachers' education. He has collaborated with numerous theatre companies in Athens and has toured in London and Brussels. He has instructed and directed many plays in Universities of Athens and Crete, in municipal theatre companies all over mGreece and in ‘Empros’ Theatre School of Drama. He is founding member of ANTILALOI artistic company. He directs, teaches and is in charge of the educational programs of Municipal Peripheral Theatre of North Aegean, based in the island of Chios. He is a member and a trainer of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network.
Margarita Mandaka graduated from the Greek State School of Dance and Cunningham and Hawkins Studios in New York. Her studies include seminars on Butoh, Tai Chi, African dance, contact improvisation and voice technique. Collaborations as a dancer and interpreter: La Mama, Maureen Fleming, Isadora Duncan F.co, Manhong Kang, Gloria Mclean, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Analia, Small Dance Theatre, etc. She has presented solo choreographies in Greek theatres and art spaces, in Paris and Barcelona (Biennale ‘87). From 1991-2004 she has choreographed productions for: The Opera House of Thessaloniki, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, etc.. She teaches movement and dance in Workshops all over Greece, the Drama School of Northern Greece, the Dance Theatre of Northern Greece, the Department of Drama of the University of Thessaloniki, the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network. She choreographed movement and participated in the film “Iniohos” by Alexis Damianos. She is the founder of ‘Evanemos Dance Company’. Since 2006 she teaches ‘psychokinetic dynamic education’. She is a member and a trainer of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network.
WORKSHOP 2
|
“Sisyphus-contemporary variations”
|
Martin Scharnhorst, theatre director
|
Language: Greek
|
The punishment of Sisyphus is common to everyone. His actions provoke the anger of gods (class of higher power) and his destiny, rolling a huge stone, seems like an endless torture. That’s how the myth goes. Nevertheless this story reveals a contemporary man, whose conscience leads him to revolt and fight passionately for freedom. Sisyphus lives and acts according to his beliefs. He does not accept imposed moral rules and ends up conflicting with power. Namely, he is a person loyal to human existence and consistent in his denial of domination.
The workshop “Sisyphus-contemporary variations” will be a dramatic approach to motives, behaviors and satisfaction we get in everyday life. Our work will be based on free improvisation, the frame of acting and the ‘status’ games according to Keith Johnstone’s method, reflecting images of reality and ourselves. No particular knowledge is necessary. On the contrary, physical expression and team cooperation are highly expected. Participants are kindly requested to bring comfortable clothes, two pairs of shoes (of different type) and some music of their own taste.
Martin Scharnhorst was born in Germany in 1965. He studied Theatre and German Literature at the University of Vienna. From 1987 until 1992 he was in charge of dramaturgy in Vienna’s Volkstheater. This is where he directed his first plays and founded the theatre group Gruppe 80, the Εnsemble Theatre and Vienna’s festival. In 1991 he worked as director and dramatist in Vienna’s Theater der Jugend and in 1992 again as director and assistant artistic director in Staatliches Schauspielhaus in Leipzig. Since 1995 he works as freelancer in several German speaking theatres such as: Vienna’s Künstlerhaustheater, Theater Spielraum, Kammeroper, Schlosstheater Weitra/Waldviertler Hoftheater, Theater der Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten, Κonzertdirektion Landgraf Tourneetheater, Sommerfestspiele in Stokerau ect. In 2002 he takes up residence in Greece and in 2004 he directs “The travelogue of ants” in Municipal Peripheral Theatre of Rhodes. He directed the film “Mediation” (2001) and the documentary “Life’s building rocks” (2004) for the Municipality of Vienna.
WORKSHOP 3
|
“Young Theatre Voices”
|
“Ancient Myths & Contemporary Life”
|
Dimitris Sakatzis, actor, director
|
Jenny Karaviti, teacher, theatre pedagogue
|
Language: English
|
only for 17-20 years old
|
The aim of the workshop is to explore how classical Greek myths relate to current realities experienced by the young people. Sophocles’s Antigone and Euripides’s Trojan Women will be our starting point. A variety of techniques of physical, devised theatre, etc. will be used to create and present a work-in-progress piece at the end of the workshop. Participants should: a) have read Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’s Trojan Women, b) bring and share with the group a contemporary story, which relates to any of the themes of the two plays they read. It could be a personal experience, a newspaper extract, a photograph, e.t.c. c) bring their favourite dance music piece on CD, d) musical instruments optional but welcomed!
Participants are asked to be prepared to communicate with their fellow players in English!
Jenny Karaviti is a state secondary school Greek teacher. She studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens and Theatre at the City Lit Institute of London and at Essex University, UK (MA in Contemporary Theatre Studies). She is currently a research student in the field of Theatre and Education at the University of Winchester, UK. She has worked with young people in Greece and the UK and run theatre workshops for teachers. She collaborates with the “Artists’ Group Uga Clara” in its productions and educational projects. Co-writer of “The Orange with a Clasp-Theatre Exercise and Creative Activities” (1995). She is a member of the Board of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network.
Dimitris Sakatzis is an actor, graduate of The Acting School of National Theatre of Northern Greece. He has taken part in more than 35 productions and theatre festivals in Greece and abroad. He has also taken part in cinema and television productions and is a member of the music group “Northern Collaborators”. Founder and Artistic Director of the Artists’ Group “Uga Clara” since 1999. Since 2000 he works with youth theatre groups in formal and non-formal educational contexts and runs workshops on acting and the body in the theatre. Co-writer of “The Orange with a Clasp-Theatre Exercise and Creative Activities” (1995). He is member of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network.
WORKSHOP 4
|
“Bestow me this stranger” |
Takis Tzamargias, director, University of Athens
|
Language: Greek
|
The intertextual synthesis entitled “Brahms’ ballads” as presented by the University of Athens students’ drama club, is the basic material to study the concept of ‘stranger’ as the latter is experienced today. The text will be the starting-point of our workshop, in order to draw ideas from it and explore possible ways of developing it on stage, as well as performing the choral parts of Euripides’ Trojan Women, using the poetic approach of the text by Olympia Karagiorga. Dramatized personal experiences, improvised songs, melodies and sounds that will emerge during the workshop, will help us to go deeper into these chorals. Participants are kindly requested to bring along small objects or musical parts that are important to them; things that they would not part with, even in the event of a disaster.
Takis Tzamargias was born in Piraeus. He studied Theatre and Education and gained a Master's Degree from the Athens University on "Theater in Education". Currently he works on his doctoral thesis on the same subject. He is the artistic director of the Municipal Theatre "Theatre Company of Keratsini". He has directed more than twenty plays including production with Greek National Theatre. Currently he teaches at the Primary Education Department of Athens University.