Backpack for Pillow. A Case of Tragedy

Theatre Summer Camp – Pilio 2018, Greece
26/8-1/9/2018, Agios Ioannis Beach Pilio Greece
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr),  (www.TheatroEdu.gr)

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Short WORKSHOP

“Backpack for Pillow. A Case of Tragedy”

Nikoletta Dimopoulou, Despoina Mitsiali Virginia Kehaya

3 hours workshop

Language: Greek

In October 2017, a theatre-based research in adolescence was launched into the teenage life we once lived or the one we experience right now. The outcome of this research formed the theatre performance “Backpack for Pillow- A Case of Tragedy.”

How many things can happen in 24 hours? Who is this stranger looking at you when you look at the mirror? What happens when your reflection is a tragic hero with his most inner thoughts? Adolescence is a period in life full of personal discovery, thoughtless action, much contradiction, questions. What is it you would like to retain in your memory and what would you prefer to forget forever?

 This three hour experiential workshop, based on theatre and Theatre in Education techniques attempts to bring us closer to pieces of our own personal experience of the most transitional period of life. Using the dilemmas and dead-ends of the ancient Greek tragedy’s heroes and heroines, we will explore the teenage identity by moving back and forth in time. The workshop addresses teenagers and adults ……who were once teenagers!

Workshop designing: Nikoletta Dimopoulou, Virginia Kehaya

Workshop implementation: Nikoletta Dimopoulou, Despoina Mitsiali Virginia Kehaya

Nikoletta Dimopoulou holds a Bachelor and a Master Degree from the Drama Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece and a Master Degree of Arts in International Performance Research from the University of Warwick, University of Amsterdam and University of Arts in Belgrade. She has worked as a dramatist and theatre/drama facilitator in programmes for preschool, primary and secondary education. She has designed the non-formal learning programme for adults “Europe on Stage” in Germany, focused on the deconstruction of international social stereotypes through the use of theatre; and the Summer School of Performing Arts for teenagers for British Council Greece. She is a founder member of the Museum Theatre-Heterotopia Koin.s.ep. Since 2016 she is an active member of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network. Since January 2018, she holds the role of South Greece & Aegean Islands manager in the programme “it could be me-it could be you”which is organized and implemented by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in partnership with  UNHCR  (UN Agency for Refugees).

Virginia Kehaya holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Theatre Studies, School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Master degree “World Theatre: Theory and Practice” from the same department. She has graduated from the three-year private school “School of play” where she now conducts theatre workshops for teenagers. Since 2007 she works as a theatre pedagogue in primary and secondary education in state and private educational institutions. She is currently working for the Greek-German School “Erasmeios”. As a theatre pedagogue, she has taken part in the programme “Immigrants Education-Act III” organized by the University of Ioannina, Greece, where she realized theatre-based practices in schools with high percentage of immigrant students’ population. Since 2014, she has a freelance cooperation with British Council in Athens in the programme “Life Skills”.

Despoina Mitsiali studied Greek Language & Literature and fulfilled her Master degree studies at “Theatre and Education” at the Department of Primary Education, both at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Greece. She is also a graduate of the acting school “Nelli Karra”. She has attended workshops and seminars on Drama in Education, Theatre play and acting techniques. She has worked as a theatre/theatre in education facilitator in kindergartens, primary & secondary schools, theatre and art venues. Since July 2018,  she works as a coordinator in a programme which is organized and implemented by the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) in association with Actionaid Hellas, and takes place in ‘’Epikendro’’