Avra Sidiropoulou
Bio
Avra Sidiropoulou is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Theatre at the Open University of Cyprus. She has published extensively on directing theory and practice, contemporary performance and dramaturgy and is the author of Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method (Routledge 2019) and Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). She is also the editor of Staging 21st Century Tragedies: Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis (Routledge, 2022), co-editor of Adapting Greek Tragedy. Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts (CUP 2021) and co-editor of a special issue on Director Training for Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal. Avra holds a PhD degree in Theatre Studies (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece), an M.F.A. in Directing (Columbia University), an MPhil in American Literature (Cambridge University) and an M.A. in Text and Performance (King’s College London). Her main areas of scholarly specialization include directing theory, the ethics of adaptation, contemporary dramaturgy and practice as research. She was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, the Martin E. Segal Centre at CUNY, MIT, the Universities of Leeds and Surrey, the Institute of Theatre Studies at Freie University, the Berlin and a Japan Foundation Fellow at the University of Tokyo. She is a member of the Executive Committee at the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP).
As the artistic director of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company (https://persona.gr/en/), she has directed works from the classical and contemporary repertory, lectured and conducted directing workshops in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the United States, the U.K, Japan, Italy, Israel, Bulgaria, Estonia and Iran. Her theatre company has received state subsidy and funding from several private foundations, as well as the E.U. Her most recent directing works include Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (2022), Enter Hamlet (her script) at the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival (2022) and Karen Malpede’s Troy Too at Here Arts Center, New York (2023). Her next directing project is Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at Dionysos Theatre, Nicosia (2023).
In 2020 she was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women.
Phone: 6944457778
Address: 56 Yiannou Kranidioti Avenue, Nicosia, Cyprus
Avra Sidiropoulou is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Theatre at the Open University of Cyprus. She has published extensively on directing theory and practice, contemporary performance and dramaturgy and is the author of Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method (Routledge 2019) and Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). She is also the editor of Staging 21st Century Tragedies: Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis (Routledge, 2022), co-editor of Adapting Greek Tragedy. Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts (CUP 2021) and co-editor of a special issue on Director Training for Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal. Avra holds a PhD degree in Theatre Studies (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece), an M.F.A. in Directing (Columbia University), an MPhil in American Literature (Cambridge University) and an M.A. in Text and Performance (King’s College London). Her main areas of scholarly specialization include directing theory, the ethics of adaptation, contemporary dramaturgy and practice as research. She was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, the Martin E. Segal Centre at CUNY, MIT, the Universities of Leeds and Surrey, the Institute of Theatre Studies at Freie University, the Berlin and a Japan Foundation Fellow at the University of Tokyo. She is a member of the Executive Committee at the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP).
As the artistic director of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company (https://persona.gr/en/), she has directed works from the classical and contemporary repertory, lectured and conducted directing workshops in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the United States, the U.K, Japan, Italy, Israel, Bulgaria, Estonia and Iran. Her theatre company has received state subsidy and funding from several private foundations, as well as the E.U. Her most recent directing works include Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (2022), Enter Hamlet (her script) at the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival (2022) and Karen Malpede’s Troy Too at Here Arts Center, New York (2023). Her next directing project is Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at Dionysos Theatre, Nicosia (2023).
In 2020 she was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women.
Phone: 6944457778
Address: 56 Yiannou Kranidioti Avenue, Nicosia, Cyprus
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The book, edited by Avra Sidiropoulou, features academic essays by Yana Meerzon, Carol Martin,Tadashi Uchino, Frank Raddatz, Freddy Decreus, Taiwo Afolabi, Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah and Ogah Mark Onwe, Ana Fernandez-Caparrós, Aldo Milohnic, Silvia Bigliazzi, Constantina Ziropoulou, Ana Contreras and Avra Sidiropoulou, as well as artists’ contributions by Karen Malpede, Daniel Wetzel, Peter Campbell, Hanane Hajj Ali, Anestis Azas, Lupe Gehrenbeck, Su Xiaogang, Miguel Rojo and Javier Hernando (Los Barbaros).
The collection examines ways in which the global tragedies of our century are being negotiated in current theatre practice. In exploring the tragic in the fields of history and theory of theatre, the book approaches crisis through an understanding of the existential and political aspect of the tragic condition. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, it showcases theatre texts and productions that enter the public sphere, manifesting notably participatory, immersive, and documentary modes of expression to form a theatre of modern tragedy. The coexistence of scholarly essays with manifesto-like provocations, interviews, original plays, and diaries by theatre artists provides a rich and multifocal lens that allows readers to approach twenty-first-century theatre through historical and critical study, text and performance analysis, and creative processes. Of special value is the global scope of the collection, embracing forms of crisis theatre in many geographically diverse regions of both the East and the West.
ISBN 9781472473707
An integral part of Directions for Directing, this extensive web component contains interviews, master classes and video workshops by inspirational directors, actors, set and lighting designers, choreographers, and directing students, from the U.S., the U.K, Greece, Japan, Denmark, Spain and New Zealand.
Directions for Directing: Theatre and Method lays out contemporary concepts of directing practice and examines specific techniques of approaching scripts, actors, and the stage. Addressed to both young and experienced directors but also to the broader community of theatre practitioners, scholars, and dedicated theatre goers, the book sheds light on the director’s multiplicity of roles throughout the life of a play – from the moment of its conception to opening night – and explores the director’s processes of inspiration, interpretation, communication, and leadership. From organizing auditions and making casting choices to decoding complex dramaturgical texts and motivating actors, Directions for Directing offers practical advice and features detailed workbook sections on how to navigate such a fascinating discipline. A companion website explores the work of international practitioners of different backgrounds who operate within various institutions, companies, and budgets, providing readers with a wide range of perspectives and methodologies.
PAPERS by Avra Sidiropoulou
Speaking from the point-of-view of creating this interplay between past and present, tradition and innovation, the director argues that “we mirror ourselves in the past and project our images into the future.” This mirroring is amply supported by the production’s digitally mediated “ghosts”: both these written into the tragic text and the presence –in spirit—of the paternal figure as a source of eternal inspiration for the character of Hamlet and for Evangelatos, the daughter artist. In a way, they serve to suggest the circularity of history and the inevitable coming together of the living and the dead, which is at the core of the play.
As can be seen in the contributions to this volume, directing is a complex practice of situational leadership, which shifts according to the ideas, needs and circumstances of the moment. Questions immediately arise: how can we discuss how to train for, in and despite such complexity? How can we best prepare and train for the sometimes extraordinary aesthetics of the work yet the sheer difficulty of the profession? What kind of diverse forms of competence, education and personality traits could training encompass? In a changing world, what should director training comprise?
structures of dramatic writing have generated a tradition of experimental voices as distinct as those of Charles Mee, Mac Wellman and Richard Maxwell, among others. In these playwrights’ works, characters are often created and developed linguistically, their physical selves subordinated to their speech, while texts are frequently as elliptical and “oral” as poems and other times as narrational and cerebral as novels, breathing within liminal spaces that defy easy categorization, but also resonating with performative potential.
Η εκτενής χρήση των πολυμέσων στην παράσταση, πέραν του να «επικαιροποιεί» το κατά τον Ρολάν Μπαρτ πολυφωνικό σύστημα πληροφοριών του θεάτρου, χωρίς αμφιβολία αντικατοπτρίζει το εγγενές ένστικτο αυτοσυντήρησης του, και φέρνει στο προσκήνιο οντολογικά ερωτήματα που αφορούν τις πολλαπλές όψεις της μιας μεταανθρώπινης επιτελεστικότητας. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη την έννοια της δυνάμει «κειμενοποίησης» οποιουδήποτε στοιχείου της σκηνής μέσα στα πλαίσια του σύγχρονου μεταμοντέρνου/μεταδραματικού παραδείγματος, η ανακοίνωση αυτή επικεντρώνεται στη σύγκρουση που υπάρχει ανάμεσα στο σημειωτικά καθορισμένο και αυτόνομο παραστασιακό κείμενο –κατά την εγγραφή του μέσα από ψηφιακά «ομοιώματα» – και την φαινομενολογική διεκδίκησή του από τον σύγχρονο περφόρμερ. Δίνονται παραδείγματα από τη σκηνοθετική δουλειά σκηνοθετών όπως ο Robert Lepage, ο Ivo van Hove και η Liz LeCompte του Wooster Group, και εξετάζεται η ένταση που βιώνει ο ηθοποιός –και κατ’επέκταση ο θεατής— στην επαφή του με τον επί της οθόνης «φαντασματικό» εαυτό του. Επίμονο και ειρωνικό σχόλιο στη δουλειά αυτών των σκηνοθετών είναι η άποψη ότι οι τεχνολογικά διαμεσολαβημένες ταυτότητες συχνά αποτελούν τις μοναδικές έγκυρες ετερότητες στη μεταμοντέρνα, μετα-υπαρξιακή μας κουλτούρα.
Τα παραδείγματα αυτά είναι σημαντικά στην προσπάθειά μας να αντιληφθούμε πώς μία σκηνοθεσία που εμπνέεται και νοηματοδοτείται από την τεχνολογία στην πραγματικότητα αντικατοπτρίζει ένα είδος νοσταλγίας για την «αγνή» σωματικότητα, η οποία στις μέρες μας έχει αποτελέσει περαιτέρω αντικείμενο προβληματισμού, μέσα από σωρεία πολιτισμικών μεταφορών. Δεδομένου ότι αξίζει να διερευνηθούν οι τρόποι με τους οποίους ο συνδυασμός των ζωντανών και των ψηφιακών εικόνων μπορούν να αποτελέσουν «οπτική μεταφορά της διαιρεμένης ταυτότητας» (Causey στον Auslander: 2008, 386), είναι ίσως εξίσου σκόπιμο να αναζητήσουμε τους λόγους και τις συνθήκες που έχουν καταστήσει την τεχνολογική διαμεσολάβηση στην παράσταση ένα ζωτικό στοιχείο αναπαράστασης της σύγχρονης ταυτότητας.
The book, edited by Avra Sidiropoulou, features academic essays by Yana Meerzon, Carol Martin,Tadashi Uchino, Frank Raddatz, Freddy Decreus, Taiwo Afolabi, Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah and Ogah Mark Onwe, Ana Fernandez-Caparrós, Aldo Milohnic, Silvia Bigliazzi, Constantina Ziropoulou, Ana Contreras and Avra Sidiropoulou, as well as artists’ contributions by Karen Malpede, Daniel Wetzel, Peter Campbell, Hanane Hajj Ali, Anestis Azas, Lupe Gehrenbeck, Su Xiaogang, Miguel Rojo and Javier Hernando (Los Barbaros).
The collection examines ways in which the global tragedies of our century are being negotiated in current theatre practice. In exploring the tragic in the fields of history and theory of theatre, the book approaches crisis through an understanding of the existential and political aspect of the tragic condition. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, it showcases theatre texts and productions that enter the public sphere, manifesting notably participatory, immersive, and documentary modes of expression to form a theatre of modern tragedy. The coexistence of scholarly essays with manifesto-like provocations, interviews, original plays, and diaries by theatre artists provides a rich and multifocal lens that allows readers to approach twenty-first-century theatre through historical and critical study, text and performance analysis, and creative processes. Of special value is the global scope of the collection, embracing forms of crisis theatre in many geographically diverse regions of both the East and the West.
ISBN 9781472473707
An integral part of Directions for Directing, this extensive web component contains interviews, master classes and video workshops by inspirational directors, actors, set and lighting designers, choreographers, and directing students, from the U.S., the U.K, Greece, Japan, Denmark, Spain and New Zealand.
Directions for Directing: Theatre and Method lays out contemporary concepts of directing practice and examines specific techniques of approaching scripts, actors, and the stage. Addressed to both young and experienced directors but also to the broader community of theatre practitioners, scholars, and dedicated theatre goers, the book sheds light on the director’s multiplicity of roles throughout the life of a play – from the moment of its conception to opening night – and explores the director’s processes of inspiration, interpretation, communication, and leadership. From organizing auditions and making casting choices to decoding complex dramaturgical texts and motivating actors, Directions for Directing offers practical advice and features detailed workbook sections on how to navigate such a fascinating discipline. A companion website explores the work of international practitioners of different backgrounds who operate within various institutions, companies, and budgets, providing readers with a wide range of perspectives and methodologies.
Speaking from the point-of-view of creating this interplay between past and present, tradition and innovation, the director argues that “we mirror ourselves in the past and project our images into the future.” This mirroring is amply supported by the production’s digitally mediated “ghosts”: both these written into the tragic text and the presence –in spirit—of the paternal figure as a source of eternal inspiration for the character of Hamlet and for Evangelatos, the daughter artist. In a way, they serve to suggest the circularity of history and the inevitable coming together of the living and the dead, which is at the core of the play.
As can be seen in the contributions to this volume, directing is a complex practice of situational leadership, which shifts according to the ideas, needs and circumstances of the moment. Questions immediately arise: how can we discuss how to train for, in and despite such complexity? How can we best prepare and train for the sometimes extraordinary aesthetics of the work yet the sheer difficulty of the profession? What kind of diverse forms of competence, education and personality traits could training encompass? In a changing world, what should director training comprise?
structures of dramatic writing have generated a tradition of experimental voices as distinct as those of Charles Mee, Mac Wellman and Richard Maxwell, among others. In these playwrights’ works, characters are often created and developed linguistically, their physical selves subordinated to their speech, while texts are frequently as elliptical and “oral” as poems and other times as narrational and cerebral as novels, breathing within liminal spaces that defy easy categorization, but also resonating with performative potential.
Η εκτενής χρήση των πολυμέσων στην παράσταση, πέραν του να «επικαιροποιεί» το κατά τον Ρολάν Μπαρτ πολυφωνικό σύστημα πληροφοριών του θεάτρου, χωρίς αμφιβολία αντικατοπτρίζει το εγγενές ένστικτο αυτοσυντήρησης του, και φέρνει στο προσκήνιο οντολογικά ερωτήματα που αφορούν τις πολλαπλές όψεις της μιας μεταανθρώπινης επιτελεστικότητας. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη την έννοια της δυνάμει «κειμενοποίησης» οποιουδήποτε στοιχείου της σκηνής μέσα στα πλαίσια του σύγχρονου μεταμοντέρνου/μεταδραματικού παραδείγματος, η ανακοίνωση αυτή επικεντρώνεται στη σύγκρουση που υπάρχει ανάμεσα στο σημειωτικά καθορισμένο και αυτόνομο παραστασιακό κείμενο –κατά την εγγραφή του μέσα από ψηφιακά «ομοιώματα» – και την φαινομενολογική διεκδίκησή του από τον σύγχρονο περφόρμερ. Δίνονται παραδείγματα από τη σκηνοθετική δουλειά σκηνοθετών όπως ο Robert Lepage, ο Ivo van Hove και η Liz LeCompte του Wooster Group, και εξετάζεται η ένταση που βιώνει ο ηθοποιός –και κατ’επέκταση ο θεατής— στην επαφή του με τον επί της οθόνης «φαντασματικό» εαυτό του. Επίμονο και ειρωνικό σχόλιο στη δουλειά αυτών των σκηνοθετών είναι η άποψη ότι οι τεχνολογικά διαμεσολαβημένες ταυτότητες συχνά αποτελούν τις μοναδικές έγκυρες ετερότητες στη μεταμοντέρνα, μετα-υπαρξιακή μας κουλτούρα.
Τα παραδείγματα αυτά είναι σημαντικά στην προσπάθειά μας να αντιληφθούμε πώς μία σκηνοθεσία που εμπνέεται και νοηματοδοτείται από την τεχνολογία στην πραγματικότητα αντικατοπτρίζει ένα είδος νοσταλγίας για την «αγνή» σωματικότητα, η οποία στις μέρες μας έχει αποτελέσει περαιτέρω αντικείμενο προβληματισμού, μέσα από σωρεία πολιτισμικών μεταφορών. Δεδομένου ότι αξίζει να διερευνηθούν οι τρόποι με τους οποίους ο συνδυασμός των ζωντανών και των ψηφιακών εικόνων μπορούν να αποτελέσουν «οπτική μεταφορά της διαιρεμένης ταυτότητας» (Causey στον Auslander: 2008, 386), είναι ίσως εξίσου σκόπιμο να αναζητήσουμε τους λόγους και τις συνθήκες που έχουν καταστήσει την τεχνολογική διαμεσολάβηση στην παράσταση ένα ζωτικό στοιχείο αναπαράστασης της σύγχρονης ταυτότητας.
Η σκηνοθέτις Αύρα Σιδηροπούλου και η δυναμική ομάδα συνεργατών που την πλαισιώνει αναμετρώνται με το εξπρεσιονιστικό ύφος του έργου για να πλάσουν επί σκηνής με λόγο, ήχο και εικόνες τη διαδρομή αυτής της γυναίκας προς τη διεκδίκηση της προσωπικής της ελευθερίας.
δημιουργήθηκε ένα άτυπο δίκτυο συνεργασίας μεταξύ των θεατρολογικών τμημάτων των Πανεπιστημίων
μέσω των παριστάμενων καθηγητών: Κρήτης, Πελοποννήσου, Κύπρου, Πάτρας, για να φιλοξενηθούν τα
μελλοντικά συνέδρια σε αυτά τα Πανεπιστήμια. Ήδη
σχεδιάζεται το επόμενο συνέδριο να παρουσιαστεί στον
χώρο του Πολυτεχνείου Κρήτης (Χανιά, Αύγουστος
2021) καθώς και στον χώρο του Πανεπιστημίου Πάτρας
(Εργαστήριο Σκηνικής Πράξης και Λόγου - Θέατρο Οντίν
(καλοκαίρι 2022).
Στις μέχρι σήμερα δραστηριότητες του Κέντρου συμπεριλαμβάνονται και:
-Η παρούσα περιοδική έκδοση –έντυπη και ηλεκτρονική– με τη σύμφωνη γνώμη των εισηγητών, με σκοπό τη
δωρεάν διανομή της σε Πανεπιστημιακές και ερευνητικές βιβλιοθήκες, για φοιτητές, σπουδαστές και δάσκαλους δραματικών σχολών, ερευνητές, μεταπτυχιακούς
ή διδακτορικούς φοιτητές.
-Η δημιουργία μιας ομάδας που περιλαμβάνει καθηγητές και καλλιτέχνες, με σκοπό τη μεταξύ τους συνεργασία, για την καλύτερη και συχνότερη οργάνωση του
καλλιτεχνικού και εκπαιδευτικού έργου του θεάτρου
Οντίν στην Ελλάδα, καθώς και στη διάδοση των δράσεων του Ανθρωπολογικού θεάτρου
-
collaborations and a variety of human and nonhuman (im)materialities. In so doing, I will set out to locate the shift from perceiving the director commonly as the productionʼs single uncontested authority to an agent of symbiotic meaning making.
have turned to tragedy as a means of paying homage to their cultural
identity and also of further challenging their artistic sensibilities, bearing,
as they do, the added ‘privilege’ or ‘burden’ of their native heritage. This
analysis focuses on productions/adaptations of Greek plays by established directors such as Theodoros Terzopoulos and Yannis Houvardas, as well as by the younger generation practitioners Dimitris Karantzas, Angela Brouskou, Costas Philippoglou and Lena Kitsopoulou, which seem to reflect the tensions that problematise the fidelity-innovation continuum in twenty-first century mise-en-scènes.
Read the full article here:
https://textsandstudies.skeneproject.it/index.php/TS/catalog/view/62/11/187
(pp. 833-856)
New Directing Voices in 21st Century Greece
ΠΡΑΚΤΙΚΑ Ε΄ ΠΑΝΕΛΛΗΝΙΟΥ ΘΕΑΤΡΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΥ ΣΥΝΕΔΡΙΟΥ
Θέατρο και Δημοκρατία
ΤΜΗΜΑ ΘΕΑΤΡΙΚΩΝ ΣΠΟΥΔΩΝ
ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΠΟΔΙΣΤΡΙΑΚΟ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ ΑΘΗΝΩΝ
Με αφορμή τη συμπλήρωση 40 χρόνων
από την αποκατάσταση της Δημοκρατίας
Abstract
Τhis paper investigates the ways in which contemporary theatre practice in 21st century Greece has been consistently moving away from the structured security of the dramatic text towards a fresh –and explicitly democratic—representation of the world, whereby directors, actors and spectators contribute equally to the making of the mise-en-scène.
The work of three Athens-based theatre companies–of Blitz, Pequod and of Kaningunda, which first appeared in the theatre scene almost simultaneously, that is, during the first decade of the 21st century, shares the ambition to redefine the relationship between spectator and stage from the perspective of a broader perception of theatre as a place of creative encounters, exchange of ideas and re-inscription of history. At the same time, there is an active investment in the role of the audience as essential co-author of performative meaning.
A principal element in the philosophy of each of these groups is the emphasis on collective creation, the manifestations of which pertain both to the manner in which the artists approach their dramaturgical material “collectively” as a “co-writing” body and to the intended reception of the spectacle by an spectator-agent, co-participant in and co-maker of the event of performance.
Avra Sidiropoulou
Comparative Drama
Western Michigan University
Volume 52, Number 1 & 2, Spring & Summer 2018
pp. 159-180
Abstract
Aeschylus’ trilogy has been the locus of directorial attention from as early as the 1980s. Presenting the play today is generally a guilt-free act of celebration and reaffirmation of Western humanist values, which foregrounds the contrast between autocracy and the validity of public voice. This essay will explore some of the challenges involved in staging The Oresteia in a world that is increasingly becoming socially, politically and culturally “tyrannized”, while still under the guise of democratic identity.
Many contemporary readings have served the play’s textual dynamics, choosing, however, to update the setting of the action and the portrayal of the characters in ways that ultimately encourage direct and popular, if often reductionist parallels with specific totalitarian regimes. While for any director the enemy of literalness is always present, for the director of the Oresteia in particular, the stakes of interpreting a text whose explicit political statement is part of its appeal are even higher.
Ironically, complications of a different nature arise when the Oresteia –with all its allusions to the devastating effects of despotic rule—is produced within a political context that has suffered or is essentially suffering from state tyranny. In this case, any director wishing to engage with the tragedy is probably faced with the dangers of mounting a text that inspired the birth and progress of civic justice throughout the history of modern civilization. The question of directorial ethics emerges potently when the choice to affirm and illuminate or reversely, subtly revise and edit out certain “loaded” parts of the text, becomes a political act of resistance. Ultimately, whether through application of allegory and symbolism, or a more thorough operation of rewriting and adapting, directing the Oresteia today is a brave, if risky, undertaking, a commitment to an awareness of the special conditions that brought the text about as well as of the complexities of 21st century societies, which are progressively being de-democratized.
MAY 11-21 2023, HERE ARTS CENTER, NEW YORRK
Crafted in the heat of the momentous year 2020, from language found on the streets of the protest marches, in the hospitals during the Covid lock-down, and from the mouths of endangered fish in the sea, Troy Too is a contemporary dialogue with Euripides; The Trojan Women, the apocryphal play of mourning, out-rage and the dignity of lamentation. Greece’s finest classical actress, Lydia Koniordou, brings a modern and ancient Hecuba to life in English and ancient Greek. Greek director, Avra Sidiropoulou, known for her innovative multimedia stagings of modern and classical texts, bridges the divide to bring Troy Too formally and shockingly alive in an international production that cuts across languages and cultures. We are still there and there has as yet been no artistic reckoning. Troy Too by Karen Malpede, produced by Athens-based Persona Theatre Company and New York legendary Theatre Three Collaborative, is an enraged and poignant play of what we have survived, and a poetic elegy for those who did not. This angry yet beautiful communal lament has been lacking from public life.
Playwright: Karen Malpede
Director: Avra Sidiropoulou
Set Consultant-Lighting Design: Tony Giovannetti
Costume Designers: Carissa Kelly & Sally Ann Parsons
Composer: Vanias Apergis
Director of Photography- Video art: Michael Demetrius
Assistant Director: Elena Vannoni
Assistant Lighting Designer: Miriam Crowe
Production Team (Athens): Maria Hadjistylli, Tzoulia Kogkou, Katia Makrycosta
Production Manager: Jee Duman
Performers: Lydia Koniordou, Ilia Pappa (on film), Anthi Savvaki (on film), George Bartenieff (audio), Tommie J. Moore, Abigail Ramsay, Najla Said, David Glover, Ilker Oztop, Di Zhu, Chorus
Troy Too is made possible with the support of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation, Nina Kamberos, and Aspa & Andreas Andreades.
It was performed by:
Vasiliki Kypraiou, Neoklis Neokleous, Thanasis Drakopoulos, Fotis Apostolides, Myrto Kouyiali, Maria Povi, Leonidas Ellinas
Στις 16 Δεκεμβρίου 2018 και στις 20 Ιανουαρίου 2019
A man and a woman meet on an unnamed beach, exchanging experiences and emotions about a life that they gradually ask to live through each other. Berkoff’s violently versatile language captures the ultimate mental and psychological alienation of people today. Written with a biting sense of humor combined with tenderness and cynicism, it is the contemporary existential play par excellence.
The silence of God and loss of faith in Christianity do not, however, lead to nihilism, but to a profound need to test the limits of the human capacity for suffering and for accepting salvation as utopic. This endless search for meaning and communion with the Absent God, is what brings the spectator to the heart of Castellucci’s irreverent spirituality. As spectators, we are haunted by the sacrilegious imagery of the director’s godless universe, his post-apocalyptic spaces, the archetypical patterns from the Old Testament recurring and the tortured quest for the spiritual. Through his philosophical and imagistic “iconoclasm”, however, we come closer to his idea that “You can best speak to God when you think he does not exist.” Ultimately, in Castellucci’s work the spiritual becomes an act of transgression: the spectator is disoriented and destabilized constantly, oscillating between faith and tragedy, salvation and dejection, as he or she is made to access his or her own relationship to God in a world that seems more than ever devoid of meaning.
Τhis essay aims to provide a framework for exploring the current cultural landscape of Cyprus, with special emphasis on cultural policy and innovative practices in contemporary theatre performance. It elaborates on the pressing need for Cypriot theatre to forge a revised cultural and artistic identity that takes into account the unique geographical, social, political, and economic circumstances of the country, all through its troubled history. Considering specific instances of recent experimental work in performance as well as dramatic writing, further to presenting viable initiatives undertaken by major cultural and educational institutions of the Cypriot state, the article acknowledges the progress that has already been achieved with regards to current practice’s marked emphasis on more daring thematic, aesthetic and formal criteria for making meaningful theatre.
In Playing Offstage. The Theatre as a Presence or Factor in Real Life. Homan, Sidney, editor. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. (pp. 87-100)
“Directing and Leadership: Endorsing the Stage to Generate Collaboration and Creativity Within Corporate Contexts”.
In Playing Offstage. The Theatre as a Presence or Factor in Real Life. Homan, Sidney, editor. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. (pp. 87-100)
The art of directing and the practice of leadership in any environment where the latter is an indispensable component –ranging from corporations to public administration to educational and sports settings—seem by definition interdependent: directors must command and influence their producers, actors and designers, be sensitive to their needs and yet, never lose sight of how authority actually brings security and comfort to the group. At the antipodes, good managers, athletic coaches or teachers are primarily instigators of inspiration and trust: they move, manipulate and oftentimes cajole, “staging” the performance of shared communication, while cultivating the circumstances that will ideally make the team accept, own and serve one person’s vision, piece of knowledge or insight.
This essay brings to the fore strategies and principles inherent in stage directing that are essentially applied in everyday life, where the delicate balance between delegation and control, stimulation and restraint is constantly being interrogated. Examples from a variety of known techniques reflecting a broader attitude towards the philosophy and actual skill of leadership, will be analyzed with a view to investigate the applicability of directing principles on non-artistic, yet equally dynamic settings, in which ingenuity, conviction and encouragement ultimately determine the landscape of achievement, creativity and value.
International Women Stage Directors
Edited by Anne Fliotsos and Wendy Vierow
University of Illinois Press, 2013
Μπορείτε να παρακολουθήσετε το βίντεο της διάλεξης εδώ: https://project-season.org/12-03-2019-Skinotetides-toy-20oy-kai-21oy-aiona
Abstract
Στο έργο Η Κυρά της Θάλασσας του Ίψεν, στοιχεία μύθου και αλληγορίας προβάλλονται σε ένα πλαίσιο που καθορίζεται από εικόνες ανοιχτού πελάγους και μακρινών οριζόντων, δημιουργώντας μια σχηματική απεικόνιση του υπαρξιακού τρόμου, καθώς και ισχυρά εικαστικές μεταφορές. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη και τη «στοιχειωμένη» φύση της εμπειρίας του θεατή, το κείμενο φαίνεται να αποτελεί ιδανικό υλικό για έναν σκηνοθέτη, καθώς ασπάζεται το φυσικό περιβάλλον τόσο έντονα, έτσι ώστε αυτό να γίνεται σταδιακά προέκταση των χαρακτήρων, υπογραμμίζοντας σημαντικούς σταθμούς στη ζωή τους και προσθέτοντας συναισθηματική και αισθητηρική υφή σε κάθε τι που λένε και κάνουν. Από την πλευρά του σκηνοθέτη και του αναγνώστη-θεατή, η αποκωδικοποίηση της εικονιστικής ταυτότητας του έργου γίνεται πρωτίστως μια εμπειρία εμβύθισης στο Νορδικό τοπίο –τόσο της φύσης όσο και του μυαλού.
現代演劇におけるギリシャ悲劇への再訪
Venue: Meiji Gakuin University, Shirokane Campus, Main Building 10F, Conference Hall
1-2-37 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8636
会場：明治学院大学 白金校舎本館10階大会議場（東京都港区白金台1－2－37）
ABSTRACT
For the past few decades, performances of Greek tragedy have become the locus of contention regarding the need for as well as future viability of ‘straight’ directorial readings. The heated debate raised annually at major international festivals on whether ‘solid’ versions of the Greek plays are in any way preferable to more adventurous adaptations is a reflection of artists’ and audiences’ broader ambivalence towards the “great narratives,” in general. While most directors staging Greek tragedy are always confronted with the ancient, fixed, and, in a sense no longer retrievable reality of antiquity, they also carry knowledge and experience of the plastic (to quote Roland Barthes) fragmentary present, which forces upon practitioners as well as spectators a different set of hermeneutic criteria.
This lectures investigates some of the major issues that relate to revisionist productions of Greek tragedy, with particular emphasis on the work of acclaimed Japanese auteur Tadashi Suzuki, whose interpretations of Euripides’ plays –capturing the post-traumatic contradictions of his native Japan—carry within them the paradox of a conflicting desire to remember and to change, to revive and to bury.
The Theatre of Ivo van Hove, Robert Lepage and the Wooster Group."
Bodies on Stage: Acting Confronted by Technology. Sorbonne Nouvelle. Paris, June 2015.
In recent theatre practice, attempts have been made and desires expressly voiced –from puppet theatre to robotic, cyborg, hybrid and/or intermedial performance— to create pieces of theatre that defy the gravitational limitations of live presence. The flexibility of theatre forms and of “theatricalizeable” material has in many cases rendered the actor’s body nearly obsolete.
The extensive use of multimedia forms, besides “updating” theatre’s “polyphonic system of information” (Barthes, 2000: 263), no doubt mirrors an instinct for self-preservation and brings to the fore ontological questions about the multiple facets of performativity in a post-humanist era. Furthering the understanding of the “text-ability” of any constituent element of the stage within the current postmodern, postdramatic paradigm, the paper dwells on the battle between a semiotically-bound self-reliant performance text as inscribed by technological simulacra and its phenomenological claim by the actor. The presentation focuses on examples taken from the multimedia work of Robert Lepage, Ivo van Hove and the Wooster Group, exploring the tension experienced by both performers –and by extension, spectators—when faced with their screened/duplicated/“ghosted” selves. In these directors’ work, the implication often becomes that digitized representations of the self –and by extension of the world— are frequently the only valid, if counterfeit, realities in postmodern, “post-existential” culture.
The example of Lepage, Van Hove and the Wooster Group is significant in defining a landscape where the technologically-informed mise-en-scene actually reflects a kind of nostalgia for the individual’s “pure” corporeality, which has in our times been further and relentlessly problematized by a multitude of cultural metaphors. While it is certainly worth investigating the ways in which the combination of video and live images can become “a visual metaphor of split subjectivity” (Causey in Auslander: 2008, 386), it is equally important to consider the reasons and conditions that have rendered technological mediation in performance an increasingly vital partner in the representation of contemporary identity.
It was part of a seminar at the Department of Literature and Theater studies at Tartu University, Estonia (April 21st 2015).
Norwegian Institute at Athens. April 2, 2015, 19.00 h.
the originality and value of the monograph lies. «Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method» makes for a comprehensive artistic manual on the directing discipline as well as a highly enjoyable read. It is addressed and will be of use to theatre students, professional and amateur directors, actors, playwrights and designers, but equally to theatre scholars and critics actively engaged in the contemporary theatre scene."
Στούρνα Αθηνά. Παράβασις (2016) 14.2: 325-7.
Avra Sidiropoulou, Authoring Performance. The Director in Contemporary
Theatre , σειρά: What Is Theatre?, σελ. 228 , New York, Palgrave Macmillan 2011, ISBN-10: 1137410116, ISBN-13: 978-1137410115 .
Το έργο πρωτοπαρουσιάστηκε σε μορφή θεατρικού αναλογίου στο Θέατρο Άλεκτον στην Αθήνα, στα πλαίσια της 1ης διοργάνωσης του θεσμού του Θεατρικού Αναλογίου. Τους ρόλους του κυρίου και της κυρίας Μπράουν ερμήνευσαν ο Κώστας Καζάκος και η Ρούλα Πατεράκη.
“Spaces of Loss: Heterotopic Scenographies in Contemporary European Theatre Practice”
School of English
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
International Conference: The Politics of Space and the Humanities
15-17 December 2017
Abstract
Whether it houses private concerns or public disquiet, contemporary performance space has become an echo chamber of anxiety and desire, reflecting the multiple raptures between the individual and its environment. It also foregrounds perennial ambiguities that relate to how we perceive the world around us, a world that paradoxically appears more global and yet more isolated than ever. In the work of many experimental directors, it expands and distends to allow for allegory to enter the domain of the private, while, in some cases, intermedial design forms relentlessly interrogate the loss of identity in an increasingly dehumanized world. Theatrical space, consequently, becomes intensely heterotopic –“counter-sites” and “places outside of all places”, as Foucault would argue—engaging the audience in a visceral understanding of what lies within, underneath and beyond the solid structures of stage design.
Productions by European enfants terribles Ivo van Hove, Thomas Ostermeier, and Romeo Castelluci, among others, use set design both as a physical environment and a mental landscape –featuring spaces of tentative intimacy and surveillance, but also of sexuality, obsession and void. For some, scenography is a witness to the decay of humanistic values, bearing testimony to an ailing society and to a time of profound ideological unrest. For others, it becomes an opportunity for introspection and real community. For all of them, scenography is an invitation to an immersive experience of both loss and reconstitution –of metaphysical and civic identity, actual or imagined homelands and emotional connection.
Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis: Staging 21st Century Tragedies. Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis examines ways in which the political, ecological and social tragedies of our century are being negotiated on international stages. The globally reemerging practice of politically engaged art-a "Theatre of Crisis"-represents our century's equivalent to the genre of classical tragedy.
Using an interdisciplinary perspective, the book discusses participatory, immersive and documentary theatre practices that emerged in the public sphere-creating the theatre of "modern tragedy". The coexistence of scholarly essays with provocative manifestos, interviews, original works, theatre texts and diaries by theatre artists is meant to provide a multifocal, rich lens for performance analysis and a better understanding of the creative process. This new international collection, to be published by Routledge in 2022, consists of essays, interviews, plays and manifestos by leading academics, artists, writers and curators.
"It is time for new rules and new coalitions. It’s time to move beyond “post's” and “meta's” and create a vital present. What the pandemic exposed was a burning need to create, to express, to connect in a raw sort of way, focusing less on production values and more on story, on emotions, on the truths that we keep from each other."
Guest editors: Adam J. Ledger ([email protected]) and Avra Sidiropoulou ([email protected]).
Training Grounds editor: Thomas Wilson ([email protected]).