PARODOS

Studio Residency in Little Epidaurus

Interdisciplinary research programme on ancient drama, aiming to renewed approaches to dramaturgy, stage/scenic forms and creative processes

 

Since the 1970s, research on ancient drama has been focusing primarily on directing and the art of acting. However, with our current era’s demand for a fresh, renewed perspective on ancient texts, it is important that we revisit the question of dramaturgy, define it in new terms and experiment with new forms. With that in mind, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival launches PARODOS, an interdisciplinary studio residency programme, intent on giving the opportunity to a group of artists with different backgrounds in performing arts to explore dramaturgical approaches to ancient Greek drama under ideal conditions and, perhaps more importantly, in situ.

The programme is not intended for individual artists but for a complete artistic team, consisting of a director, dramaturge, choreographer, composer, visual artist, and performers. The team may be already existing or formed especially for the programme. The group of artists will be selected through an open call and will be invited to develop new dramaturgical perspectives, with the support of a dynamic group of mentors.

The practice-based research will unfold in two stages: the first stage, ‘Research’, will take place in Athens at Peiraios 260, for four weeks. For the second stage, ‘Implementation’, the selected group of artists will be given access to the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus for a total of three weeks.

Participation in the programme is free of charge.

 

Programme structure

The programme is divided into two stages. The first stage will take place in Athens, whereas the second stage will take place in Epidaurus. Attendance of both stages is mandatory. Most of the programme will be conducted in English.

 

First stage – Research

The Athens & Epidaurus Festival will provide Hall B at Peiraios 260, free of charge, for a total of four weeks.

 

Second stage – Implementation

The Athens & Epidaurus Festival will give participants access to the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus and an extra rehearsal space in Ancient Epidaurus for a total of three weeks.

 

Extra provisions/facilities

During the studio residency, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival will provide participants with the following:

  • Free attendance of the Festival programme for the members of the selected artistic group.
  • Free accommodation in Ancient Epidaurus for the members of the artistic group during the second stage.
  • Per diem for the members of the artistic group during the second stage.
  • Basic sound and lighting equipment for the rehearsals.
  • Access to the wardrobe and props of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival for basic set and costume design requirements.
  • Funding of up to 1,500 euros for technical requirements. Relevant documents are required.

 

Proposal submission and evaluation process

The Athens & Epidaurus Festival will invite artistic groups to submit their proposals as soon as the schedule of this year’s programme can be determined with some degree of certainty.

In order to be eligible, submitted proposals must obligatorily include professionals of the following specialisations: directors, dramaturges, choreographers, composers, performers (actors / dancers / musicians). The artistic group can include up to 12 persons maximum.

The Artistic Director of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival will select one artistic group in collaboration with the team of mentors. Selected artists will participate in all stages of the programme, as described above. During the programme, participants will be guided to the study and practical implementation of their dramaturgical approach to an ancient Greek drama or ancient Greek text.

Special emphasis will be placed to the research process, which is expected to lead to an open presentation in the form of an open rehearsal / work in progress rather than a complete performance. The programme will come to a close with a discussion between the members of the artistic team, the mentors and the Artistic Director of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival.

For submission and evaluation of the proposals, participants are required to fill in the electronic form that will be uploaded on the Athens & Epidaurus Festival website as soon as the programme dates are finalised.

 

Mentors team

Dramaturgy

Matthias Pees Dramaturge, Artistic Director of Mousonturm, Frankfurt

Matthias Pees studied literature and philosophy at the University of Hamburg. From 1990 to 1995 he wrote theatre reviews as a freelance journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Berliner Zeitung and the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, among others. From 1995 to 2000 he was dramaturge at Frank Castorf’s Volksbühne in Berlin where he worked with Christoph Schlingensief (Battle for Europe I-XLII Ufokrise ’97, Hotel Prora – Overnight at Chance 2000) and Castorf (dirty hands, demons, Hauptmanns Weber and others).

From 2000 to 2003, Pees was dramaturge at the Schauspielhaus Hannover under the direction of Wilfried Schulz. In 2001 he worked for Nicolas Stemann on staging Hamlet, which was also presented at the Berlin Festival in 2002. In 2003 Pees was appointed as the programme dramaturge and curator for the Ruhr Festival.

From 2004 to 2010 he was the managing director of Produçoes Artísticas Internacionais in São Paulo. He realised and designed numerous dance, theatre and opera productions, working with Christoph Schlingensief (Flying Dutchman in Manaus), Frank Castorf, Dimiter Gotscheff, Rimini Protokoll, Gob Squad, andcompany & Co., and She She Pop. Additionally, he has been the artistic adviser for Latin American Theatre at the Wiener Festwochen and the curator of Latin American Theatre Festivals at Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin. From 2010 to 2013, Pees worked as senior dramaturge for the Drama Department of the Wiener Festwochen under the artistic direction of Luc Bondy and Stefanie Carp, Head of Drama Department.

Matthias Pees was appointed artistic and managing director of the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, an international production house for performing arts in Frankfurt/ Main- Germany, on August 2013.

Stefan Bläske Head of Dramaturgy at the NTGent

Dr. Stefan Bläske, born 1976 in Germany, is head of dramaturgy at NTGent. He studied theatre and media studies, philosophy, politics and administrative science and did his PhD at the university of Vienna on “Self-reflection and Media Reflection in contemporary theatre”. 2009 to 2011 he worked as a theatre critic for nachtkritik.de and others. Later, he was a dramaturge for the state theatre in Munich (Residenztheater) and taught at several universities and arts schools such as Otto Falckenberg School Munich or Zurich University of the Arts.

He has been working as a dramaturge with Milo Rau and the IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder from 2014 to 2018, in independent productions such as  Empire (co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels) as well as in German city theatres such as Schaubühne Berlin (Compassion and Lenin). His first project in Ghent was Five Easy Pieces, produced by CAMPO, which won several prizes in Europe and was invited to the Theatertreffen festival in Berlin. The German theatre critics selected Stefan Bläske as dramaturge of the year (Theater heute) in 2017.

At NTGent, he did dramaturgy for Lam Gods and Orestes in Mosul (Milo Rau) and worked on Histoire du théâtre II (Faustin Linyekula) and her(e) (Dalilla Hermans).

 

Directing

TBA

 

Musical composition

Thanasis Deligiannis Composer, Director, Performer

Thanasis was born in Larisa, Greece, in 1983 and grew up in a family of traditional musicians. Since 2007 he lives in Amsterdam, where he completed his studies in composition and music theatre. During the years 2017-2019 he was artist in residence at Gaudeamus under the programme Nieuwe Makers by the Performing Arts Fund NL. In 2018 he was assistant to Heiner Goebbels at Manchester International Festival, and he got selected as a maker at Silbersee’s atelier Spr!tzl in Amsterdam. In 2017-2018 he worked at the Tanztheater Wuppertal – Pina Bausch Company as a member of Dimitris Papaioannou’s creative team. For the years 2016-2017 he has been artistic coordinator of the music theatre research platform RE-FUSE, an initiative of the Greek National Opera in collaboration with Gaudeamus. Thanasis has worked as assistant artistic director for the Nieuw Ensemble from 2011 till 2014 and artistic coordinator of the Atlas Lab from 2011 till 2016. Since 2011 he is coordinator of the Composers’ Festival of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, while since 2018 he is being giving the course Transdisciplinary Approaches. In 2013 he co-founded the Amsterdam-based company I/O together with a team of artists of various backgrounds, focused on the creation of interdisciplinary performances. He has been collaborating as a composer, stage director and performer with music ensembles and theatre companies in Europe, Asia and North America.

 

Dimitra Trypani Composer, Assistant Professor, Department of Music Studies, Ionian University

Dimitra Trypani studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Nigel Osborne and Greek literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

As a composer she focuses on the creation of interdisciplinary music performances, using strictly structured polyrhythmic and heterophonic patterns both in music and speech. She has collaborated with acclaimed orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists. Works of hers have been performed in many countries (UK, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Russia, South Africa, USA) and several well-known venues (Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, The Athens Concert Hall, the Onassis Cultural Centre, the Experimental Stage of the Greek National Opera House at the SNFCC.)

She is the founder and main composer of Τhe NQR Ensemble, an experimental music group based in Athens. For the past seven years Dimitra has been Composer in Residence of the Paxos Music Festival. In 2018 her original music for the animation film “THE OX” by director Giorgos Nikopoulos was a nominee in the Best Soundtrack in Feature Film category, in the European Animation Awards (“Emile Awards”) 2018. She has taught composition, ear training and interdisciplinary music practices in various universities in Greece and the UK. She is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University, Greece. Her most recent work was the music theatre performance “The Silent One” (Amiliti), with poetic text by Pantelis Boukalas, was performed at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC, in October 2019.

 

Dance

Amalia Bennett Dancer, Choreographer

Amalia Bennett graduated from the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London in 1993. Since then, she has been based in Greece. She worked for 15 years as a dancer and assistant to the choreographer with the Oktana Dance Theatre. Since 1999, she has been working as a theatre choreographer, primarily for the National Theaters of Athens and Thessaloniki. She has also worked in productions for the Onassis Cultural Centre and the Athens Festival. Outside Greece, she has choreographed productions in China, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Germany, United States, Serbia, and Turkey.

Amalia has also been teaching movement for actors since 1994. She has worked in the National Drama Schools of Athens and Thessaloniki, The Academy of the Arts in Novi Sad, Serbia, and is currently teaching at the Conservatory of Music and Drama in Athens.

 

Lecturers

Giannis Asteris Translator, Author

Stefanie Carp Dramaturge, Artistic Director of Ruhrtriennale, Artistic Collaborator of

Athens & Epidaurus Festival

Nikos Panagiotopoulos Poet, Translator


Research associate

Helene Varopoulou Theatrologist, Critic

Helene Varopoulou is a theatrologist, translator and essayist. Since 1974, she has been active as a theatre critic and journalist for several newspapers, including Avgi, Proini Eleftherotypia, Mesimvrini and mainly To Vima, for which she specialised in European cultural subjects. She wrote articles for many international magazines and special publications (Drama Review, Theater der Zeit, Théâtre en Europe, Acteurs-Auters, Les Cahiers de la Comédie Française, Alternatives Théâtrales, Performance Research). Her books and texts have been published abroad. She has translated texts of Heiner Müller, Walter Benjamin, Hermann Broch, Goethe, Aeschylus and Euripides. She has taught theatre studies at the Universities of Athens, Patras, Thessaloniki, Frankfurt and Berlin. Varopoulou served as president of the Hellenic Centre of the International Theatre Institute. Moreover, she founded and was artistic director of Argos Festival. Varopoulou also introduced and shaped the Summer School of the National Theatre of Greece. In her capacity as art critic she has curated a series of exhibition at Institut français, Prague, Goethe Institut. She also served as special adviser for the advisory committee of Athens Concert Hall.