Phillip Zarrilli
Phillip Zarrilli, Emeritus Professor at the Drama Department of the University of Exeter, is an internationally acclaimed director, performer, and actors’ trainer who has developed a unique training process through yoga and Asian martial arts. He is the founding artistic director of the Llanarth Group, whose innovative new performances, such as Playing ‘the maids’ and Told by the Wind, have received critical acclaim and have been presented in Portugal, The Grotowski Institute (Wroclaw, Poland), Tokyo, Chicago, and Berlin. He recently directed Semblance… spectre… sequel…, based on Beckett’s Play and Footfalls, in association with The National Theatre Company of Costa Rica (2017), and Ota Shogo’s The Water Station with Nordland Teater of Norway (2015).
He regularly runs workshops at his private studio in West Wales. This year he teaches and directs acting students at the Norwegian Theatre Academy and Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore). He is the author of the award-winning book Psychophysical Acting: An Intercultural Approach after Stanislavsky, published by Routledge. He is currently under contract with Routledge to author a new book, titled Towards a Phenomenology of Acting. Numerous Greek actors and performers have studied under Zarrilli during the years he ran the MA/MFA programme in Theatre Practice at the University of Exeter.
Workshop
“Making the body all eyes”
This intensive two-and-a-half-day workshop explores the pre-performative preparation of the actor’s body, mind, and sensory awareness. During this introductory workshop, psychophysical exercises drawn from Chinese Tai Chi, the Kerala, India martial art kalarippayattu, and yoga will bring the actor/performer to an optimal state of attention, focus, and sensory awareness. The workshop will conclude with application exercises in which the principles of the training will be applied to performance in the form of structured improvisations.
Roza Prodromou (assistant to Mr. Zarrili)
Roza Prodromou studied physical theatre at the University of Huddersfield, UK (Phillip Zarrilli, Nicolás Núñez, 2000). She holds a master’s degree in intercultural theatre from the University of Exeter (Ph. Zarrilli, 2002). In 2007, she studied and worked in Berlin with Butoh choreographer Minako Seki. She lives in Athens, where she works as a performer, instructor of physical theatre (Quilombo Centro Cultural), and kinesiologist. She draws principally on improvisation and humour for her research.
Recent projects include: Albert Camus’ The Just Assassins (direction: Savvas Stroumpos, Memorial Site 1941-44), Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (direction: Anestis Azas, Athens Ancient Drama Festival, Attiko Alsos, 2011), Dourgouti Island Hotel by the Ochi Paizoume group (direction: George Sachinis, site-specific), Stavros Tsiolis’ film Women That Passed By (Here), the solo performance Pulsar (direction: John Britton, Bios, Theatro 104), Re-VoltAthens (direction: Elli Papakonstantinou, Vienna, Berlin, Zagreb, Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2016), Wind (direction: Konstantinos Rigos, National Theatre of Greece), Louisette: The Backstage of Revolution by Elli Papakonstantinou – ODC Ensemble (Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2017).
Maria-Olga Athinaiou (assistant to Mr. Zarrilli)
Maria-Olga Athinaiou was born in Athens in 1978. She is a graduate of the Higher Drama School “Morfes” (Embros Theatre). In Berlin, she was trained on a work method developed by Russian director Jurij Alschitz’s (AKT-ZENT / I.T.I. / UNESCO), and collaborated with him as an actress. In Wales, she was guided by Phillip Zarrilli into exploring actors’ psychosomatic capabilities through Asian martial arts. Furthermore, she was taught voice coaching by Mirka Gementzaki and Angela Brouskou, and received a specialization in educational theatre from the Theatre Workshop Porta – Xenia Kalogeropoulou. She is currently a student of Process Oriented Psychology, an interdisciplinary, therapeutic approach of human experience based on Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, quantum physics, and Taoism. Athinaiou investigates the relationship between the abovementioned therapeutic approach and actors’ training, the implementation of theatrical techniques in the rehabilitation of marginalized social groups (prison and institution inmates, individuals with altered states of consciousness), and artistic practices with a focus on trauma recovery.
Her credits as an actress include: Anaparastasi (Reconstruction) and Topophilia (site-specific performances, direction by Anna Tzakou, Geopoetics group, Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece, Benaki Museum), Euripides’ The Bacchae (direction by Angela Brouskou, Athens & Epidaurus Festival), Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Albert Camus’ The Just Assassins (direction by Savvas Stroumpos, Attis Theatre, Memorial Site 1941-1944, Athens), et al. She supervises and teaches at the Theatre Education Workshop for children and adolescents of the Athens Conservatoire Drama School.
Her work is driven by a belief in the power of theatre as an art of awareness par excellence, invaluable in our modern world, both on a physical and a spiritual level.