EDUCATIONAL ART
15 – 30 July
Parodos
EPIDAURUS – The Lessons
In Epidaurus, a place associated with ancient drama, the Athens Epidaurus Festival is set to organise two summer workshops of artistic research on Attic tragedy and comedy under the supervision of distinguished artists.
The workshops will focus primarily on the subject ‘Chorus/Chorality’, approaching Chorus – a basic contributor in ancient Greek dramaturgy – through the study of the speech, the voice, and the movement, as well as through the contemporary notion of Chorality.
The workshops’ aim is the in situ understanding of ancient drama’s precious material in regard to the Argolian landscape and community: Lessons in Epidaurus ‘with’ Epidaurus, for emerging artists that are invited to share a special experience in a place-palimpsest with consecutive layers of ancient and contemporary memories.
Curation – Scientific supervision Dio Kaggelari
Coordination – Co-curation Isavella-Dimitra Karouti
General supervision Michail Marmarinos
Workshops instruction:
Workshop Α΄
‘Choreiai’ Mario Banushi (with the participation of Savvina Giannatou) (15 – 29/7)
‘The Nonverbal Internal Communication of a Team’ Konstantinos Ntellas (21-23/7)
‘Acting as Musical Interpretation in Ancient Drama ’ Dimitris Kamarotos (15 – 29/7)
Workshop Β΄
‘Ancient Drama… a Drama. From the Mythical & the Monstruous to the Human & the Ridiculous’ Euripides Laskaridis (15-20/7)
‘Epidaurus – Memories’ Daphnis Kokkinos in collaboration with Konstantinos Ntellas (21-30/7)
‘The Embodied Voice as Meeting Point’ Konstantinos Thomaidis (15-20/7)
‘From Ear to Body: A method for auditory restart’ Dimitra Trypani (21-25 /7)
‘The Action of Sound: Musical Dramaturgy & Scenic Composition’ Theodore Ampazis (26-29/7)
Common Workshops Α’ & Β’
Masterclass ‘Achilles Katharsis: From Myth to the Ritual of the Body’ Donald Kitt (Nido Lab) , Fanis Katehos (Fabrica Athens Multi-active Art Group)
‘The Theatrical Body in Readiness’ Tasos Karachalios
Philological support Giannis Konstantakos
Dramaturgy Masterclass: Stefanie Carp
‘Chorus/Chorality’ Masterclass Dio Kaggelari
Executive Production POLYPLANITY Productions
The Athens Epidaurus Festival dedicates this cycle of LESSONS to the 90 years since the birth of the founder of του ΟDIN Teatret Eugenio Barba.
The lessons are part of the interdisciplinary art and research Programme PARODOS which is funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture’s ‘International Network of Ancient Drama’.
WHOM IT CONCERNS
THE LESSONS are addressed to young actors and dancers and, in general, young artists in visual arts, drama and dance school graduates, as well as graduates of university departments with a focus on acting, dance, or directing.
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
Up to 20 participants per workshop (Α’ & Β’).
Overall number of participants ≈ 40
LANGUAGE
Greek, English
FEES-ACCOMODATION
Participation fee: 280 euro.
The fee includes: workshop fees, accommodation (in four- or five-person apartments in the area of Lygourio, Argolis), transportation from Athens to Lygourio and back, programmed transportation within Argolis, food (breakfast and one more meal), visits to sites of cultural interest according to the programme, attending performances within the context of the Festival at Epidaurus during the workshops’ dates, meeting with the productions’ contributors, etc.
After the electronic notification of acceptance to the workshops, those interested will receive an analytic daily programme and information about payment methods and the deadline for fee reimbursement.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION
Those interested are invited to submit their application through the official form of expression of interest, which includes:
- Contact information
- Brief biographical note 150 words
- Full CV / portfoliο
- A motivation letter (up to 250 words) explaining the reasons the candidate is interested in the LESSONS and the choice of workshop (A΄or Β΄).
- A portrait photograph
Additional information may be requested during the selection process.
During the selection process, the workshops’ instructors will take into account the submitted information, in addition to their own conception of the teams’ composition.
TIMELINE
Deadline for submission: until Friday 12 June 2026, time 14:00
Notification of acceptance: 22 June 2026
SITES OF WORKSHOPS
The lessons will take place in Epidaurus’ natural environment as well as indoors (cultural centres of the area, etc.).
INSTRUCTORS’ BIOS (alphabetically)
Theodore Ampazis
He was born in Athens in 1967.
With a scholarship from the A. Onassis Foundation, he studied Music Composition, Orchestral Conducting, and Musical Theatre at the Utrecht Conservatory (1986–1993). From 1993 to 1995, he studied Music Composition at the Bern Music Academy.
He has served as Artistic Director of the International Festival of Arts of Ancient Olympia (2020–2022), Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Greece (2016–2020), Artistic Director of the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Patras (2013–2016), and Artistic Director of the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala (2010–2013).
He has directed numerous theatre, opera, and musical theatre productions. He has composed music for theatre, cinema, symphonic works, opera, chamber music, dance, and more.
In addition to Greece, he has worked as a composer and director in Russia, Brazil, Egypt, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Lithuania. He teaches ‘Acting-Improvisation’ at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory, the ‘Delos’ Drama School, and the Drama School of the Piraeus Association.
Mario Banushi
Mario Banushi is an awarded theatre director whose practice moves between intimacy and myth, memory and family, articulated through a rigorously visual and non-verbal theatrical language.
Born in Greece and raised in Albania until the age of six, when he moved back to Greece, his artistic universe is shaped by displacement, family narratives, and a distinct visual sensibility. His works unfold without spoken text, inviting audiences into a sensory experience marked by visual poetry and emotional depth.
His early work Ragada, created during the pandemic lockdowns, marked the beginning of a practice developed outside conventional theatrical spaces.
His breakthrough piece Goodbye, Lindita quickly gained international attention, leading to sold-out performances and invitations to major festivals and theatres worldwide. This momentum continued with Taverna Miresia – Mario Bella Anastasia, which has toured extensively across Europe, North America, and Asia, establishing Banushi as a distinctive voice on the international stage.
His most recent work, MAMI, further expands his visual and poetic language and was presented at the Festival d’Avignon to widespread critical acclaim.
His work has been featured in The New York Times and the BBC, and reviewed by The Guardian, Le Monde, and Libération.
In 2025, he received the New Theatre Artist Award from the Hellenic Association of Theatre Critics, followed by the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2026.
Dimitris Kamarotos
Educated in Greece and France, he studied composition, clarinet, musicology and music analysis with Εmile Damais, Marc Battier, Maurice Jarre, and Iannis Xenakis. He worked at IRCAM and at the Contemporary Music Research Centre. With his music he contributes to the development of theatrical dramaturgy and directs performances focused on musical articulation and music. He has collaborated with many directors and especially with: L. Vogiatzis, D. Karantzas, M. Marmarinos, V. Papavasileiou, Ν. Milivojevitc, in performances staged at the National Theatre, Epidaurus, international festivals and organisations. His music moves between contemporary musical idioms, from the natural/vocal to the electroacoustic/acousmatic and jazz.
Tasos Karachalios
He was born in Athens. He graduated with honors from the National School of Dance (KSOT) as well as from the TEFAA of the University of Thessaly. In 2005, as a scholarship holder of the Foundation ‘A. Onassis’, he participated in the danceweb program of the Impulstanz Festival in Vienna. As a dancer and an actor he has collaborated with: Dimitris Karantzas, Michail Marmarinos, Konstantinos Rigos (dance-theater Oktana), Giannis Skourletis (bijoux de kant), Angeliki Stellatou, Jan Fabre, Lenia Zafeiropoulou, Dimitris Papaioannou, Apostolia Papadamaki (Quasistellar), Antonis Foniadakis, George Sachinis, Stavros Tsakiris, Maria Gorgia, Ioanna Portolou (Griffon), Persa Stamatopoulou, Markella Manoliadi, Costas Tsioukas, Antonis Antonopoulos etc. As a choreographer in the theatrical field he has collaborated with D. Karantzas, M. Marmarinos, Th. Papakonstantinou, G. Skourletis, O. Papaspiliopoulos, etc. As a movie actor he has collaborated with David Cronenberg on the remake of Crimes of the future.
Since 2008 he has been teaching movement and improvisation to dancers and actors. He has taught: the choreography course at the TEFAA of the University of Thessaly. The movement and improvisation course at the Drama School of the National Theatre, at Nelli Karra’s Drama School Archi, at the Drama School Iasmos / Vasilis Diamantopoulos and at the private professional Dance School Chorochronos. The course of applied anatomy at the National School of Dance (KSOT) and at the private professional Dance School Aktina.
Fanis Katehos (Fabrica Athens Multi-active Art Group)
Director, actor, and creator of the ‘Theater of Research’ methodology. Fabrica Athens serves as the official Itinerant Centre of the Fondazione Barba Varley in Greece, acting as a bridge to the work and legacy of Eugenio Barba.
Donald Kitt (Nido Lab)
International theater pedagogue, director, and performer. He has been a long-standing actor of the iconic Odin Teatret (Denmark) until 2022. To the masterclass he brings his invaluable, decades-long experience of the international laboratory theater.
Daphnis Kokkinos
Daphnis Kokkinos was born in Heraklion, Crete. He is a graduate of the National School of Dance, and served as its Artistic Director from September 2020 until summer 2025.
After his studies, he danced at Zouzou Nikoloudi’s Chorika, at the Greek Art Theatre’s Birds, and from 1989 to 1992 at the Folkwang Tanzstudio, under Pina Bausch. Since 1993 he has been a permanent contributor of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, while, from 2002, he was the iconic choreographer’s personal assistant and after her death in 2009 he became rehearsal director.
During the last 24 years, as part of his international career, he performs on stage or prepares works for ‘Pina Bausch’, including ‘Iphigenie aufTauris’, ‘Sacre du printemps’, ‘Kontakthof’ , ‘Arien’, ‘1980’, ‘Bandoneo’, ‘Two Cigarettes in the Dark’, ‘Viktor’, ‘Ahnen’, ‘Palermo–Palermo’, ‘Tanzabend’, ‘Bamboo Blues’, ‘Agua’, ‘Masurca Fogo’, ‘Danzon’, etc., and is a dance instructor, having organised workshops in Greece, Turkey, Korea, Italy, Sweden, Chile, etc.
Euripides Laskaridis
Euripides Laskaridis is a director, performer and visual artist working across theatre, dance and contemporary art. Through a distinctive stage language that combines the grotesque with the poetic, he creates works around transformation, ridicule and human vulnerability. He is the founder of Osmosis, the company through which he has developed an internationally recognized body of work, including performances, visual art installations and hybrid artistic projects. His works Relic, Titans, Elenit and Lapis Lazuli have been presented in more than thirty countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, touring widely in major international festivals and theatres. His work has been hosted by leading institutions including the Athens Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Stegi, London’s Barbican Pit, New York’s Public Theater, Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville and Palais de Tokyo, the Lyon Biennale de la Danse, Festival TransAmériques in Montreal, Julidans in Amsterdam and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Recipient of the inaugural Pina Bausch Fellowship, he expanded his artistic presence across six continents. His work has been internationally acclaimed, with Libération describing him as the ‘enfant terrible’ of Greek performing arts. Alongside his artistic creations, he is regularly invited internationally to share his practice through workshops and artist talks.
Konstantinos Ntellas
Konstantinos Ntellas is a stage director, researcher, and performer.
He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Peloponnese (School of Fine Arts, Department of Theatre Studies in Nafplio) and holds a master’s degree in ‘Theatre and Society: Theory, Performance Practice and Pedagogy’.
His work has been presented in Greece and internationally, in both theatrical venues and non-theatrical sites, including factories, churches, public squares, museums, and archaeological spaces.
He leads workshops in Greece and internationally, approaching the Chorus of Greek Tragedy through processes that cultivate collective formation and empowerment, drawing on tools derived from ritual folk practices and traditional modes of expression.
As a researcher, he has engaged in anthropological inquiry within the field of folklore, focusing on the documentation of customs, songs, and dances from diverse local communities across Greece. His work further explores the creative use of research methodologies and primary material that emerging from interviews within the context of performance.
In 2025, he was awarded the 1st Prize for Direction of a Greek Play (Karolos Koun Award 2024/25) by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Music Critics.
Konstantinos Thomaidis
Konstantinos Thomaidis is an actor, director, musician and researcher. He holds a Ph.D. in intercultural voice pedagogy from the University of London, and trained with companies such as Gardzienice, Piesn Kozla, Odin and Zar (Grotowski Institute) and in methods such as Estill. He founded the Centre for Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies and the Routledge Voice Studies book series. His books include Voice Studies (Routledge, 2015), Theatre & Voice (Bloomsbury, 2017), and Contemporary Voice and Music Training for Actors (Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece, 2024). He has taught voice and sound/music dramaturgy at drama schools and universities such as the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Norwegian Theatre Academy, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece. His most recent artistic work includes the monologue A Voice Is. A Voice Has. A Voice Does. (actor/director), the play The Events (music director, Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera), and the film Mother Company (director/choral music composer), which screened at international festival and won the Best Artists’ Award at the UK, BAFTA-qualifying festival Aesthetica. He is Associate Professor of Voice, Theatre & Performance at the University of Exeter.
https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/25704-konstantinos-thomaidis
@thomaidiskonstantinos
Dimitra Trypani
Dimitra Trypani studied composition at the University of Edinburgh (MMus and PhD with distinction) with Nigel Osborne, and Greek philology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. As a composer, she is involved in the creation of contemporary musical theatre works, aiming to eliminate the ‘seams’ between music and speech, using ‘choral’ polyphony and polyrhythm as her primary tools. She was Composer in Residence at the Paxos Festival for seven years. From 2017 till 2025 she was an ongoing collaborator of the Greek National Opera since 2017, both as a music educator and as a composer and director, running many large scale workshops for both educators and students of all levels and also having many of her music theatre works performed there. She has taught composition, ear training, and interdisciplinary performance techniques at many universities in Greece, the UK and Italy, and has conducted dozens of workshops on her auditory reboot method ‘From Ear to Body’. This year, she has begun her collaboration with the National Theatre, with an annual workshop cycle on her method. She is a Professor of Theory and Composition with Interdisciplinary Practices at the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University.
The application period has passed.
