Rinio Kyriazi
Rinio Kyriazi was born in Ioannina, Greece. She is a graduate of the National Theatre of Greece and the Department of Early Childhood Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has been trained in Mirka Gementzakis’ voice method, Kristin Linklater’s “freeing the natural voice” method at Columbia University of New York, and Roy Hart’s method (with Jonathan Hart) at the New York University and the Roy Hart Centre.
Since 2008, she has been teaching acting at the ARCHI Drama School (Nelly Karra). Since 2014, she also teaches at the Athens Drama School of George Theodosiadis. Between 2010 and 2013, she taught courses at the School of Drama of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, returning in that capacity in 2017.
Kyriazi was the vocal coach in Aeschylus’ The Persians, directed by Dimiter Gotscheff for the National Theatre of Greece (Epidaurus Festival 2009) and in Sophocles’Electra, directed by Dimitris Xanthopoulos, for which performance she also created soundscapes. She was the vocal coach for a number of productions at the Antonis Antypas’ Aplo Theatre and the Neos Kosmos Theatre in Athens.
She directed F. G. Lorca’s The Butterfly’s Evil Spell for the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Ioannina and the performance Between Faliro and Korydallos for the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.
Kyriazi is the author of the play Ursa Major (published by “Rodakio”). She has also translated Alexandra Badea’s play Extremophile in Greek.
As an actress, she has worked with directors Dimiter Grotscheff, Lefteris Voyatzis, Yiannis Houvardas, Thodoris Gonis, Nikos Flessas, Victor Ardittis, Elisabeth Marie, Aspa Tompouli, Avra Sidiropoulou, Nikos Kamontos, Dimitris Bitos, Nikos Chatzipapas, Anna Synodinou, and Dionysis Savvopoulos.
Kyriazi performed in Fevgousa Kori (Fleeing Daughter), a production directed by Mirka Gementzaki, based on Alexandros Papadiamantis’ short story A Soul. She has done extensive research on fairy tales, laments and lullabies of the Greek region of Epirus. In 2007, she was nominated for the Melina Mercouri award for her performance in Fevgousa Kori.
Workshop
The voice in modern Greek mourning rituals, its connections with antiquity and its uses on the stage
When faced with contemporary stagings of ancient drama, an inexhaustible area of research, we are compelled to confront ourselves and provide our personal answers on the matter at hand. The staging of great ancient dramas at the open performance spaces of ancient theatres is tantamount to a struggle, full of tension and contradictions. The open space demands a voice that is both technically brilliant and devoid of mannerisms. It calls upon a primal source and simultaneously demands a “here and now.” It immerses one in the abyssal waters of the past and catapults one to the future.
In this seminar, the use of voice will be examined through the living tradition of laments that bring together contemporary and ancient Greece: voice as an ancient cry that traverses the ages and leaves its mark upon songs of mourning. Using breathing exercises, sound forms, melodies and text, the goal will be to transform participants’ bodies into a contemporary speaker that echoes the past. We are looking for a voice that is ancient yet fresh and new, much like in the description of fountains by the Greek poet Dionysios Solomos: “Water clean and sweet, charming as it flows into the sweet-smelling abyss and steals its musk, releases its mist, presents the riches of its source under the sun and flies here and there, like a nightingale.”
The seminar will be held in collaboration with ethnologist Miranda Terzopoulou. It is intended for actors and/or students of drama schools. Previous vocal training, singing or music education is not required.