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Explore the richness of ancient Greek theatre through a series of workshops offered by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation.
Discover the wonderful world of ancient drama through the eyes of experienced theatre practitioners and educators, enrich your work as a creator or educator, and find out how to revitalise ancient drama through a modern approach.
Join the journey into the world of ancient Greek drama and let the theatre inspire you!
Workshops
The tragic or dramatic hero and the significance of the difference when staging ancient drama.
With the actor and director Varnavas Kyriazis.
The workshop will have two parts: a theoretical analysis of the meaning of the dramatic and the tragic hero, and the practical application of both, using selected texts.
The workshop is aimed at theatre practitioners.
Number of participants: up to 25
Creating, coordinating and choreographing a chorus/ensemble in ancient drama.
With choreographer and performer Panayiotis Tofi.
How can we coordinate a set of performers quickly and effectively? How can we move from chaos to coordination through a set of movements? How can we use the stage effectively? How can the integration of rhythmic patterns and emotions lead us as a whole to original kinetic qualities and phrases?
Through this workshop, we will explore practical tools for creating and coordinating a chorus/ensemble, focussing on its function in ancient drama in the context of today’s theatre.
Note: For this workshop, we recommend wearing loose-fitting clothes that allow movement and sports shoes.
The workshop is aimed at teachers involved in the staging of ancient drama.
Number of participants: up to 12
Ancient drama in the modern world: theatrical approaches to “Antigone”.
Taught by theatre educator Charis Polycarpou.
The workshop is based on Sophocles’ “Antigone” and offers a different approach to ancient drama from the methods traditionally followed in the educational system, showing how ancient drama can still be living theatre.
The workshop is aimed at teachers.
Number of participants: up to 25
Ancient Drama in school: from a first read-through to performance.
With theatre educator Thekla Karittevli.
A comprehensive review of the entire performance process from auditions and dramaturgy to opening night and the follow-up of the performance with the children.
The workshop will be largely experience-based, including activities related to speech training and character development, as well as setting up scenes and choral passages. The workshop will be based on an ancient dramatic text.
Practical worksheets will be given out.
The workshop is aimed at teachers.
Number of participants: up to 12
Gen Z Aristophanes.
With actor and director Kostas Silvestros.
Is Aristophanes still funny for today’s teenagers? What is the place of an ancient text in the age of TikTok? Gen Z is the first generation never to have experienced life without the Internet and social media.
Through a series of interactive exercises, director Kostas Silvestros and a small group of young people explore how ancient comedy can speak to today’s teens. The teachers at the workshop will have the opportunity to observe how a professional director approaches teaching Aristophanes to teenagers.
The process will end with teachers and teens discussing what they have watched and experienced.
The workshop is aimed at teachers.
Number of participants: up to 20
Physicality and prosody in Sophocles’ tragedy "Antigone".
With actor and director Neoklis Neokleous.
Through a theoretical and practical approach to the subject, the group will understand the content, philosophy and structure of Sophocles’ tragedy "Antigone". The practical teaching of the seminar will lead the teachers as well as the group as a whole to organise their own physicality-based field of research in relation to the meaning of the text.
Once the workshop is completed, the teachers will be able to understand how physicality interacts with speech in terms of its comprehension and articulation.
The workshop is aimed at teachers.
Number of participants: up to 20
Set and costume design in ancient tragedy.
With designer and teacher Stavros Antonopoulos.
Analysis of the crucial importance of the object, practical approaches, use of various materials, design and 3D models and functional solutions in the creation of both the stage space (technically structured or without an architectural identity) and costumes.
Sets and costumes are an important part of theatrical creation; they are the visual aspect of the performance, but also determine its aesthetic impression (always in combination with the direction, music, lighting and actor/role).
The workshop is aimed at teachers.
Number of participants: up to 25
The workshops will be held on Wednesdays from 4pm-7pm in the Thoc Building.
Participants receive a certificate of participation.
Participation fee: €15 per workshop.
Additionally scheduled
►18 and 19 November 2023
Teaching ancient tragedy and comedy through pupils’ experiences.
With theatre specialist Georgina Kakoudaki.
Two days of theatre practice workshops that will take place in three stages (it is possible to attend only one of the two days):
Saturday 10am-6pm:
Theory: a theoretical approach to the way ancient drama has historically been performed by professionals and in schools. Convergences, divergences and dilemmas.
Tragedy: patterns of improvisation, devised theatre, documentary theatre, applied theatre education through the theatrical motifs and content of the ancient dramas “Antigone” by Sophocles and “Helen” by Euripides. The aim is to approach the on-stage action through the experience of the pupils and the content of the texts, through creative stage dialogues. “Antigone”: the right to have an opinion. “Helen”: The truth within the lie.
Sunday 10am-4pm:
Comedy: through theatre activities, we will define types of humour, the observation of reality, the need for individual and collective progress, but also the experience of democratic dialogue through the themes of Aristophanes’ “The Clouds” and “The Birds”. “The Clouds”: The education I have and the education I want. “The Birds”: utopia as an achievable goal.
Aimed at teachers (precedence will be given to those staging ancient drama as part of the 35th Pancyprian School Theatre Games). Places are free of charge but must be booked on 22864321, 8am-3pm daily.
Workshops Curator: Marina Maleni, Thoc Theatre Development Officer
Information
Thoc Box Office: 77772717
Theatre Development Department: 22864320/321
mmaleni@thoc.org.cy | nmourouzi@thoc.org.cy
The workshops on 18 and 19 November are organised with the support of the Theatre in Palm platform, funded by the European Union.
