foto. Johanna Weber
Enrolment to the workshops: paula@kana.art.pl
Costs: 100 PLN ZOT/ATA – individual settlements
From December 16 to 22 and from December 28 to 29 we would like to invite the audience for two meetings within the frames of this year's edition of the project OKNO - ZBLIŻENIA. The project is dedicated to presentation of various currents of creative pursuits in contemporary theatre, as well as to exchange of practices and informal artistic and cultural education. The project's intention is to familiarize the participants with the broadest possible spectrum of activities of the invited artists and with their experiences. The unifying motif of the OKNO 2016 events is the theme of BODY / VOICE.
After the workshop sessions conducted by Ditte Berkeley and Przemysław Błaszczak (ZAR Theatre) this time we will have the unique opportunity to participate in a comprehensive meetings with two prominent Practitioners of Theatre – the people who have spent decades searching and exploring methods of work with actor and transgressing the limits of art: finding the essence in work with body, voice and motion. One of them is Thomas Richards, the longtime disciple, collaborator, heir and continuator of Jerzy Grotowski, one of the most important figures of Polish and European theatre. The other is Thedoros Terzopoulos – the director and founder of the Attis Theatre, the revolutionary reformer of classical Greek theatre, the author of the method taught at dozens of theatre academies and universities all over the world.
Theodoros Terzopoulos, together with the actors: Savvas Stoumpos and Przemyslaw Błaszczak, will conduct his workshop, named "The Return of Dionysus. Working method of Theodoros Terzopoulos" and meet with the audience during the presentation of the movie "Theatre Ecomium" and the promotion of Polish edition of his book "The Return of Dionysus. Working method of Theodoros Terzopoulos".
The OKNO - ZBLIŻENIA 2016, "BODY / VOICE" project was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture, the program: Cultural Education.
Editorial cooperation: RMF Classic.
INFORMATION ABOUT EVENTS AND ARTISTS
THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS (THE ATTIS THEATRE)
Events:
PROMOTION OF THE BOOK "THE RETURN OF DIONYSUS – THE METHOD OF THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS"
The performer from antiquity is the definition of the Body, is synonymous to the Body. The theater today should restore and cultivate with ethos, anew, the idea of the universal body. The performer must be at the center of the theatrical action, with self-awareness, knowledge and militancy. The cultivation of the body, the temple of situations, instincts and senses, is an agonizing call in our times, which are constantly threatened by barbarism.
The world has changed and the performer must cultivate a fruitful criticism toward things, constantly expressing his agony: theater is something else than what we thought till today and somewhere else has to go. We need to reconsider theater through the art of the performer. I believe that this is the way of the theater in the 21st century, a century of many redefinitions. Dionysus is missing, he is in exile, the idea of the confrontational man is lost and the road towards measure, harmony, Ithaca has disappeared. Will it be found? Will Dionysus return?
The internationally acclaimed theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos is one of the most significant European directors, having staged more than 2000 performances throughout the world (from Beijing and Taiwan to New York and Colombia). His Method is published in many European languages under the title The Return of Dionysus, and is broadly used as a means of actors' training, enriching thereby a lively European tradition. Terzopoulos' Method is neither culture-specific nor culture-restrictive. It is an anthropological method founded on the basic laws of both the omission and the dilation of the daily body in order for a new acting self to be created. Not surprisingly, Dionysus, the God of Destruction and Rebirth, was always a great inspiration for the director, proving the fact that the Dionysian is both an artistic impulse and a form-creating force.
The meeting, for which the starting point is the Polish edition of the Theodoros Terzopoulos' book The Return of Dionysus (Polish edition by The Grotowski Institute, Wrocław 2016), will be participated by Theodoros Terzopoulos and his actors Savvas Stroumpos and Przemysław Błaszczak, as well as Monika Blige, the Grotowski Institute's Deputy Director for Programming and co-ordinator the activities of the Publishing Section.
THEATRE ECOMIUM
87', interviews by Giorgos Voudiklaris and Dimistris Trikas, production: Dimistra Dernikou, direction of photography: Yiannis Spiliopoulos, Kostas Tsekouras, script and direction: Dimitris Trikas
A documentary from Dimitris Trikas on the work of Theodoros Terzopoulos. The director talks about the history of Attis Theatre, the essence of theatrical research, his fascination with classical tragedy, the dramas of Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Müller, and the role of training and theatre education. He discusses three important strands in the work of the Attis Theatre: ontological, political and erotic. All are evident in the group's performances, including Euripides' Bacchae, Müller's Mauser, Ajax the Madness and Strindberg's Mademoiselle Julie, excerpts of which are interwoven in the film.
THE RETURN OF DIONYSUS – THE METHOD OF THEODOROS TERZOPOULOS
The Workshop conducted by Theodoros Terzopoulos, Savvas Stroumpos and Przemysław Błaszczak
The process of rehearsal in Attis Theatre is not the performance of a dramatic concept; it is an adventure on a journey to the landscape of memory, a search for the lost keys of unity between body and speech, the word as a natural unity.
Heiner Müller, Berlin, 1987
The workshop is an introduction to the renowned and influential method of Theordoros Terzopoulos that is being taught in International Drama Academies, Drama Schools and Universities and has inspired actors all over the world. Terzopoulos' Method focuses on the emancipation of the trapped energy and voice and aims to reconstitute the lost unity between the word and the body.
This training paradigm through a sequence of dynamic physical and vocal exercises is created to cultivate the fundamental principles of the performer's craft: diaphragmatic breath control, in-body concentration, strengthening and activation of the corporal axles in connection to the body center, liberation of the sound sources and resonators of the body. The participants will investigate the elements of the training to a rhythmic interpretation of a text (ancient Greek tragedy and classic texts).
The Artists:
Theodoros Terzopoulos was born in Makrygialos village. He studied and worked as assistant director at Berliner Ensemble (Berlin, 1972-1976). He has been Director of the Drama School of the State Theatre of Northern Greece (Thessaloniki, 1981-1983). He created Attis Theatre group on 1985 in Delphi. He has directed tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, opera, contemporary plays by the most prominent European and contemporary Greek writers. He has directed in many international theatres, participated in numerous international festivals and collaborated with important actors. Theodoros Terzopoulos and Attis Theatre have presented 2000 performances all over the world throughout 30 years.
Theodoros Terzopoulos' method and approach on ancient Greek tragedy is taught in Drama Academies, Institutes and Departments of Classical Studies all over the world. He is conducting many workshops and lectures, while he is an emeritus professor in international Academies and Universities. Theodoros Terzopoulos has been awarded with many Theatre Prizes in Greece and abroad. Books on his working method have been published and translated in Greek, English, German, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Korean and Polish. As the artistic director of the International Meetings of Ancient Drama in Delphi (1985-1988), he invited important performances from all over the world, prestigious international theatre personalities and artists. He has been founding member of the International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre since 1990 and President of the International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre in Greece since 1991. He is the creator and artistic director of the International Meetings of Ancient Drama in Municipality of Sikyon (Greece) from 2004 till 2011. Since 1993 he is the Chairman of the International Committee of Theatre Olympics. As the artistic director of the 1st T.O. (Delphi, 1995, "Crossing Millennia"), he invited significant international performances and artists. He has been Chairman of the 2nd T.O. (Shizuoka, Japan, 1999, "Creating Hope"), the 3rd T.O. (Moscow, 2001, "Theatre for the people"), the 4th T.O. (Istanbul, 2006, "Beyond Borders"), the 5th T.O. (Seoul, 2010, "Sarang (Love and Humanity)"), the 6th T.O. (Beijing, 2014, "Dream") and the 7th T.O. (Wroclaw, 2016, "The world as a place of truth").
Savvas Stroumpos was born in 1979 in Athens. He graduated from the drama school of the National Theatre of Greece (2002). He has an MA with Merit from the department of Theater Practice, University of Exeter, UK (2003).
From 2006 he worked as an assistant to director Theodoros Terzopoulos. With Attis Theatre he performed in: Hamlet, an apprenticeship by Boris Pasternak (2001), Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (2003), Epigonoi by Aeschylus (2004), Triptych by Samuel Beckett (2004), Ajax the madness by Sophocles (2004), Last Mask by Kostas Logaras (2006), Perses by Aeschylus (2006), Kassandra addresses to the dead people by Marios Pontikas (2007), Ajax by Sophocles (2008), Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (2010).
He is a founding member of Simeio Miden (Zero Point) theatre group. With Zero Point Theater Group he has directed: In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka (2009), As You like It by William Shakespeare (2010), The Justs by Albert Camus (2011), Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2012), Woyzeck by Georg Büchner (2013), In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka (2nd version - 2014), We by Yevgeni Zamiatin (2015), The Mission by Heiner Müller (2016). His productions are presented on the New Stage of Attis Theatre.
Przemysław Błaszczak - an actor; associated with the Grotowski Institute since 1995. He studied philosophy at the Wrocław University. From 1996 to 1999 he worked with Song of the Goat Theatre under the guidance of Grzegorz Braal, where he performed in Dithyramb. In autumns 2002 she stared working on his solo performance, Ecce Homo premiered on March 21, 2003 in the Grotowski Centre. Since 2004, he has been an actor of the ZAR Theatre. He performs in Gospels of Childhood. The Triptych and in Armine, Sister. Since 2012 he has collaborated with Theodoros Terzopoulos. He performs in Heiner Müller's Mauser directed by Terzopoulos. For over six years he has studied the Japanese martial art of aikido under sensei Piotr Masztalerz (5th Dan). In 2011 he was uchideshi under Juba Nour Shihan (6th Dan) in Baja California, Mexico. He is currently taking part in kenshusei training to become an aikido teacher. In 2005 he spend one month in Japan, invited by Toshi Tsushitori, practicing shintaido, a Japanese system that integrates voice and body through training based on traditional Japanese karate.
Monika Blige graduated in Polish philology (theatre studies) from the Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU) in Poznan with a dissertation entitled 'More Than Theatre'. Village Theatre Wegajty – cultural and artistic phenomenon. From 2001 to 2005 she was involved with the Węgajty Theatre's Fieldwork Project (she participated, among others in performances Upiorny całun and Synczyzna). In 2005 she began working at the Grotowski Institute (in 2007 renamed the Grotowski Centre) in Wrocław. She has been in charge of the Publishing Section. She has edited over thirty books, among others, the Ludwik Flaszen's book Grotowski & Company, published in collaborator with the Icarus Publishing Enterprise. In 2013 she was appointed the Grotowski Institute's Deputy Director for Programming.
