ext August 20th, for more than three weeks, a unique, fascinating and profound event will take place in one of the
cradles of Western civilization, and certainly the nursery of Western theatre. It’s called:
Ancient Theatre Alive! Athens 2001. This international festival will present some of the best theatre companies in the
world performing newly commissioned productions of ancient Greek drama. The challenge is -
Combine the ancient drama with all of its content, meaning, and traditional form with the interpretation and capabilities of
Modern theatre - into something new!
As Festival Director, Andrea Kapsaski puts it: “ We’re not looking for classical Greek performance with the typically large chorus and lack of movement on stage as it is seen especially here in Greece. The fact that there will be companies from India, Japan, Mexico, etc. will open a completely different perspective on what we think we know by now of classical drama. In a way, it’s a circle we wish to close by taking back into the Greek theatre everything Greek drama has opened in the development of theatre all over the world.”
The Festival is produced by Art-Promotion (www.artpromotion.uni.cc), a company that Kapsaski and her Associate Director, Stella Samiotou, founded a year ago to develop and market new painters, writers, poets, musicians, and composers. Kapsaski (an experienced theatre producer, scholar, published translator and poet), and Samiotou (also a published writer, poet, translator and playwright) conceived of the Festival as an outgrowth of the famous Athens Summer Festival which has been a premiere world stage for the better part of the 20th century.
Among the theatre companies that Art-Promotion will present at Ancient Theatre Alive! are:
Talos TheatreEnsemble - USA - directed by Arthur Meiselman
www.aviar.com/ensemble
Lokadharmi Theatre Group - India - directed by A.A. Chandradasan
www.angelfire.com/in2/lokadharmi
Compania Nacional de Teatro de Mexico - Mexico - directed by José Solé
Dialog Theatre - Poland - directed by Dariusz Gabryelewicz
www.geocities.com/Broadway/Booth/5710
Karura-sha Ensemble - Japan - directed by Yuko Senga
www3.big.or.jp/~tange/
Kostas Kimoulis Ensemble - Greece - directed by Kostas Kimoulis
Die Muencher Kammerspiele - Germany - directed by Dieter Dorn
www.muencher-kammerspiele.de
It is also the theatres, the stages in Greece that will provide a fair share of the excitement and heightened production artistry, including Herodus Atticus and Epidauraus, two of the oldest theatres in the world with nearly perfect acoustics and sightlines.
Scene4 will continue to report on the Festival along with in-depth profiles of the performing companies. Next Spring, the magazine will also sponsor a contest for readers to win a “grand prize” trip to Ancient Theatre Alive! Athens 2001.
-- Danin Adler
© 2000-2001 Aviar-DKA Ltd. All rights reserved (including authors’ and individual copyrights are indicated). No part of this material may be reproduced, translated, transmitted, framed or stored in a retrieval system for public or private use without the written permission of the publisher and the individual copyright holder. For permissions, contact publishers@scene4.com.
