EXODUS – 2020
Composition based on monologues from the tragedies Medea, Alcestis, Antigone and oracles by Pythia.
18 July 2020, Archeological site of Delphi
European Cultural Center of Delphi – with the support of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Phokis
With Sophia Hill
Supervised by – Teaching: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Costume: LOUKIA
Exodus in the ancient tragedy is the moment when the drama reached the peak and heads towards its end. The expected order in chaos is soon overthrown by an unbalanced factor, the city is still sick, nature continues to be destroyed. However, the human does not stop searching for the measure of things, although this always escapes him. There is no exit from the whirl of tragedy. Every attempt to exit means the entry into a new whirl of agony and passion. The agony continues. The question “What is it all about?” still exists.
Exit, however, is also the moment of awareness, reflection, looking beyond the horizon after the flood of passions. The tragic hero leaves the scene having traveled the path of his inaccessible destiny. He exits leaving his imprint inside us.
ARIA HAMLET – 2015
HOMAGE TO HEINER MULLER, ON THE COMMEMORATION OF 20 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH IN PICOLLO TEATRO DI MILANO
28- 30 December 2015, PicolloTeatro, Milano
Work on stage: Jannis Kounellis
Original music composition: Panagiotis Velianitis
Hamlet: Sophia Hill
Voice- Supervised by: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Homage to Heiner Muller to commemorate the 20 years after his death. The homage was co-ordinated by Jannis Kounellis and Theodoros Terzopoulos, both close friends and collaborators of the important German writer.
The epic installation created by Jannis Kounellis provides the surroundings for the music performance “Aria Hamlet” composed by Panagiotis Velianitis, close collaborator of Theodoros Terzopoulos. The performance “Aria Hamlet” for one actress and electroacoustic sound material is based on fragments of “Die Hamletmachine” by Heiner Muller.
Co-production between Piccolo Teatro di Milano- Teatro d’ Europa, Galleria Fumagalli di Milano, Attis Theatre and Festival Milano incontra la Grecia. Supported by J.F. Costopoulos Foundation and Goethe Institut di Milano.
OPHELIA QUARTET – 2013
11,12 & 13 October 2013, ΘAttis Theatre, Athens
Concept – Music: Panagiotis Velianitis
Performed by: Natalia Pschenitschnikova
Supervised by: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Costume: LOUKIA
Production: Attis Theatre in conjunction with the European Cultural Centre of Delphi as part of the project “With exquisite music, with voices- 150 years after the birth of K.P.Kavafis- P.E.P. Attiki- ESPA 2007-2013”.
The poetry of three legendary poets of the 20th century, K.P. Kavafis, Arseni Tarkovsky and Heiner Muller, is transformed into a music performance developed in four acts by the talented composer Panagiotis Velianitis and performed by the Russian singer Natalia Pschenitschnikova, internationally acclaimed for her performance of avant-garde composers, like Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage.
The fear towards anything bold and new is described in the poem “Windows” by K.P.Kafavis. The conflict between eroticism, creativity and the fatalistic acceptance of destiny emerges in the poem «The first dates” by Arseni Tarkofski. The confinement and the suicidal obsessions emerge in the poem “Walls” by Konstantinos Kavafis. Finally, the ultimate liberation through death is the subject of «Ophelia» at the 2nd and 5th part of the «Hamletmachine» by Heiner Muller.
Particular (recorded) sounds- animal roars, war sirens and sounds of machines – are combined with electronical sounds, creating a sonic environment in constant interaction with the human voice.
THREE SONGS FOR OPHELIA – 2013
5 – 7 April 2013, Attis Theatre, Athens
Concept – Music: Panagiotis Velianitis
Performed by: Natalia Pschenitschnikova
Supervised by: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Costume: LOUKIA
The poetry of three legendary poets of the 20th century, K.P. Kavafis, Arseni Tarkovsky and Heiner Muller, is transformed into a music performance. The conflict between eroticism, creativity and the fatalistic acceptance of destiny emerges in the poem «The first dates” by Arseni Tarkofski. The confinement and the suicidal obsessions emerge in the poem “Walls” by Konstantinos Kavafis. Finally, the ultimate liberation through death is the subject of «Ophelia» at the 2nd and 5th part of the «Hamletmachine» by Heiner Muller.
These three ontological themes inspired the composer to create three songs for the soprano Natalia Pschenitschnikova. Each poem is interpreted in its original language (Greek, Russian and German), to maintain the style, the ethics and the prosody.
Particular (recorded) sounds- animal roars, war sirens and sounds of machines – are combined with electronical sounds, creating a sonic environment in constant interaction with the human voice. The mixing is live through the interactive application Opticoacoustic Reactor, created by the composer in MAX/MSP & Jitter environment.
ESPERIA – 2011
Sculpture installation by Kalliopi Lemos.
24-28 August 2011, Warehouses ASO 1,2,3, within the frameworks of the the 3rd International Meeting of Ancient Drama in Sikyon.
Curator: Maria Maragkou
Direction- Teaching: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Music: Panagiotis Velianitis
Lights: Theodoros Terzopoulos, Kostas Bethanis
With: Sophia Hill (Lamentia)
Sophia Michopoulou (Eterna)
Aneza Papadopoulou (Esperia)
“The sculpture installation Esperia by Kalliopi Lemos is a route in the space of the old warehouses of Sikyon, created in order to function in relation with the theatrical action developed by the bodies of the three actresses, without losing their autonomy as an artistic corpus.
The sculptress insists on the dialogue between the visible and the invisible, the myth and the reality, the space and the time, creating the conditions for a journey to the unpredictable”.
Maria Maragkou
JENIN – 2006
Action in seven stages of silence based on the homonymous poem by Etel Adnan.
First presentation: 26 March 2006, Attis Theatre, Athens
Translation: Efi Giannopoulou
Curator: Maria Maragkou
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Emigrants: Tableaux vivant with Kurds emigrants, by Theodoros Terzopoulos
Emergency Exit 2004: Video installation, by Despoina Meimaroglou
Missing persons: Installation in space, by Maria Loizidou
Observer: Sophia Michopoulou
Spectator: Video projection by Popi Krouska in dialogue with Tasos Dimas
Reader: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Jenin and us
A war journal, a narration untill and a bit after the moment that Jenin was still a city, by the poet Etel Adnan.
Athens, March 2006. Metaxourgeio. Leonidou street, Attis Theatre.
The consciousness that Jenin could be any city and any human being. All together and separately.
Human beings, projections, works of art. An action in seven stages of silence, intended for silence. Us and our feelings. Us and our friends.
It is difficult to describe something that is not exactly classified and time specific; something not contemporary, as it is an old urge. Something that can’t be described as a theatrical action, nor as an exhibition to be consumed at art stoke market. Different expressions of the same incident, that simply want to deal with the memory of fear, the future of a personal and collective anxiety, without staying at the human works.
We forget about the ways of communicating with a wide audience, the forms that are frequently called either interpretation, or skill of hand, or creation of an idea.
Actors and works are exchanging parts in an experimental dialogue about threat and fear at contemporary war scenes – either they are far away or nearby block apartments.
We share the theatre with a group of Kurds emigrants, residents of the neighborhood, a symbolic tableau with breaths, a tableaux vivant, staying in silence to talk about the woes of the contemporary world citizen.
The “spectacle” ends, starts, continues”.
Maria Maragkou, Theodoros Terzopoulos
PHILOCTETES – 2004
Performance based on Philoctetes by Sophocles.
24 April 2004, Theatre Academy of Berlin, Germany (Greek and Turkish).
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Philoctetes: Yetkin Dikinciler
Neoptolemos: Theodoros Terzopoulos
MEDEA MATERIAL – 2002
Heiner Muller
in the frame of the art exhibition “Poisons”
April 2002, Technopolis, Gazi, Athens
Curator: Maria Maragkou
Translation: Eleni Varopoulou
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Acting: Sophia Michopoulou
“The exhibition “Poisons” was designed as an artistic intervention in the site of the Furnaces in Gazi, a space where the contact with the mild toxicants is direct. The idea was born in summer 2001, the year dedicated to Socrates, as a desire to approach this historic marginal personality, who has less in common with our societies or our familiar behaviors […]”.
HERACLES – 1997
performance based on improvisational material from the rehearsals of Heracles by Heiner Müller.
(General title: “Corpi” Actions- Performances)
28 June 1997, Argos National Stadium, Argos Festival, Greece
Artistic director: Eleni Varopoulou
Translation: Eleni Varopoulou
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Acting: Tasos Dimas
“Argos Festival, 27-29 June 1997. Labor, sport, prize, athlete, athletics. Art works focused on body conditions: the athletic body, the body transcending its limits, the body as presented in dance, performance, vocal exercising.”
Eleni Varopoulou (Argos Festival, 1994- 1997, ed. Protasi, 1998)
IO = MOON REFLECTIONS – 1996
Sculpture- Image- Sound – Installation- audiovisual environment
15 June 1996, Vavouli Factory, Argos Festival, Greece
Artistic Director: Eleni Varopoulou
Installation: Vouvoula Skoura
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Acting: Sophia Hill
“Argos Festival 14-17 June 1996, Transformations. Drama, performance, music, dance, visual arts, video-art and new technologies, prose and poetry, photography: all above works are dealing with the axons of transformation, deformation, reformation, conformation. […]”
Eleni Varopoulou (Argos Festival 1994-1997, ed. Protasi, 1998)
MEDEA MATERIAL – 1995
Heiner Muller
(General title of the event “The war machine”)
24 June 1995, MArinu Factory, Argos Festival, Greece
Artistic director: Eleni Varopoulou
Translation: Eleni Varopoulou
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Acting: Sophia Michopoulou
“Argos Festival, 23-30 June 1995. Under the general title “GENIUS LOCI”, I assembled a network of topics and spaces, inviting Greek and international artists to create site specific works for the Kapodistrian Quarters, the Hill of Shield, the Trikoupis’ neoclassic building, the Marinu factory, the ancient theatre of Argos: it is a route involving artists, dance, opera, drama monologues, artistic installations, sculpture- happenings, constructions, performances and improvisations by a group of foreign actors and amateurs, integrated to the landscape. […]”
Eleni Varopolou (Argos Festival, 1994- 1997, ed. Protasi, 1998)
DE PLAINE DUNE – 1991
16 June 1992, Amphitheatre de Plaine Lune, Gourgoubec, France
On June 16, 1992, the Attis theatre presented Aeschylus’ Persians at the Plaine Lune Amphitheater in Gourgoubec, next to Montpellier, as part of an international mathematics conference. We did not use artificial light for the show, only the light of the full moon. The scientists placed four huge mirrors – light collectors around the perimeter of the theater. The natural light gave to the performance a metaphysical, almost magical dimension. It created a religious and mystical atmosphere, as the silver moonlight revived the performance. At the scene of the invocation of the dead Darius we had the feeling that the light grew stronger. The actor who played Darius appeared in absolute silence; at that moment we felt the absolute dominance of the blinding light of the Full Moon. In this absolute light, silence was transformed into an unconscious desire to enter Hades. We had the feeling that the orchestra was taking the form of Lake Acherousia and the Moon was playing the role of the boatman on the journey to Hades.
In France we presented Prometheus Bound, the Persians and the Quartet by Heiner Müller at the Printemps des Comediens Festival, in Montpellier, at the International Grenoble Theater Festival in Grenoble, at the International Festival in Toulouse and elsewhere, but nothing surpasses the unique experience we lived at the Theater de Plaine Lune in Gourgoubec.
PHAEDRA – 1991
Marina Tsvetaeva
27 August 1991, 1st International Festival of Mediterranean Theatre “Violence and Peace in Mediterranean Theatre”, Medieval Castle of Patras (in Russian language)
Direction: Theodoros Terzopoulos
Music: Philip Glass
Acting: Alla Demidova
