7 to 22 July | Epidaurus, Lygourio

The National Theatre of Greece is organising its 8th International Ancient Drama Workshop from 7 to 22 July in Epidaurus, Lygourio, in partnership with the Municipality of Epidaurus. This year’s workshop, entitled “Deep within, he found language with words”, will be taught by actress Amalia Moutoussi in collaboration with musician and teacher of the Alexander Technique, Stelios Katsatsidis, with traditional Greek dance teacher Konstantinos Giournas, and assisted by the director and actor Emmanouil Kontos.

The title comes from the First Stasimon of Sophocles’ Antigone, in a translation by the poet Nikos Panagiotopoulos, which will also form the core of our work. The workshop is aimed at young theatre professionals, including actors, directors, graduates of drama schools, and stage practitioners who want on one hand to deepen their knowledge of ancient drama and investigate how it functions, and on the other hand to try working on specific topics. At the same time, the main objective of the workshop is to encourage a fruitful conversation about the reception of ancient drama in the modern world, approaches to staging it, and issues arising from it, while also strengthening the dialogue that tragedy itself has with the individual.

The workshop’s intensive programme includes speeches, discussions with artists, masterclasses, and activities such as a guided tour of the archaeological site of Epidaurus, to help foster both a connection with the place and its history, and a sense of its importance. Participants will also be able to watch performances at the two theatres at Ancient Epidaurus.

The International Ancient Drama Workshop was established on an annual basis in 2016. It is a member of the International Ancient Drama Network created, coordinated and financed by the Ministry of Culture to educate people working in the theatre at various levels and in diverse capacities about ancient drama, familiarise the general public with the genre, and develop the conditions under which theatre people from different countries can work together. The academic head of the workshop is Dr. Irene Moundraki.

“Deep within, he found language with words”
A workshop on the power of collectivity in the face of enduring social adversity. With the overarching theme of celebrating the strength of the human spirit, the workshop will employ contemporary approaches to the development of poetic expression. Special attention will be given to embodiment and the vocalisation of the respiratory function as a basis for developing the process of interpretation and performance. The voice/voices will be armed with a common direction and the poetic language of Sophocles, in the equally poetic translation of Antigone by Nikos Panagiotopoulos; particular emphasis will be placed on the First Stasimon as the core working material, with key themes of the tragedy serving as focal points for exploration: resistance to authority and fanaticism, the role of women in society, and empowerment of individual conscience and moral responsibility.

Key topics to be explored through practical tools will be collectivity and subjectivity in the articulation of the Chorus’ text, development of the process exhalation-sound-speech-silence as a dynamic cycle, and musicality in the prosodic and rhythmic delivery of speech.

The workshop's individual sessions will include techniques of physicality through bio-sensory methods (Alexander Technique, Greek traditional dance) and reinforcement of semantic support through breathing and movement exercises. The workshop will conclude with a composition of the First Stasimon from Antigone, utilising the workshop's methods to shape a unified and fully realized artistic expression.

 

Working languages
English & Greek (knowledge of English is also essential for Greek participants).

 

Participation fee
€600. This covers tuition, transfer by coach from Athens to Epidaurus, Lygourio (and return), accommodation in a hostel, breakfast and lunch, local transportation, a guided tour of the archaeological site, and tickets to performances that are part of the programme.

Those interested should email their CV, including one photo, by 3 June 2025 to drama2@n-t.gr with “8th International Ancient Drama Workshop” in the subject line. Participants will be selected on the basis of their CVs. An interview will follow where considered necessary.

 

Further information: drama2@n-t.gr & 30 2105288253 (Eftychia Charalampaki)

 

About the teachers

Amalia Moutoussi
Amalia Moutoussi graduated from the Karolos Koun Drama School in Athens and continued her studies at HB Studios and William (Bill) Esper’s Acting School in New York. For 20 years, she was a member of an experimental theatre group in Athens, together with director Michael Marmarinos and composer Dimitris Kamarotos. She also worked closely for several years with director and actor Lefteris Vogiatzis. In collaboration with Dimitris Kamarotos, she performed in Hippolytus by Euripides and Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, exploring a way of experiencing the sights and sounds of ancient drama through music. She has performed leading roles in numerous plays, including Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers, Agamemnon, Persians, and Prometheus Bound; Sophocles’ Antigone, Electra, Oedipus Rex, and Trackers; Euripides’ Medea, Hippolytus, and Iphigenia in Tauris; Aristophanes’ Plutus; Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Paul Claudel’s The Break of Noon; Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard; Sarah Kane’s Cleansed; Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Molière’s Amphitryon; and Jean Racine’s Berenice.

She also performed as Anna in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s sung ballet The Seven Deadly Sins, directed by choreographer Kim Brandstrup. She has collaborated with a number of prominent international directors, including Jossi Wieler, Dimiter Gotscheff, Yorgos Lanthimos, Yannis Kokkos, George Skevas, Angela Brouskou, Thanasis Papageorgiou, Antonis Antypas, Thomas Moschopoulos, Thanos Papakonstantinou, Konstantinos Markoulakis, Vicos Nahmias, Dionysis Savvopoulos, Hector Lygizos, and Yannis Skourletis.

Stelios Katsatsidis
Stelios Katsatsidis is a musician and teacher of the Alexander Technique. He studied accordion with Iraklis Vavatsikas at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens and jazz theory with Giorgos Argyropoulos. He has collaborated with various artists in Greece and London, where he collaborated with various musical ensembles, playing in venues and festivals. From 2007 to 2011 he attended individual Alexander Technique lessons in Athens. He graduated as an Alexander Technique teacher from the Centre for the Alexander Technique in London with Ellie and Peter Ribeaux (2014). Until 2018, he attended individual lessons and workshops with Nelly Ben-Or, Ted McNamara, Alex Farkas, Avi Granit, Noam Renen, Pedro De Alcantara, Shaike Hermelin, and Giora Pinkas. He has taught at the Syros Accordion Festival, SOAS World Summer Music School (UK), Guildhall School of Music & Drama (UK), Harrow Music Service (UK), “Reedblocks” Thessaloniki Accordion Festival, Caudan Arts Centre in Mauritius, and the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is a member of the Society of Alexander Technique Teachers (STAT), founded in the UK in 1958. He teaches accordion and the Alexander Technique at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory and gives Alexander Technique lessons in Athens.

Konstantinos Giournas
Konstantinos Giournas was born in Athens in 1989. He graduated from the Athens Conservatoire Drama School in 2016. He has appeared in productions directed by Argyris Xafis, Io Voulgaraki, Stamatis Fasoulis, Yorgos Nanouris, Giorgos Matziaris, Emmanouil Kontos, the Eptarchia Theatre Group, Lefteris Giovanidis, and Angela Brouskou. Since 2008, he has also been a member of the dance troupe of the Lykeion ton Ellinidon in Athens, performing in Greece (at venues including the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the Athens Concert Hall, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, and Dion) and internationally (Vietnam, Sardinia, Jordan, France, and elsewhere). In recent years, he has taught traditional dance, singing, and storytelling at the Giorgos Armenis Drama School.

Emmanouil Kontos
Emmanouil Kontos was born in Piraeus in 1992. He graduated from the Athens Conservatoire Drama School in 2016 and from the Department of Communication, Media and Culture at Panteion University in 2020. As an actor, he has collaborated with directors such as Elias Kounelas, Nikita Milivojevic, Io Voulgaraki, Argyris Xafis, Vasia Attarian and Myrto Makridi, and Georgia Mavragani. His directorial work includes Elafroiskiotoi, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (2024); The Bacchae: a collective narrative, at Plyfa Theatre (2022); and Dress rehearsal for a suicide, a dark comedy about deceit, at Skrow Theatre (2021). From 2018 to 2023, he worked as a theatre educator for children, teens, and young adults at the Athens Conservatoire’s Theatre Education Laboratory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest updated: 20/05/2025