Workshop in Ancient Greek Tragedy

WORKSHOP
ON ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY
(Agamemnon by Aeschylus)
Instructor: Ioanna Katsarou (director/actor/artistic director of EGTNY)
Vocal training/music accompanist Alexandra Skendrou
When: November-February, 16 weekly 2-hour sessions, (Monday 7.30 pm-9.30 pm) Total:32 hours
Cost: free
Where: Greek Cultural Center, 2680 30th St B2, Astoria, NY 11102
WHO: Theater professionals, drama students, people who have some kind of theater education (attended theater workshops or theater courses
Contact us: 718-726-7329 or 917-547-1965

The workshop will have three parts. At the end of the third part the participants will present a performance open to the audience.

In the first part of our workshop we’ll focus in a modern use of the mask. A mask can be anything we use to cover our face—whatever else one can imagine as a mask (any kind of material or item). With this perspective, we explore how the actor embodies the mask and uses it as a tool of expression; how the body of the actor interprets that “new face” and creates a “new body” and a “new language.” The workshop helps students understand the enormous potential and variety of the mask. The participants will be asked to create their own masks and improvise on specific roles of the play Agamemnon.

In the second part we’ll work more with the text and focus in the space, light and sound. During this process we will experiment and work in different spaces inside the theater of the Greek Cultural Center and even outside of it. The participants will be asked to think out of the box and use their imagination throughout the creative process. We will incorporate sound and music with the help and assistance of the actor/musician Alexandra Skendrou.

In the third part of this workshop we will incorporate all the ideas and material the participants generated in the first two parts and create a performance based on the play Agamemnon. The performance will be presented for two nights at the theater of the Greek Cultural Center.

About Ioanna Katsarou
She is a director, actor and producer. She is founding member and the Artistic Director of Eclipses Group Theater NY and a founding member of Aktis Aeliou Theater, honored as “The Best Regional Theater in Greece” by the Greek Critics Association (2006). She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, 2017.
Recent directorial credits include Hercules in Search of a Hero awarded with double grant by the Queens Council on the Arts (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and Abrons Arts Center, 2018-2019) and Farewell awarded as The Best Poetic Monologue at the international Solo Festival (2018).
She directed several productions and her work as an actor and director was presented in Greece, U.S., Canada and Egypt.
Some of her leading roles were: Clytemnestra at the Classic Stage Company (off-Broadway), Cassandra at the Ellen Stewart stage of La MaMa theater, Queen Atossa at La MaMa, G.C.C of NY and St-Ambroise festival in Montreal, Phaedra at the Delphi European Festival for Ancient Greek Drama, Medea in Medea’s Trilogy by Heiner Muller, Catherine in Suddenly Last Summer, Board Member in Privatopia at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and Cairo International Festival.
She studied theater at the National Theater of Northern Greece. She teaches Greek Theater at the Academy of Hellenic Paideia.

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