Δημιουργική Καραντίνα και Κορονοϊός COVID-19

Από τον Μάρτιο που μας πέρασε και για δύο περίπου μήνες διανύσαμε μία επόχη περιορισμών. Το μήνυμα “Μένουμε Σπίτι – Μένουμε Ασφαλείς” κυριάρχησε παντού. Το αντίκτυπο όμως αυτής της αιφνίδιας αλλαγής στην καθημερινότητά μας, έφερε σαν αποτέλεσμα στην επιφάνεια κάποιες σκέψεις μας που ίσως είχαμε καλά κρυμμένες και επηρέασε την ψυχολογία μας. Σε κάποιο σπίτι κι εγώ λοιπόν κλεισμένη, “πάλεψα” με την δημιουργία.

Μια απαγγελία μου σε στίχους που έγραψα πριν από δέκα χρόνια σε μια απόπειρα οριακά μετεφηβικού “οίστρου”. Για τις ακόμη καλύτερες μέρες που θά’ρθουνε…ο ήλιος που πάντα από ψηλά μας χαμογελάει…ο ήλιος που νομοτελειακά ανατέλλει μετά τη βροχή! Από τις μοναδικές αυτές “βροχερές” στιγμές που ζούμε, ο ήλιος θα βγει πιο φωτεινός…γι’αυτό να είστε σίγουροι! Πάντα η ζωή νικάει τον θάνατο!

Ποίημα, Απαγγελία & Video Editing: Βάσω Διαμαντή

Μουσική Επιμέλεια: Γιώργος Ιακώβου

“Ας μιλήσουμε!”: Συζητώντας για το Θεατρικό Παιχνίδι…

Πάνε αρκετά χρόνια από τότε που ανήρτησα τελευταία φορά στο thedramagames και κοινοποίησα την ταινία μικρού μηκούς που δημιούργησα για ακαδημαϊκούς σκοπούς· μια ταινία επηρεασμένη από την αλληγορία του σπηλαίου του Πλάτωνα και τα Μ.Μ.Ε. Σήμερα, θα ήθελα να μοιραστώ μαζί σας κάτι διαφορετικό…

Προς το τέλος των σπουδών μου στο The American College of Greece – DEREE (2016), μία καλή μου φίλη από την σχολή με πιάνει μία μέρα και μου λέει: “Βάσω, στο πλαίσιο ενός μαθήματος δημοσιογραφίας που παρακολούθω αυτό το εξάμηνο, χρειάζεται να γράψω ένα άρθρο και το θέμα με το οποίο θα ήθελα να ασχοληθώ είναι το θεατρικό παιχνίδι. Είσαι ο μόνος άνθρωπος από τον κύκλο μου που ξέρω ότι ασχολείται με αυτό και θα ήθελα να κάνουμε μία χαλαρή συζήτηση σχετικά με το πώς ξεκίνησες το θεατρικό παιχνίδι και τι σημαίνει για εσένα. Αν δεν σε πειράζει κι όλας, θα ήθελα να την μαγνητοφωνήσω σαν αρχείο.” Χωρίς να το πολυσκεφτώ απάντησα: “Μα φυσικά! Και το συζητάς? Ας μιλήσουμε!”

Απολαύστε την συνέχεια…

Reaching for the Light – Short Film

It’s been a long time I have shared nothing with you concerning drama games…

Today, I would like to share with you my short film created for academic purposes.

Inspired by Plato’s Cave Allegory and the Mass Media, the intended communicated message of the film is to criticize mass media for selectively manufacturing a frame to represent the world, spreading propaganda, portraying false images, and therefore, creating a distorted reality full of “shadows”, as Socrates would argue.

The film was selected to be presented at the Second Annual Student Research and Creative Arts Symposium of the American College of Greece – DEREE in May 2016. The purpose of this Symposium is to enhance student research and creative arts productivity at DEREE by showcasing and celebrating student research, creative and artistic work.

Enjoy!

P.S: Don’t be “hard” with your feedback. This was my first experimental attempt… 😛

 

Curtains, Bows and Encores: An Ending and a New Beginning for Drama Games…

Hello again my drama games friends! 🙂

As I mentioned in my previous post, where we discussed on views of my Dear and Lovely Drama Games Teacher and Encourager & Mentor of Drama Games, Aphrodite Parzakoni, “when a circle closes another one opens“! I would like for the first time to confess that the creating of this blog was initially began for the sake of a course project attending it now this semester in my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. As I had never blogged again, I would really like to share with you my experiences on doing so before the submission of the project. This is going to be my last post or…maybe not??

A Conversation with my Drama Games Encourager & Mentor

So far, we’ve already established what drama games are and I have presented some of the exercises and performances I’ve done with my group yet in this post I’d like to speak about a conversation I had with my drama games mentor Aphrodite Parzakoni, Director, Drama Teacher & Drama Games Encourager. During that conversation, she explained how she was introduced to theatre games, what they are to her now, what drama games can do for a person and many more things which I find very interesting, thus I’d like to share them with you.

Aphrodite started her professional career with several jobs seemingly irelevant, with theatre games. From studying logistics at Saint George University and jumping from one art school to another, until she finally settled in the department of pre-school education. Then, as if by magic, she discovered drama games in a 4 day seminar where she attended a lecture by a “man with an incredible aura”, professor Lakis Kouretzis, the man who invented the Theatre/Drama Games experiential method or else “Playing through Theatre” and introduced it in Greece.

That was the time when mesmerized by Lakis Kouretzis’ lecture she decided that she definitely needed to come in touch with that person. With the encouragement of her mother she started studying theatre games however she did not uncover the magic of that first lecture, until her final year of studies.

Her ultimate commitment to drama games was established through an act she performed during the Holy days of Easter in 1995 when she revealed her passion on stage in the company of a “green ribbon”, one that binds her, body and soul to the theatre games to this very day.

But what are drama games for her really?

Marcel Marceau – “The Mask Maker”

In my previous post, we raised the discussion about “A clown and a suitcase…” We discussed what the definition of a clown is for us, from what material the suitcase could be made, how the suitcase could be and what the clown could have put inside the suitcase. This conversation reminded me one of the best performances of Marcel Marceau, the Master of all Mimes of all times, in “The Mask Maker”; a masterpiece that leaves you speechless….

A clown and a suitcase…

Hi, Theatre Games friends!

In my two last consecutive posts, as you’ve observed, I talked about the two theatrical performances I took part in the past, namely “BAR – CAT – CODE” and “W.C.: Workshop’s Cast”. It is now understood for everyone, that although the primary objective of a Theatre Games Workshop isn’t to create a theatrical performance but to benefit participants by helping them realizing who they really are and re-discovering interpersonal communication by building stronger interpersonal relationships through: creative playing, dramatization, improvisation, role-playing and pantomime. Often, however, this experimentation and investigation process taking place inside the Workshop may lead to the desire for a more organized theatrical performance.

This year, always loyal to that, we experiment and investigate the wide concept of “Clown”. Aphrodite Parzakoni, our Drama Teacher, has already given us homework assignments, which had to be prepared and presented inside the Workshop, either individually or in subgroups depending on the nature of the assignment. Today I want to talk about the two last assignments, both of which had to be delivered in written form.

1. “A clown and a suitcase…”

• From what material could the suitcase be made?
• How could the suitcase be?
• What could the clown have put inside the suitcase?

2. “Give your own definition of a clown.”

Second Theatrical Performance: “W.C.: Workshop’s Cast”

As you’ve noticed in my previous post, our Theatre Games Workshop likes to be involved and experiment with somehow surreal topics, subjects and concepts! 😛 Today I want to discuss about the second theatrical performance where I played two years ago, named “W.C.: Workshop’s Cast”.

“What would you like us to treat you? Would you prefer a sweet or something to fool your hunger? Would you like us to treat you a bath or would you prefer a cold shower? You definitely made a long journey to arrive at our Armilla.”

“We would like some water. We arrived thirsty. Not exhausted, only thirsty.”

Luggage were piled in Armilla, one of the “Thin Cities” in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, consisting of a labyrinth of pipes and bathroom appliances inhabited by mysterious women; the same wetland of 30 group participants of The Drama Games Workshop “Expression & Communication” of Athens, Papagos-Cholargos.

First Theatrical Performance: “BAR – CAT – CODE”

Hey again everyone!

Easter is over and as I mentioned in my previous post because of Passion human creates Art! Today I would like to talk about the first theatrical performance, “BAR – CAT – CODE” in which I took part. As I have already mentioned in my very first post, the main difference between drama games and theatre is that their purpose isn’t the theatrical performance itself, but the creative procedure that a group participant will experience and step-by-step he/she will achieve to understand, by observing and playing, his/her inner and outer world in relation with others. Drama Games Workshops adressing adults, often experiment with a variety of subjects, themes and even concepts. So, this experimentation and philosophical investigation, through dramatization, role-playing, improvisation, and pantomime, that normally takes place inside the Workshop, may lead to the desire for a theatrical performance from all group participants. And so it did! Three years ago, our Drama Games Workshop gave its first theatrical performance, “BAR – CAT- CODE”, produced by “human traces” and “cat nails“…!

Easter: The Passage from Death to Rebirth

Today is Holy Wednesday, the middle of the Holy Week, and the Divine Passion reaches its dramatic peak. During the evening of Holy Wednesday, the Vesper of Holy Thursday is chanted  with a central theme the feet ablution of the Apostles by Jesus Christ, the Last Supper, the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Betrayal by Judas.

On Holy Monday, through a variety of theatre games and activities, we ritually celebrated the Easter Holy Days  in our Theatre Games Workshop. Our “Last Supper” and “Resurrection” took place. Each participant had to bring with him/her something that symbolizes for him/her the Easter Holy Days, such as an object, a text, a taste, a smell, a flower, a song, etc. After forming a cycle, each participant had the chance to say whatever he/she wished to share with the others concerning the Easter Holy Days, him/herself or the group. Then, we raised a discussion on what all these objects represent for us, and influenced by all those stimuli, continued interpreting the word “Passion“.