Download Challenging Limits: Performances of Ancient Drama, Controversies

Intensive course 2014
Challenging Limits: Performances of Ancient Drama, Controversies and
Debates
The Intensive Course “Challenging Limits: Performances of Ancient Drama,
Controversies and Debates” took place at Lavrion and Epidavros from 23 June to 6 July 2014, within the framework of the
“Academy of Plato–Development of Knowledge and Innovative Ideas” project. This year’s course, which brought together
academics and students from around the world, aimed at initiating a dialogue and the exchange of views on ancient Greek
drama performances produced worldwide that stirred up controversy or sparked reactions, as well as the challenges
presented when staging ancient Greek drama in terms of the particular dynamics of the text itself.
The following professors participated in the seminars:
Oliver Taplin, University of Oxford (“Approaching the Continuing Power of Ancient Greek Tragedy through the Theatre”)
Nurit Yaari, University of Tel Aviv (“Ancient Comedy and Political Debates: Aristophanes on Israeli stages”)
Cleo Protokhristova, University of Plovdiv (“Aristophanes in Bulgaria and the Case with Assemblywomen”)
Kerem Karaboga, University of Istanbul (“Acts of Disobedience: Antigone and Medea in Turkey”)
Eleni Papazoglou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (“Looking for the Mourning that Becomes Electra”)
Minas I. Alexiadis, University of Athens (“Richard Strauss - Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Elektra. Commentaries on the operatic
adaptation”)
Freddy Decrus, University of Gent (“In and beyond Plato’s Cave. Iconoclast readings of an “absolute metaphor”. Application
to Romeo Castellucci’s Inferno, 2009”)
Henri Schoenmakers, University of Erlangen (“Dramaturgy and the Aesthetics of Production”)
Evelyn Ertel, Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle (“The chorus in different modern productions of ancient drama”)
Vassilis Lambrinoudakis, University of Athens (“Ritual and Theatre Performance in the Archaeological Site of Epidaurus”)
Bernd Seidensticker, Free University of Berlin (“Oedipus at Colonus and Wealth: the Tragic and the Comic Utopia of the
Athenian Regeneration”)
Romain Piana, Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle (“Adaptating without modernizing the text˙ challenging approaches of
Aristophanic performance”)
David Drozd, Masaryk University (“Fighting with Aristophanes, Reception of Aristophanes comedies in Czech, Avant-garde
Theatre”)
Monica Centanni, Universita IUAV di Venezia (“Ghosts evoking ghosts: Darius, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in the
tragedies of Aeschylus”)
Eva Stehlikova, Masaryk University (“Open air theatre -5th century B.C. - Greek drama is coming back to the open air Oedipus the king in the small Czech village in 1936”)
Lucia P. Romero Mariscal, University of Almeria (“Challenging the limits: Trojan Women on the late Spanish stage”)
A detailed account of the European Network of Research and Documentation
of Performances of Ancient Greek Drama and its activities was given by Professor Platon Mavromoustakos, (University of
Athens), who also spoke about the “Academy of Plato–Development of Knowledge and Innovative Ideas” project enabling
the organisation of summer courses in 2013 through 2015. Associate professor at the University of Athens, Gregory
Ioannidis, presented in detail the “Academy of Plato–Development of Knowledge and Innovative Ideas” operation, co-funded
by the European Union (European Social Fund) and national resources, within the framework of the Operational Programme
“Education and Lifelong Learning”.
During the course, the students had the chance to visit the archaeological site of Thorikos and the Temple of Poseidon at
Cape Sounion. The course featured workshops with Kerem Karaboga and composer Philippos Tsalahouris.
Participants attended the performance “East Shadow”, directed by Jiři Kylian and the performance “Green Porno” by Isabella
Rossellini, both produced by the Athens Festival 2014. They also had the chance to attend a rehearsal and the performance
of Euripides’ “Helen”, directed by Dimitris Karantzas, at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. As part of the course the
attendants also met with the director of the Hellenic Festival, George Loukos. Theatre directors Constantinos Arvanitakis and
Nikos Diamantis participated in the seminars as guests.