The Teachers

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER INSTITUTE for ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA & THEATRE - 1-22 July 2009 Droushia/Pafos

"a unique opportunity for theatre students,emerging actors and directors, to meet and work with experts
on ancient Greek drama, in an environment which relates directly to the traditions and the way
of life in ancient Greece"

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2008 SCHEDULE

Freddy Decreus (Lectures)

1.Why do we all need myths and do we really need tragedy?
2.The emergence of a centre: a new ideology, a new Athens
3.Myth and ritual
4.Dionysian sparagmos and the reptilian brain

Classical philologist (1949), specialized in the reception of classical Antiquity during the 19th and 20th centuries. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the use of structural and semiotic theories (1985). He works at the University of Gent, where he is responsible for courses in Latin Literature, Literary Theory, Comparative Literature and Theatre History (esp. Ritual Theatre). He is also active in the Teacher Training Department. His publications have addressed the didactics of classical languages, classical tragedy and the modern stage, mythology and modern painting, postmodernism and the rewriting of the classics, and feminism and the classics. Recently he published (together with Mieke Kolk) two volumes on rereading classics in ‘East’ and ‘West’: ‘Post-colonial Perspectives on the Tragic’ (2004) and ‘The performance of the Comic in Arabic Theatre. Cultural Heritage, Western Models, Post-colonial Hybridity’ (2005).

George Mikellis (Lectures)

1. A general survey (the origin of Greek Drama; Political Support; 5 th Century B.C. Tragedy reaches
its Greatness; Tragedy and the Dramatic Festivals.
2. The political Background (Tragedy and the Beginning of a New Era; The Old and the New; Myth
and the New Rationalism; Tragedy and the New Moral Issues; The Great Dramatic Festival in
Honour of Dionysus; “The Persians” by Aeschylus; “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus).
3. The function of myth (Myth vs. New Values; “Seven against Thebes” by Aeschylus; The Language
of Law; “Antigone” by Sophocles).

4. The religious character of human actions
5. The tragic hero’s guilt: religion and law
6. The tragic hero in Sophocles’ plays
7. From theory to practice: Electra by Sophocles
8. From theory to performance: Ancient Greek drama on video

George Mikellis studied Theatre at the University of Patras and English Literature at the University of Athens. Ex-administrator (1994-2007) for Cultural and Theatrical Activities in Secondary Education in the Prefecture of Aetoloacarnania. Member of Board of Directors of the Municipal Theatre of Agrinion since its foundation in 1983. Active participant and speaker on matters of Theatre with focus on Ancient Greek Drama in Symposia and Conferences both in Greece and abroad.

Ahmed Etman (Lectures)

1 -The meaning of politics.
2 -Individualism and dialogue.
3 -The chorus, a collective voice.
4 -The tragic aspect of politics.
5 -Open comic satires against politicians.

Ahmed Etman is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University; Chairman of the Egyptian Society of Graeco-Roman Studies (ESGRS); Chairman of the Egyptian Society of Comparative Literature (ESCL). He has written a number of plays including: Cleopatra Worships Peace (1984, English tr. 2001, Italian 1992, Greek 1999, French 1999); The Blind Guest Restores his Sight (French tr. 2005); Al-Hakim Does Not Join the Hypocritic Procession (1988, Spanish tr. 2006); The Goats of Oxyrynchus (2001, English and French tr. Forthcoming); The Wedding of Libraries Nymph (2001, Italian tr. 2007, French tr. Forthcoming)

Dr. Stelios A. Hadjistyllis

Stelios A. Hadjistyllis studied at the Athens University School of Philosophy.
He worked as a teacher in various secondary schools in Cyprus. He received his MA with destinction Sheffield University a Ph. D. degree. He specialised in ancient Greek tragedy and specifically in textual criticism, editorial techniques and text interpretation.
In 2000 he was officially apponted Director of Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture. He is Vice-President of the Association of Greek Philologists of Cyprus «Stasinos» and member of many literary sociaties. He is a corresponding mamber of the Athens Scientific Society and follow of the Society of Byzantine Studies. He was recently awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Sheffield.

Nicos Shiafkalis (Practical sessions)

1. Eteocles speech to the citizens in ‘Seven against Thebes’ by Aeschylus.
2. Sense and breathing units.
3. Decoding the directions behind the text.
4. Co-ordination of movement and speech.

Nicos Shiafkalis studied acting and directing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In Cyprus became resident director and actor in the Cyprus Theatre Development Organisation. He played leading roles in numerous productions and directed many contemporary plays. In 1963 he left for Greece to teach at the Costis Michaelides Theatre School in Athens. He returned to Cyprus in 1967 and he founded his own theatre, the “Shiafkalis Theatre Co.” In 1971 he became resident director of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation until 1983. Then he went to Greece again as director of the City Theatre in Agrinio where he directed amongst other plays Othello by Shakespeare, Sophocles’ Antigone and Peace by Aristophanes. After this he returned to Cyprus where he worked as free-lance director and theatre educator. He was the director of the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute until 2003. In 2004 he was appointed Honorary president of the Cultural I dentity and Development Committee of the International Theatre Institute. Amongst other plays he directed A View from the Bridge, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Who’s Afraid Virginia Woolfe and Zoo Story by Edward Albee, Six Characters in Search of an Author by L.Pirandello, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, Antigone by Anouilh, Devil’s Discriple by G.B.Shaw, Othello by Shakespeare, Peace by Aristophanes, Antigone by Sophocles, Trojan Women by Euripides, Prometheus by Aeschylus, The Bacchae by Euripides and many other plays by contemporary Greek writers. He also lectured at the Paedagogical Academy of Cyprus.He is now the director of the International Summer Institute in Droushia, Pafos.
He translated many plays and books on theatre from English into Greek.

Skevi Menelaou (Practical sessions)

From the age of 6, Skevi Menelaou has been dancing. After finishing her school education, she was accepted at the Laban Centre of Movement and Dance in London, where she studied classical ballet, modern dance, choreography and movement.She continued her studies at the Dance Theatre Academy of London where she specialised among other subjects in dance education and theatre. Parallel to her studies, Skevi Menelaou danced in the Academy Dance Ensemble, with which she toured throughout Great Britain.Since 1990 she has been living and working in Cyprus. She opened her own dance school and is working as a ballet instructor and choreographer.She is member of the Professional Dance Association Cyprus, member of the International Theatre Institute Cyprus, the Amateur Dance School Association, the National Academy of Varna and the Russian Ballet
Society of Edinburgh.

Phaedros Kavallaris

Was born in Lapithos, Cyprus in 1950. He studied music at the Ecole Normale and the National Conservatory in Paris. He also studied Eastern music and culture in India, China and Japan. He composed many cycles of songs, like the Tragedy of Cyprus, Cyprus Symphony, Your dreams of Blood, Of freedom, Migadas Angelos, Kypriaka Erotika and many othders.