This year's program of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival has been announced. Created and completed, under the artistic direction of Vangelis Theodoropoulos, with the cooperation and participation of the National Theatre, the National Opera, the Megaron Concert Hall, Faculty of Fine Arts, etc. .
According to the Art Consultants' notes contemporary dramatists—some of them having their work performed in Greece for the first time—enjoy a prominent place in this year’s programme. Amidst the chaos and irrationality of our times, we choose to invest in the spoken and written word, in coherence and in the meaningful. Greek companies will also make their presence felt with works informed by the tenets of open dramaturgy, devised theatre and lecture performances. Of course, classic works are not absent from the programme, with Shakespeare in particular revisited in the work of young artists and internationally acclaimed directors.
One strand running through the programme is the theatrical renegotiation of contemporary history, both in purely poetic terms and with a starting point in documentary theatre. Another is the presence of new staged narratives on the Greek crisis which engage the audience through their own experience and invite us to rethink our reality and to recognize the roots and causes of the crisis.
The 2016 selection of international artists for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival is a start, a first attempt to connect the local to the international and the artistic to the political. The programme tries to pay tribute to the festival, it’s tradition, it’s past programme on the one hand and to the political reality in Europe and the current state of artistic production in the international performing arts scene on the other hand.
The underlying philosophy of the dance programming for this year’s festival—in tandem with the whole performance programming of the festival—is that a Festival has to breathe new life into existing conditions while simultaneously to create conditions and challenges that give rise to new perspectives and broadened horizons for the future.
Staying in step with the international artistic community and the wishes of Festival audiences, is committed to drawing up an integrated three-year programme of educational activities which will contextualize and complement the Festival’s other activities as well as creating new fixtures within the institution.
The educational activities will be developed along three axes:
- educating young artists in the arts at both the national and international level
- providing an aesthetic education and expanding the dialogue on the performing arts
- creating a broad community of Athens residents through personal participation, and renegotiating issues relating to public space.
For the program of the festival and information on the plays and performances you can visit: http://greekfestival.gr/