Onassis Youth Festival 2019
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Free admission
General
Upper Stage
Introduction
Students leave the schoolroom and hit the stage. They are “taught” by artists instead of teachers. Adventurous teens are inspired by three adventurous cities: Athens, Alexandria, Beirut. Their vehicle is their own festival, Onassis Youth Festival, which comes to rock the stage.
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“And now, I have an idea,” said Aristotle Onassis just before leaving his job as a night phone operator in Buenos Aires.
At Onassis Stegi, ideas find their home and teenagers find their festival. For three hours per week, in a frenzy of ideas, improvisation, exercise and intensive rehearsals with influential Greek artists, the students create the most invigorating festival. This year, their inspiration will be the triangle of three amazing, rebellious cities with a wealth of culture and history: Athens, Alexandria, Beirut.
Photo © Pinelopi Gerasimou
FESTIVAL PROGRAM
15:00 | 1st Piraeus High School
“Green Line”
16:00 | 41st Athens High School (Kato Patissia)
“Summer Rain”
17:00 | 3rd Egaleo College
“Dream³”
18:00-19:00 | Break
19:00 | 1st Agioi Anargyroi High School
“Myths in Athens”
20:00 | Marathon College
“[MOSAIC]”
21:00 | 2nd & 1st Nea Filadelfia Vocational Colleges
“A Few Square Meters”
22:00 | 50th Athens College (Sepolia)
“True Stories”
14:00 | 1st Agioi Anargyroi High School
“Myths in Athens”
15:00 | 1st Piraeus High School
“Green Line”
16:00 | 50th Athens College (Sepolia)
“True Stories”
17:00 | Marathon College
“[MOSAIC]”
18:00-19:00 | Break
19:00 | 41st Athens High School (Kato Patissia)
“Summer Rain”
20:00 | 2nd & 1st Nea Filadelfia Vocational Colleges
“A Few Square Meters”
21:00 | 3rd Egaleo College
“Dream³”
13:00 | Marathon College
“[MOSAIC]”
14:00 | 1st Agioi Anargyroi High School
“Myths in Athens”
15:00 | 2nd & 1st Nea Filadelfia Vocational Colleges
“A Few Square Meters”
16:00 | 1st Piraeus High School
“Green Line”
17:00-18:00 | Break
18:00 | 3rd Egaleo College
“Dream³”
19:00 | 50th Athens College (Sepolia)
“True Stories”
20:00 | 41st Athens High School (Kato Patissia)
“Summer Rain”
MYTHS IN ATHENS
1st Agioi Anargyroi High School
A walk around Athens of myth and legend.Taking streets, squares and buildings we pass every day as our starting point, we tell stories that have left their mark on the city and continue to haunt it to this day. Stories and people lost in time that became urban legends. A humorous and imaginative little trip through the city we all know – and yet a city that never ceases to surprise us.
Direction & dramaturgy by: Thanassis Zeritis & Aristea Stafylaraki (4Frontal Theater Company)
Video: Apostolis Koutsianikoulis [blæc cinematography]
Teachers in charge: Aglaia Roussi & Anna Bonatsou
With the students: Konstantinos Bouras, Korina Boutsikari, Kleri Dani, Eleni Darayianni, Maria Doganou, Erina Hoxha, Egnatio Kotsi, Lydia Kritikou, Michailia Nora, Yiota Palioglou, Maria Papayianni, Antigoni Pappa, Yiannis Polychronakis, Yakoub Sarvar, Niki Sergi, Lydia Soulouta, Taxiarchis Stergiou, Konstantinos Triantafyllopoulos, Maria Vassiliou & Stelios Zouganelis
GREEN LINE
1st Piraeus High School
How close by us is Athens really? And how far from us is exotic Alexandria? To whom does Cavafy belong, at the end of the day? Where is there war? In Beirut or somewhere close by? And can theater really make it stop? Where do the dreams of a fifteen-year-old boy in a refugee camp meet with our own in a Piraeus neighborhood? And what about us? Who – and where – will we be in ten years’ time?
On stage there is a green line. And thirty-one youngsters.
They laugh, bicker, dance, sing, and stick their tongues out at history. They unfurl stories, both true and imaginary, and – diving into them – are transformed.
A journey. Into the things that unite us.
Its destination is but the pretext.
Directed by: Martha Bouziouri & Erifili Yiannakopoulou
Teacher in charge: Yiouli Skotidaki
With the students: Petros Aboud, Maria Aga, Niki Alimberti, Dania Dakak, Thanos Daniil, Anthi Hatzopoulou, Joy Hilai, Christiana Kamboutsi, Elli Kantzou, Irini Kaparelioti, Anna Kappa, Christina Kappa, Nikos Karavolos, Elpida Karayianni, Alexandros Kardoulias, Orestis Kokorikos, Ilias Kostouros, Panos Laganis, Nikoleta Lambrinaki, Marizeta Loi, Dimitra Pandazi, Alexandra Perraki, Yiannis Samartzis, Yiannis Sarris, Sotiris Schinas, Stavros Siainis, Maria Tembeli, Evangelia Theodoraka, Fotini Verykaki, Yorgos Yeorgopoulos & Marina Zervou
Parts of this performance are inspired by the play “Antigone” by Jean Anouilh, published in Greek in an anthology titled “The Wild, Antigone, Invitation to the Castle” (Gonis Books, Athens 1962).
The poem “The City” by C. P. Cavafy is heard during the course of the performance.
A FEW SQUARE METERS
2nd & 1st Nea Filadelfia Vocational Colleges
A teenage college student. A little BEFORE s/he finishes class. A little BEFORE s/he goes out the college door. A little BEFORE s/he moves into further education. A little BEFORE life alone. BEFORE adulthood. BEFORE s/he becomes a citizen. A teenager BEFORE the city.
This moment of suspension, this moment BEFORE the giant leap is what we’re trying to trace with this performance. This moment of worry, where a teenager prepares (themselves) for their great journey through life.
It is a reckoning with their own self, a mapping out of their journey up to this point, as well as a drafting of “architectural” plans for everything that is to follow from there on in.
For as long as a school hour lasts.
The body may well be limited to a few square meters, but the mind is already crossing vast distances…
Personal texts written by the students as well as extracts from Greek literature articulate this labyrinthine journey, this impulsive teenage sprint within “a few square meters”: of their classroom, their neighborhood, their broader area, their lives up till now.
Training, dramaturgy & direction by: Aris Laskos & Anastasia Giannaki
Video: Anastasia Giannaki
Masks constructed by: Angeliki Valvi
Teachers in charge: Panayiota Mariolopoulou (2nd Vocational School), Kalliopi Zerbina (2nd Vocational School) & Kostas Petridis (1st Vocational School – Headmaster)
With the students: Rafaella Aivazi, Elissavet Apostolou, Fotini Melina Drakaki, Vassiliki Drossopoulou, Aliki Filippakou, Artemis Filippakou, Eleana Gioti, Apostolos Goudeos, Maroula Kapola, Konstantina Kotsifaki, Klea Moutsa, Sotiris Papadakis, Sofia Pavlidou, Angeliki Plavoukou & Ramadan Selamai
Permission for the students to use extracts from the work “Peisistratos” for free was kindly granted by the Patakis Press and Thanassis Himonas.
“Peisistratos” by Yorgos Himonas appears in the book titled “Complete Prose Works” released by the Patakis Press.
DREAM³
3rd Egaleo College
What makes a city special? It’s people. It’s history. Love.
Three different stories told by people from the same family and set in three different eras. The romanticism of the ’60s interlaces with the exuberance of the ’80s and the cynicism of today in three stories that link Athens with Alexandria. A wander round the streets of these two cities, taking in their open-air cinemas, bars, parties, pools and, moreover, the rooftops that host and house them. Up on the rooftops, where two worlds join together, where you can bring the sky down to earth and lift the earth up to the sky – that’s where heroes live out their dreams.
Directed by: Angelika Stavropoulou & Stefanos Achilleos (Cheek-Bones Theater Company)
Texts: Stefanos Achilleos & Angelika Stavropoulou (based on the students’ texts and ideas)
Video: Georgia Lialiari
Teacher in charge: Georgia Lialiari
With the students: Ioannis Alexiou, Rafail Efthimios Angelis, Eleni Avgousti, Eleftheria Bezandakou, Ioannis Christodoulou, Erika Demirai, Iossif Gavrielatos, Vangelis Hambilidis, Odysseas Kourouvakalis, Armalinda Moutsa, Panayiotis Nyktarakis, Fotini Papakostopoulou, Yeorgios Polymeros, Maria Venetoulia, Vassiliki Vrachati & Dimitra Zarri
The music recordings “Soundscape Recordings Syngrou Avenue Soundscape” and “Beirut Cityscapes” by Manolis Manousakis are heard during the course of the performance.
SUMMER RAIN
41st Athens High School (Kato Patissia)
Names change when we change cities. Dreams get mangled by reality when we dream of living in New York or in Tokyo. No-one’s ever been to Alexandria, and no-one knows if Athens has limits. Our city is wherever our grandma’s name sounds right, and our city is wherever her name sounds wrong. We want little showers of summer rain to fall – water that is, not bullets. We want to go to Beirut because someone somewhere sometime called it “the Paris of the Middle East” and Paris is more mythical even than Atlantis. The Garden of Eden is the most beautiful city in the world.A divine voice asks questions of 14 youngsters who have mixed cities up with countries, Ithaca with Alexandria, and Cavafy with Odysseus.
Lost amid the cities of their forebears, between borders, and within Athens – a city that belongs to them.
Directed by: Vassia Attarian & Myrto Makridi (Ntouth Theater Company)
Teachers in charge: Katerina Karvouni, Hariklia Stathopoulou & Aristea Zafiropoulou
With the students: Rashid Auzadeh, Angela Boundeianou, Amen Jeubern, Yonilda Lilo, Pigi Matzouka, Marsela Metsia, Ioanna Michailova, Valentina Misikevits, Ioanna Mitsou, Anna-Maria Popovic, Daniel Semenina, Iosif Skourialis, Martha Sofianopoulou & Francesco Tsetso
The poems “The City” and “Ithaca” by C. P. Cavafy are heard during the course of the performance.
The voice heard is that of Dimitris Tassenas.
Special thanks to Elena Gerodimou and Dimitris Tassenas for their help, and to Iliana Paspala for her translations into English.
TRUE STORIES
50th Athens College (Sepolia)
Stories that take place in an imaginary city somewhat reminiscent of Athens, Beirut and Alexandria.
“True Stories” is an improvisational performance whose texts, videos, and actions sprang exclusively from a group of teenage students. It is a performance that emerges from the personalities of these teens and ends up in their need to shape their own identity within their modern-day, multi-ethnic surroundings. The performance was formed and developed through their creative ideas, taking on the narratives that these teenagers wanted to tell.
Conceived by: Yorgos Zois, Sania Strimbakou & eleven teenage students
Film Consultant: Yorgos Zois
Choreography: Sania Strimbakou
Teacher in charge: Apostolos Tsapos
Video by: the students, shot on their camera phones
Editing: Elissavet Pirounia
Sound: Kostas Yiaxoglou
With the students: Maria Charalambopoulou, Olga Galani, Grigoris Kanakaris, Konstantinos Karayiannakis, Niki Ladia, Katerina Panopoulou, Romeo Pappa, Agapi Perdetzoglou, Aristidis Ramiotis, Elena Tsichla & Rafaela Velliou
[MOSAIC]
Marathon College
A large mosaic
A blue mosaic
Sugary sweet mosaic
The Alexander the Great mosaic
My grandma’s mosaic cake
is delicious
[Alexandria]
I don’t know what a mosaic is or how it’s spelt
The museum we visited was a mosaic
My grandma made a mosaic cake
and we ate it
[Beirut]
Hagia Sophia has mosaics
Multiculturalism
We made history
[Athens]
“To tell the truth, if we assert our differences so fiercely it is precisely because we are less and less different from one another. Because, in spite of our conflicts and our age-old enmities, each day that goes by reduces our differences and increases our likenesses a little bit more.”
Amin Maalouf
[“On Identity”, translated from the French by Barbara Bray, London: The Harvill Press, 2000]
Directed by: Konstantinos Dellas & Androniki Marathaki
Teachers in charge: Melpomeni Malamoglou, Afroditi Rikou & Haido-Anastasia Rizou (Headmistress)
With the students: Yorgos Bardis, Danai Bitsiou, Zoi Chroneou, Christina Divari, Dora Doi, Vassiliki Kakava, Markella Limniou, Nikolas Makaris, Kostas Psaromatis, Michalis Psaromatis, Anna-Maria Sarri, Thanassis Trispiotis & Manos Yerakianakis
Credits
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