Christina Zoniou

Christina Zoniou teaches Acting and Social Theatre at graduate and postgraduate level as a Tenured Member of the Specialised Teaching Staff of the Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of the Peloponnese, since 2005. Her research interest include contemporary approaches in directing, acting and dramaturgy, actors’ training, performing arts in education, applied / social theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed.
Since 1999 she has combined her research and theatre practice in both professional and applied theatre fields. She has worked as assistant director, director, acting teacher and dramaturg by theatre institutions in Italy (among others Laboratorio Nove, Intercity Festival, Τeatro della Limonaia, Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Prima Del Teatro – European School for the Art of the Actor, Blanka Teatro) and Greece (Nea Skini). She has curated many students’ performances and facilitated theatre workshops in university institutions, theatres, schools, NGOs, citizens’ and activist groups in various countries. She is an active member of the Theatre of the Oppressed movement.
Christina Zoniou has followed graduate and postgraduate studies in theatre studies, specializing in contemporary theatre practice (directing, acting, dramaturgy and theatre pedagogy), at the University of Athens (1997), the University of Glasgow (1998) and the Laboratorio Nove Acting School, Florence (2002) and attended numerous international training seminars. She holds a PhD from the University of Thessaly (2016) on developing intercultural competence through the Theatre of the Oppressed.

Since 2016 she is member of the Studies’ Commitee of the Epidaurus Lyceum- Summer School of Ancient Drama.

WORKSHOP
 
Cycle B: 18 July – 1 August
 
Antigone or when I becomes We and We becomes They
Kreon acts as a blind bureaucrat, fails to take Ethics, Love and personal relationships into account… Or could it be that Antigone, by defending the ancestral tradition and the private sphere, breaks the law of the Polis and the collectivity, and Kreon, by contrast, defends it as he should? Which one of the two is committing Hubris? Who is the Oppressor, who is the A-polis? Who is the Oppressed οr the Protagonist to empathize with? What is the role of the Chorus, of the community of citizens, of the Demos? We will explore these questions by using a vivid and very powerful and influential popular/social theatre movement: the Indian Jana Sanskriti and the Brazilian Theatre of the Oppressed. The aim is to create a new merged private/public sphere, a new Agora (Forum) of the artists as citizens and the citizens as artists, that are able to grasp and develop a social change project through the language of theatricality, the metaphorical world of drama, and through internal revolution and collective action.

In this workshop, we will develop the story of Antigone by Sophocles by using theatre games and exercises as social metaphors. Actors will script the play instead of playing the script. We will also use theatrical techniques to understand the characters emerging in the story of the play. After the development of the story we will implement several rehearsal techniques. Subsequently, movements, music and other aspects will be incorporated in the play’s structure.

Prerequisites: 1) Read carefully Antigone by Sophocles beforehand (preferably in your language), 2) Bring along instruments or objects that produce sounds.

Working language: English

Addressed to student and professional actors as well as dramaturgs and directors.

Jointly taught with Sanjoy Ganguly