A new “hive” for the performing arts is being born in Athens
The Performing Arts Cell (CPT) is a community – ecosystem, which focuses on the creative process aimed at the overall and effective development of artists and their work. It includes three consecutive functions – the Training, Mentoring and Networking – which presuppose each other in time and procedure.
The CPT is one initiative of groups SummerAnd yet Basart also moves under the direction of Kelly Diapouli, and is supported by two theatrical venues: the Roes Theater in Gazi and Kamiro in Kypseli.
THE Electra Ellinikioti (who is also the presenter of the course “Director: a stage manager”) and Kelly Diapouli they tell us about the need from which the creation of this particular one arose «community – ecosystem» and what it looks forward to offering this shape in the future.
Electra Ellinikioti
The course “Director: a stage manager” shares the same essence with its overall project Beehive of Performing Arts. If I have found that I do something good, it is to bring people together, to strengthen the connections between them and to take care of the composition of the divers and the data that emerge from their meeting. Like a show, initiatives like the Performing Arts Hive start with the idea of one or two people, but very soon end up being the product of a larger group. Τfor the last 4 years I felt an discomfort with the field of (post) postgraduate and / or supplementary education: its transformation into an “informal” audition and an opportunity for young artists to enter the field of vision of older artists, or even its treatment as a tool of additional financial support for directors and actors, pushed me to stay away from it.
In exactly the same way that I no longer do performances unless it really concerns the subject and the text – I do not do performances driven by the anxiety of “being in things” and delivering a work. In a conversation months ago with Kelly [Διαπούλη]which was much more about where and how the contemporary artist walks today, the idea of the CPT also emerged: the part of this (post) graduate and supplementary education has absolutely no reason to exist unless it is only the first (almost necessary) stage of the greatest artistic process, which aims to build strong links between the parties involved and consequently the creation of solid ecosystems of coexistence.
Why apprentice someone if the latter was not an interlocutor, collaborator and supporter of the former? Similarly, why choose an actor to work with a director if the latter does not seek from the former the submission of his ideas and his own point of view in the artistic process?
So, in a few days, we will start the first phase of the Performing Arts Hive, but with our eyes on in the second and third phase: in the performances and projects that will be created by the participantsin presenting them to the public and in creating a network of people professional in the performing arts, whose coexistence that gives them feedback, that inspires them, will strengthen them.
Specifically, now regarding the course of “Theros” at the CPT (and completely complementary to the respective ones of Viki Kyriakoulakou and Eleana Tsichli) it has two main characteristics. The first was the presentation of a series of practical tools, useful in what we call “Composition” and a technique in guiding performers. The second is the deep dislike of the ubiquitous role model of the all-knowing, visionary director, with his doomed universe in which some lucky ones are able to penetrate either as actors or as collaborators under the stage and whom they have to serve.
The aim of the lesson in other words is to answer how one directs and no what does a director do. The answer already given – for me – to the second, opens the way for the answer of the first: your collaborators make you a director, and you direct taking care of their osmosis.
Kelly Diapouli
Unlike the majority of European countries, in Greece there are neither the policies nor the necessary structures to support the independent space, ie the majority of artists who are currently active in the field of performing arts. Apparently, even the funds of the Recovery Fund, whose main objective is to support artists and professionals affected by the pandemic, ie artists and professionals in the independent space, will again be directed, as a rule, not in the independent space, as it should be, but mainly in state bodies and initiatives of the Ministry of Culture.
This lack of support for independent artists becomes even worse in the case of young and emerging artists, who really have no support at any level. Neither in terms of guidance, nor of course in terms of funding. It is typical that even In order for an artistic group to be eligible to apply for a grant, two derivatives must have been previously constructed.. So what about artists who want to make their first productions?
This reflection is the starting point and its mission Beehive of Performing Arts: to create a structure that will support the artists as a whole in the creation of their work. And when we say overall, we mean both in terms of content, that is, in terms of the materials for creating a performance (stage, drama, lighting), and in terms of production and presentation of their works. Therefore, the CPT includes three successive functions: the Training, Mentoring and Networking.
Education is about a series courses that have to do with basic materials to create a show. Next, the Guidance is about helping the artists to accomplish and to present their derivatives and Networking is about creating an interconnection platform for artists with curators from Greece and the external network, so that they can slowly build their staff partners.
That is why we say that the CPT is a community and an ecosystem. It is not considered in the organization of some courses. The lessons are the first step to get to know each other better and gain common references and common understanding in relation to the main problems we have to face. With this first step begins a greater process of fermentation and cooperation, which results in the creation of a mutually supportive community, it feeds on each other, produces and thus survives and creates, as it does in a beehive.
So I would say that what we are looking forward to in the future is for this ecosystem to be constantly expanding, while remaining true to its mission and to the principles and values that gave birth to it. If that’s the case, I think the Performing Arts Hive it can truly become a catering structure for young artists in the first place – but not just them.
The first course of the Performing Arts Cell includes the following courses:
– “Performance Making: Kitchen Sink Dramatara” with Vicky Kyriakoulakou
– “Making the manual of a show” with Eleana Tsichli
– “Director: a stage manager” with Theros Team
– “Drama” with Alexandros Mistriotis
– “Introduction to theatrical lighting” with Christina Thanasoula
– “Introduction to the modern European scene: what it is, how it works and how we become part of it” with Kelly Diapouli.
Classes start in early March and last for 3 months.
INFORMATION
Detailed information about the courses can be found here