"The Return of Dionysus": A tribute to Theodoros Terzopoulos

Thursday 5 July

18:30
Official opening—Welcome Addresses—Opening Speeches

20:30
Opening of the photographic installation "The Return of Dionysus"
Photographs: Johanna Weber / photographer
Design: Alexandros Kokkinos / sculptor-architect

The photographs were selected from the archive assembled by Johanna Weber over the course of her 27-year collaboration with Theodoros Terzopoulos. The material includes photographs of rehearsals, performances, workshops and Greek/international tours. The 'three-dimensional' photographic installation is the result of collaboration between Johanna Weber and Alexander Kokkinos.

21:00
Opening of the sound installation "ENOPAE"
Curation: Panayiotis Velianitis / composer-music educator

Panayiotis Velianitis' sound installation will be broadcast in the grounds of the European Cultural Center of Delphi—specifically, along the paths running from the central building through the Conference Center gardens to Delphi village and from the Conference Center to the main gate—throughout the tribute.

Friday 6 July | A. Conference Center

"The Return of Dionysus"

A demonstration of Theodoros Terzopoulos' actor training method

A demonstration of Theodoros Terzopoulos' Method will be given by its originator, who will be joined by his close associate, Savvas Stroumpos, and 14 teachers of the Method from around the world.

Theodoros Terzopoulos' Method is taught in Theater Studies departments and included on the curriculum in numerous theater academies including: the Central Theater Academy of Beijing, the "Silvio d'Amico" National Theater Academy of Rome, the University of Sao Paulo, GITIS, and the Theater Academy of Taiwan. Since 2013, the "Theodoros Terzopoulos Method" international summer school has been held annually at the Attis Theater for young actors and directors.
The Method has already been published in book form in Greek, Russian, German, Turkish, Chinese, Korean and Italian and is under publication in Polish, English, Farsi and Mandarin (Taiwan).

With:
Theodoros Terzopoulos & Savvas Stroumpos
along with: Mikhail Sokolov (Russia, Electrotheatre Stanislavsky), Przemyslaw Blaszczak (Poland, Grotowski Institute), Juan Esteban Echeverri Arango (Colombia), Justin Jain (USA, Wilma Theatre), Paolo Musio (Italy), Li Yadi (Liaty) (China, Central Beijing Theatre Academy), Long Long / Lin Chien-Lang (Taiwan, National Theatre / Theatre Academy of Taiwan), Rustem Begenov (Kazakhstan), Kerem Karaboga (Turkey, Istanbul University), Yiling Tsai (Taiwan, National Theatre / Theatre Academy of Taiwan), Niovi Charalambous (Cyprus), Evelyn Asouant (Syria, Greece).

B. Ancient Theater of Delphi

Theatrical performance: "Trojan Women"
Directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos
Production: PAPHOS CULTURAL CAPITAL OF EUROPE 2017
With Despina Bebedeli in the role of Hecuba.
With eleven actors from six countries and six Cassandras from divided cities (Nicosia, Mostar, Jerusalem).
Taking place in symbolic Delphi in a time of generalized geopolitical unrest, "Trojan Women" stands as a protest against irrationality, violence and the horrors of war and as a demand for peace, solidarity and humanism. The director intends the production to serve as a bridge by highlighting the phenomenon of divided cities, divided peoples and the need for reconciliation.

The performances at the Ancient Theater of Delphi takes place in collaboration with the Fokida Ephorate of Antiquities in the context of 2018, European Year of Cultural Heritage.

"Trojan Women" will begin in daylight and theatrical lighting will only be used for its final scenes, allowing the production to incorporate the Delphic landscape as it is thrown into relief first by twilight then by darkness.

Saturday 7 July | Delphi Conference Center

Symposium: "THE RETURN OF DIONYSUS: From the Bacchae to the Trojan Women"
Dates: 7–8 July

With the participation of university professors, theater directors, heads of theaters and cultural institutions, actors, artists and Theater Studies specialists from Korea, Taiwan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Britain, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece.
Speakers: Anatoly Vasiliev, director (Russia); Eugenio Barba, director (Denmark); Jan Fabre, director (Belgium); Despina Bebedeli, actor (Cyprus); Freddy Decreus, University of Ghent (Belgium); Hans Thies Lehman, Frankfurt University (Germany); Eleni Varopoulou, theatre critic (Greece-Germany); Vasilis Papavasileiou, actor/director (Greece); Frank Raddatz, dramatist (Germany); Kalliopi Lemos, visual artist (England); Konstantinos Arvanitakis, McGill University (Canada); Gonia Jarema, University of Montreal (Canada); Dikmen Gurun, University of Istanbul (Turkey); Kim Jae Ky oung, Chung-Ang University (Korea); Santanu Bosè, National School of Drama (India); Marika Thomadaki, University of Athens; Maria Maragou, art critic; Penelope Chatzidimitriou, University of Thessaloniki; Dimitris Tsatsoulis, University of Patras; Giorgos Sabatakakis, University of Patras; Katerina Arvaniti, University of Patras; Avra Sidiropoulou, Open University of Cyprus; Panayiotis Velianitis, composer-music educator; et al.

B. Ancient Theatre of Delphi

Theatrical performance: "Trojan Women"
Directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos

Sunday 8 July

Delphi Conference Center

Closing business and end of conference
Musical Performance: "The Wanderer and his Shadow"
Composition performed by the internationally-celebrated baritone Dimitris Tiliakos
With Giannis Tsanakaliotis at the piano.
Dimitris Tiliakos began work with Theodoros Terzopoulos on a soundscape for the production based on Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, singing in the Attis theater without a piano accompaniment.
At Delphi, he will perform 10 lieder in which Schubert set to music poetry by Goethe, Schmidt and Müller, along with an echo of the folk music of uprooting—the first fruit of a new collaboration.

Screenings

The following films and documentaries will also be screened during the tribute:
Documentaries
"Dionysus' Journey" (1986) dir. Loukia Rikaki
"In the footsteps of the Argonauts" (1989) dir. Loukia Rikaki
"Theater Encomium" (2010) dir. Dimitris Trikas

Performances

"The Bacchae" by Euripides (1986) video: Loukia Rikaki
"The Persians" by Aeschylus (1992)
"Herakles" by Heiner Müller (1997)
"Triptych" by Samuel Beckett (2004)
"Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus (2010) video: Wiebke Pöpel
"Alarme" (stage piece based on the correspondence between Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth I, 2010), video: Chrysanthi Badeka

Theodoros Terzopoulos' theater is different. It's not about roles, characters or motivation; it’s about is the actor's body, Dionysus the god, and ritual. Terzopoulos is the founder of a unique training method for actors which is now recognized internationally and taught in 30 universities. He has given 2,100 performances around the world, and books about his work have been published in ten languages.

It was in Delphi some 33 years ago that Theodoros Terzopoulos founded the Attis Theater. This July will see the staging of "The Return of Dionysus", an international meeting in honour of the Greek director and educator which reconnects theater with its mythic deity, Dionysus, and with its core: the actor’s body and perpetual improvisation.

You could almost say that Theodoros Terzopoulos encapsulates the entire cultural mission of the Onassis Foundation in his career and his work: Greece at its best, here and everywhere, placing Man and society at its epicentre, using art as an engine of change.

What they have said about Theodoros Terzopoulos:
"In his theater, myth is no fairytale but accumulated experience [...], an adventurous journey in the landscape of memory, a quest for the lost keys of unity between body and logos […] for the word as a physical entity, which is something Hölderlin discusses in the notes to his translations of Sophocles' works."
—Heiner Müller: writer, poet, playwright, director

"Theodoros Terzopoulos' method is Socratic: the perception that we all bear within us the past, our ancestors, and participate in a collective memory inscribed on our bodies as well as our minds."
—Etel Adnan: writer, poet, visual artist

"... Seeing means seeing an image of truth through multiple images. That is what has inscribed itself clearly on my memory, leaving space to revisit and to think. That is what makes his work so special."
—Robert Wilson: director: visual artist