Speakers
Description
In this paper we will discuss a school performance inspired by Édouard Louis’ award-winning debut book The end of Eddy within the framework of the programme “Theatre in the New School” conducted by the National Theatre of Greece. The themes and language of Édouard Louis’ book expressed in a perfect way the reality that many of our students experience and functioned as a vehicle for them to share their story, voice their problems and call for a change. However, would these themes be appropriate for an educational context? What drama/theatre tools could be used to explore the difficult but intrinsically relevant issues raised in Louis’ book? More importantly, how would the theatre group and the spectators react to Louis’ direct and sharp language and descriptions? Through our discussion we hope to reach some fruitful conclusions regarding the role of arts education and school performance as highly creative and liberating tools both for personal and social change.
CV
Alexandra Simou
is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philology (Laboratory of Theatre, Music and Film Studies), University of Crete. She holds a PhD in Theatre Pedagogy from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Department of English Language and Literature) and an MA from University of Brighton. Her work has been published in journals and theatre programmes and she has presented papers in theatre conferences in Greece and abroad. Her academic interests include Applied Drama and Theatre Pedagogy, Cultural Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies.
Anastasia Vasileiadou
is a Religious Education teacher and is leading the theatre group of the 1st Vocational High School in Rethymno since 2017. She has participated in many training workshops of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network. In 2021 she was chosen together with her theatre group for a year-round programme of the National Theatre of Greece on theatre in school and in the life of teenagers, which led to the performance “The end of Jo”.
Evangelos Kosmidis
is a stage director, writer & actor focused on Devised, Documentary & Theater of the Experts. Cooperates with institutions such as: the Greek National Theater (since 2019 he has directed over 10 plays on the Youth stage), the Greek National Opera (at Offenbach's opera La belle Hélène & is currently writing a new opera) the Center of Contemporary Arts Dakh Theater, Ukraine, & GogolFest (since 2021 First Pan-European Award- European Theater Convention), EnDynameiEnsemble, a group of artists with & without disabilities (since 2008 in all projects & tours in Greece & Europe) . Have acted, directed & taught in France, Ukraine, Switzerland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Portugal, Slovenia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, and Poland.
