During the first half of March, I had my fourth collaboration with the theater department of Deree College (The American College of Greece). The festival consisted of art history, dance, graphic design, theater arts and visual arts events. I was involved as a lighting designer, lighting operator and technical manager in the two main events. The first one "ONE-OFF DANCE[S] #2", was a compilation of four dance pieces by four prestigious choreographers. The second one was a theater performance, "Sex Strike" - an adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata by "The Actor's Wheel" - BA Acting Program, University of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth UK.
ONE-OFF DANCE[S] #2
7th March 2016
Blackbox Theatre
One of the major changes we did this year was that we reformed the stage into a much smaller square area with a white dance floor, and the audience was strictly placed on the three sides. There was generally one main lighting plot for all the companies plus some specials for every piece.
Fallen [One]
The evening started with the new solo performance by Ana Sanchez-Colberg (Theatre enCorps). All the concept behind the lighting cues was to follow the movement of the body in the space, with very slow crossfades between lighting states, so that they wouldn't be easily noticed.
Concept and performance: Ana Sanchez-Colberg
Soundscore: Kiriakos Spirou with quoted material from Pleg Shpudeiko (Heinali) (with permission by the composer)
Lighting design for the evening: Pavlos Mavridis
A-wake
The second performance was a duet by the Soyouz Dance Company with which I've been worked for many years. Note that my first dance theater photo was done with Olga back in 2011 and you can take a look at it here.
Choreography: Olga Spiraki
Performers: Olga Spiraki, Periklis Siountas
Lighting design for the evening: Pavlos Mavridis
C7
The third piece was a sarcastic dance piece by YELP Dance Company.
Concept and performance: Nestora Mariela
Lighting design for the evening: Pavlos Mavridis
C for Clay
The last piece was by the Prosxima Dance Company.
Concept, idea: Maria Koliopoulou
Performer: Vivi Christodoulopoulou
Lighting design for the evening: Pavlos Mavridis
SEX STRIKE
11th March 2016
Blackbox Theatre
The second event was an adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, presented by The Actor's Wheel - BA Acting Program, University of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth UK. That was the second visit of the company in Greece, after last year's "Feast of Famine". I was the technical manager, and once again I was amazed by the speed, the passion, the professionalism of these people. The final result was amazingly good. Not only technically, but also in terms of acting and performing. You can take a sneak peak of the group's warm up! See you again next year!
I would like to thank all the participants for being so collaborative, Ana Sanchez-Colberg (Head of the Theater Arts and Dance department) and the Deree College for inviting me again to be in charge of the festival, Ioannis Gerakellis for his patience and technical support and finally Konstantinos Michail for his help as the production assistant.