Sixty-five years after the first performance of the State Theater of Northern Greece with leading Greek actors, the Philippi Festival continues to look back on modern and contemporary Greek history, honoring important people of spirit and art, through the remembrance of events that determined its course. country.
An important institution, the Philippi Festival, 65 years since the first performance of ancient drama in modern times, in the emblematic ancient theater of Philippi, remains renewed, innovative and full of action. It continues to be an important cultural event for Kavala, eastern Macedonia and Thrace, northern Greece, inextricably linked all these years with the course of people who each year rush by hundreds to attend its events and become friends of this important cultural institution.
Sixty-five years after the first performance of the State Theater of Northern Greece with leading Greek actors, the Philippi Festival continues to look back on modern and contemporary Greek history, honoring important people of spirit and art, through the remembrance of events that determined its course. country.
Thus, this year’s 65th Philippi Festival is dedicated to the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. He chooses for the title of “The Six Blue Pencils” by Kosmas Politis, the ones that he “spoiled” by writing in sequels in the magazine “Postman” in the period 1962-’63 (in the forties of the lost state) perhaps his most important work, “In Hadjifrangos” .
The artistic director leaves after 14 years
The atmosphere at the press conference, given in the old town of Kavala, on the Panagia peninsula, for the official presentation of the program of this year’s festival was emotionally charged. The artistic director of the Philippi Festival, director Thodoris Gonisresigns after 14 years of serving this important cultural institution.
The mayor of Kavala Theodoros Mouriadis He warmly thanked Mr. Gonis for his long-term contribution to the cultural development of Kavala, noting that “during the 14 years he has been in Kavala, the theater has been upgraded, he left the hall and visited various parts of the city. It made us love our own city, making performances in places that we had outside of our cultural becoming “.
Speaking about the identity of this year’s Festival, Thodoris Gonis referred to Cosmas Citizen and other great writers, whose work revolves around Smyrna. “The history of the world would be very different if it were not for literature. We would have forgotten almost everything and she dictates what you want to do with the Festival. “She holds in her hands the history of the whole world and the literature that has been written about the destruction of Smyrna is great,” he stressed.
The people who compose the puzzle of this year’s Philippi Festival
Renowned Greek writers, such as Stratis Doukas, Elias Venezis, Stratis Myrivilis, Fotis Kontoglou, Dido Sotiriou, Kosmas Politis but also political protagonists of this turbulent era, such as Eleftherios Venizelos, Nikolaos Panogis and Nikolaos Panodis compose the “gallery” of this year’s theme.
The portraits of the great personalities of that period, have undertaken to “sketch”, after order of the Philippi Festival, important artists, writers, actors and directors, including Akillas Karazisis, Hector Lygizos, Thomas Korovinis, Ag. , Costas Kanavouris, Kyriakos Syfiltzoglou, Giannis Baskozos together with Costas Akrivos, Karolina Mermiga, Sotiria Maragozaki, Demosthenes Papamarkos and Antonis Nikolopoulos.
“This year’s events”, Mr. Gonis underlined, “will spread in the city of Kavala, in familiar places, which have emerged and been loved for the last fourteen years through the Philippi Festival”. Places such as the courtyard of the 7th primary school, the Old Music, the customs beach, the theater of Mehmet Ali, the Fortress, the Carnagio, Pipinou Square, the gardens of the house of Mohammad Ali “.
“Of course,” continued the outgoing artistic director of the Philippi Festival. “Opening performance” The Damned Soils “, based on the novel of the same name by Didos Sotiriou”.
Ancient drama workshop
The culmination of the events in the ancient theater will again be the 6th Laboratory of Ancient Drama. This original camp in the area of ​​Krinides, which started on the occasion of the completion of 60 years of the Festival in 2017, returns this year with the presentation of a complete performance of ancient drama, for the first time on an aristocratic text.
Georgia Mavragani, one of the most important directors of the younger generation, together with her team, will be for two weeks in the area of ​​Philippi, where they will present the result of their work on Aristophanes’ “Frogs”, in a new translation by Demosthenes Papamarkou, starting with a two-day seminar, with the translator of the work as a speaker and ending with the presentation of the play with free admission for the public.
The curtain of the 65th Philippi Festival will go up on Saturday, July 2, 2022 and will end on August 30.
More information is available on the official website of the event: https://philippi-festival.gr.
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