‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare
The 1st Theatre Workshop, run by the National Theatre of Greece in collaboration with Korydallos Prison, presented ‘The Tempest‘ by William Shakespeare, inside the Athenian prison, on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of June, 2017.
On November 2016, the National Theatre launched an innovative intervention in joint effortwith Korydallos Prison and the Ministry of Justice Office for Anti – Crime Policy. The 1st Theatre Workshop was created, with a distinct research approach, and was offered to inmatesfrom all wings within Korydallos prison.
The Workshop commenced on November with 20 participants, who attended a series of theoretical and practical sessions on the fundamental principles of acting – a study on theactor’s process – and on the exploration and analysis of Shakespearean plays. The participants studied selected plays and presented their own dramaturgical and socio-political approach tothe group.
On January 2017 the group, together with the National Theater’s actor Asimina Anastasοpoulou, started rehearsing for Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. After intense researchand dramaturgical analysis, the participants took over the adaptation of the text, aiming atkeeping its poetic form but also incorporating everyday language used in prison.
In April 2017 this initiative was joined by the music workshop run in Korydallos prison bythe Greek National Opera. The members of the music group worked closely with the theatre group and composed their own music under the guidance of the workshop’s facilitators M.C.Papadopoulos and A. Skordi.
On the 21st of June, after 8 months of intense studying and rehearsing, National Theatre’s research project completed its first period and the participants performed ‘The Tempest’ byWilliam Shakespeare, a unique theatre show inside Korydallos prison.
This theatre workshop is led by director Stratis Panourios.
Credits
Director: Stratis Panourios
Adaptation: The group
Assistant director: Yolanda Konstantinidou (social worker in Korydallos prison)
Original music: The music workshop “Alternative stage” of the Greek National Opera.
Facilitators for the music workshop: M.C. Papadopoulos and A. Skordi. Evi Nakou (educational and social project’s leader for the Greek National Opera), Eva Karterou, Thalia Marie Papadopoulou.
Costume design: Dionysis Xaxiris
Actors: Korydallos’ prison theatre group and Asimina Anastasopoulou
Photographers: Peter & Konstantinos Sofikitis
“The universally human topics included in Shakespeare ‘s plays concern all of us, as the writer presents each time a whole new world with timeless values within each and every play. The Tempest is his very last play, a legacy of inner values and cultivation. Working on such animportant play, all the participants in our show have the opportunity to set themselves against their past experiences, their present choices and their future potential. The Tempest is asymbol for an internal state of turmoil, the inner tempest in a person’s life that can certainly be succeeded by peace and tranquility and the rise of new possibilities for a new life, away from Prospero’s “prison island”. Text by Stratis Panourios
Vasilis Rotas, in his introduction for his translation of “the Tempest”, the one we worked on inKorydallos, notes the following thoughts, that have been a compass throughout our journey:“To hold power, to have been treated unfairly, to have the strength to punish, to hold the unfair in your hands and to use your power only to forgive the unfair, to give them the chance and the way to rediscover themselves…”
