LABORATORIUM

TRANSFORMATIONS OF ENERGY (General principles of Theatre of Connection) >>>>

WAITING>>>>

HAI KU POETRY>>>>

CARNAVANI>>>>

GROTESQUE MASK>>>>>
UTOPIA>>>>>>>>

See description below...

Intro

Training is not a session where the teacher – master teaches some tricky techniques so that his “followers” – students copy them in order to succeed in auditions or in artistic life further more.

All kind of training has for Atropos laboratory dimension, either intensive or shorter, in the frame work of a rehearsal or of a workshop. 

The participant is invited to find his own way of connection and creativity under the leading of Stamatis Efstathiou or of his collaborators. In that sense even the leader makes his own experimentations during the work, trying and adapting new elements, according to the flow of the moment, to the dynamic and to the discoveries of the group, of each participant.

Photo: Svetlana Karlova

Founder and artistic director of Atropos, Stamatis Efstathiou, has established through his years of work a precise but at the same developing in time method and philosophy of training : “THE THEATRE OF CONNECTION”. This connection refers to the permanent research of organic links between: energy-body-voice-speech-chant-song. In all kind of workshop or training in general we put from the very beginning, the basis of the sacredness of the work’s environment and of the most “in disrepute” action, are put into question in a totally viable and practical framework. On parallel we research constantly the points of collapse of ostentation, the landscapes that flirt with the profane and guide to commentary and to poetry.

The primordial vision of Theatre of Connection is to trace the links of the person-performer with space, time and the universe that surrounds him.

Workshop topics

** All workshops, no matter the orientation, are based on the “Theatre of Connection” approach. The general structure of the work is the following:

      Connection with the space, with one’s impulses, with  group’ s impulses

      Physical and vocal warming up. Research on energy and technique

      Explorations on vocal and physical landscapes

      Creation of individual stage “alphabet”

      Learning song(s) from different cultural tradition(s)

      Organic and guided improvisations

      Embodiment of text  and song

      Individual and group action

      Synthesis-Collage > Presentation of the work to guests

** The material is adapted according to the duration (long or short term workshops), the topic and the needs of the group.  

Below, you can see the different options-topics that one “Theatre of Connection” workshop can have. With time some topics-options can change:

 

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TRANSFORMATIONS OF ENERGY (General principles of Theatre of Connection)>

Photo: Jessica Kaibali

   The Theatre of Connection > In our every day life we react either automatically or mentally. Our body is rather a weight than a fertile territory where the world that surrounds us is reflected and transformed. This world often lacks vibrations either wild or tame that the nature and the contradictions of life offer. Nevertheless, since the body is exposed on stage in its totality, in a non-everyday life framework, it is guided to the activation and the transformation of its energy.

  The Theatre of Connection researches forms of energy building bridges: from impulse to action, from our rejected or hidden nature to being more open and from the daily social codes to a non-everyday behavior. In a framework of research, experiment and individual work, the participant-performer, first of all energizes his will for discovery, development and change of level. In this Theatre of Connection the entire presence of the “doer-performer” reveals the inexhaustible energy and its transformations.  


Working on general principles of Theatre of Connection concerning the space, the time and the connection with the partner. Opening the physical and vocal sensitivity in different ways and depending on the individual and group backgrounds.It is designed for both short introductory periods (weekend) and more intensive (agreement with the organisator).Already taken place in different countries in Asia, Central America and Europe. 
  
Allready taken place in : Greece, Iran, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, Denmark, India, Spain, Great Britain, Belarus, Mexico

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WAITING > 

Photo: Julia Leftsenkova

 

Exploring different group and individual phenomena that occur while we wait. Sometimes we can even realize that we basically search for waiting reasons, banal or existential - no matter… We wait, so we exist.

We apply “Theatre of Connection” principles of work and in a smooth way we enter in the thematic.

It is designed for a long term work & research in years or for an intensive, at least 6 days period.

Already developed in different countries (Denmark, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Belarus) and brought as a result different performances such us: “Godonia”, “Bela Godonia”, “Bela Tuva Godonia”

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HAI-KU POETRY >

Photo: Alexander Smirnov

  Hai-ku poetry that has its roots in Japan and is characterized of density, simplicity, lightness and strength. The participants through HAI-KU get inspiration and material to built their own individual actions, which on the way interconnect with group creations and reactions. What happens is that Hai-ku poetry offers the possibility to the performer to go straight to the chore of his inner “garden” and eventually get surprised, observe it, let it grow, discover it and reevaluate it by transforming the whole process through physical and vocal impulses.

6 days work. Already taken place in Poland, Greece and in Russia.

    

  

Photo: Theodoros Ikonomakis

CARNAVANI > 

      
The work takes place in a village and goes towards carnival blaspheme in terms of songs and short theatre interactions as well as in short visits from house to house in the village. In every house the direct meeting with people can lead to warm, simple human and unexpected moments.

6 days work. Already taken place in Poland, Denmark, Greece and Bulgaria.

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GROTESQUE MASK >  

Photo made by Theodoros Ikonomakis

Working with grotesque masks lead the performer directly and without compromises to a deep and revelatory process of transformation, which may bring a fresh and surprising awareness of inner self (-ves) in both theatrical and human levels.

6 days work. Already taken place in Poland, Denmark, Russia and in Belarus.   


UTOPIA >

Working on the eternal wish to change, on the harmony and non harmony, on the obsession to totally control the human nature towards high ideals and radically transformed communities and so on. 

In this thematic we are more directly inspired from utopic and anti-utopic texts and characters.

Intensif work of 6 days or long term work (according to agreement).  

Already taken place in Bulgaria, Russia, India. Soon in Spain

PATHS OF SACRED > 

Precise questions to deal with will be:

In addition, theatre traditions all over the world remind to us that what we call today theatre is the fruit of pure sacred practices.

Before psychology dominates in theatre approach, both in texts and in training, theatre was connected with the change of human inner state and with different visions of the world. And this path of theatre was individually reflected in ecstasy and collectively in myths and rituals.  

 - How the theatrical space becomes sacred?

– Where are the crossing points of sacred and secular in a theatrical action?

– Can we practically work with deep human change, thus with spirituality in theatre?

– What happens with sacred speech and further more with silence and music that become sacred in theatre?

– Working with mythical time is contradictory to now and here, the basic principle of theatre practices?

– Are we courageous enough to explore on parallel paths of profane which inevitably go together with sacred? 

Already taken place in St Petersburg

MEMORY >
We live the present moment by stepping on paths that the past has traced.

Every moment that passes leaves its footprint. These footprints - our memories - haunt or illuminate the sensitivity with which we approach the present. At the same time they define the weights and challenges of the future. At the end a man without memory is a man without roots, without a body to feed it now, without branches to look towards the future.
Through theater, precisely through the theater of Connection, the actors- participants will refer to personal memories and will transform them to theater actions. Not in a naturalistic nor in an emotional way. We will draw rather the existential essence of each memory, its poetic and metaphysical juices and its lightness and we will seek to create a collective kaleidoscope of memory.  

Already taken place in Minsk (Belarus)