In June 2023, Central staff Sarah Grochala and Melissa Dunne travelled to Athens with three emerging writers currently studying on the MA/MFA Writing for Broadcast Media – Jessica Mclaughlin Cafferty, Rebecca Fowler and Peter Rose - to work with Greek theatre makers at Teatro Mpellos.
Who are Teatro Mpellos?
Teatro Mpellos are a small theatre in the centre of Athens whose aim is to create a wider community of theatre artists collaborating and sharing work. Their focus for this season has been on new writing by Greek authors. The team is led by artistic director Aikaterini Papageorgiou (BA Performance Arts 2018), along with Fanis Milleounis, who manages the theatre. The rest of the artistic team consists of the actors Tasos Lekkas, Eliza Skolidi and Alexandros Varthis. Central visited to support the theatre’s aim to encourage collaboration and the sharing of knowledge between Greek artists and international artists.
How did the collaboration come about?
Aikaterini Papageorgiou had observed that, apart from short workshops with established Greek playwrights, there is little in the way of structured training for emerging theatre writers in Greece at the moment.
To address this need, Sarah Grochala ran two playwriting workshops looking at Anglo-American approaches to playwriting. The participants included a mix of Greek writers, translators, directors and actors. Topics covered included dramatic action, scene structure, plot structure and creating character.
How were Central students involved in the project?
Emerging writers, students on the MA/MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media anonymously submitted plays to Teatro Mpellos and three were selected from this submission. The three selected were Tom Cruise is a Threat Vol. 2 by Jessica McLaughlin Cafferty, which deals with grief and the destructive power of a certain Hollywood star. Help Inc. by Rebecca Fowler, which focuses on the difficulty of playing multiple roles as a contemporary mother. Finally, Match Book by Peter Rose, which asks the question of whether we would start a relationship if we knew both the joy and the suffering it would entail in advance.
Melissa Dunne worked with three emerging Greek directors – Stefania Samara, Aris Cacleas, Panos Kougias – who each directed a staged reading of one of the Central writers’ short plays.
Facilitated by Melissa Dunne, the Central writers and the Greek directors engaged in insightful discussions exploring their contrasting cultural perceptions regarding the primary creative artist within the rehearsal room. This dynamic dialogue revolved around the roles of both the director and the writer, examining their individual strengths and weaknesses in shaping the artistic process. Furthermore, deliberations delved into the thought-provoking realm of conceptualization and genre, particularly in relation to the staging of new work. Throughout these exchanges, there was an undeniable eagerness to collaborate with emerging playwrights and present exciting new plays to audiences.
What did participants gain from the process?
Emerging writer Rebecca Fowler commented that, “The experience of collaborating with a Greek team was hugely positive, but also challenging: testing out themes and words in a different language and culture was both exposing and very rewarding. My play focuses on the challenges facing a working mother and I was struck by how readily recognisable this was to the people I worked with. In the meantime, spending time with a range of Greek directors and performers, and gaining insight into differing approaches to theatre at every level, was invaluable.”
Stefania, one of the directors participated in the project, highlighted how rare is for the Greek industry to actively engage the writer in the rehearsals. She noted that there is a lot one can delve into in order to explore this process which is why she thought that this experience was very useful for her future practice.
And finally…
The project ended with a public showing of the three rehearsed readings and a discussion panel, where audience members could quiz the directors and writers about their experiences of working together and discuss the differences between working practices in Greek and British theatre cultures more generally. It is hoped that the project will lay the groundwork for a more lasting collaboration between Central and Teatro Mpellos.