Community projects

A New Era (?)
A performance -dialogue
June 27-30, 2019

Alexandra Vassiliou and Vera Lardi designed a performance-dialogue for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival.

How do gay, bisexual and transgender people experience homophobia, biphobia and transphobia? How is the new generation of LGBTQI+ people in Greece thinking and processing things? Have the recent legal reforms changed the overall situation? Are we really on the cusp of a new era - an era which truly acknowledges people's right in free self-definition?

Stories by members of the LGBTQI+ community come alive in a unique bar-theater performance. Within the enchanting cocoon of a bar, we share the illusions of the night. Language, music, dance and drag shows, all merge into a puzzle of narratives and stage action.

A New Era (?) connects theater with social intervention. Narrators, actors and audience are methodically led into parallel discussions about the topic in question. Collectively, they shape an experiential performance based on real-life narratives which gradually leads the audience into being emotionally and verbally responsive through an open debate. The intention is to listen to the voice of the spectator in all its diversity and multiplicity.

Specializing in the so-called 'community theater,' Vera Lardi (actress, theater researcher and psycho-dramatist) and Alexandra Vassiliou (social psychologist, with long experience in issues of social marginalization of LGBTQI+ people), collaborate with Margarita Kastrinou (theatre researcher and actress) and jointly create a performance about one's personal experience of exclusion, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, and about the universal need for genuine connection. The night is expected to help in this captivating endeavor.

Conceived and designed by: Vera Lardi, Alexandra Vassiliou
Dramaturgy - Directing: Margarita Kastrinou, Vera Lardi
Scientific consultants: Lily Vassiliou - Lena Aslanidou (Processwork Hub), Nancy Papathanasiou - Elena-Olga Chistidi (Orlando lgbt+)
Discussion moderator: Alexandra Vassiliou, Lena Aslanidou
Movement: Antigoni Gyra
Set and costume design: Magda Plevraki
Assistant to the set designer: Natasa Tsintikidi
Lighting design: Kostas Bethanis
Music: Alexandros Misirliadis
Assistant to the directors: Maria Ouitsi Hatzi
Photos: Pavlos Mavridis
Graphic design: Lila Paleologos - pelpal productions
Cast: Fenia Apostolou, Alexis Vidalakis, Ilias Vogiatzidakis, Georgia Zachou, Christos Kapenis, Margarita Kastrinou, Vera Larsi, Elina Papatheodorou
Production: Athinaiki Skini Michalis Kalampokis

Thanks are due to Kinitiras, Palmos and the following persons: Aelia, Alkmini, Anta, Vanessa, Vassilis, Vyronas, Giorgos, Giorgos-Kyveli, Dimitris, Lola, Loukas, Rafailos, Parvus Princeps, Chloe.

A New Era (?) performance/dialogue on facebook

Co-funded by Greece and the European Union