The Philippi Festival Travels to the Greek National Opera

Alternative Stage Founding Donor

Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

The GNO Alternative Stage is extending its partnership with the Municipal & Regional Theatre of Kavala for a second consecutive year, aiming to showcase contemporary artistic works and strengthen the connection between the periphery and the Athenian audience. Five original productions from this year’s 69th Philippi Festival – organized by the Municipal & Regional Theatre of Kavala – will be showcased at the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC on 18, 19, and 20 September 2026. These performances will introduce audiences to works commissioned by the Festival that, for the first time, transcend the narrow confines of theatre and engage in dialogue with music, opera, shadow puppet theatre, and visual installations.

This year’s Philippi Festival is dedicated to the theme of transformation/change, aspiring to create space for a unique meeting – a meeting with stories that are difficult yet tender, hard but ultimately generous, and, in any case, revealing.

From Ovid’s tale of Phaethon, transcribed into a contemporary opera, to the primeval myth of Antigone, recounted as a transformative story in the special condition of shadow puppet theatre, and from Heinrich von Kleist’s emblematic Earthquake in Chile [Das Erdbeben in Chili, 1807], which shakes our own world, to the contemporary work Partition Walls, which allows us to listen to the reasons someone refuses to sleep, this year’s programme marks a journey into “our inner rooms,” the inner sanctum of ourselves that defines us.

Theatre
Heinrich von Kleist
The Earthquake in Chile
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage– SNFCC
18, 19, 20 September 2026 • Starts at: 15.30 (20/9), 19.00 (18/9), 21.15 (19/9)

Translation: Thodoris Daskarolis • Direction: Dimitris Stavropoulos • Music, sound design: Dimos Vryzas • Set & lighting design: Vasilis Apostolatos • Costume design: Alexanda-Anastasia Ftouli • Movement coach, assistant to the director: Loukia Konidari • Cast: Margarita Alexiadi, Anastasis Georgoulas, Erietta Manouri, Giorgos Fasoulas 

When disaster strikes, nature reveals everything in its true scale. When all human constructions fall apart, what holds humans to their civilization is something immaterial. Perhaps it is faith –  in God or in other people. The hope that everything can be recreated from scratch. The certainty of an embrace that seems to be the only solid thing when everything has just collapsed. Beneath the grandeur of catastrophe, we are all equal. What once seemed like unforgivable crimes now feels like memories from past lives. Humans are free. For a while. Because when man’s law returns, it will be more ruthless than ever. Sinners will look more sinful than ever. Alas to those who found happiness in destruction.

German author Heinrich von Kleist’s famous novella The Earthquake in Chile transports audiences to Santiago in 1647, where a disastrous event disrupts all social certainties.

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Theatre
Partition Walls or A Little Prayer at 3:46 a.m.
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage– SNFCC
18, 19, 20 September 2026  • Starts at 18.00 (20/9), 19.00 (19/9), 21.15 (18/9)

Text: Eva-Oikonomou Vamvaka, with the company’s contribution • Direction: Eva-Oikonomou Vamvaka • Music, onstage musician: Sophie Lies • Set & lighting design: Vasilis Apostolatos • Costumes: Ourania Frangea • Movement coach: Alexandros Stavropoulos • Assistants to the director: Anna Filidou, Fotini Meletiadou • Cast: Babis Alefantis, Andreas Natsios, Danae-Arsenia Filidou

“Too early, too late, too long. Dilapidated furniture stacked on the rear balconies. A scooter with a torn seat and a sticker that reads I’M HUNGRY. Glass windows streaked with salt, curtains drawn. Plants pressing their bodies against the glass, as if asking for help. Roundabouts and garbage. Plastic bags hovering just before they end up in the sea. It is 3.46 a.m. At precisely this time, in precisely this street, three different people in three different apartments stay awake. They cannot sleep. Of all the people in all these apartments, only these three are awake. They get up in the middle of the night, counting their own mistakes…”

A modern-day vigil. A war photographer, a young caregiver for the elderly, and a man who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time meet—or rather coexist—in a familiar urban landscape. They spend a sleepless night together, listening to their inner voices, which have lately seemed to dominate their minds, and discovering aspects of themselves they are probably not ready to confront. When the dawn arrives, none of them will be the same anymore.

Any resemblance to real-life events is entirely coincidental.

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Puppet theatre
The Antigones
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage– SNFCC
19, 20 September 2026  • Starts at 17.00 (19/9), 14.00 (20/9)

Direction: Georgios Karakantzas, Samaneh Latifi• Illustrator: Kinga Kelemen • Music: Ali Hout • Scientific collaborator: Efimia Karakantza • Puppet construction: Eric Deniaud • Puppeteer: Georgios Karakantzas • Performer: Samaneh Latifi 

The performance is based on the myth of Antigone, a fundamental figure in Greek tragedy who defies Creon’s prohibition against burying her brother, Polynices, and pays the price with her own life. Her story has traversed the ages and echoes to this day.

On a deliberately minimal stage, the narration unfolds through a suitcase – a symbol of the refugees’ plight and memory – that transforms into a tiny theatre. There, the pieces of Antigone’s life are replayed using everyday objects, puppets, and cardboard figures. None of these objects is neutral: a scarf, a mirror, a lamp, or a figure – all participate in the making of a world of shadows and memories, where myth blends with personal experience.

The performance takes the form of a fairy tale, both spoken and sung, presented by two puppeteer-performers. One “sculpts” light and figures, giving form to the representatives of power and the heroes of the tragedy, while the other embodies Antigone, enriching the narration with the experience of Iranian traditional storytelling (“Naqqāli”) and her own personal trajectory.

The performance is presented in French, Persian, and Greek.

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Opera
Phaëton
Opera in three acts
based on Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera of the same name, with a libretto by Philippe Quinault
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage– SNFCC
20 September 2026  • Starts at: 21.15

Co-production between the GNO Alternative Stage and the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala

Concept, artistic curation: Rafi Music Theatre Company (Anastasia Kotsali, Lito Messini) • Dramaturgy, musical adaptation, arrangement: Vasiliki Legaki • Direction: Sofia Antoniou • Poetic composition: Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou • Sets: Marilena Kalaitzantonaki • Costumes: Eleni Kavvada • Choreography: Mina Ananiadou • Lighting design: Vasilis Apostolatos • Cast   Paris Dimatsas, Georgios Iatrou, Anastasia Kotsali, Lito Messini • Musicians: Kostas Giovanis (oboe), Eleftheria Togia (viola), Konstantinos Zigkeridis (bayan), Vasiliki Legaki (live electronics)

One of the most important works by the Italian-French Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, Phaëton (1683), with a libretto by Philippe Quinault, has been adapted by composer Vasiliki Legaki through a fruitful conversation with the original.

The “tragédie en musique” Phaëton, as this genre of Lully’s original work was described at the time, draws its theme from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, generously offering its contemporary audience stage effects that depict the transformations of the main heroes into animals, birds, and sea monsters – a kaleidoscopic universe of music-theater wealth that thrilled audiences, ultimately leading to the work being nicknamed “the people’s opera.” Above all, Phaëton remains a distorting mirror that reflects the power, arrogance, and greed of the privileged, sweeping everything away in their wake: the lives of ordinary people and the fate of our world.

This new version of the opera Phaëton is the fruit of a creative relationship developed over recent years between the two institutions – the Greek National Opera and the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala – marking their first complete collaboration and co-production to result in a performance.

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Visual – sound installation
Metamorphoses – And I never hunted again
Greek National Opera’s Foyer – SNFCC
Duration: 18 – 20 September 2026

Concept, artistic curator: Michaela Pliaplia • Soundscapes: Nikos Sotirelis • With the participation of the Kavala Photography Club

Drawing inspiration from the myth of Actaeon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, this visual installation explores the moment when the hunter shifts into the position of the prey. Through spatial interventions, soundscapes, and visual elements, the work reflects on the boundaries between the human and the non-human, setting in motion the mechanisms of transformation.

Metamorphoses – And I never hunted again is an installation exploring transformation and the moment when the hunter transitions into the role of the prey. Drawing inspiration from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, particularly the myth of Actaeon, the installation views transformation as an extreme experience resulting from a shift in one’s position: from being the watcher and pursuer to becoming the one who can now be traced, hunted down, and consumed. Yet perhaps, in this brief and unstable transition, the possibility of another relationship with the prey opens. Spatial shifts, furry figures, soundscapes, images of being watched, photographic records, and multitudes of little deer form an environment in which the lines separating the human from the non-human seem to shift, as the mechanisms of transformation are set in motion.

During the construction of the installation, no animal materials were used, and no animals were harmed or distressed.

Brief biographical notes

Erietta Manouri

Graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece (2018). Studied Business Administration at the University of Piraeus. She has worked with prominent directors and theatre organisations, including National Theatre of Greece, State Theatre of Northern Greece, Karolos Koun Art Theatre, Porta Theatre, Epi Kolono Theatre and Pallas Theatre. Her theatre credits include Alexandria, directed by Fokas Evangelinos, Linda by Penelope Skinner, Electra by Sophocles and The Provocateurs. She has also worked extensively in film and television, with credits including Moon, 66 Questions and On sourit pour la photo, as well as the television series Agries melisses, Sasmos, O giatros, O timoros and Mia nychta mono. She has trained in Meyerhold Biomechanics, Lucid Body Acting and the Meisner Technique.

Alexandra-Anastasia Ftouli

Costume and set designer based in Athens. She studied Political Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) and completed postgraduate studies in Political Science and Sociology at NKUA and in History and Theory of Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). Her practice focuses on the creation of stage worlds through the encounter of body, costume and space. She approaches costume and scenography as narrative tools and as fields through which character identity and the dramaturgy of a performance are shaped. She has worked as a costume and set designer on theatre and music-theatre productions, as well as an assistant on theatre, film and television productions. Her work includes productions at National Theatre of Greece, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Stegi, Poreia Theatre and Tzeni Karezi Theatre among others. Her collaborations include Katerina Evangelatos, Nikos Karathanos, George Koutlis, Dimitris Tarlow, Angelos Triantafyllou and Takis Tzamargias.

Dimos Vryzas

Violinist, improviser, sound artist and curator from Thessaloniki, Greece. His practice moves between free improvisation, experimental music and sound art, with the violin at its core. Working across acoustic and electronic sound, he explores the instrument as a source of textures, noise, resonance and unexpected sonic possibilities. His musical language draws from a wide range of influences, from classical and traditional music to rock, ambient and noise, while his work also extends to voice, field recordings, composition and music for film and theatre. His practice is rooted in collaboration and interdisciplinarity, and has taken him to different artistic contexts across Europe. He has curated the KlangBang improvisation series in Basel and co-founded AdhocArts. He is the founder and artistic curator of Stress.Studio in Athens and No Ordinary Festival in Thessaloniki. He holds a Master’s degree in Improvisation from Basel Music Academy.

Loukia Konidari

Born on Samos in 1999. She graduated from the Rallou Manou Professional Dance School in 2020 and has since been working as a dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, and movement director, while also engaging in theatre and painting. She presented her first choreographic work, Meeting Points, at the Athens Video Dance Project in 2020. She has collaborated with choreographer Aliki Kazouri and the Dance Company Choreftes, Margarita Trikka’s Prolet OCD company and choreographer Iris Nikolaou. She is a member of the artistic collective Fa, with which she has presented dance and dance-theatre works. She also took part in Euripides Laskaridis’ movement research for Elenit as well as in the movement research for Argyris Xafis’ production of Ajax. She has worked as a movement director on productions directed by Odysseas Zikas and Dimitris Stavropoulos, and has also worked as an actress in theatre and film.

Dimitris Stavropoulos

Born in Athens in 1992, he studied at the School of Social Sciences of the University of the Aegean and at the Department of Directing of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece. He has directed Evangelismos, the Musical at the National Theatre of Greece, Kotopouli Stage (2023), in collaboration with Angelos Triantafyllou, Crocodile at Porta Theatre (2024) and Avlaia Theatre as part of the Dimitria Festival in Thessaloniki (2025), in collaboration with Orestis Stavropoulos and Abelard and Heloise at PLYFA (2024). In 2024, he also directed the staged reading of Erotokritos as part of the Parabases–Readings series at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. In 2025, he co-directed The Shawshank Redemption at Anesis Theatre with Orestis Stavropoulos. He has collaborated with the Drama School of the Athens Conservatoire, teaching its graduating students as part of their diploma production of The Misanthrope, presented at the Athens Conservatoire Black Box in 2025. Alongside his work as a theatre director, he has worked as a video designer on the productions A Night in Epidaurus, directed by Nikos Karathanos at the National Theatre of Greece, and The Provocateurs, presented by the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece and directed by Orestis Stavropoulos.

Eva Oikonomou-Vamvaka

Τheatre director and playwright. Since December 2022, she has been serving as the Artistic Director of the Regional Municipal Theatre of Kavala and the Philippi Festival. She studied at the Karolos Koun Art Theatre Drama School and the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where she also completed two postgraduate degrees (in Civil Law and History and Theory of Law). Her academic background is further complemented by postgraduate studies at the Department of Theatre Studies of the University of Peloponnese, focusing on Creative Writing, Theatre & Cultural Industries. Following a ten-year career as an actress, she dedicated herself to writing and directing. Her theatrical works include Living Room, The Most Correct Decision (nominated for Best Play by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics), #MiaMeraXwris, Varda Bene or A Story You Probably Don’t Want to Hear and Black Water. She has participated in various European and international artist residencies and has taught acting at the Karolos Koun Art Theatre Drama School.

Thodoris Daskarolis

Born in Athens in 1955, he is a graduate of the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He served for thirty-six years in the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including in the former German Democratic Republic, as Consul General in New Zealand and as Ambassador to Malta and Germany, from where he retired in 2020. He has translated works of American and German literature, including Stories (Antipodes, 2022) and the novel Michael Kohlhaas (Antipodes, 2026) by Heinrich von Kleist. He has published the collection of short stories Kourouvaaka, or The Battle of Crete at the Antipodes and Other Stories (Rodakio, 2023).

Giorgos Fasoulas

Born and raised in Athens, he is a graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has taken lessons in classical and electric guitar, Cretan lute and bouzouki at the Zografou Municipal Conservatory and the Konstantinos Strovolidis School of Music. In theatre, he has collaborated with Thomas Moschopoulos, Nikos Karathanos, Maria Protopappa, Yorgos Nanouris, Eleni Gassouka, Giorgos Pavlou, Odysseas Zikas, Dimitris Stavropoulos and Anthi Founta, as well as in cinema with Dimitris Giotis, Aris Athas and Evgenios Chasiotis.

Nikos Sotirelis

Greek architect, sound artist, curator and researcher working at the intersection of spatial design and acoustic phenomena. His practice explores sonic traces shaped by memory and architectural presence through field recordings, electroacoustic composition and site-responsive installations. He studied Architecture at London South Bank University, with a focus on cinematic architecture, and completed his Master’s in Architecture at Democritus University of Thrace, where he also studied Ancient Theatre Acoustics. He approaches space as an active acoustic instrument, where sound reveals emotional, temporal and latent narratives embedded within landscapes and built environments. His work encompasses sonic pieces, site-specific installations, performances, broadcasts, scores for theatre and cinema and publications. He is the founder of the design studio, art space and cassette label nekubi tapes, and co-founder of biom editions. He has collaborated with the FRI (Fisheries Research Institute), Municipal Regional Theatre of Kavala, Ocean Community of TBA21–Academy, Drama International Short Film Festival, Third Programme (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) and other cultural and artistic organisations.

Sophie Lies

Singer and songwriter born in Athens. She has released two solo albums titled Mia petra san spiti (2020) and I alli plevra tis sinithias (2024). She is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Saligari and is a member of the feminist collective on gender and literature, Purple Meduses. She composed the end-credits song for Alexis Koukias’ film After Noon (2021) as well as the entire soundtrack for his film Aerolin (2023). She has contributed to album tributes such as Meta: A Tribute to Manos Loizos (Minos EMI, 2022), and in April 2023, she participated in the ANATELLO concert organised by Giannis Aggelakas for emerging artists. In September 2024, she participated in SARDAM, Cyprus’ interdisciplinary literature and poetry festival. In theatre, she has appeared in the music-theatre production War Correspondents, directed by Christos Thanos, which was presented at the Athens Epidaurus Festival in the summer of 2025.

Alexandros Stavropoulos

Born in Patras in 1991 and graduated from the National School of Dance in 2014. In 2016, he completed a Master’s degree at The Place – London Contemporary Dance School. In 2020, he presented his first choreographic work, Cinderella’s, which was selected for Aerowaves 2021 and presented in Greece and across Europe. In 2021, he was awarded by ARTWORKS in the field of dance and choreography. In 2022, with the support of Onassis Stegi, he created On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, which received the 2nd Jury Prize at the International Choreographic Competition in Hanover. Further commissions followed from Dantzaz Company, Kseij Dance Company, ResArt, JV2 Company and Athens Epidaurus Festival. Alongside his independent choreographic work, he has collaborated as a choreographer and movement director with theatre directors including Katerina Evangelatos, George Koutlis, Aris Biniaris, Nikos Karathanos, Vangelis Theodoropoulos and Eva Oikonomou-Vamvaka.

Ali Hout

Professional percussionist since 2008, born in Beirut in 1985. He has performed with numerous ensembles specialising in Arabic and Levantine repertoires, as well as contemporary classical music from the Middle East, including Ahl Al-Hawa, Asil Ensemble and Sharqi Ensemble. He has also collaborated with several Western contemporary music ensembles. He holds a degree in Dramatic Arts and Directing from the Lebanese University. In 2014, he co-founded the Lebanese electro-acoustic and noise duo Two or The Dragon, which explores Beirut’s urban soundscapes through live performances. His practice also extends to composing music for contemporary dance, theatre and cinema. His work brings together percussion, experimental sound and performance, creating bridges between Middle Eastern musical traditions, contemporary composition and multidisciplinary artistic practices.

Anastasis Georgoulas

Greek actor born in 1998. He graduated from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece in 2021. He has worked at National Theatre of Greece, Onassis Stegi, Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, Anesis Theatre, Regional Municipal Theatre of Kavala and more. He has collaborated with such directors as Thanos Tokakis, Giannis Karaoulis, Sofia Vgenopoulou, Pantelis Flatsousis, Dimitris and Orestis Stavropoulos, Marios Kakoulli, Odysseas Zikas and others. He has played in short films by Dimitris Nakos, Thodoris Vrachas and Margarita Alexiadi, and in the feature film A Whole Person Almost by Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis.

Andreas Natsios

He was born in Kavala. He studied at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He graduated with honours from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece. As a member of the Experimental Stage of ‘Techni’ in Thessaloniki (1984–1989), he participated in plays by Aristophanes, Ibsen, Ionesco, Brecht, Marivaux, Gurney and Mishima. Since 1991, in Athens, he has collaborated with Theatre of the South at the Amore Theatre, with Lakis Lazopoulos, Theama led by Υiannis Kakleas, Amphi-Theatre of Spyros Evangelatos, Train at Rouf Theatre, National Theatre, Poreia Theatre, and with other companies in productions of major theatres. He has also appeared in television series and film productions.

Georgios Iatrou

Baritone. He studied at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, the University of Music and Performing Arts Cologne, and the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. He has collaborated with opera companies in Hamburg, Cologne, Dublin, Toronto, Bonn, Dortmund, Aachen, Avignon, Bergen, Saint-Étienne, Fribourg, Montepulciano, the Greek National Opera and the Olympia Municipal Music Theatre ‘Maria Callas’. From 2015, he was a member of the ensemble of the Aalto Opera House in Essen, Germany. His roles include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Valentin (Faust), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marcello and Schaunard (La bohème), and Gabriel von Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), as well as the title roles in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Orff’s Prometheus, and others. He has performed at major opera, Lied and theatre festivals, including the Leipzig Bachfest, Holland Festival, Festival de Marseille, Athens Epidaurus Festival and Romaeuropa Festival, at such venues as the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Köln Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Grieghallen, National Concert Hall of Ireland, Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus and others. He participated in the Bayreuth Young Artists Festival and received awards at international competitions in Düsseldorf, Riva, Milan and Luxembourg.

Yiorgos Karakantzas

Franco-Greek artist, born in Greece in 1974. He graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières (5th class) and trained in puppetry at DAMU in Prague. Since the beginning of his career, he has worked across puppet creation, construction and manipulation, directing and artistic direction, bringing together theatre, visual arts and new technologies. He has created performances for the stage and public space, as well as international collaborative projects such as Mythos. Currently, he collaborates with the University of Michigan and the University of Patras and teaches within the Puppets and Screen training programme organised by Théâtre de Cuisine in Marseille. He is the artistic director of the Biennale Le Marché Noir des Petites Utopies and co-founder of the Octopode collective in Marseille. His work is driven by innovation and intercultural dialogue within contemporary puppetry and performing arts.

Danae-Arsenia Filidou

Graduated from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece. As an actress she has participated at shows as Oedipus directed by Robert Icke, The Slender Girl by Irene Lamprinopoulou, Abelard and Heloise by Dimitris Stavropoulos, Romeo & Juliet – A Romantso Club Tragedy by Marios Kakoulli, A Night at Epidaurus by Nikos Karathanos. Also, she is the co-writer of the play Three Sisters (better days will come) and the dramaturge of the play Animal Farm at the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kozani.

Kinga Kelemen

Hungarian illustrator originally from Romania. She took part in the EYE programme from November 2025 to June 2026, while developing her freelance illustration practice and contributing to the creation of Antigone with Anima Théâtre. She initially studied ecology and nature conservation in Romania, where she discovered that drawing had become an essential, almost vital, part of her life. Nature is a central source of inspiration in her illustration work, alongside her interest in observing people, their personalities and the atmospheres they create. In addition to illustrating books, she shares her passion for nature with children through workshops focused on discovering local ecosystems. Her practice combines close observation, drawing and an enduring curiosity about both the natural world and human beings.

Lito Messini

Soprano. She graduated from the Athens Conservatoire and continued her studies at the GNO Opera Studio, where she has participated in opera productions and educational programmes since 2012. She has performed with prominent music and theatre organisations and venues, including Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall, Athens Epidaurus Festival, BAM New York, Royal Opera House in London, Ningbo Theatre in China, RomaEuropa Festival, and Festival de Marseille. Her repertoire spans from Baroque to contemporary music and musical theatre. She collaborates with theatre directors, contemporary composers, choreographers, visual artists, and performance artists across opera, theatre, music theatre, and the performing arts. She is co-founder of the Rafi Music Theatre Company and serves as artistic co-director and production manager of the Kournos Music Festival on Lemnos island.

Margarita Alexiadi

Actress, graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece (2021) and the School of Film of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with a major in Stage Direction (2025). In theatre, she has collaborated with such directors as Giannis Kalavrianos, Thanos Papakonstantinou, Dimitris Tarlow, Elena Mavridou, Dimitris Stavropoulos, Tonia Ralli, Thanos Tokakis, Orestis Stavropoulos, Giannis Rigas and Odysseas Zikas. She has also taken part in productions by major theatrical organisations and festivals, including Athens Epidaurus Festival, National Theatre of Greece, National Theatre of Northern Greece, among others. In cinema, she has appeared in short and feature films Cries by Petros Sevastikoglou, Life in a Beat by Amerissa Basta, Arkansas by Giannis Karpouzis, Assist by Maria Tsioli, Cargo by Giorgos Servetas, and The Christmas Carols by Christos Kanakis. Additionally, she participates in the film Kiatochella by Antonis Vallindras (post-production) as well as in the upcoming film Everyday People directed by Nikolas Dimitropoulos. On television, she has appeared in the series Psychokores (dir. Michalis Charalambidis) and Maestro (dir. Christoforos Papakaliatis and Akis Polyzos).

Marilena Kalaitzantonaki

She studied Painting and Scenography on a scholarship at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, where she worked, as part of her studies, at the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre and Alexandrinsky Theatre. In 2026, she was responsible for production and set and costume design for Hamlet (machine) at Poreia Theatre. In July 2026, she was responsible for production and set and costume design for The Earth Gods. In 2025, she designed the set for Unseen Horses in Heidelberg as well as producing and designing Oedipus Tyrannus, directed by Sofia Antoniou. She also collaborated with the En Dynamei Ensemble on the Antigone Project. She has worked with Dimitris Papaioannou on Transverse Orientation and INK, and is a regular collaborator of Christos Papadopoulos on ION and Larsen C. She has also worked as art director on Sofia Exarchou’s film Animal and as set decorator on Amazon’s English-language series The Hermit Project.

Michaela Pliaplia

She was born in Kavala in 1980 and has studied Architecture at the Università Iuav di Venezia, Technische Universiteit Delft and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, before pursuing postgraduate studies in Digital Forms of Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Her work has been presented in museums and at international art and architecture events, including the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale (2006), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (2007) and the State Museum of Contemporary Art (2009). She works as an architect and, since 2014, has also been active in theatre in various capacities, including as a dramaturg, translator and set designer. Her translation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Porno-Teo-Kolossal, accompanied by her afterword, was published by O Mov Skiouros in 2017. Her short-story collection Memento (nutrire) vitam: On the Occasion of Five Insects was published by the same press in 2022.

Babis Alefantis

Born in Athens in 1994, he graduated from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece in 2020. In theatre, he has collaborated with Savvas Stroumbos and the Zero Point Theatre Group, Dimitris Charalampopoulos, Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Sotiris Roumeliotis, Yannis Aposkitis and Eva Oikonomou-Vamvaka. He has also appeared in the miniseries Avrio, directed by Yorgos Gikapeppas.

Rafi Music Theatre Company

Rafi Music Theatre Company was founded in 2012 by musicians Anastasia Kotsali and Lito Messini. Its goal is to highlight original approaches to both well-known and lesser-known music theatre repertoire, often presenting works for the first time in Greece. The company has collaborated with Alternative Stage of the GNO, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Athens and Thessaloniki Concert Halls, Cyclades Street Theatre – Lefteris Vogiatzis, and others. It has commissioned new musical works and collaborated with such composers as Michalis Paraskakis, Vasiliki Legaki, Panos Iliopoulos, Apostolis Koutsogiannis, Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris, Tolga Tuzun, and Ismini Beck, as well as with directors including Akillas Karazisis, Vaskos (Vassilis Noulas – Kostas Tzimoulis), Zoe Chatziantoniou, Sofia Antoniou, and Themelis Glynatsis. The company has curated tributes to literature and 20th- and 21st-century art song at Bangladesh art space, Porta Theatre and Museum of Islamic Art. In the summer of 2021, it launched the Kournos Music Festival in Lemnos, a new cultural institution subsidised by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Region of the North Aegean. Centred around music, the festival aims to engage with the island’s residents through multidisciplinary artistic activities. Each year, the Festival commissions, presents, and publishes a work related to the island by a new composer, aiming to establish a ‘library’ of new music creations specifically for Lemnos. All proceeds from the publication sales are donated entirely to the Lemnos Municipality Children’s Choir. Educational activities form an important part of the Company’s work, focusing on the dialogue between opera / music theatre and issues of gender, democracy, and contemporary visual and musical trends. It has organised educational workshops for children and the elderly in collaboration with the Municipalities of Lemnos and Tinos, while during 2017–2020 it collaborated with the Laskaridis Foundation to design actions for schools in Attica and Boeotia. Since October 2022, it has been collaborating with the Learning & Participation Department of the GNO on a series of workshops curated by the company for children and teenagers (Metamorphoses, Pocket Opera) as well as activities for senior citizens.

Ourania Frangea

Born in 1995 in Kalamata, Greece, she studied Fashion Design and Jewellery Making in Athens, currently working as a costume designer. Her collaborations include such directors as Eirini Lamprinopoulou, Dimitris Charalampopoulos, and Sofia-Danae Vorvila, among others.

Paris Dimatsas

Baritone. He has appeared as a soloist at major concert venues, including Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall, GNO Alternative Stage, Olympia Municipal Music Theatre ‘Maria Callas’, Ancient Theatre of Philippi, St Paul’s Anglican Church and the Catholic Cathedral of St Dionysius the Areopagite. He has participated in the Festival of Sacred Music and the Philippi Festival, and has collaborated with the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation National Symphony Orchestra, Johann Strauss Ensemble and Rafi Music Theatre Company. He began his vocal training with Ioulia Troussa and continued his studies with Dimitris Tiliakos, under whose guidance he completed his studies in Singing at the Athens Conservatoire. He has attended seminars and masterclasses with Marlis Petersen, Marcin Habela, Tassis Christoyannis, and Luciana D’Intino. He is active in the fields of opera, oratorio and art song, with a repertoire spanning from the Baroque period to contemporary music

Samaneh Latifi

Director, performer, voice artist and theatre facilitator, born in Iran in 1987. She studied acting at Soureh University of Art in Tehran and trained in traditional Iranian and Persian performance forms, including Ta’zieh, Ruhowzi and Naqqali. She spent two years as a researcher at the Centre for Ritual and Traditional Performing Arts, while developing an independent physical and psycho-corporal practice influenced by Grotowski, Barba, Meyerhold and Artaud. She has worked extensively in theatre, cinema and radio. In 2018, she moved to France, where she continued her studies at Paris 3 and Aix-Marseille University, completing a master’s degree in writing for performance. In 2024, she created Murmures sombres de la lumière naissante at Théâtre Antoine Vitez, a transgressive adaptation of Naqqali combined with Western theatrical forms. She is currently based in Marseille and collaborates with Compagnie d’Ori.

Sofia Antoniou

She grew up in Volos, Greece. She studied Directing at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece and Psychology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her directing credits include, among others, Hamlet (machine) at Poreia Theatre, The Earth Gods as part of ‘All of Greece, One Culture’, The Life, Aging and Death of a Working-Class Woman at the Athens Epidaurus Festival (2025), Oedipus Tyrannus in a solo version, and Antigone Project with the En Dynamei Ensemble. In 2021, she directed her first short film The Girl Who Couldn’t Sleep which received an award in Belgrade. In 2024, she conducted a workshop on Ancient Greek Drama at the Carlo Goldoni Academy in Padua.

Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou

Poet, translator, and scholar of comparative literature, holding a PhD supported by an Onassis Foundation scholarship. Her debut poetry collection, Second Youth (Thraca, 2020), received the Anagnostis’ literary prize for New Author and was shortlisted for the State Award for Debut Writer. In 2024, she published her second book, Us and the World. She has translated, among others, poems by Anne Waldman, Natalie Diaz, and Olivia Elias, and has facilitated interdisciplinary artistic projects and writing workshops. As a collaborating writer, she has participated in various artistic projects and residency programmes, including Culture Moves Europe, All of Greece, One Culture and Ulysses’ Shelter, as well as literary festivals in Greece and abroad. She lives and writes in Athens.

The Kavala Photography Club was founded in 1982 by a group of amateur photographers and has been active continuously ever since. Its fundamental aim is to cultivate, develop, and promote fine art photography as a means of expression and creative practice. With a strong and consistent focus on education, the Club has been organising annual fine art photography seminar programmes since 1986. Its activities are further enriched through lectures, screenings, and the operation of a specialised photography library. With a strong spirit of openness and collaboration, the Kavala Photography Club hosts prominent Greek and international artists and maintains ongoing partnerships with photographic groups and cultural organisations. It actively supports the work of its members, promoting it through print and digital publications, as well as through its dynamic participation in exhibitions and international photography festivals in Greece and abroad.

Vasilis Apostolatos

Scenographer, lighting designer and director based in The Hague. Since 1992, he has worked across Greece and the Netherlands, collaborating with numerous directors and theatre-makers, as well as organisations including National Theatre of Greece, GNO, Het Nationale Theater, Toneelschuur, STET English Theatre, Altstadt Rotterdam, Girls in Woods and the Philippi Festival. Since 2013, he has taught Lighting Design at the Toneelacademie Maastricht, expanding his teaching practice to Scenography and Technical Theatre in 2019. In recent years, he has developed his own directorial practice, exploring the relationships between the body, desire and systems of power through queer, political and historical perspectives. His recent productions as a director include Stille Zonde / The Dirty Work and (Tree)².

Vasiliki Legaki

Composer, researcher, and sound artist whose work moves between contemporary composition, electronic and acousmatic music, and sound art. Her music is characterised by a particular interest in spatiality, movement, and the perception of sound, and encompasses works for symphony orchestra and chamber ensembles, as well as sound installations and interdisciplinary practices. Her works have been presented at GNO, Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall and Onassis Stegi, as well as at international events and festivals, including Zagreb Music Biennale, Darmstädter Ferienkurse and Impulse Academy. She has collaborated with such ensembles as Klangforum Wien, BBC Singers, Trio Accanto, and Riot Ensemble. Her work has received recognition in international composition competitions, and she is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Processes Festival. She is a PhD candidate in Composition at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She studied Musicology and Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London.