Christina Gangos
A Black Box full of Scripts, Fruits and the Importance of Being Ernest
It’s 6:15 p.m. on a Monday and the Deree Drama Club is gathered outside the Black Box Theater, getting ready for its regular rehearsal. “It’s time to go in guys,” shouts the director, and the production moves into the dark Box.
They kick off their shoes and start with their exercises, inhaling and exhaling always from the stomach. A couple of minutes later, they all take their up scripts and start reading their parts out loud. But this is no ordinary rehearsal. Along with the script, each actor has a piece fruit in his hand. The task is to learn how to talk and eat at the same time.
The Deree Drama Club decided in the spring of 2004 to… Continue reading
A Black Box full of Scripts, Fruits and the Importance of Being Ernest
It’s 6:15 p.m. on a Monday and the Deree Drama Club is gathered outside the Black Box Theater, getting ready for its regular rehearsal. “It’s time to go in guys,” shouts the director, and the production moves into the dark Box.
They kick off their shoes and start with their exercises, inhaling and exhaling always from the stomach. A couple of minutes later, they all take their up scripts and start reading their parts out loud. But this is no ordinary rehearsal. Along with the script, each actor has a piece fruit in his hand. The task is to learn how to talk and eat at the same time.
The Deree Drama Club decided in the spring of 2004 to… Continue reading
Cinema Paradiso Lost
The buttery smell of freshly popped popcorn is still in the breeze. The jasmine wafts over from the near by gardens caresses my nostrils. The grin on my grandfather’s face while he smokes a cigarette and watches a movie still comes to my eyes sometimes. I can still hear the scratching sound of the old speakers. And the starlit sky comes back to me in my dreams.
As an adult, I go to the Ilioupolis open-air cinema to refresh my memories.
And I’m lucky I still can. In the 1960s Athens had over 1000 open-air cinemas. Now the number has fallen to 100. Huge television screens, VCRs and air-conditioned cinema giants have stolen the show from this fading part of… Continue reading