Alternative Stage founding donor &
GNO Learning & Participation lead donor
Co-OPERAtive, the first intercultural youth opera hub in Europe, completes its fourth year of operation, and is inviting us to a super-heroic adventure with the music theatre performance UR. The performance will take place on Friday 31 May 2024, at 20.30, on the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. Admission will be free for the public.
Which superhero did you want to be as a child, and which one would you like to be now?. That is the question that marks the beginning of a series of consecutive transformations into characters with superpowers. Numerous biographical fantasy references compose a non-linear collective story of allegorical and literal transitions from one state to another, through which we map our own self: both the personal utopia and the inner reality of each one of us.
Music was composed by Panos Iliopoulos and the texts were written by a mixed group of Athenian teenagers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors from Kinoniko Ekav and European Expression (Department of Kypseli). The performance is directed by Argyro Chioti, the textual curation was undertaken by Eleni Moleski and Argyro Chioti, while the sets and costumes were supervised by Pavlos Thanopoulos. In charge of the music, theatre, and dance workshops are Nikos Ziaziaris and Vasso Karioti, Eleni Moleski, and Katerina Gevetzi respectively. The performance features a mixed group of Athenian teenagers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors that were involved in the creation process of the work.The musical ensemble is conducted by Markellos Chryssicos onharpsichord.
Awarded in 2019 by the European Organization FEDORA, the educational programme Co-OPERAtive aims to bring opera closer to young audiences, while foregrounding the cultural diversity of contemporary Athens and the importance of social cohesion. In this programme, a diverse group of teenagers from Athens and unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors held weekly meetings guided by music, theatre, opera, and dance artists and educators, and eventually co-created their own music theatre performance.
Co-OPERAtive was implemented in close collaboration with Kinoniko EKAV and European Expression (Department of Kypseli).
A few words about the process from the educational and creative team
From the beginning to this day our work has been concurrently based on two main elements. On the one hand, we used exercises to help us get to know each other, produce ideas and texts, familiarize ourselves with the participants' interests and document them. On the other hand, we aimed to create a functional collaborative performance on stage, while enabling each teenager to develop their expression through theater, music, and movement. The main goal was to collectively create stage narratives that combine speech, music, singing, and the physical representation of short stories contributed by the participants through their writings. Eventually, all of this would be processed through the key directorial concept of superheroes and their literal and metaphorical transitions.
A few words about the performance from the creative team
Based on the concept of moving from one place to another, from one stage of life to another, from one language to another, unknown to us, and with the playful intent of wanting to transform into something else, something unknown, we raised a question. Which superhero did you want to be as a child and which one do you want to be now? Do you still want to be the same one? We discussed with all the participants, explored personal utopias, and co-created a performance of constant transformation centered on superpowers. Without the need to follow a linear plot, we created a song of transitioning from one state to another, from the bottom of the sea and underwater breathing to air and the possibility of flight, from a state of absolute physical and mental power to the magical possibility of making ourselves disappear. Through this journey, we are urged to map our own self, a self that is constantly evolving while always staying the same. I just want to be myself.
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With the kind support of
