| Charmolypi |
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Solo performance by Alexandra Kazazou of Studio Matejka Performance as part of “Solo Situations” Fri-Sat 1–2 February, 7pm Pre-premiere Laboratory Theatre Space Tickets: 10 PLN Bookings and tickets: sekretariat@grotowski-institute.art.pl; tel. 71 34 45 320 Online tickets Performance in Polish, English and Greek  Charmolypi is made of the performer’s personal stories told through the body. Where words fail, the story of the body is born. It contains the missing pieces of yourself that can be used to pull yourself out of an existential crisis, out of the zero point of existence – to return to yourself, to life or death. The performance is a sort of map charting the thoughts of a woman who struggles with the uncertainty of what is a dream and what is her failure to understand herself in the real world. The Greek word charmolypi encompasses the duality at the root of human experience. Loosely translated, it means “bittersweet” or “joyful sorrow”. On a more earthly level, elderly people are often said to have charmolypi because of their accumulation of experience. The water has to fall. Time passes drop by drop. A whole world is in chaos. A minute of silence for the desperate ones. For the WAITING ones...CREATED AND PERFORMED BY: Alexandra Kazazou DIRECTOR: Matej Matejka MUSIC: Ditte Berkeley, Daniel Han MUSIC AND VOCAL SUPERVISOR: Ditte Berkeley DRAMATURGY: Matej Matejka, Bryan Brown MOVEMENT SUPERVISORS: Magdalena Koza, Vivien Wood COSTUMES: Agnieszka Katyñska Duration: 50’ Alexandra Kazazou was born in Wroc³aw, Poland. She is half Greek, half Polish. She studied acting at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, worked as an actor in the North National Theater, and co-founded Asypka, a theatrical group based in Athens. She did the MA in acting with the Song of the Goat Theatre, Wroc³aw, Poland, in collaboration with the Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre. She has a diploma in Ashtanga Yoga. Alexandra is a member of Studio Matejka and of the Odra Ensemble in collaboration with Song of the Goat Theatre, and is a co-initiator of Jubilo Project. She teaches ancient Greek tragedy at the University of Wroclaw. Her main research interest is the chorus function of Greek tragedy and how it is connected with the every day chorus of life and the ensemble work. A big inspiration and a life experience was her expedition in Cuba towards the Guantanamo base. Matej Matejka is the founder and leader of Studio Matejka. He studied acting at the State Conservatory in Bratislava, Slovakia, later at JAMU University, Brno, Czech Republic. From 2001–2006 he was an actor with the theatre studio Farm in the Cave, Prague, and co-creator of the projects and performances Dark Love Sonnets, Journey to the Station and Sclavi/The Song of an Emigrant, which won a Total Theatre Award, a Fringe First Award and a Herald Angel Award at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe. Since 2005 he has collaborated with the Grotowski Institute, where he is engaged in research of physical expression in the theatre. He is also an actor and leader of physical training in Teatr ZAR, performing in Gospels of Childhood, Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide (winner of a Total Theatre Award and a Herald Angel Award at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe) and Anhelli: The Calling. He leads his own work sessions called Wakening the Listening Body at the Grotowski Institute, as well as with Teatr ZAR, both in Poland and internationally. In his work he searches for the performer’s “essence of communication” where both dance and drama are only vehicles for the actor’s expression. Studio Matejka is a physical theatre laboratory exploring 21st-century performance techniques that specifically work across borders: borders between performance genres, borders between training techniques, and borders between individual expression and collective resonance. Through practical investigation, the performers work to develop the strength, agility and dexterity to physically “speak” through a diverse range of ideas, images and vocabularies. Studio Matejka does not work to create something different from existing performance approaches and training regimes. Rather, it uses such established methods as a springboard for pedagogic and creative exploration, charting individual discoveries, drawing out patterns and/or contradictions and integrating these findings into its ongoing work. The Studio is led by Matej Matejka and composed of eight performers from seven countries. Additionally, the Studio is regularly accompanied by external affiliates. Vivien Wood (UK), Sarie Mairs Slee (UK/USA) and Milan Kozanek (Slovakia) assist the leader in the psychophysical research. Ditte Berkeley (Denmark/UK) and Jaros³aw Fret (Poland) lead music training and supervise music composition. Bryan Brown (USA) collaborates on the dramaturgy of the performances. The academic team of the Studio is supervised by Sarie Mairs Slee (USA), assisted by Torbjorn Oppedal (Norway) and Ragnhild Freng Dale (Norway), who record, contextualize and inform the laboratory research. The Studio’s film and documentary team is comprised of Adam Hanuljak (Slovakia), Peter Kotrha (Slovakia) and Karol Jarek (Poland). In total there are nineteen persons, representing eleven nationalities, involved artistically in Studio Matejka. |