OFFSTAGE FESTIVAL

More about the event:

Have you ever had the desire to organise a show or festival from start to finish but didn't know where to start and where to end?

Have you ever been to a show and found yourself gazing at the impressive costumes and sets and thinking, "how do they do all that"?

Are you an actor, director, set designer, lighting designer or anything else you can imagine and want to learn how to stay cool aka ZEN, in the entertainment industry?

Have you always loved musicals and want to learn more about music in theatre and how to keep the orchestra, singers and actors in perfect harmony and control?

Are you interested in learning about the icing on the cake that can bring any show to life, the lights?

If you said "yes" to any or all of the above, then OFFSTAGE FESTIVAL is definitely for you!

THE WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS

Saturday 15 October:

15:00 - 16:30
Creating Worlds: An Introduction to Performance Set & Costume Design

Speaker: Elena Katsouri

Duration: 1.5 hours
Description: Creating Worlds is a workshop which will unravel all about theatre sets and costume design. What is a set? What is a costume? How do you start designing sets and costumes for a theatre show? And how do you bring them to life and on stage? This workshop is for anyone who would like to learn more about the craft of Performance Design or people who would love to pursue a professional career in the subject.
Language: Greek (English if necessary)
Who is Elena?
Elena Katsouri, as set designer/costume designer, has participated in more than 40 performances. She designed the costumes for the official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus (2010). She was nominated three times for the THOC Prize for 'The Rope Rider' (set design, 2003), 'Glass World' (set design, 2009) and 'Metamorphosis' (costumes, 2009). She was awarded the THOC Prize for 'Glass World' (set design, ETHAL, 2009). She has also represented Cyprus at the Prague Quadriennale in 2007, 2011, 2015. The costumes for "Metamorphosis" were selected among the 100 best works in the world (2009-2013) and exhibited at the "World Stage Design" exhibition in Wales (September, 2013).

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16:45 - 18:15
Playing with Light

Speaker: Karolina Spyrou

Duration: 1.5 hours
Description: The basic function of light in our everyday life is to make things around us visible. Light brings us visual information, which we turn into thoughts, interpretations and emotions, and that is how our reality is constructed. In the world of theatre, the basic function of light does not change. It exists to make things visible. The workshop will explore 3 basic principles of light: intensity, direction and colour and how these basic principles can be manipulated to create scenes in a theatrical performance. It will also examine how they can be combined in order to tell a story and indicate the time, alter the space and set the mood of a performance. Through images and practical demonstrations, the participants will have the opportunity to investigate light and its absence, shadows and basic principles of colour theory.
Language: Greek and English 
Who is Karolina?
Karolina Spyrou studied Performance design at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and graduated in 2003. In 2017 she finished her MA in Theatre design with a pathway in lighting design at the Royal Welsh Collage of Music and Drama. In Cyprus, since 2004 she is working as a freelance lighting designer for theatre, dance, concerts, festivals and installations. In 2017 she founded light-s-up where she works as an artistic and technical director. Her work was exhibited in the Cyprus section in the Prague Quadriennale in 2011.In 2013 she was head of lighting for World Stage Design in Wales. In 2016 she was awarded the Best Lighting Design for the performance The (M)adam’s family at the Cyprus Theatre Awards 2016.

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18:30 - 20:30
Large-Scale Festivals: From point A to point B and beyond

Speaker: Andreas Trachonitis

Duration: 2 hours
Description: So you want to bring your all-time favourite rock stars to your part of town to create a music experience that everyone will remember for years to come - you've planned everything out, from the location, to the poster and weighing up how many tickets you could possibly sell. Hold your horses, because there's a lot more to plan and consider. This two-hour workshop will lay out best practices and navigating the entire project timeline. From detailing budgets every step of the way to programming artistic direction. The workshop will have you weigh up smart options in keeping the environment safe during your festival, making responsible and socially inclusive plans for the entire experience, and while keeping safe while handling the entire festival. You'll get the rundown on what to expect when collaborating with artists and their teams, and how to accomplish the smoothest event coordination and production. The workshop will go through all participants' questions to problem solve and examine how a large scale music festival is produced.
Language: Greek and English
Who is Andreas?
Andreas is a Producer, Engineer and Sound Designer. After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Music Production and Engineering and in Contemporary Writing and Production, he established his own recording facility, studio eleven63 in Nicosia, Cyprus. From his studio, Trachonitis works with the cream of the Cypriot scene and with acclaimed international clients, producing, recording and mixing records, songs, jingles, film scores, and designing sound for animations. In addition to his work in the studio, he has extensive experience in live music, being the production manager of Fengaros Festival and Louvana Records. Trachonitis also has been a faculty member of the Fine and Applied Arts department at Frederick University since 2009, teaching audio production.

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Sunday 16 October 

15:00-16:00
Mental Health in the Performing Arts

Speaker: Myrto Makri

Duration: 1 hour

Description: The Mental Health in the Performing Arts workshop will begin with a philosophical perspective on arts. What do we see as “art”, and how do art and psychology combine? What are the difficulties that artists often find in the industry? Why do many people struggle, and why so many artists get caught in harmful substances and activities? How do we learn to keep it together? Is this a skill to be learned? How do we “stay calm” in the madness of the industry?
Language: Greek and English

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16:30 - 18:00
“Well, it’s the Director’s Job”

Speaker: Paris Erotokritou

Duration: 1.5 hours
Description: The director is a relatively recent job title in the long history of theatre. But what exactly does a director do? What is his/her role in modern-day theatre practice? What are his/her responsibilities in relation to the text, actors and audience? How can the director be the onstage ‘author’, especially when working on classical texts - starting with the selection of a play up to its last performance? Using examples from Paris Erotokritous’ and other directors' work, the seminar will try to dissect and explore the issues raised by the above questions. The seminar will be followed by a Q & A session with the participants.
Language: Greek (& English if necessary)
Who is Paris?
Paris Erotokritou is a theatre and film director. He trained at RADA and, for the past decade, has created a remarkable and singular body of theatre work, reimagining classical masterpieces from writers such as Shakespeare, Euripides and Georg Büchner, Ostrovsky, to name but a few. He is the artistic director and founder of the award–winning theatre company Fresh Target Theatre Ensemble. He has staged productions in the United Kingdom, Greece and Cyprus and worked in theatre companies such as Cheek by Jowl, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Youth Theatre, Bush Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East.

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18:30-20:00
The Art and Craft of Orchestration: Bringing Musical Ideas to Life

Speaker: Aris Antoniades

Duration: 1.5 hours
Description: Learn all about the beautiful but complex process of transforming musical ideas into structured, holistic, and organic pieces of music that are played at a show or concert. Enjoy this opportunity to discuss the craft, art, and business of orchestrating with a professional arranger/orchestrator.
Language: English
Who is Aris?
Praised for the “spiritual heights, the drama, the tension” of his music “immersing the listener into a world of sound” (The National Herald, NYC), composer Aris Antoniades creates works for everything from Symphony Orchestras to Jazz Big Bands. He has written/arranged for eight-time Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria, the National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Greece (ERT), twenty-eight-time gold and platinum album vocalist (IFPI Greece) Alkistis Protopsalti, as well as Michalis Hatzigiannis, George Perris, and X-Factor (Greece) judges George Theofanous and Mariza Rizou. His theatre credits include collaborations with Broadway veterans, such as composer/pianist Andrew Gerle, and director Joe Locarro. As of January 2021, he is the artistic director and principal conductor of the TrakArt Pops Orchestra in Limassol, Cyprus. A recipient of the Fulbright award, Aris completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Classical Composition at the Manhattan School of Music in NYC, receiving the Provost’s Award for Academic Excellence upon graduation.