PANAYIOTIS MICHAEL

Scenic Affairs, 2010-2011

The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation, in the framework of Project Room #3, October 2011 – February 2012

In October 2011, I presented at NiMAC, Nicosia, the project Scenic Affairs, a collaboration I had with professionals from the theatre field. In November 2010, I provided three playwrights with a DVD that contained a 3D animation, the front plan and the ground plan of an artwork of mine, and a ten-minute video of a garden. The playwrights were asked to write a 20-minute one-act play, each inspired by this “object”, as the imagined stage for their story. These plays would be based solely on the playwrights’ interpretation of what this object-as-stage might be. Finally, three directors were asked to direct a play each, working with actors, musicians and costume designers of their own choice. The three plays were presented consecutively with a short interval between them. An exhibition followed after the completion of the performances, which showcased the artwork and visual documentations of the plays in the form of video projections. Parallel to this, I created a manual (similar to that of IKEA) giving instructions on how to construct the artwork. The manual and the DVD provided to the authors were then given to the audience during the performances.

The participants

The first play, entitled By a Thread was written by Charalambos Yiannou, and directed by Andri Ch. Constantinou; assistant director was Antonis Solomou, and the actors were Lenia Sorokou and Valentinos Kokkinos. Demetris Zavros wrote the music and Maria Achilleos was in charge of costume design.

The second one-act play, entitled Our Garden, was written by Antonis Georgiou and directed by Nicolas Kouroumtzis. The actors were Kimon Apostolopoulos, Lefteris Salomidis and Andreas Makris. George Kolias wrote the music and Ena Paetsch Wiig did the costume design.

ETY(O)MOLOGIA is the third play, which was presented by devised theatre approach, based on the work of director Maria Kyriakou and actor Marios Ioannou. Music supervisor was Panos Bartzis.

George Lazoglou was in charge of lighting design for all three plays.