Starting from Analogio 2018, the Festival will invite the most original and challenging creative voices from all continents of the world, each continent per year, for an extraordinary series of celebrations of contemporary playwriting in Athens.
In an unprecedented constellation, the festival will feature key dramatists from Eastern and Central Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Each edition will be dedicated to a particular continent, so that during a full week, Greek and international audiences will have the unique opportunity to engage directly with authors from that part of the world. The daily programme will include shows, play readings, conferences, round-table discussions, exhibitions dedicated to every playwright invited to Athens for this truly global programme of Analogio.
The Focus in 2018 will be Asia /Far East, so the festival will showcase the works of three iconic playwrights of this rich theatrical teritory: Hideki Noda from Japan, Stan Lai from China, and Pai Sam-Sik from Korea.
The Focus Asia Programme is curated by Prof. Octavian Saiu.
The International Board will include critics and scholars, experts on the invited playwrights. They will be involved in the daily panels and conferences, as well as the exhibitions and any other events included in the programme. This way, Analogio will ensure the highest level of cultural discourse as well as a fruitful cross-cultural collaboration.
In the forthcoming edition, September 21-27, 2018, beyond the Focus Asia, a special tribute will be done to South Africa, by presenting to the Greek public, the work of the South African playwright & activist Mike Van Graant, as well as the Market Theatre Foundation, a historic Theatre in South Africa, which has been representative of sociopolitical developments in apartheid and post-apartheid era.
As part of the Educational Programme of the Analogio Festival 2018, we organize together with Unesco’s International Playwright’s Forum (IPF/ITI), a theatre translation workshop into English, directed by Prof. Gad Kaynar-Kissinger, President of the IPF. The working texts will be: an israeli play by Shlomi Moscovitz, —as a tribute for Israel’s 70th anniversary, as well as a greek play by Loula Anagnostaki, as a tribute to the reknown Greek playwright who passed away last year.
In addition to the above, we shall also host the Executive Board Meeting of the IPF.
Last but not least, as always, our yearly core programme, is dedicated to the greek theatrical scene: Our guests from around the world, will have a chance to attend a showcase of last year’s greek theatre productions. We are thus also proud to premiere the latest works of Akis Dimou, Thomas Tsalapatis, Konstantinos Bouras and Andreas Staikos.
This year, by a strange coincidence, all playwrights are male so we decided to have female directors!!!
Note that Analogio Festival 2018 adds to the celebration of the Year of the 70th anniversary of the Unesco’s International Theatre Institute.
Looking forward to seeing you in Athens, 21-27 Sept. 2018
Sissy PAPATHANASSIOU
Artistic Director