2018

Thespis society (www.thespis.it), in collaboration with the TeatroScientifico-TeatroLaboratoriodi Verona, Italy (www.teatroscientifico.com), offered a bilingual theatre workshop (conducted in Italian and English) led by Avra Sidiropoulou, director and professor of theatre arts at Open University of Cyprus, and by Eric Nicholson, professor of theatre studies at New York University, Florence. The workshop, entitled "Promised Endings: a work in progress based on Oedipus at Colonusand King Lear," was held at the TeatroLaboratorio(Verona, ex-Habsburg Arsenal).

The workshop focused on an in-depth comparison between Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, and Shakespeare's King Lear, exploring relationships among words, gestures, and actions with the aim of discovering how the two plays share major themes, even in the context of their often contrasting performative features. The project was a creative blending of research and practice, examining notions of hybridity, trans-nationality, multilingualism and heterochrony.

The workshop led to a work-in-progress/'open rehearsal' before a live audience on 24 May, 2018, at the outdoor theatre of the Educandato'AgliAngeli' in Verona. Battisti, 8).

Co-directed by Avra Sidiropoulou and Eric Nicholson
Music by Nicos Vittis, performed live by Alessandra Bonnetti
CAST
Oedipus: (shared) Roberto Adriani and Paolo De Paoli
Antigone: Anna Benico
"Stranger" (Citizen of Colonus): Francesca Sammaritano
Chorus Leaders: Sabrina Carletti and Mario Cestaro
Chorus: Tiago Vesentini, Mattia Meneghini, Francesca Sammaritano, Josefina Pelosi, Elena Pellone, Noelle Adames, Arash Shafiee
Ismene: Francesca Sammaritano
Theseus: Mattia Meneghini
Polyneices: Tiago Vesentini
Messenger: Eric Nicholson
King Lear (solus): Elena Pellone
King Lear (Chorus): The Company
Fool: Eric Nicholson
Gloucester: Noelle Adames
Edgar: Arash Shafiee
Kent: David Schalkwyk
Old Man: Mario Cestaro
Albany: Roberto Adriani and Paolo De Paoli
Cordelia (without spoken lines): Josefina Pelosi