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🔴 [NOT OFFERED IN 2025-26 DUE TO EDUCATIONAL LEAVE]

LEARNING OUTCOMES

🔵 🔴 🟡 Course description

Students will be able to appreciate the achievements of major modern directors (first half of the 20th century) and describe their impact on contemporary directors. As far as the modern period is concerned, they will be able to recognize and study a combination of radically distinct aesthetic and conceptual approaches, such as those of Antoine and Stanislavski in terms of realism/naturalism, Brecht in terms of epic and political theater and Artaud in terms of conceptions centered on the body and performance. In particular, they will be able to take a critical position on how modern directors approach parameters such as the overall work of art, the acting or the stage space, focusing mainly on stage practice and its theory. In addition, through the widespread use of audiovisual material they will be able to recognize and distinguish aesthetic textures. Students' practice in developing critical skills also permeates the study of contemporary directors, which is also developed in a comparative context. The central objective of the study of contemporary directors is for students to be able to critically evaluate the management of the modern directorial tradition today. They will also be able to distinguish different types of performance from each other as well as to creatively utilize the study of history in a scientific and artistic context.

COURSE CONTENT

🔵 🔴 🟡 Theory (3 hours)

1. Introduction - The function of the director in the theater - historical background
2. Realism/Naturalism - A. Antoine and K. Stanislavski
3. B. Brecht (B. Brecht)
4. Epic theater
5. A. Artaud I
6. A. Artaud II
7. P. Brook I
8. P. Brook II
9. A. Mnouchkine I
10. A. Mnouchkine II
11. R. Wilson I
12. R. Wilson II
13. Summing Up

The course examines the historical development of the art of directing, focusing on the comparison of important directors of the modern period (first half of the 20th century) with contemporary directors who have been inspired by their quests. At the same time, the course sensitizes students to the nature of the art of directing, presenting them with a diversity of approaches to what constitutes stage art. It also introduces students to the creative study of history in a scientific and artistic context. As far as the modern period is concerned, radically distinct aesthetic and conceptual approaches are studied in combination, such as those of Antoine and Stanislavski in terms of realism/naturalism, Brecht in terms of epic and political theater and Artaud in terms of conceptions focusing on the body and performance. The central objective of the study of contemporary directors, such as P. Brook, Ariane Mnouskin and R. Wilson, is for students to be able to critically evaluate the management of the modern directorial tradition today. The course focuses on the detailed study of characteristic performances and is supported by audiovisual material, as well as texts by the directors themselves.

EVALUATION

Language of assessment: Greek or English

🔵 🔴 🟡 Evaluation method:

• 10% Short Answer Questions
• 40% Essay Development Questions
• 10% Public Presentation
• 40% Written Exam

TEACHING - LEARNING METHODS

• Face-to-face
• Use of PowerPoint and audio-visual examples (13 lectures)
• Use of ICT in teaching
• Use of ICT when communicating with students.
• Learning process through an electronic platform.
• Communication with students via email and through an electronic chat space in the e-class.

eCLASS COURSE

TBA

RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY

🔵 🔴 🟡 Course Textbooks [Eudoxus]

• Artaud, A (2013) The theatre and its idol. Dodoni
• Aronson, A. (2000) American Avant-garde Technology: A History. Routledge
• Varopoulou, E. (2003) The living theater. Agra
• Bablet, D. (2008). History of Contemporary Directing I (1887-1914), translated by D.
• Konstantinidis. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press.
• Beardsley, Monroe (1989). History of aesthetic theories. Athens: Nefeli.
• Braun, E. (1982). The Director and the Stage. London: Methuen.
• Grotowski, G. (2010) For a poor theater. Korontzis
• Clothia, J. and Ch. Innes (1991) A. Antoine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Drain, R. ed. (1995). Twentieth-Century Theatre: A Sourcebook. London and NewYork: Routledge.
• Dusigne, J-F. (2002). From Art Theater to the Art of Theater. Selection/performance: M. Lyberopoulou. Municipal and Regional Theatre of Patras.
• Esslyn, Martin (1984). Brecht: Man and His Work (trans. Fontas Kondylis). Athens: Theory.
• Zola, Emile(1991). Texts on criticism and theatre (intro & trans. Char Bakonicola-Georgopoulou, Xenia Georgopoulou). Athens: Editions of the Twenty-First.
• Jomaron, J. (2009). History of Contemporary Directing II (1887-1914), translated by D. Konstantinidis. UniversityStudioPress.
• Matesis, Pavlos, eds. (n.d.). Architects of the Contemporary Theater. Athens: Dodoni.
• Mnoushkin A. (2010) The art of now. Discussions with Fabien Paschault. Koan
• Moore, Sonia (2001). The Stanislavsky System: The Professional Education of the Actor (trans. A Tsakas). Background.
• ]Brooke, P. (2016). The empty space. Koan
• Marranca, B. (2005). The Theater of Images. PAJ Publications
• Mitter, S and M. Shevtsova (2005). Fifty Key Theater Directors. Routledge
• Stanislavski, Konstantin (1977). Shaping a role (trans. Angelos Nikas). Athens: Gonis.
• Stanislavsky, Konstantin (1980). My Life in Art, 2 volumes (trans. Angelos Nikas). Athens: Gonis.
• Shevtsova, M. (2007). Robert Wilson. London and New York: Routledge.
• Schechner, R and Lisa Wolford, The Grotowski Sourcebook. Routledge, 2013
• Shepherd, S. (2019). The Great European Stage Directors. Methuen
• Thomson, Peter and G. Sacks (2006). The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Related Scientific Journals

• Theater
• Tent
• The Drama Review
• PAJ
• Theater/Yale School of Drama