NEW YORK – Eclipses Group Theater New York (EGTNY) presents The Greek Play Project New York, a series of public staged readings in collaboration with the Greek Play Project (www.greek-theatre.gr) and under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in New York, the A.S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies at NYU, and The National Theater of Greece.

The Greek Play Project New York features the U.S. premieres of four plays by four renowned Greek playwrights: In Chorus by Dimitris Dimitriadis translation by Theodora Papachristofilou-Loukas, directed by Ioanna Katsarou; Andromache by Akis Dimou, translation by Demetri Bonaros, directed by Ioanna Katsarou; Seaweeds by Penny Fylaktaki, translation by Penny Fylaktaki, directed by Demetri Bonaros; and Blind Spot by Yiannis Mavritsakis, translation by Christina Polychroniou, directed by Katerina Alexaki.

The production is a collaboration of EGTNY, a nonprofit organization that serves as a cultural bridge between Greece and the United States, and Ms. Irene Mountraki, dramaturg, Head of the International Relations Department of the National Theater of Greece, and creator of The Greek Play Project, an important platform, cataloguing modern Greek plays and promoting Greek playwrights.

All plays will be performed in English.

Production Team: Katerina Alexaki, Ioanna Katsarou, Demetri Bonaros, and Alexandra Skendrou.

Greek Play Project New York Program

Dr. Mountraki will provide introductory remarks about contemporary Greek theatre and each playwright.

May 5, 6 PM

Seaweeds by Penny Fylaktaki

Directed by Demetri Bonaros

Translation by Penny Fylaktaki

May 5, 8:15 PM

Blind Spot by Yiannis Mavritsakis

Directed by Katerina Alexaki

Translation by Christina Polychroniou

May 6, 3:15 PM

In Chorus by Dimitris Dimitriadis

Directed by Ioanna Katsarou

Translation by Theodora Papachristofilou-Loukas

May 6, 5:30 PM

Andromache or Landscape of a Woman in the Dead of Night by Akis Dimou

Directed by Ioanna Katsarou

Translation by Demetri Bonaros

Original music for the plays In Chorus & Andromache by composer Phytos Stratis.

Reception on Sunday, May 6 at 2 PM in the foyer of NYU KJCC Auditorium, 53 Washington Square South, Ground Floor, Room 113, in Greenwich Village, New York.

For tickets call 917-648-8343 and 718-581-6285

Tickets: $18

For more information on advertising, donations, sponsorships, and media please contact Alexandra Skendrou: 917-648-8343 or email: [email protected]

About the plays:

In Chorus: fifteen men and women are gathered outside the palace. Someone has called them, but they don’t know why. Time passes but no one is coming out of the palace. The palace is empty. What now? Why have the leaders left? Where are the Gods? Who is going to take action? This play transforms the stage of an Ancient Greek theater into the political landscape of our times. The citizens of the chorus must find a name and a fate for themselves. Theater once again can play a role in this process.

Andromache: The Princess of Troy, wife of the legendary Hector, uprooted and enslaved by the victors of the Trojan War comes to Greece. A woman’s monologue about the fate of a refugee and the agony of assuming a new identity.

Seaweeds: A father’s will promises the entire inheritance to the child who will invest it best within 24 hours. Returning for the first time in years to the beach house where they grew up, two estranged siblings vie fiercely for the inheritance. As old wounds are reopened and secrets exposed, the old house becomes the setting for a taut family drama.

Blind Spot: The play tells the story of a young woman named Nicki (in Greek Nicki means “victory”) who after the death of her husband stands wavering between a paralyzing depression and the need to go on living. Looking for a way out of her suffocating narrow world, she leaves her job at the bank where she worked and finds comfort in the noisy indifference of the city’s big streets. Her encounter with a woman at a traffic light reveals another reality and activates forces inside her, which until then she ignored.