ECHO III – For Memory’s Sake | Meet the Athens Residency Team

Panagiotis Liaropoulos – Director

Panagiotis is a graduate of “Dilos-Dimitra Chatoupi” drama school while he is currently a student in the Department of Theater Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens. At the same time, he works as an actor and assistant director. His love for traditional dances led him to teaching and for the last two years he has been teaching traditional dances at Omikron3 artspace. He has also attended kinesiology and vocal courses. He was an assistant director in the following plays “Homos or Everyone in Greece” and “Τhe Swallow”  directed by Antonis Galeos. He has taken part in four European programs of artistic content. Among other things, he took part in a performance called “Here and There” presented at the Smoke Alley Theater in Dublin.

Narod ShahinianAssistant Director

Narod is an Armenian-Greek drama facilitator, youth worker and actress from Athens. She specializes in working with young people and teenagers on devised theatre and performance.  She has worked as an actress, a director’s assistant and a production and project coordinator in Greece and in Ireland. She has developed and facilitated youth mobilities, such as youth exchanges in Europe as well as mentorship programmes for volunteers of ESC projects.

Alexandros Piechowiak – Set Designer

Alexandros was born and raised in Larissa, Greece. He originates from Poland. Graduated from the Architecture Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (2017) and from the Drama School of National Theatre of Northern Greece (2020). Has worked as a scenic designer-costume designer with the directors: Evi Sarmi (The House of Bernarda Alba of Frederico Garcia Lorca in National Theatre of Northern Greece, Memory of Dimitris Dimitriadis in Aiani, Kozani), Andonis Galeos (Homos, in Greece Everyone of Jordan Seavey). As an actor he has worked in TV productions on private and national channels (Simpetheroi ap’ ta Tirana, Ase mas re mama, Act like you are asleep).

Archontoula Tsatsoulaki – Costume Designer

Archontoula was born in Athens. She completed her BA studies in 2017 in the field of painting at Athens School of Fine Arts. She had the opportunity to study abroad and be part of the InSitu3 studio Erasmus Exchange in Antwerp where one of her works titled “Neon Tubes” was selected for a permanent group installation for the Multicultural center of Huis Voor de Amateurkunsten, Antwerp 2014. Between 2017-2018 she completed an internship at the Benaki Museum, Mendis Donation, Centre for Preservation of Traditional Textiles Techniques in Athens. In 2018, she received a scholarship from Motor Oil (Hellas) S.A. She decided to undertake a Master’s degree in Textile Design and Sustainable Practices at Chelsea College of Arts, London that she concluded in 2019 with Merit. During her studies she learned traditional weaving techniques and explored the three-dimensional character of textiles. Currently, she works as an art tutor and freelance textile designer. She has participated in art workshops, residencies and exhibitions in Greece and abroad. 

Zoe Davourli – Playwright

 Zoe is a graduate of “Dilos-Dimitra Chatoupi” drama school. Having completed the seminars “Theatrical education for kids and adults” and “Special education” of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and she works with children (6+ years old) , teaching them the dramatic art and principles of acting. She also attends voice lessons, art of music and Solfege. She has worked with Katerina Tsatsaragou and Thedoros Kandiliotis as a  director’s assistant and an actress in theatre for children, in Athens and Patras.

Nefeli Maistrali – Playwright

Nefeli was born in 1988. She grew up in Athens and as a teenager she was very fond of Greek literature, letters and art. After finishing High school, she was accepted in the Law school of Athens. A year later, at the age of 19, she decided to follow her true passion, Theatre. She was accepted by the Drama School of Athens Conservatoire, where she got her basic drama education and the best time of her life, until now. She graduated in 2011 and ever since, she has been working as an actress in various productions of National Theatre of Greece, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Stegi, Neos Kosmos Theatre and others. She has cooperated with several directors such as St. Livathinos, L. Koniordou, O. Papaspiliopoulos, L. Kitsopoulou, Th. Abazis, L. Meleme, P. Dentakis, Th. Zeritis, S. Spyratou, K. Papakontantinou and others. That same year-2011, she cofounded with some of her fellow students the 4 Frontal Theatre Company, which is still thriving. In 2018, she started working as a dramaturge by adapting literature for theatre (Myrtos by P. Matesis). In 2019, she completed her first play Forty-seven. In 2020, she participated in a five-month course on modern playwriting, organized by the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus. During that course, she had completed her second full-length play Left-handers, which stood out among the best three of the competition and it’s being performed for the second time, this year in Bellos Theatre, in Athens. She has also done more than five dramaturgical procedures. From her first writing steps, she has shown her interest in political theatre, true stories and experimental forms.

Panagiotis Diapoulis – Photographer

Panagiotis was born in 1981, in Athens, Greece. He studied telecommunications in Athens, but his big passion was photography. So, he started exploring the work of renowned photographers, dived into the aesthetics and technicalities of a good shot, and in 2009, decided to follow a professional career as a photographer. He is specialised in portrait and street photography, and cooperates with famous athletic brands and real estate agencies, helping them build their marketing image. From 2015 onwards, he is also involved in civil society projects, undertaking the audiovisual coverage of international cultural activities, as well as the digitisation of cultural heritage collections and artworks.

Giannis Ismirnioglou – Musician

Giannis was born in Sparta. He studied violin, modern guitar, music Harmony – Counterpoint – Fugue in National Conservatoire. He has participated in many workshops both in subjects such as Music Analysis – Composition – Choir & Orchestra Conducting and in Pedagogical content trainings with internationally renowned musicians and teachers. Education has always played a very important role in his life and he already counts several years as a teacher of violin, modern guitar and advanced theory. From October 2017 until today, he has been working at El Sistema Greece as a violin and choir teacher, while at the National Conservatory (Central – Southern Suburbs – Sparta) he has taken over the position of conductor of the children’s choir, teaching contemporary ensembles, the electric department – acoustic guitar as well as part of the theoretical music sections (Theory and Harmony). As a performer and composer he has performed in many cultural venues throughout Greece (SNFCC – Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Athens Concert Hall, F.S. PARNASSOS HALL, etc.)

Delyan Iliev – Actor

Delyan was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was a theater lover from an early age, which eventually led him to a Bachelor’s degree in Drama Acting from the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has taken on over 40 roles in different Bulgarian theaters, including local and international classics and contemporary plays. He has been part of a few international workshops and masterclasses with a handful of Europe’s distinguished theater directors.

Aulona Lupa – Actress

Aulona was born in Vlore, Albania and grew up in Athens. She is a graduate of the Drama School of the Athens Conservatoire. Later she attended acting on camera, dance and film directing seminars in London and Athens. She is the founder of the Acting On Camera Seminar, the first intensive and comprehensive acting camera seminar in Greece. In the cinema, she has participated as an actor in full – lenght movies and short films which have taken part and some of them have been distinguished in film festivals in Greece and abroad. She has also participated in theater shows as an actor, performer and kinesiologist in theaters and festivals in Greece and London.

Penni BoukouvalaActress

Penni is an actress. She was born in Thessaloniki in 1993 and she currently lives in Athens. She has studied at the Theater Department of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Athens. She is a graduate of the Drama School of the National Theatre of  Northern Greece. She has participated in the movie “Once upon a time in Kythera” (2022) and the theater performance “Medea” (2020). She has attended seminars in Acting, Dance and Psychology. She is involved in volleyball, kick box, explorations in nature, documentary, poetry and photography.

Vasilis Tryfoultsanis – Actor

Vasilis is a professional actor and a mathematician. After studying math at the University of the Aegean in Karlovasi, Samos, he graduated as an honoured student from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece. Constantly searching, learning and experimenting, he has attented lots of masterclasses and seminars on acting, dancing, singing, creative writing and directing. He has worked at the National Theater of Greece and the National Theater of Northern Greece with the following directors: Georgia Mavragani, Sophia Vgenopoulou, Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, Eleni Efthimiou. The last few years he lives in Athens and is a member of the theater group, “Transatlantic Group” of Alexandra Kazazou and Karol Yarek.

Mara Carutasu – Actress

Mara is an actress and performer based in Bucharest. She studied at the German “J. W. Goethe” College and then went on to study acting at The National University of Theatre and Film “I. L Caragiale” Bucharest. As an actress she collaborated with different Theaters: The National Theater “Radu Stanca” – Sibiu, “The Gong” Theater – Sibiu, The National Theater – Bucharest. She also appeared in feature films like Cristian Mungiu’s “Beyond the Hills.” As a performer – she collaborated with the National Dance Center, Sac Malmaison and The Innovative Mind Movement. She also collaborated as a production coordinator with Libra Film Productions and was an assistant director for the opera play ”Fidelio is you” directed by Robert Lehmeier. She participated with her first short script in the residency “Script in contest” and this autumn she had the first premier with a libretto written by her called “It’s your fault” directed by Elena Morar.

Stavria Nikolaou – Actress

Stavria, is a greek actress. She was born and raised in Corinth, Greece. She studied Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2020 she graduated from the “Dilos-Dimitra Chatoupi” drama school. During her studies she has participated in performances with the director Georgia Mavragani. On April 2021 she collaborated with the National Theater of Greece, playing in the Chorus of the Ancient Greek Tragedy “Phoenician Women” by Euripides directed by Giannis Moschos. In 2022 she created – with her colleague Natalia Georgosopoulou- her first independent performance “Salty Desert”(on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe) which was first played at the Sakura Festival at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland and then in Athens and other cities in Greece.

Veroniki Krikoni – Project Manager

For over a decade, Veroniki has been developing and managing projects and activities in the cultural and creative sectors. She specialises in the fields of European integration with a geographical focus on the Balkan region. For her work she became co-recipient of the 2018 EESC Civil Society Award on Cultural Heritage. With over 10 years progressively responsible experience in project management and development she has led cross-functional teams, oversaw or delivered cross-national civil society projects and developed a variety of non-formal learning training courses. From 2012 she is also actively involved in composing, editing and submitting calls for proposals for EU Funded Programmes (Youth in Action Programmes, Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens, European Cultural Foundation, European Fund for the Balkans). Veroniki has lived in Italy, Poland and the Netherlands and has travelled extensively in the Balkan Peninsula. As a volunteer herself she is co-founder of the regional organisation Balkans Beyond Borders contributing to the cultural diplomacy sector through the power of image and new media. The cinema has also been the vehicle of her inspiration and the main tool of her work on the Europeanisation process in relation to the construction of cultural identities and their visual representation. She is holder of the Joint Masters of Arts on European Cultural Studies completed under the Erasmus Mundus Euroculture Programs and has completed a BA on International and European Studies.

Nikos Pasamitros – Heritage Expert

Nikos is a founding member of Inter Alia. In 2005 he graduated from the Department of Political Science and History of the Panteion University, and in 2007 he completed his MA in International Conflict Analysis at the University of Kent in Brussels (BSIS). In 2021, he obtained his PhD from the Department of International, European and Regional Studies of the Panteion University and a MSc in Environmental Sciences, specialising in Art and Environment, from the University of the Aegean. He has worked as a researcher for the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER) and the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS). He has published articles in academic journals and collective volumes, edited two political science collective volumes published by Inter Alia, and is a reviewer at the Social Semiotics journal. He has a series of presentations at conferences on the analysis on intercommunal conflicts, identities in international politics, and cultural heritage use. Since 2013, within the framework of Inter Alia, he participates in the implementation of educational, civic and creative programs, and oversees the research activities of the organisation. In 2018-2019, he was the cultural heritage supervisor of the ECHO project and a text-writer of the ECHO creative documentary titled “Dark Vein”. From 2019 to 2022 he was the co-manager of the ECHO II project artistic activities. From 2022 on is the heritage supervisor of ECHO III: For Memory’s Sake.

Elina Evangelopoulou – PR Officer

Elina is the Communications Officer of Inter Alia since 2022. She studied Mass Media & Communications at the University of Athens and holds an MSc in Media and Migration flows. Her research interests include migration, media and marketing. Her master’s thesis researched communication practices and strategies for civil society organisations. She was in Lesvos Island for over a year, actively fighting for the refugee rights. She is driven by solidarity and is inspired by diversity; she a person full of energy who wants to create something that may help someone else. Elina met Inter Alia in a workshop back to 2018 and from then on, she became a supporter of the work, hoping one day to work together… and she did!

Participating in: ECHO III

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