A family friendly online workshop about shadow play in times of lockdown to take place between 10-14 of March 2021.
Leading the workshop will be scenographer Edouardos Georgiou and İzel Seylani, shadow theatre puppeteer, actor and lighting designer. The workshop will be exploring two basic principles. One is creating a story, developing characters, and the other is performing that story via the medium of shadow theatre.
The event is free and open to theatre professionals and non theatre professionals, teachers, families, adults of all ages with their children of over 5. The event will be held in english.
The workshop facilitators will present their work and practice in an online event open to the public, links will be announced soon.
If you are interested in securing a place in the workshop please contact cycstatinfo@gmail.com, with your name, field of work or study, and number of family members participating until the 9th of March.
You can also follow updates on the workshop though the facebook event.
Shadow play workshop aims to explore 2 common ideas throughout the arts. First one is creating a story, developing characters and working on improving the artistic depth.
The second one; telling a story. This workshop specifically aims to tell a story using shadow play techniques. Therefore participating in the workshop as a family will help you share time together and cooperate as a theatre group for a shadow play during lockdown. After you prepare the play, you can either perform to enjoy yourselves or record and share form social media to reach wider audience.
For the first part of the workshop we will need stories. The stories can be known fairytales or a new one to be created collectively by the home members. After that, materials will be chosen from home to work on to develop as puppets. We can use cardboard to create 2 dimensional puppets or transparent plastic to get colorful images on a screen as shadow.
In the second part of the workshop we will briefly explore the shadow play through Izel Seylani’s puppetry practice of Karagozi. After that the participants will need to create a screen using bed sheets or white cotton-fabric attached from 4 edges nearly vertical to the floor. The size of the screen depends on the participants directing. (The participants may also use their bodies as puppets on the screen) and finally we will need a source of light to create the Shadow. Any kind of light source would function well for the shadow play. Torch, candle, spot light or a very simple lamp. The colour of the light also depends on the participant. If you have a chance to cover three sides of the light source and direct light towards the open side that would work perfectly in order to form a shadow play.
Edouardos Georgiou
Edouard Georgiou was born in 1968. Since 1983 he already works as a set designer assistant. While he is studying architecture in National Technical University of Athens (Metsovio Polytechnio) he works as a set and costume designer for various small and bigger productions. Between 1994 and 2002, after post-graduate scenography studies in Clermont-Ferrand/France, he lives and works in France. For two years he is the head set designer of the L’Arbre à Nomades theatre company in Paris. Since 2002 he lives and works in Greece. Among others he has created the set and costume designs for productions in Greek National Theatre, Thessaloniki’s Art Theatre, DIPETheatre of Agrinio in Greece, ETHAL and National Theatre in Cyprus. He has worked with important Greek and Cypriot directors such as: Ch. Siopachas, P. Zivanos, V. Nikolaides, St. Kotsikos, M. Zira, M. Tigkilis, L. Maleni and T. Tzamargias. He designed for plays of writers such as, Sophocles, Tchekhoff, Marivaux, Noël Coward, Harold Pinter, Alan Ayckbourn, Aziz Nesin, Paula Vogel, Hannoh Levin and Martin McDonagh. Between 2002 and 2008 he was the scenographer of PANDOUM Theatre Company designing mainly for street theatre and spectacles. In 2008 he was awarded with Cyprus Theatre Award for his set in Pinter’s Homecoming production of ETHAL in Limassol. In 2010 he designed the sets for Fish n’ Chips a film by Elias Demetriou. In expo and museum scenography he had designed in 1999 the interactive centennial exposition of the Bank of Cyprus and in 2004 the memorial museum for the Blockade of Kokkinia. He is a foundation member of the Greek Theatre Designers Association.
https://edouardgeorgiou.myportfolio.com/
İzel Seylani
Izel Seylani is the founder and Artistic Director of South Mesaria Community Theatre which won the “Promising Theatre Group Award” 2014. In 2015 Shaman was awarded “The Best Theatre Production award” at Direklerarası Spectator Awards and performed at the 20 th International Bursa Theatre Festival for Children & Young People. Izel has been chosen to participate in the Interplay Europe 2016 as a playwright with his play “Cheese & Molasses”. After 2016 he wrote Orthodox Marriage, Dragon Hill, Haka Manki and three Karagoz Traditional Shadow Plays; Karagoz Stingy, Magic Vegetables and Hidden Treasure.
Besides his directing and play writing carrier he is working at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre since 2013 as an actor. He won “The Best Actor Award” at ISFFC with Haftasonu- “Weekend” movie in 2016 directed by Talat Gökdemir.
Izel studied “Acting/ Theatre” at Anatolia University State Conservatoire, Turkey, later receiving a Master of Arts in “Theatre & Performance” at the University of Manchester, UK. During his MA study, he worked with James Thompson, Professor of Applied and Social Theatre and co-founder of Theatre in Prison and Probation Centre who inspired Izel to make two theatre performance projects with prison inmates at the Cyprus Central Prison. In 2018 he received his Phd. in “Education & Theatre” and besides his artistic carrier he is teaching at the university.
