Elena Mavridou, director, actress, and acting instructor, organizes a three-month workshop titled **“Acting with Masks in Comedy.”**
Drawing from her many years of study and experience in teaching, acting, and directing theatrical masks, participants will engage in the process of creating a character.
The workshop focuses on how to train the body and voice to build a character from scratch.
Elena Mavridou will guide participants through a specific methodology and mask techniques combined with:
* Jacques Lecoq techniques
* American system
* Body language and human observation
* Commedia dell’arte techniques
* Improvisation techniques
* Textual and physical rhythm
Participants will practice these methods to achieve a full transformation and embody a character of their own creation.
Elena Mavridou and the participants become co-creators in this process. The actor brings their thought, body, imagination, and expressive tools, gradually discovering the character. They will train in this methodology to unite technique with the spontaneity of the moment and authenticity. It is there that the character is born.
She was born in Drama, Greece. A graduate of the National Theatre of Northern Greece (Κ.Θ.Β.Ε.), she also studied Theatre Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is a founding member of **“Choros” Theatre Company**.
She has collaborated with the National Theatre of Greece, the K.Θ.Β.Ε., the Onassis Cultural Center, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, among others.
Her stage work includes numerous productions such as: *Frogs, Antigone, Golfo 2.3 beta, Golfo director’s cut, Apokopos, Melted Butter, Recycle, Erofili synopsis, To Telos, Greek Freak, Don Quixote, Woyzeck*, and others.
She has worked with directors including Simo Kakalas, Michalis Marmarinos, Katerina Evangelatou, Dominik Moll, Mustafa Avkiran, Sotiris Chatzakis, Viktoras Arditis, and more. She has participated in festivals such as the Sibiu Festival (Romania), Tampere International Theatre Festival (Finland), Dialog Festival – Wroclaw (Poland), International Street Artist Festival – Szczecin (Poland), Heidelberger Stückemarkt – Heidelberg (Germany), Blagoevgrad Festival (Bulgaria), and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival.
In cinema, she has appeared in feature and short films, including: *Mongi Seira Margaritaria* – Vasilis Kehagias, N-orasis ET-1 (2005), *Ultimate Substance* London at Lisson Gallery (2012), *The Magic of the State* directed by Kirschner and David Panos (2012), *Medea Melea* – Christos Karampelas (Cannes festival corner, 2014), *Ohtes* – Panos Karkanavatos (2015), *Black Box* – Anthi Tsirouki (Cannes festival corner, 2018), *Rages* – Elina Fessa (2017), *EDEN* – Dominik Moll, Lupa Film & Atlantique & Port au Prince, Arte (2019), *Identity* – Panos Pappas & Despoina Charalambous (2019), among others.
She has received the **“Melina Mercouri” Award for Best Female Performance (2008)**, the **“Karolos Koun” Award for Best Female Performance (2008)**, and the award for **Best Female Performance in the Greek short film “Rages”** by Elina Fessa at the Nychtes Premieras Festival (2017). In 2018, she served as a member of the jury for the Drama Short Film Festival awards.
She has worked on adapting theatrical works and creating new stage productions, including: *Melted Butter* by Sakis Serefas (her dramaturgical adaptation of the play using the author’s research materials, the true story, the novella, and the pre-existing screenplay), *Recycle* – National Theatre, *To Telos* – Onassis Cultural Center (creating works through devised theatre techniques), *Wuthering Heights* – Choros Theatre (literary adaptation for the stage, funded by the Ministry of Culture), and *Erofili* – Hortatsis – Athens Festival, among others.
She has directed productions including *Waiting for Godot* by S. Beckett (2018), *Pteruga* (2020), *Little Red Riding Hood and the Wild Leaves* (2020), and *Lampros* by D. Solomos (2021).
She teaches acting and improvisation at the **Higher Drama School of the Municipality of Agia Varvara “Iakovos Kampanellis”** and at the **Higher Private Drama School “Techon Ekato”** by Lakis Lazopoulos.
