A fast-track journey by Simos Kakkalas through various types of masks aiming for a different understanding of acting. Neutral mask, character, animals, complex character. The principles of the mask are directly applied with simple adaptations to every form of acting. An introduction to ourselves and the multiple personas within us.
Simos Kakkalas was born in Thessaloniki in 1973 and graduated from the Drama School of the State Theatre of Northern Greece (KTHBE), where he worked from 2000 to 2004 as an actor and assistant director.
In 1996, he was a founding member of the theatrical organization “New Forms,” where he primarily worked as an actor. In 2003, he founded and directed the Theatre Company “Choros,” through which he conducted research and directed his main projects until 2017. With both groups, he championed a theatre of modest means and physicality, poetic language, and interaction. Since then, he has worked as an independent theatre director and has collaborated, among others, with KTHBE, the National Theatre in Athens, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, the Onassis Cultural Centre, and the National Opera. Working with masks, puppets, video projections, and live music on stage, he is in constant pursuit of narratives and techniques. As an acting teacher, since 1995 he has taught at countless schools and organized workshops throughout Greece.
His work has been presented at the Dialog Festival (Wroclaw, Poland), the 40th Tampere International Theatre Festival (Finland), the 43rd Kontrapunkt International Festival (Szczecin, Poland), the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (Romania), Heidelbergerstuckemarkt (Heidelberg, Germany), Athens & Epidaurus Festival, New Greek Wave (Bremen, Germany), Europe Speaks Out! (Staatsschauspiel Stuttgart, Germany), and the Festival of the Union of Theatres of Europe (UTE).
*click: Giorgos Kaplanidis
