Statement by Giannis Vouros, Artistic Director of NTNG
The responsibility and honor are self-evident. NTNG can highlight and continue to strengthen its position not only on the cultural map of the country and the Balkan Peninsula but also across the entire European continent.
We will have the opportunity to say more when we have produced a cultural product capable of being judged and evaluated. In any case, in the world of theatre everything is judged as a result we look back on and not as an event we anticipate.
Giannis Vouros
Honors graduate of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University's Faculty of Theatre Studies.
Graduate in Journalism-Civil Law and of the National Theatre of Greece Drama School.
He was a track and field athlete for AEK f.c. and a player on the youth and amateur AEK f.c. soccer teams.
In 1974, he worked with the Athenian newspaper on political reportage and with Imerisia newspaper, as well as on the journalistic EIRT broadcast Every Day.
In 1977, he founded the “Theatro tis Anixis” together with Giannis Margaritis, Lydia Koniordou, Grigoris Valtinos, Giorgos Kimoulis, and Natassa Zouka. At the Ithaca Festival with this particular troupe he was recognized for his sets and costumes for the play The Revolution of 1821, Karagiozis and the Tophats.
He has taught Acting at the Drama School of Athens and at the Theatre of Changes, but also in seminars of his own.
His articles and essays appear from time to time in the Greek daily and periodical press, and he occasionally writes for the newspaper TA NEA.
His books titled With a memory stick in the mind and Politics, society, citizens have been published by Livanis Publications and Empiria Publishing, respectively.
He has served as President of the Association of Greek Actors.
From an early age he has been highly active in regard to issues of social exclusion, racism and xenophobia, and he is a founding member of the organization "The Workshop" for people with mental retardation. He is a supporter of the foundation "MDA Hellas" for people with neuromuscular disorders and a sponsor of S.K.E.P. (Association of Social Responsibility for children and young people with disabilities).
His 1993 television production "Women" (MEGA) took fourth prize at the Festival of European television programs. He has also directed the TV series Que... sera sera.
He starred in numerous TV shows and in video films in the early 1980s and then served as actor, director and producer for all kinds of theatre, from Greek farces to plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, from French Boulevard theatre plays to Dostoevsky.
He has translated, among other plays, Harold and Maude, Eurydice, and Trees Die Standing Tall, and he has adapted Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment for the stage.
His play The Scent of Men was awarded the 3rd State Prize for playwriting, and his play Deadline, which was staged at the Proskinio Theatre in 2009, ended its run by his own decision immediately after his election to Parliament, as he did not want to divide his time between both activities. For the same reason he dissolved his contract with MEGA for the TV series The Apartment Building by mutual consent.
In 2003 his production of Children of a Lesser God was nominated for six awards
(directing, set design, best actor and actress, music and lighting).
He received an award from the Panhellenic Union for Theatre Studies for his performance in Harold and Maude by Colin Higgins.
He has never requested subsidies from the State for his own costly productions, preferring to operate independently and make his own choices.
In 1996 he bought an old paper warehouse in the Psyri district of Athens and created a multi-faceted cultural space for multiple cultural activities, the House of Art.
He has worked as a director and actor in private troupes and Public Regional Theatres, but never with either of the two State Theatres or the Athens Festival.
With more than 70 stage appearances under his belt, his resume includes Dangerous Corner (Priestley), Sauce for the Goose (Feydau) Trees Die Standing Tall (Casona), The Collector (Fowles), Harold and Maude (Higgins), The Lover of the Shepherdess (Peresiades), Escapees (Maniotis), ART (Reza), Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) – he was asked to adapt it by the then U.S. education attaché for use in U.S. universities – Children of a Lesser God (Medoff), Eurydice (Anouilh), God of Carnage (Reza), Elephant Man (Pomerance, adapted by Tsakiris), Orestes (Euripides), Thesmophoriazusae (Aristophanes), Seven Against Thebes (Aeschylus, produced by the Cyprus Theatre Organization) – after performances at Epidaurus, this production was invited to Beijing, Shanghai, and Copenhagen – The Trojan Women (Euripides), The Mistress of the Inn (Goldoni), The Two Orphans (D’Ennery), Wild Honey (Frayn), Helen (Euripides), Madame Melville (Nelson), Some Like It Hot (the musical by Stone and Styne), The Producers (the musical by Mel Brooks), Absurd Person Singular (Ayckbourn), Sunset Limited (McCarthy), etc.
He has served as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee on Cultural and Educational Affairs of the Greek Parliament.