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Press Releases

Action Venue - To act or not to act? (28/04/2010)


“We want the young and we want them now”

6/5/2010 - 17/6/2010

Theatre  music  visual arts  dance  acrobatics  video art

Interactive installations  work in progress   creative writing 
street art   hip hop


The National Theatre of Northern Greece seeks for alternative communication codes with the young audience and thus embarks on an interactive relationship with the city initiating “Action Venue” at Moni Lazariston Small Theatre.

From May 6th to June 17th the Moni Lazariston Small Theatre will turn into an expression ground and meeting point  of young groups working in the fields of theatre, dance, music, street art, hip hop, acrobatics, graffiti, visual arts, creative writing, photography, artistic installations with the help of modern technology and any other form of contemporary expression and creation.

During the Action Venue events, 28 groups of alternative expression and creative force will present their artistic proposals giving a fresh outlook and innovative ideas in a versatile range of actions and choices.  Among them features an original theatre play written with the synthesis of 2000 sms by the listeners of 9,58 fm radio station of ΕRΤ 3 staged at Moni Lazariston Small Theatre of the NTNG, six explosive streetdance groups presenting impressive choreographies inspired by well-known theatre plays, three theatre groups working in re-habilittion and withdrawal centers, a dance theatre with scenes from the life of the Roma from the Cultural Educational Society “Hope” of Drosero, Xanth,i together with many unexpected happenings. Every day members of ‘Opsis’ Photography Club of the Municipality of Stavroupoli will use their cameras to capture scenes from the performances, the events, the rehearsals and the backstage moments of the “Action Venue”.

The NTNG offers the venue, the technical infrastructure as well as the technical and assisting personnel with no economic charge to the young people and the groups of Thessaloniki and Northern Greece giving them a chance to present their work.  At the same time, it widely embraces and avidly awaits the city’s audience, most of all its younger part.


Note of the Artistic Director of the NTNG

In order to bring forth the young power forces of Thessaloniki and Northern Greece, the National Theatre of Northern Greece establishes an annual festival taking place in the ACTION VENUE at Moni Lazarriston Small Theatre.

The groups are selected upon application under particular criteria and are offered the venue, technical infrastructure as well as the technical and assistance personnel of the theatre free of charge.
There is a wide range of participations: theatre, puppet theatre, music, dance, hip hopers, breakdancers, skaters, acrobats, circus people, visual artists, music and theatre groups from Ithaca center, Roma ethnic members etc, who are finally given room to present their work to Thessaloniki citizens without undertaking any economic burden.
The NTNG will take care that the best of these productions will somehow later appear on the theatre stages.

The ages of the participants (16 -30 years old) mark the dynamic future of this city.  We should not let these people get lost in the wilderness of consumerism and get devoured by today’s amoral artistic merchandise.

May their non-conformist thought, the right of their youth, their uncommitted presence lift us up from the sofa of our daily routine and unbearable normality.  The love towards these young people should finally be personified.

We want the young and we want them now.


Sotiris Hatzakis 
April 2010

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