Name: Myths and Archetypes in the 21st Century - A Laboratory for Contemporary Performance Practice
Start: 2026-06-22T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-06-27T17:00:00+00:00
Location: Þjóðleikhúsið

Myths and Archetypes in the 21st Century - A Laboratory for Contemporary Performance Practice

Mythical figures from all cultures have been repeatedly taken on and expanded across various media and forms, varying from stage to film to video clips and comics. This week-long workshop will concentrate on strategies of adaptation and dramatization in the process of creating a theatre piece based on Greek mythology. Using fundamental principles of staging and creative writing exercises, we will explore popular myths and archetypes (including stories from Greek and Nordic mythology and the Icelandic sagas) that have survived centuries of cultural turbulence and made their way unscathed into the contemporary theatre world.
Participants will be briefly introduced to universal elements of mythology, focusing on examples from the ancient Greek and the Nordic traditions. We will subsequently discuss core adaptation strategies, including metaphor and point-of-view.
Collaborating in groups, participants will be encouraged to craft their own interpretations of select myths, based on what feels particularly pertinent to the 21st century spectator’s experience. Participants will be provided with prompts and materials to support their original work which will be presented on the last day of the workshop that will be open to the public. Blending work on text, embodiment and stage composition, the workshop will encourage experimentation, offering expert guidance in creative ways to revisit popular narratives of the past through a contemporary lens.
Workshop Structure
The workshop will be practice-based, emphasizing learning through doing. Daily sessions (5 hours each) will include:
Text and dramaturgy sessions: close reading and interpretive discussion of select myths.
Directorial exploration: recontextualizing select myths through conceptual framing and spatial dynamics.
Collaborative devising: small-group work integrating acting and directing perspectives.
Seminar: discussion of contemporary stagings and theoretical frameworks related to adaptatory processes.
The workshop will culminate with an open presentation, where excerpts of their creative process will be shared with the general public.
This workshop is addressed to actors, directors, playwrights, theatre students and scholars and to anyone with an interest in mythology, performance, dramatic writing and adaptation studies
The workshop will be conducted in English.
Workshop hours are from 10:00 - 15:00.
Early bird before May 8, 95.000 iskr
Regular price 105.000 iskr
Registration ends on June 5
REGISTRATION - https://www.reykjavikensemble.com/workshops-1
Check with your union for refunding.
Bio
Avra Sidiropoulou is Professor of Theatre and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Open University of Cyprus. She is the author of Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method, (Routledge 2018) and Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre, (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). She is also the co-editor of Adapting Greek Tragedy. Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts (CUP 2021) and editor of Staging 21st century Tragedies. Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis (Routledge 2022) and co-editor of a special issue in Contemporary Director Training in the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training Journal. Avra is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance (EASTAP) and was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Arts Barcelona, Columbia University, the Martin E. Segal Centre at CUNY, MIT, the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Surrey, the Institute of Theatre Studies at Freie University in Berlin and the University of Tokyo as a Japan Foundation Fellow. She is currently working on a new monograph entitled Challenge, Creativity and Resilience in Theatre Director contracted by Routledge (2027). Prof. Sidiropoulou is a professional director, founder of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company. With Persona and as an independent director, she has directed works from the classical and contemporary repertory. Her most recent directing works include Evridiki Perikleous’ The Commission at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (Nicosia 2026); Euripides’ Medea (at CISPA/Copenhagen Stage, Copenhagen 2025);Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at Dionysos Theatre (Nicosia 2023); Karen Malpede’s Troy Too at Here Arts Center (New York 2023); Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (Nicosia 2022); Enter Hamlet (her own adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet) at the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival (Verona 2022) and Phaedra I—(her text) at Tristan Bates Theatre (London 2019). She has lectured and conducted directing workshops, masterclasses and seminars on directing methodology, practice and ethics in various parts of the world, including Greece, the UK, USA, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Lebanon, Estonia, Spain, Malta and elsewhere. Avra was nominated for the 2020 Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women in New York.