Dr Magdalena Zira
Theatre director, scholar of the reception of Greek drama, co-founder and artistic director of Fantastico Theatro and Project Season Women. Areas of research/interest: reception of Greek drama, theatre directing, new writing for theatre.
Education
PhD Classics, King’s College London (2017). Her doctoral thesis examines the problem of the Greek chorus in contemporary performance of Greek tragedy and directorial solutions in the last 30 years. Supervisor: Professor Edith Hall.
MFA Drama-Directing, UC Irvine (2006). Thesis: Chekhov’s The Seagull- four landmark productions.
MA Text and Performance Studies King’s College London (2001).
BA Classics Oxford University. (2000) Undergraduate thesis on the theatre of Aristophanes.
In 2012 she co-founded the independent theatre company Fantastico Theatro, which is committed to approaching classical texts in innovative ways, to exploring our cultural roots through contemporary art, and to the social dimension of theatre making.
In 2011 she spearheaded a collaboration between the Cyprus Theatre Organization and the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute for the development of new writing for the stage in Cyprus, which resulted in the nation-wide scheme entitled “Play” that cultivates and promotes Cypriot playwrights and Cypriot new writing. The programme continues until today.
In 2019 she co-founded the feminist theatre company Project Season Women, which seeks to examine the dominant narrative regarding gender in our society and in the arts and to give a platform to stories and theatre making from a female perspective. This project has received funding from the A.G. Leventis Foundation, the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, the Awesome Foundation (USA) and the Cyprus National Machinery for Women’s Rights.
In 2019 she was awarded the artist of the year award by the State Theatre of Cyprus (Cyprus Theatre Organization).
Directing Credits
For the Cyprus Theatre Organization (State Theatre of Cyprus)
Filumena Martouranoby Edouardo de Filippo (Main Stage, 2022), Surinam by Stefanos Stavrides(Apothikes Stage, 2016), Tonight I will throw away your ashes by Costas Mammouris(New Stage, 2014 and also at Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation, Athens), The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh(New Stage, 2011), Metamorphosesafter Ovid (Experimental Stage, 2009), Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abair(New Stage, 2008).
For independent theatres in Cyprus:
Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, Jean et Béatrice byCarole Fréchette, It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First But It Is Alright Nowby Lucy Kirkwood, O Hassis by Demetrios Gouzelis, Private Lives by Noël Coward, DIRT by Melina Papageorgiou, The Children of Cain by Andreas Thomopoulos. In 2009 with her independent theatre company she directed her own dramatization and translation of Statius’ Thebaid Book XII at the European Cultural Centre of Delphi.
For Fantastico Theatro
The company’s inaugural production was Frogs by Aristophanes (2012) in a new translation by Vaios Liapis (International Ancient Greek Drama Festival of Cyprus). Next she explores the dramaturgy of space with a series of site-specific and/or immersive performances and interdisciplinary collaborations such as Mezzanineby Melina Papageorgiou (2015), a promenade performance about the economic and social crisis in Cyprus· the interactive performance Fortunatus of Cyprus, based on the early renaissance proto-novel Fortunatus, in a museum under construction in within-the-walls medieval city of Nicosia (2015), in collaboration with acclaimed Greek artist Dimitris Alithinos· a fully staged version of the same play, was produced later that year in a world premiere, in the context of the Paphos European Cultural Capital and at the University of Cyprus Cultural Centre. In the summer of 2017 she directed a new translation of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis in the buffer zone of the divided city of Nicosia as a site specific performance. (Read about the performance here: http://www.critical-stages.org/20/city-narratives-in-european-performances-of-crisis-the-examples-of-athens-and-nicosia/) · In 2018 she directed Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in a new Greek translation by Vaios Liapis, in a specially configured room in the Archbishop’s Palace in Nicosia. In 2019 her production of Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves,in the context of the Culture Ministry’s cultural de-centralization programme, toured rural communities around Cyprus and was performed, among other locations, in football fields and village squares. In 2020 she directed Corner of Aristophanes and Menander, a new musical based on five Ancient Greek comedies, for which she also co-wrote the script, with music by renowned Greek tragedy and comedy composer Michalis Christodoulides, for the KYPRIA International Festival. In 2020, while exploring new ways of reaching the audience in the midst of lockdowns, she commissioned four new short plays by Cypriot authors, based on the myth of Philemon and Baucis, which were staged, in her own direction and dramaturgy, as an anthology performance under the title The Flood , in a hybrid format with live performance and video, in collaboration with film director Elena Alonefti. The performance was streamed in Cyprus and the UK.
FOR PROJECT SEASON WOMEN
Women Walk Home,which she also co-wrote the script for, a docu-drama written in the verbatim method, the first of its kind in Cyprus.
A Thousand Shipsby Natalie Haynes in a Greek translation, at the Nicosia International Festival (2019),an all-day marathon reading of the novel with 25 actresses, on stage at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre. Co-directed with Athina Kasiou and Maria-Iole Karolidou. About this performance: http://edithorial.blogspot.com/2019/11/troy-in-nicosiathe-womens-war.html
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes at the British Museum in London, in February 2020: an all-day marathon reading of the novel as a promenade/site-specific performance in the Greek and Roman Galleries, with 22 actresses from Cyprus and the UK, in the context of the British Museum’s Troy exhibition. Co-directed with Athina Kasiou.
Her Story , a series of female monologues corresponding to landmark moments in women’s history from the 20th and 21st century, presented in intimated performances in the audiences’ homes. Co-directed with Athina Kasiou and Maria Kyriakou.
Other directing credits
Hecubaby Euripides, Experimental Theatre Wing/NYU/Tisch School of the Arts (2006) (read more on this production Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Euripides, Lauriola, Rosanna, and Kyriakos N. Demetriou, eds., Brill, 2015).
The Naked Eye Planets by Rebecca Tourino, Coyote Rep-American Theatre of Actors, New York.
Hot ‘n’ Throbbing by Paula Vogel, The Chance Theatre, Anaheim, California.
At UC Irvine: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, Agamemnonby Aeschylus, This Pity She’s a Whoreby John Ford and Vita and Virginia by Eileen Atkins.
PLAYWRITING CREDITS
Dido/Elissa, Fantastico Theatro, 2021
Women Walk Home, Project Season Women, 2022(co-author with Nedie Antoniades)
Corner of Aristophanes and Menander, Fantastico Theatro, KYPRIA International Festival, 2020.
ADAPTATIONS FOR THE STAGE
Statius’ Thebaid Book XII. A dramatization of Book XII of the Thebaid for a music, dance and narrative performance for the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, 2008.
Metamorphoses after Ovid: Adaptation/dramatization and translation of 6 myths from Ovid’s epic for Cyprus Theatre Organization Experimental Stage, 2009.
Fortunatus of Cyprus: Adaptation/dramatization of a novel, Fanastico Theatro, 2015.
Euripides Iphigenia at Aulis: Adaptation-dramaturgy, Fantastico Theatro, 2017.
O Hassis by Demetrios Gouzelis: Adaptation-dramaturgy, ETHAL, 2017.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: Adaptation for a musical performance for children, Arts Embrace, 2018.
FILM
My Story (2021) short film: Screenplay and co-director with Elena Aloneftis (Cyprus International Short Film Festival 2021, Canberra Short Film Festival 2021, Clones Film Festival Short Fiction, Animation and Documentary Competition, 2021)
Rites of Spring (2021) animated short film by Yiorgos Tsangaris: dramaturg. Funded by the Cyprus Cinema Advisory Committee.
In production: The Weaver (2023) short animated film: screenplay. Funded by the Cyprus Cinema Advisory Committee.
PUBLICATIONS
Chapters in edited volumes:
“Iphigenia in the Buffer Zone: a site-specific revival of Iphigenia in Aulis in the divided city of Nicosia” στο Zetti, Rossana and Jenny Messenger (επιμ.), New Voices in Classical Reception Issue 13.
“Melancholia and Laughter: Modern Greek Productions of Aristophanes in the Twenty-First Century”, στο Hall, Edith and Peter Swallow (επιμ.), Aristophanic Humour, Theory and Practice (Bloomsbury, London 2020)
«Directing Greek Tragedy as Ritual: Mystagogy, Religion and Ecstasy», στο: George Rodosthenous (επιμ.), Contemporary adaptations of Greek tragedy: auteurship and directorial visions (Bloomsbury, London 2017) 111-125.
«Η σύγχρονη εγχώρια θεατρική γραφή στο οπλοστάσιο των καλλιτεχνών του θεάτρου» υπό δημοσίευση στο 1ο Παγκύπριο Θεατρολογικό Συνέδριο: Το θέατρο στη νεότερη και σύγχρονη Κύπρο: Πρακτικά Συνεδρίου.
«Ο χορός του αρχαίου δράματος στην εκπαίδευση: χτίζοντας κοινότητες, καλλιεργώντας ενεργούς πολίτες» στο Πολυβίου, Ε. και Ασπασία Σκουρουμούνη-Σταυριμού (επιμ.), Η Κλασική Παιδεία στη Μέση Εκπαίδευση, Πρακτικά Ημερίδας, Παιδαγωγικό Ινστιτούτο Κύπρου, 2018.
Article in Peer-reviewed journal
Gerolemou, Maria, and Magdalena Zira. “The Architecture of Memory: The Case of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis.” Skenè. Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 3.1 (2017).
ARTICLES-PUBLICATIONS ABOUT MY WORK (in English)
About Iphigenia at Aulis:
About Hecuba:
Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Euripides, Lauriola, Rosanna, and Kyriakos N. Demetriou, eds., Brill, 2015
About A Thousand Ships:
http://edithorial.blogspot.com/2019/11/troy-in-nicosiathe-womens-war.html
About The Flood:
https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/the-flood-19784
About her theatre work:
Athanasiou-Taki, Marina, Directing in Cyprus during the first twenty years of the 21st century. Dramatic, post-dramatic theatre and identity issues, OTAN Publications, Athens 2022. (passim)
Magdalena Zira 