comedy, Staged Reading - coming soon!

 After almost two years of development, it's finally here! The Change Him reading will take place in New York in December 2024, and will also be on livestreaming. Tune in!  

Hubris: "Excessive pride and arrogance that leads a person to disregard the divinely fixed limits on human action in an ordered cosmos, leading to Nemesis." 

Hubris is a new ancient Greek tragedy based on the Myth of Lavdakides, inspired by Sophocles’ Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, and Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes. At the center of Hubris  is Antigone, seamlessly weaving all  these myths together, she is a young woman in love, on the ultimate hero's journey as she tries to save her beloved city of Thebes and humanity itself from a terrible plague that has struck far away lands. Her family is destroyed along the way, testing her strength to the limits, until she's ultimately left to stand up to her villainous uncle, King Creon, hubris incarnate, in an ultimate act of defiance and twist of plot that will leave audiences stunned. 

 FAUX-BIA! The Musical is a new, fast-paced anti-war musical comedy that picks up right after Aristophanes’ famous heroine, LYSISTRATA, devises her brilliant plan to blackmail the men of Greece. Soon after Lysistrata’s decree, something terrible happens! Men lose complete interest in committing to women! THEY. CAN'T. COMMIT! In response, the women start to lose their minds. The world comes crashing down in colossal crisis. One by one things start to fall apart: the economy is in shambles, leading to more war, poverty, immorality, and environmental destruction! 

Our play begins with the most famous women of ancient Greek myths and dramas: Medea, the Queen of all Queens, Phaedra, and Antigone. One at a time, they arrive at Olympus, pounding on the gates, and each with an agenda to fix her own self-centered problems. Eventually they realize the problem is bigger than themselves and end up hatching a plan to save humanity, and make the men stop ruling the world with violent, warmongering tactics. All this in order to save the world from…fear, which is the root of all evil. 

FAUX-BIA!'s subject matter is that which Aristophanes would definitely comment on if he was alive today: the WORLD CRISIS- in both politics and personal relationships, through the lens of Greek political satire. The solution, as in most of his plays, lies in the power of the female libido! 

Faux-Bia!  is an amazing political comedy/parody with the most famous personae of Greek mythology written and performed in the style of the father of comedy, Aristophanes, showing us that phobia is nothing but fake violence...

a FAUX-BIA!  

Euripides' masterpiece takes us through the quiet after the carnage, through what is left of the once great city of Troy. We walk among the lumbering women of what was a glorious society from the point of view of the destroyed. As their city burns, the Trojan Women awaken to face a grim future. The women of Troy were once artists, healers, farmers and craftswomen; now reduced to spoils of war, they will be taken as brides, concubines and slaves by the conquering Greeks. 

Many, like Hecuba, are mourning the loss of their husbands, fathers and sons. Helen of Troy mocks their lamentations; hardened by years of captivity, she has learned to hold her head up even as prisoner. Her presence is not welcomed by the women. It was after all, the Greek king’s lust for Helen that started the war in the first place. Seeking to mar her legendary beauty, the women attack Helen, but their misplaced rage changes nothing. A beautiful hope arrives, but takes a most heart-wrenching turn. Still the Trojan women endure, never forgetting the world they left behind. It is a stark reminder of the human cost of war. 

Performed in a stunning outdoor theater, with minimal set, the space feels just as intimate and small as it does grandiose, both equally unnerving, suggesting the play could easily take place anywhere in the present world- perhaps even at our own doorstep. 

"MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR!", the women chant, as one of the major themes in Aristophanes’ most famous ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata. The title character, Lysistrata, whose name literally means "army unraveller", along with the Women of Greece, are completely fed up with their men always leaving them to go off to war. They master a plan to end the fighting once and for good: they are to withhold from having "relations" with their men as a means of forcing them to bring an end to the war- yes, it's that kind of STRIKE!  

Immerse yourself in the plotting and scheming in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater where the action quickly unfolds. Pick a side, as the women come up with a brilliant idea to achieve peace throughout the land by boycotting what men want most from their women! Or perhaps side with the Men of Greece, as they retaliate in agony and try to outsmart the women! As you sit in the amphitheater, don't be surprised if you find yourself swept up with either one of the Choruses of Old Men or Old Women, as they stagger down, descending through the audience for a verbal showdown of wits and insults, and a good old fashion septuagenarian throwdown! 

We've got it all in this play: whip-smart, gorgeous women, a bunch of women-starved men, and choruses of men and women who are constantly brawling to the rhythm of fun music, singing, and dance! Lysistrata is masterpiece that transcends time and will leave you laughing 'til it hurts. And it hurts so good!!!

Experience explosive Cretan drumbeats, the mesmerizing lyra, feel the ground shake as the dancers leap and stomp and land with earth-shattering power in their beautiful improvised renditions of the Pentozali in our latest dramatic production of famous Cretan writer and philosopher, Nikos Kazantzakis' most prolific work, Salvadores Dei.  Complemented by ethereal folk singing, the actor navigates through the difficulty of Kazantzakis’ heightened text with ease and grace, and an incredible ability to harness the raw energy around her with the flip of a switch, anchoring the whole theater with the somber, solemn, spirit of the text, and just as easily unleashing it. All three mediums come together, converging and running through the audience to connect into one strong line of energy; through Kazantzakis’ words and the legendary ancient Cretan traditions he sprang from, you will feel the show, with each powerful performance more unique and special than the last. 

"Love responsibility. Say: “It is my duty, and mine alone, to save the earth. If it is not saved, then I alone am to blame.” Love each man according to his contribution in the struggle."

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) Greek writer and philosopher
The Saviors of God [Salvadores Dei]

“EROS ANIKATE MACHAN”......

LOVE, ALL CONQUERING LOVE

Such is our battle cry, in our production of various scenes and monologues of ancient Greek tragedies, inspired by the ultimate, most important theme: LOVE. Eros in Muse highlights the beauty of eros, agape, storge and philia as its muses for poetry, art, song, and drama, sparking a symposium-like atmosphere on the definition of love.  

In a fascinating rendition presented in its original stunning Ancient Greek words as well as English, nothing is lost in translation of this universal concept every human being innately knows and understands. Choreographed with movement inspired of Suzuki and Viewpoints methods, we kick off the evening with the most famous of monologues, Antigone’s, “bridal chamber” monologue, and gradually finishing the night with the sting of unrequited love, in a scene from Phaedra’s Hippolytus.    

Love and power! A comedy in the style of grandfather Aristophanes...finally women are indignant, united with solutions, with ideas, with passion, to change the world! Women: forget hate! Against the crisis- there's only one solution! Phobia is a fake violence!

Written by Angelika Sandora

Directed by Konstantinos Konstantopoulos 

Antigone stands cloaked in the night. 

She tightly grips the shovel in her hand. 

She must do what is right. No matter the consequences. 

An intoxicating ancient drumbeat sets the pace, as we are then thrown onto the aftermath of the battle of the Seven Against Thebes, where Antigone's bothers Polynices and Eteocles, die by each other's sword in a struggle to become next king of Thebes. At the malevolent suggestion of their uncle Creon, who has his own eye on becoming king, they are to share the throne, taking turns each year to rule. But when Eteocles decides he is not stepping down, Polynices marches an army on Thebes, the city that raised  him. The brothers meet a tragic end, and Creon assumes the throne, declaring a hero’s burial for Eteocles, but the burial of Polynices, illegal. This is where Antigone begins. 

King Creon's edict is absolute, and anyone defying his iron-clad law will have a fatal ending. Reeling at this new mandate, and still devastated at the fatal outcome of both her brothers’ hubris, Antigone believes this decree to be above the divine and therefore wrongful and unjust. In defiance of King Creon and the state, she buries Polynices, but the repercussions of her act of disobedience are not inconsequential, for they both must pay a price. 

It's an inspiring story, of a young princess not afraid to challenge arrogant human law, even at the very top, when it conflicts and defies that of the divine. 

 A self-improvement series of philosophical interactive courses originating in Athens, and extended to audiences in New York, on the most challenging philosophical system of the world: the practical moral philosophy of Socrates.  Most people’s lives are determined by the cultural values and norms which they unquestionably adhere to. Socrates’ philosophy consists of destroying what we already think we know in order to discover truth. There will be no room for new, healthy knowledge, if the mind and soul are already full of bias and false opinions.  The courses will focus on finding happiness and success through the Socratic Method.  

 1st Theme: 4-hours Introductive Lecture; What the philosophers before and after Socrates said in a few words. Definition of Personal and Social Happiness through Socrates’ Method. Politics: what is the nature of the rhetoric art. (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogue ‘Gorgias’.)  2nd Theme:  4-hours Interactive Course; Physical & Psychological health in Socrates’ Philosophy. (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogues Philebus and Charmides.) 3rd Theme: 4-hours Interactive Course; Mental Education (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogues ‘Cratylus, Euthydemus, Euthyphro’) 4rth Theme: 4-hours Interactive Course; Personal Relationship and Eros (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogues ‘Symposium and Phaedrus’) 5th Theme: 4-hours Interactive Course; Family & Bravery Training (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogues ‘Protagoras and Laches’) 6th Theme: 4-hours Interactive Course; Friendship & Public Relations (The students enroll in the Socratic Dialogues ‘Lysis and Ion’) 7th Theme: 4-hours Interactive Course; Profession and Art Strategy (The students Enroll in the Socratic Dialogues ‘Hipparhus and Crito’) 8th Theme: 2-hours Theatrical Presentation of ‘Socrates’ Apology’ by the students & 2- hours final discussion on the power of the Socratic Inductive Questions as a spiritual tool for peaceful problem solving in both our personal and public affairs.  

A stand-up comedy series about the big apple, presented at the legendary Cornelia Street Café every first Friday. Come and hear a fantastic lineup of comedians recount hilarious (or horrifying!) tales of living in New York and the love/hate relationship we all share with this, the greatest city in the world! 

IT'S A REVOLUTION!!!

Based on George Bernard Shaw's An Unsocial Socialist, Smash starts at the altar, where millionaire Socialist Sidney Trefusis, leaves his bride on their wedding day fearing his passion for her will get in the way of his plans to overthrow the British government. Sidney vanishes “underground” - disguising himself as a common handyman called “Mengels” - and infiltrates Alton College, an elite girls’ school where well-bred young women are “fitted and fatted to be put on the marriage market.” 

His plan: Take over the school and plant the seed of radical Socialism into the fertile brains of the future consorts of cabinet ministers and kings. What he doesn’t plan on is that the spirited young women he hopes to influence prove smarter and more independent than he'd anticipated, shaking his innate sense of upper-class-male superiority. Particularly the presence of one Agatha Wylie, a rabble-rouser, who falls hopelessly in love with both Sidney and his politics, and just happens to be his deserted wife’s cousin. Love triangles, mistaken identities, Marx, Engels, pomp and the proletariat jostle for position in this adaptation of Shaw’s last comic novel!  

Which side are YOU on?!