Recently, I remember strongly the spiral staircase, which creaked under the weight of wild actors, in the theater school of the National Theater, at 35 Piraeus Street. The entrance is very difficult. Traditionally, every year, about 1000 young people take the exam and enter 16. Excitement, but also embarrassment, when you saw your name on the list of successful candidates and went up to the 2nd floor to meet Takis Tarabikos, the school secretary for 53 years. , from 1959 to 2012, for registration procedures. And now what kind of Epidaurus awaits me? Who are Shakespeare and Ionesco? Dreams that most of the 700 annual graduates of public and private schools are crushed by overpopulation and the struggle for survival. Most of them end up looking forward to a series that will take their careers to the headlines in lifestyle news…

The struggle of artists for advanced training, for the opportunity to enter a university or graduate school was correct. How, in the age of artificial intelligence, does an artist’s inner light turn into artistic creativity without a solid academic background, how does he acquire a cosmopolitan outlook and expansive spirit, if not through study? Therefore, the need to improve the skills of art education is important, but it has been rising since the mid-2000s and has not been satisfied for several months, especially during the pre-election months.

It is a pity, therefore, that the artists, carried away by their competitive enthusiasm – some even remembered the days of the Polytechnic – lost their temper and found themselves without political acumen. They obsessively attacked the leadership of the Ministry of Culture, Lina Mendoni and Nicolas Giatromanolakis, who seemed fixated on personal likes and dislikes, as well as political weakness. That is, they brought their struggle to the limit of saturation, without thinking about when to retreat. Indeed, with what confidence can artists’ unions speak of the purity of their intentions when, before Mitsotakis voted for the national elections, some in senior positions rushed to get seats on the ballots of opposition parties?

Long sessions with the National Theater School of Drama, the Chiller Building, and Rex were uncomfortable and ultimately proved politically worthless. And they were to the detriment, as the National Theater lost income due to the cancellation of performances, and rehearsals for the next performances were not held. Or rather, as far as I know, they happened, but outside of the National, in other private spaces, or even on the Internet! There were also improvised, “hidden” performances inside the occupied theaters.

Departure was difficult, especially since the squatters’ custom – and the information about the Rex building – was confirmed, that outside non-theaters stood next to those who were directly interested.

The struggle, which began on impulse, ended in a degenerative reaction, as those in charge did not think about the dilemmas posed by “Decision”, a poem by Manolis Anagnostakis which they themselves made a flag.