“My first contact with his texts Yakovos Campanellis it was in my childhood. The first time I saw theater was in the reading room of Agiasos in Lesvos. The oldest cultural association in Greece, according to the historian of modern Greek theater Yannis Sideris. It was founded in 1896, that is, before the liberation of Mytilene. My father came from Agiaso. Just think, a village in which there was also a theater, ”the actor begins our conversation. Christ Chazipanagiotis.

The reason to remember is the play “He, the other and his pants” with two one-act plays by the “patriarch of the modern Greek theater”, which is touring the country. “He and His Pants” and “Epicidos” by Iakovos Campanellis are presented under the direction of Manos Karatsoyannis. Both are about two lonely people. A man alone, when his pants are torn, and they are always alone, he understands that he is not able to sew them up so that he can go to work tomorrow. And when he tries, he talks to his furniture.

“The feeling of the text is so strong that it remains unchanged over time. It goes straight to the heart of the viewer. In Episedion, a writer, returning from another writer’s funeral at the First Cemetery, calls a mutual friend, also a writer, and describes what happened to him. In their reasoning, the infinite vanity of the human race and pettiness are revealed.

Christos Hatzipanagiotis loves modern Greek writing. “I love how a good writer can capture the verbosity of feelings, the words he will use. Words create feelings, that’s why they say that it’s good to study in the theater in your native language.” Over the years, he also realized “how wrong it is to lock up things, sounds, movements… I don’t lock anything. I am open to challenges.”

Acting for him is a constant process of knowing himself and his surroundings. “I try not to act, but to be on stage and play with the innocence that a child would play. I don’t have to make the rules, but the situation has to make the rules for me. I want to have a roll path and float freely. In this way, you can reach a point where the elements of the role take precedence over your own elements. So that the transformation can take place quietly and internally.”

In conversation, he often talks about Megalochori and Plomari, where he grew up. “My father was a teacher, my mother graduated from the Ursulines. I stayed on the island until I was 15 years old. How I love walking today! Pitsirikas, I saw the horizon in the distance and wanted to leave. When it became known about my father’s transfer to Athens, everyone was crying, and I was happy. I have a wonderful sister, four years younger than me, a wonderful creation and great support. Our parents were strict. Mother took care of storytellers, books by Hans Christian Andersen, Penelope Delta. I was a very good student, but under pressure from my parents. This pressure was often a mistake.”

Actor

In Athens, he entered the 1st high school in Plaka, from which he graduated. Then he made his revolution. His parents did not want him to become an actor. He went to the People’s Experimental Theater of Leonidas Trivizas. “The first years were difficult, but fortunately I started working with well-known actors and directors early. It was a good sign for the parents, who gradually began to like it.”

A lot has changed since the 1980s. “Today we live in a very difficult time for all professions, and even more so for the theater. Times of great change and times like these create a lot of turmoil, with a lot of casualties… I often feel a bit medieval. You cannot freely express your opinion, and if you express it, which is contrary to what they call ordinary feeling, you are stoned. You are entering the social media mill.”

In Athens, Campanelli’s one-act plays will be presented from September 15th at Zografou, Haidari, Nea Smyrni and from the 30th of the month until October 2nd at the Statmos Theatre, and in winter they will travel to major cities. Meanwhile Chr. Hatzipanagiotis has started rehearsals for the play “Daddy with Rum” by Thanasis Papatanasiou and Michalis Reppas, which will be staged at the Aliki Theatre. Together with Vicky Stavropoulou, with whom he has often played for the last 20 years. Beloved friends and roommates since 1999, they live under the same roof and also in a small agritourism center in Messinian Mani. “I really enjoy working with nature. I planted orange trees, apple trees, pear trees, persimmons, mulberry trees. Four acres behind the village, with magnificent views of the Gulf of Messina and the Mediterranean Sea. The horizon is lost if you live in Athens and I miss it. I’m always looking for the horizon.”