It’s been a very good year for this. theater. After the end of the quarantine, people filled the halls, and we again remembered what the queues of spectators on the sidewalks are like. However, it was the other way around with PD, which degraded art education. The theatrical world got angry, took to the streets, and drama school students took the lead in taking over all public art schools in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras (DIPETHE).

In Athens, a coordinating committee of theater school students occupied the Ziller building. National Theater, while art workers entered the Rex, although it was discussed that others unrelated to the case entered the building. In KTHBE, only the Theater Royal was closed.

Yesterday morning, National Theater squatters handed over the building to Agios Konstantinos, which was inspected by the theater staff and, as noted in the relevant announcement, “it was found that no damage had been caused.” Thus, from today the first state tent resumes its work, but who knows when and how they will give Rex. At yesterday’s meeting in the building on the street. Panepistimi was decided to continue until Monday 27/3, and next Tuesday or Wednesday, the governing body of the occupation will decide whether they will continue and in what form.

But the board of directors and the art director sent their message yesterday. They call on those who remained in Rex to immediately allow the occupation and hand over the building to the theater management on Monday at 8 am. Otherwise, the administration “will be forced to proceed with the termination of the administrative support of the building (including the withdrawal of security personnel) and take any other necessary legal actions to return the building to its intended use.” .”

It is clear that the protests will not stop there. Because even in the Ziller building, those who participated in the occupations want to have a voice and space in the first state stage, premises for their actions, etc. The losses at the National seem to exceed 400,000 euros. But what remains of the “traumatization” of the institution, the public will see later.

The management of the National Theater sends a “telegram” to the residents of the Rex demanding that the building be vacated on Monday.

Meanwhile, the free theater also received upheavals. “Overall it was a good season” – says Miltos Sotiriadis “K”., Artistic Director of the New World Theatre. “The decline in our performances has been since February and is due to the rightly demanded strikes of the actors during the Halloween season and, of course, the shock of the Tempe tragedy. All this caused a drop of about 30%. But I see an upward trend in moderation.”

He believes that if the elections are held in May, “it will not be a big problem, because then we will be in the off-season. There are obviously fewer performances at this time. The site will suffer if we have a second or third election, especially if there is instability during the summer season.” And he concludes: “This year was the year of reconstruction. Next year, I think we will be more energetic.”

Producer G.George Likiardopoulos he says that people, “although different events intervened, are just as interested as they were at the beginning of this season. In other words, he is not like other years when he noted that he could not spend on the theater. From the very beginning, it was clear that he missed the time of the pandemic very much and was generally positive. The decline observed since the beginning of the year is about 30% and is due to sit-ins at the National, frequent mobilizations and strikes of actors, which caused confusion among the public, who for several days believed that the theaters were closed. In February, many people asked if we were playing. We didn’t play only on the days when we were on strike.”

The producer of the Twilight company also emphasizes that there were problems with COVID-19 during the Christmas period, with the closure of stages for a week, as happened with the Cyclades Theater – L. Vogiatsis. “And when we overcame them, mobilizations, strikes began, and then the tragedy in Tempi that shook us all. After the national mourning, there was a recession, but gradually the public showed that they wanted to escape from what they saw on the TV news, to console themselves. For the time remaining until Easter, he believes that “the same situation will continue, but I do not know what awaits us in May.”

The season continues to be generally good, although a lot has happened during it,” says the artistic director of the Art Theater, Marianna Kalbari, also mentioning the tragedy of Tempe and the occupation. “Every day we had a lot of phone calls, mostly about the Basement, because many people think that we are also a state theater.” Since 2014, he has taken the helm of the theater amid a financial crisis, but says: “I have never seen such a psychological shock as that caused by the tragedy in Tempi for people who come to the theater. Along the way, the audience returned to T.T., because our shows are not comedies. After Easter we have new productions that will play for a shorter period. The pre-election period always creates unrest, but it is not a fact that it has a strong influence on the theater, because there are people who do not want to participate in all this and come to the theater.” What M. Kalbari points out is that a new audience has been created. “People who have never been to the theater before and are now looking for new experiences.”

Yesterday, however, theater figures reiterated their concerns about summer productions and especially the Epidaurus festival, which some say has been the target of protests.