Kalamata Drama International Summer School (KaDISS)
A training-for-the-theatre project, held annually since 2019, based in Kalamata, with distinguished teachers of international reputation and open to participants from all over the world.
The Kalamata Drama International Summer School (KaDISS) is a rigorous 3-week acting course of skills and craft of acting for the stage, taught in English, held annually at a designated venue in the city of Kalamata, Greece. Classes take place Monday-Friday 09:00 to 16:00 and Saturdays 9.00 – 13.00.
Course Leader is the British director Andrew Visnevski, until 2017 Head of MA Courses at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) London, also Associate Teacher and Co-creator of the newly established Directing Course at the Drama School of the Greek National Theatre.
The Kalamata Drama International Summer School (KaDISS) is the outcome of a creative and educational collaboration between the Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata and Theatre Alive!
The Summer School reaches out to young performers worldwide. It is aimed at professional actors, graduates of drama schools and young people who already have professional experience in performance, as well as those in other areas of the performing arts, such as opera and music theatre, who require an acting ability or foundation in acting, and who want to evolve their own methodology and skills in acting.
The 3-week Summer School provides an invaluable resource for actors-in-training or actors at the early stage in their career as well as those wishing for a rigorous re-appraisal of their abilities and skills. The aim is to develop the actor’s flexibility in performance through an encounter with the two fundamental genres in European theatre.
Through immersion in and exploration of the dramatic language of Shakespeare (Scene Study) and the Greek Classical Theatre (Classical Theatre Lab) as dual foundations, as well as Physical Performance and Vocal Performance, the intensive course provides comprehensive reexamination of the actor’s craft through reasoned preparation, focused energy and stimulated imagination, as well as enhancement of skills within the framework of ensemble theatre-making. Daily vocal and physical performance classes (Voice and Movement) hone the student’s selfdiscipline and liberate the actor’s body by providing skills to widen the perspective of contemporary theatre practice through somatic flexibility and expression.
The course is taught in English by a team of tutor-practitioners of international reputation.
Andrew Visnevski - Course Leader KaDISS and Scene Study:
Trained in acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama (1973-76) and began his directing career at the Young Vic Theatre, London.
In 1978 he created The Cherub Company London, a pioneering ensemble which, under his artistic leadership until 2003, re- discovered neglected classics, introduced European drama to UK repertoire and toured its productions on 3 continents, visited many festivals in Britain and abroad and mounted seven Edinburgh Festival Fringe premières. His freelance work includes productions in Holland, Poland and Greece. His wide-reaching educational work includes heading the RADA MA Courses until 2017, many productions of classics and new plays, courses and projects as guest director for RADA and other leading drama schools in London, as well as supervising design projects for the Slade School of Fine Art. He is currently Associate Teacher at the School of Directing of the National Theatre of Greece.
Argyro Chioti - Actress and theatre director:
Argyro Chioti was born in Athens. She is an actress and theatre director working in Greece and in France. In 2005 she co-founded the VASISTAS theatre company. She explores scenic forms that tend towards visual poetry, enhanced by choral vocal work and physical performance.
She graduated from the “Morfes” Drama School of the Embros Theatre in Athens in 2000. She holds an MA Degree in Theatre Directing and Dramaturgy and a BA in Theatre Studies from Provence University in France (2006). In 2013, in recognition of her artistic work, she was honoured with the “Eleftheria Sapoutzi” Award. In 2011, the VASISTAS Theatre Company’s The Spectacle received the honorary distinction for best innovative theatre play from the National Association of Theatre and Music Critics.
Argyro Chioti teaches acting and theatre directing through workshops and in drama schools including, “Bios” in Athens, Provence University, “Piraikos sindesmos”, The Akropoditi Dance Festival.
Gabrielle Moleta - Physical Performance and Transformation Tutor:
Gabrielle is a movement artist, acting tutor and movement director with over 20 years’ experience. Teaching work includes guest movement workshops for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and leading actor training programmes in the UK and abroad. She is MA Tutor on the Theatre Lab at RADA, London and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kent. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Adrienne Thomas - Vocal Performance and Verse Tutor:
Adrienne Thomas read Modern History at Oxford University and then trained as an actor at The Central School of Speech and Drama. She’s a long-standing member of the Voice faculty at RADA, London. She has appeared in a wide variety of modern and classical plays in the West End and throughout the UK, including Stephen Daldry’s production of Search and Destroy at the Royal Court Theatre, and she was also in the Charlton Heston film of A Man for All Seasons for US Television.
Dan Sherer - Acting and Improvisation Tutor:
Dan is a director, writer, and teacher. He trained at RADA and at the National Theatre Studio.
Dan teaches Acting, Improvisation, and Active Analysis on the MA Theatre Lab Programme at RADA; Active Analysis for MA Acting (Contemporary) at the Royal Central School Of Speech and Drama; and Acting for the BA Acting and Theatre Making at the London College of Music (University of West London). He has held the post of Associate Director at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, responsible for New Work and Talent Development.
The outcome of the KADISS for the student is an enhanced artistic flexibility in two fundamental areas of theatre and a sense of achievement at a high level of professional practice, encounters with tutors and students from diverse cultural, social and artistic backgrounds, and a change of outlook to theatre practice and to the world in general through the sheer experience of group participation and staying in Kalamata.
To apply, visit: www.kalamatadrama.com
Few words about the founders of KaDISS:
THEATRE ALIVE! is a UK-founded non-profit making organisation devoted to promoting new work, new ideas, and new creative talent in all branches of theatre-associated arts. Its post-training and apprenticeship scheme, the first of its kind, has assisted the work of new theatre professionals: many young performers, designers, composers and technicians have made their debut under THEATRE ALIVE! and have gone on to achieve success in their chosen profession. THEATRE ALIVE! at its launch in 1995 received support and approval from arts practitioners of such calibre as:
Lord Attenborough, Alan Bennett, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Dame Judi Dench, Sir John Gielgud, Hugh Grant, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Dame Wendy Hiller, Glenda Jackson MP, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Cleo Laine & John Dankworth, Paul Scofield and Sir Tom Stoppard.
THEATRE ALIVE! has grown out of a cultural, educational and post-training guidance policy for young theatre practitioners initiated by The Cherub Company London in 1995.
(www.andrewvisnevski.com)
The Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata is a non-profit making organisation founded in 2007. Membership is open only to graduates of the Maria Callas Music School of Kalamata. From the founding of the Association until today, the Maria Callas Alumni Association has actively participated in the cultural life of the city of Kalamata, of Greece and abroad. The Association in its commitment to education in the performing arts has organised and presented more than 300 hours of open classes and seminars in voice coaching, classical percussion, sculpture, theatre and more. The Maria Callas Alumni Association of the Music School of Kalamata is a living cultural organisation, openminded, inclusive and welcoming.
(www.mariacallas.gr)
Kalamata Drama International Summer School would like to thank the following for their collaboration and kind support:
MATAROA, the photographers Nikos Iliopoulos, Antoly Sklivagos, Marianna Fournarakou and Stratos Pantazidis for contributing their skills and time to the promotion of the Kalamata Drama International Summer School. Also, the Beneficiary Organisation of the Municipality of Kalamata “FARIS” and it’s President, Mr. Ioannis Douzis.
Thank you in advance for your time,
Creative Team, KaDISS
tel: +030 695 5933407
site: www.kalamatadrama.com
Fb page: Kalamata Drama International Summer School
Twitter: Kalamata_Drama
Instagram: Kalamata_drama
