C.V. of the author

Sakis Serefas was born in 1960 in Thessaloniki, where he still lives.

To date, he has published 65 books of poetry, prose, theatre plays, studies on cities, places and poets, translations and anthologies.

He has written 16 plays that have been staged at the Greek National Theatre, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the Athens-Epidavros Festival, the Philippi-Kavala Festival, the Art Theatre "Carolos Koon", in London, Oxford, Brussels and elsewhere.

The play "MAM"has won the award of modern Greek work "Carolos Koon 2007", of the Association of Greek Theatre Critics. It was staged at the Tristan Bates Theatre (London, in English translation) by the Theatre Lab Company, directed by Eva Melas.

His play "Melted Butter" was presented as a proposal by the Ministry of Culture at the Sarajevo International Festival (2012) and was presented at the University of Heidelberg's Greek Society Heidelberg Festival (2013) and at Oxford University's Simpkins Lee Theatre (2016) by the Praxis group of Oxford University Greek Society, directed by Anastasia Revi.

His play "Mission to Planet Earth" was awarded the 2007 Ministry of Culture Award.

His play "The Road Will Take You" is included in the European Theatre Convention's "The 120 Best Contemporary European Plays" catalogue (ETC, 2010).

His book, "A Dinosaur on My Balcony" was honoured with the State Children's Knowledge Book Award, 2008.

His book "A Hole in the water" was awarded with the 2012 "Penelope Maximus" award from the Greek Book Circle (Greek IBBY, the Greek Department of the International Book Organization for Youth-International Board of Books for Young People).

His book, "Road I Take Road I leave," was honored with the State Children's Literary Book Award, 2013.

He wrote the screenplay for the film "Rouleman" (feature film, directed by Panos Karkanevatos, 2004) which was screened at the 46th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2005) as well as at the film-market of the Cannes Film Festival (2005).

 

Author's note

Panagiota lives with her mother and works in a supermarket.

Panagiota lives her life alone.

Everyone around her doesn't want her to live alone. They can't stand it. They don't allow that. And they're pushing her. To change.

To become a couple. Just like all of them.

So Panagiota decides to act: Do you want mating? You'll have it.

Panagiota in action. Oh, what an interesting sight!

Yes, cannibalism is always an interesting sight. And very common.

Until-

Because in every slaughterhouse, there's an unpredictable "until."

                                                                                  

Directors' note

A single girl who does not mind being single??? A deadly sin! In a society that imposes almost impossible beauty standards and demands submission to its dictated norms, who is able to go against the grain, with kindness and humour as their only weapons?

The play of Sakis Serefas, a play seemingly eminently Greek, but not only... for women, but not only... funny, but not only... touched the souls of all of us from the very first reading. It made us laugh wholeheartedly, tear up, reflect and discuss it for hours and days.

The characters so familiar, us, you, those around us... Situations so real, as if they're talking about our own lives... And all this dressed in a veil of comic surrealism and a supernatural element that somehow magically brings everything closer to us and makes it even more real, "mixing" the flavours together!

On this journey, from the first reading to the theatre stage, we were never alone! It is a great joy for us to have as companions this wonderful team, that combines excitement and experience, laughter and dedication, work and play... Let us not forget that actors ‘play’ on the theatre stage - enjoy them as they do so!                                                                                                                       Chrysa Baltzaki- Kyprianos Moutevelis

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Artistic Director's Note

How do you put on stage a play as "cinematic" as "Alone"? How can you combine the abstract but functional approach of continuous change of set? How can you bring out the aesthetic side of all characters (17 in total)? These and many other questions found their answer after many hours of preparation, personal work, construction of set on a large scale, carefully chosen costumes and lengthy rehearsals with all members of ΑλΜΑ. My former experience in makeup and styling and the recent intensive course on "Set building and props making" I followed in the UK helped me meet the needs of this project. The satisfaction was immense and the experience priceless.                                                                            Kyprianos Moutevelis

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"Troubadour"’s note

The songs of this play were no easy feat, as it was staged for the first time and there wasn’t any existing musical performance from which I could be inspired. The melodies I chose to frame the author's lyrics came after hours of work (and possibly a few glasses of wine) and my aim was to produce mainly theatrical, simple melodies that would allow the troubadour (me in this show) to sing and play them on the guitar effortlessly, but also with theatricality. In collaboration with the directors to "seize" the feeling of each song/scene we came up with these seven songs, with "Dirty feet" being my personal favorite!

                                                                                                                                                       Corina Hamilton-Fowle