August brings to the Philippi Festival important
presences of directors, writers and actors.

August at the 65th Philippi Festival is dedicated to the 100 years since the
destruction of Smyrna and ancient Drama. "6 blue pencils for Smyrna"
is the name of all the events that take place on the occasion of the historic
anniversary, while the International Workshop of Ancient Drama operates for the sixth consecutive
year in the area of Krinides and at the Ancient Theater of Philippi.
From 10 to 28 August, great directors, writers and
actors participate, such as Ektoras Lygizos, Giorgos Kentros, Georgia Mavragani, Thomas
Korovinis, Angela Kastrinaki, Demosthenes Papamarkos and the Artistic
Director of the Festival Thodoris Gonis. See the detailed program.

6 BLUE MOLYVIA FOR SMYRNA

Wednesday, August
10th Customs Beach of
Kavala Thomas Korovinis
Dido in the world of east and refugees

Dido Sotiriou, a worthy, gifted, glorified and beloved daughter of the
East and refugees, will always be praised and recognized for her
top intellectual and generally cultural contribution to
Asia Minor prose, to the substantial improvement of the relations of our compatriots with the
Turks and to her unique struggle for the qualitative development of the
suffering man of our time. Dido is the second mother, not only of little
Belogiannis, who resurrected him, but also the mother and companion of the soul of those of
us who understood her vision and tasted the intoxication of the refugee sorrow of
oriental romance and those who smelled and were imbued with that ethereal
intoxicating distillation of the educated but proud life that she herself christened the "scent
of things".

The event, lasting an hour and a half, includes a presentation on sotiriou's ergobiography and
overall personality, reading short excerpts
anthologized from her prose in response to selected songs from Asia Minor,
from those she herself adored. In the last part a small concert is given.
The general editor is by Thomas Korovinis, writer, researcher and songwriter,
personal friend and student of Dido.

The artists take part:
Thomas Korovinis, presentation-recitation-song
By Andreas Karakotas, recitation-song
Maria Fotiou, song
By Lazaros Charitidis, bouzouki
Stavros Krommydas, guitar
by Elias Krommydas, accordion

Wednesday, August
24, 7, the Primary School of
Kavala Ektoras Lygizos
The number 31328 of Elias Venezis

At the end of August 1922, the Turkish army occupied Aivali. Elias
Venezis, an 18-year-old child at the time, fails to escape with the rest of his family
, and after being arrested, he is taken prisoner to a
forced-labor camp in the interior of Asia Minor. Of the 3,000 Aivaliotes who
were "recruited" to the extermination battalions, only 23 survived. These 14
martyred months are recorded by Venezis in his first novel that takes its title
from the number that was the author's identity as a prisoner. The
result is a shocking chronicle that captures in excruciating detail
the daily confrontation with death. Venezis carries in the first person the traumatic experience of the
constantly deceased, struggling to maintain nuggets
of lyricism in a horrific situation. The stage composition will attempt to
traverse this novel-documentary and render in the form of a monologue the

shocking self-portrait of the author, as well as his attempt to
seek traces of humanity in the horrors.

Dramaturgical editing, direction, performance: Ektoras Lygizos

Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 August
Muhammad Ali
Angela Kastrinaki
House Gardens 6 blue pencils for Smyrna

The 6 blue pencils for Smyrna explores the life of the most charismatic
writer from Asia Minor, Kosmas Politis, who wrote the most artistic work for Smyrna, the
novel Stou Hadjifragkos. We see the author as he conceives the
work and draws it up, bringing to the surface old wounds and repressed
events of his life. A researcher, who has dedicated many years of
her career to him, who sees him as a little god, comments on what he says and asks
him questions that sometimes hurt. But also a hero of the novel appears in
flesh and bones on stage, giving a lighter tone, as he conveys the optimism from the
epic of the integration of refugees.

Direction: Thodoris Gonis
Sets-costumes: Eleni Stroulia
Performers: Giorgos Kentros, Aspasia Alexiou

6th WORKSHOP OF ANCIENT DRAMA
Ancient Theatre of Philippi

Friday 19 & Saturday 20 August
The geography and mythology of the Underworld
SEMINAR