Evdokimos Tsolakidis, Greece
He was born in Thessaloniki in 1962. He studied at the Medical School of the University of Rome. He was awarded the diploma of the Drama School of Northern Greece with honours. He continued his studies in drama, acting and directing in New York City (H.B. Studio, Actor’s Studio) funded by the U.S.A. Government (Fulbright Foundation). He graduated from the Greek Open University (Humanities Section, European Culture).
He has worked as an actor in many troupes and took part in film and television productions and directed plays as well in Greece and abroad. He is the founder and the Artistic Director of Theatre of Changes At the same time he teaches systematically in Rome (International Acting School, Cinecitta) and in London (Caravanserai Productions) as well as in Stockholm (Kulturama), in Istanbul ( Müjdat Gezen Art Academy, SAKM), in Tbilisi (Marjansvilli Theatre), in New York City (Theaterlab), in Paris (Ecole de Théatre de Paris), in Amsterdam (Easylaughs group), in Kathmandu (Dabali Theater).
He has participated at International Theatre Festivals (Romania, Iran, Switzerland and Mexico) and has taught at the Theatre Department of the Universities of Alexandria in Egypt, Tehran in Iran, Ciudad del Carmen in Mexico. He was chairman of the jury of the International Theatre Festival in Agadir (Morocco 2007). He was elected member of the board of the Greek Centre of the International Theater Institute.
Improvisation as a tool for acting and directing
Structured improvisation and acting exercises to develop performance skills. These improvisations are chosen for verbal and imaginative flexibility and to heighten the actor's sense of reality. The student will also deal with the basic elements of improvisations. Exercises developing creative imagination, analysis of objectives, responsibility toward the scene as a whole and towards each other as actors.
Students will work on object exercises that could be applied to scene or monologue work to find specific and detailed identification with the character.
The goal is to begin assembling a practical set of tools for handling a range of acting and directing problems and to discover and begin to work from one's own sense of truth.