Coordinator: Dr M. Panagiotopoulou (Greek Language and History Teacher, PhD in Theatrology)

Pedagogical Team: E. Katsara (Greek Language and History Teacher), D. Christopoulos (Greek language and History Teacher, MEd in Creative Writing)

Participating students: Class A3

The aim of the program was for students to discover the particular expression means of Features/ Current Events Column as a separate literary genre, which borders both Literature and journalism while sharing many common characteristics with theatrical texts in the framework of A class Literature course.

During the course of the Cultural program, students worked in steady groups studying various features/ current events columns, mainly by writer Pavlos Nirvanas, who is considered the main influential representative of the genre in Greece. By analyzing the language and the style used, students came into contact with the wide variety of subjects Nirvanas worked on, which, at the same time, provide a historical canvas of Greece during the interwar period. Apart from literary knowledge, students also acquired historical knowledge on the financial crisis of that period and on the Asia Minor War Refugee issue and through various theatrical techniques they dramatized historical facts, developed their creativity and literary imagination, empowered their corporal expression skills and their self confidence. Based on Nirvana’s works and inspired by their own theatrical improvisations, students went on to produce their own texts based on creative writing techniques.

The last stage of the program included the theatrical representation on stage of Nirvanas’ work “The Canary”, which the students, after many rehearsals, presented at the Training Seminar for Greek language and History Teachers on May 5th 2019 at Ralleio amphitheatre. The seminar was organized by the History and Archaeology Department of the University of Athens in collaboration with the Coordinating Head Greek Language and History Teachers of the 6th Regional Educational Coordination Centre in Pireas. The speakers at the event were the following: Ms T. Karageorgiou, Chairperson of the Panhellenic Association of Greek Language and History Teachers, Ms Faye Apostolidou, Nirvana’s granddaughter, Dr C. Koumbarou, Coordinating Head Greek Language and History Teacher, and Dr M. Panagiotopoulou, Greek Language and History Teacher at Ralleio Lykeio.