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FCG International Scenic Arts 2007: IRENE PAPAS

 “The great promoter of stage arts all over the world, because of her work as an actress and theatre director, especially highlighting  her work as a promoter of stage arts all over the planet.  She is the creator of the International School of Acting located in Athens, Rome and Sagunto. Having been born in the midst of the culture where theatre itself was born (Greece), her presence and impulse were decisive in the creation of great projects such as the City of the Stage Arts in Valencia.  The Jury especially valued her work, classifying it as innovative in the creation of new concepts in theatre teaching as well as her magnificent work as an outstanding artist on a world level, never forgetting her origins, her identity and her country, for which she has always been a great ambassador. As an example of her commitment we can highlight her tour of the United States in 1968, in the middle of the Vietnam War, with Euripide’s tragedy “The Trojans”, of which she herself said that although it is 2500 years old, it is absolutely modern.  It is the most anti-war text ever written”.

According to the jury that met in Valladolid on June 18, 2007, chaired by: Mr. Manuel Lombao Lombao, Director of Regional Centres of TVE [Spanish National Television],  and made up by the following members: Mr. José Juan Bigas Luna, Movie Director; Mr. Antonio Catalán, President of AC HOTELS; Mr. Manuel Ferreira Recio, Secretary-General of the Presidency and Territorial Administration of the Junta de Castilla y León [Castilla León Regional Government]; Mr. Alberto Pérez Giménez; Deputy Director of ABC Newspaper.

IRENE PAPAS - Biography

She was born on 3rd September 1929 in Chilimodion, Corinto, Greece. She started her cinema career in her own country and became famous there. However, her international fame came following her performances in box office hit productions such as “The Guns of Navarone” and “Zorba The Greek” along with Anthony Quinn.

Irene Lelekov got married when she was 17 years old. Four years of marriage and a divorce left her with a name for her whole life, Papas. She didn’t have any children. She has schools. She doesn’t want anything to be left of her but ashes.

She is a great admirer of Federico Fellini.

This 81-year-old Greek actress has managed to create an International Acting School with venues in Athens, Rome and Sagunto. In this last city, on a stage designed by Santiago Calatrava in an industrial warehouse, the performed Euripides’ “The Trojans”, which she directed and performed along with Jürgen Müller (La Fura dels Baus). The main actors were: Irene Papas, Marina Saura, Rosana Pastor, Manuel de Blas and up to 60 artists on stage: actors, singers and dancers. Thus was born the City of Stage Arts of Valencia. Irene is the President of the City of Stage Arts. She was enthused by the project because it has everything to create a great school and not a theoretical school, but a school or laboratory for her method of teaching drama, a method based on questions, logic and freedom.

Irene Papas has another dream: she World like to bring the classical tragedies to the big screen, which is the main source of enrichment for youth who are used to receiving answers without even asking questions. No producer would have offered even a cent for this school and art costs, but who wouldn’t choose four tragedies over a warplane.

Filmography

2003 Una película hablada [A Spoken Film], de Manoel de Oliveira.

2001 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by John Madden.

1999 Yerma, by Pilar Távora

1998 Inquietud [Restlessness], de Manoel de Oliveira

1997 The Odyssey, by Andrei Konchalovsky

1996 Party, by Manoel de Oliveira

1994 Jacob, by Peter Hall

1989 Island, by Paul Cox

1987 High Season, de Clare Peploe

Chronicle of an Announced Death, by Francesco Rosi

1980 The Desert Lion, by Moustapha Akkad

1979 Blood Ties, by Terence Young

Christ Stopped at Eboli, de Francesco Rosi

1976 Muhammad, the Messenger of God, by Moustapha Akkad

Blood Weddings, by Souheil Ben-Barka

1975 Moses, by Gianfranco De Bosio

1973 The Fifth Offensive, by Stipe Delic

1972 The Anxiety of Silence, by Lucio Fulci

1969 Z, by Costa-Gavras

The Kings’ Dream, by Daniel Mann

1968 Mafia, by Martin Ritt

1964 Zorba The Greek, by Michael Cacoyannis

1961 The Guns of Navarone, by J. Lee Thompson

1956 Tribute to a Bad Man, by Robert Wise Thompson

1953 Theodore, Empress of Byzantine, by Riccardo Freda