Kildare Youth Theatre in Athens for 'Oikos' Project

Members of Kildare Youth Theatre's Senior Ensemble as well as Caliban workshops, have spent a week in Athens, Greece as part of a Crooked House Theatre Company led, Erasmus+ funded programme called Oikos.

The project was a training programme for young and emerging theatre artists who are learning to use theatre as a tool for social change. It revolved around the word for which it is named after, Oikos, which refers to three related but distinct concepts: the family, the family's property, and the house. For us, we took the meaning of oikos as the Greek word for home, possessions, and what defines the centre of your household. It can come to mean the principles that guide you and make you feel secure. Without oikos you are adrift.

The Oikos project brought together 31 young Greek and Irish actors aged generally between 18-24. Through a week of workshops held at the Duncan Drama and Research Centre in the Vyronas suburb of Athens, participants were taught to use theatre exercises as a way to ask critically interesting questions about the world around them (i.e. outside their oikos) and to form opinions based on what they see or don’t see.

What was learned during the week culminated in four very different performances, devised mutually by groups of participants and their specially trained facilitators. Outside of the workshops, the Greek and Irish teams spent time exploring the city and eating together, forming a strong and unforgettable community.

Oikos was the fifth partnership between Crooked House Theatre Company and Kinitiras of Athens.

Keep an eye out on our 2021 archive to read more about the project.

The Oikos project was immediately followed by the Inspire project - read more about this project here.