Τhe expressive mechanisms, the functional tools and the practical applications of the performing arts, through which actors with or without a hearing disability could work together.
Elli Merkouri
Art saves from the everyday cruelty
Text: Dimitra Kehagia
Actress, director and researcher Elli Merkouri has been ever since 2011 the head of the Theater Group of Deaf “Crazy Colors”, a teaming up of deaf and hearing actors, founded in 2009 by Olga Dalekou and Giouli Tsagkaraki. The group relies on the coexistence between deaf and hearing artists and attempts to bring forth news codes in the acting expression, making use of the sign language in tandem with the vocal performance, the improvisation principles and the body theater techniques.
Out of the long-lasting journey of “Crazy Colors” she treasures the ineffable way deaf and hearing actors interact on stage, as well as the heart-wrenching integration of the spectators, a mixed and all-inclusive audience, where no-one feels ostracized. The exclusion of handicapped people is for her a grave problem in Greece, as even
though the standard rules regarding issues of inclusivity and accessibility have been set, they are yet to be implemented.
“Art people need to receive training from experts in the field so as to fully comprehend what the terms inclusivity and accessibility really mean. The Ministry of Culture should finance such initiatives in order to move from a series of isolated cases into a constant flow of events held with accessible terms. Only then will the people with disabilities enjoy the possibility of choice and equal treatment with regard to art and culture, at least to the feasible extent.
Apart from “Crazy Colors”, she has devoted herself to the issue in question also through her thesis on visual perception in relation with art and the interpretative codes. She delves into the expressive mechanisms, the functional tools and the practical applications of the performing arts, through which actors with or without a hearing disability could work together. “I am interested in the innovative ways of approach towards the on-stage performance, which lead to a new interpretative stance, generating an intact and fully-rounded on-stage outcome,” she points out.
In 2023, the group received an honorary mention for its artistic work by the Hellenic Association of Theater and Performing Arts Critics, within the framework of the Theater and Performing Arts Awards, a special moment both for her and the members and partners of the group. Even though such distinctions do offer a sense of satisfaction and pleasure, as every other success, Elli Merkouri is often guided in her life and work by Samuel Beckett’s words on failure, which has its own unique way to teach us lessons: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” She sees life as a “relentless chase of moments, a riddle seeking a solution destined never to be found.”
In this relentless chase of moments, teaching holds a particular place, as she has been working as a teacher in all educational grades for the past twenty years. “Knowledge must be transmitted and us artists, in our turn, should impart the same way we received it from someone else in the past,” she stresses, and that’s what she has set out to do by opening a channel of communication both with the students and the actors, as a teacher and as a director respectively.
Theater is like a living organism, a cell that evolves right before the eyes of the spectators, dying every night and coming back to life the following morning. These castles built on the sand will never fall, provided there’s an actor who strives to build them high enough.
Art has its own unique way to smooth the edges, to soften everything up and offer human beings a different glance at things. Countless are the times we sang along with an artist in a concert, felt moved by an actor or an actress in the theater, stepped out of a movie theater bewildered by what we had just seen. Art stirs our emotions, awakens and saves us from the cruelty of everyday life.”
According to her, theater is the most influential form of art, as “it exists and walks by our side, it unites us and moves us together.” “Theater is like a living organism, a cell that evolves right before the eyes of the spectators, dying every night and coming back to life the following morning. These castles built on the sand will never fall, provided there’s an actor who strives to build them high enough.”
For Elli Merkouri, what makes an actor or a director stand out is their glance at the world and people, their philosophy of life, experiences, wounds and traumas. “As long as there are people who love their art deeply, with an almost religious reverence I would say, as long as there are people for whom art is a profound inner need, we will always have artistic creations that have the ability to lift mankind.”
In every work and every role she first turns to the writer for inspiration. Her favorite character was the role of Cassandra in the works Cassandra and the Wolf by Margarita Karapanou and The Trojan Women by Euripides. “In both cases, with a completely different mode, the role for Cassandea was a deep well of emotions,
which I had to explore. A well of pitch darkness that may end up leading you towards the light if you dare to climb it down. The characters suffering from mental swings are the most interested in theater, as they formulate a pivotal question: will the actor manage to come out in the light?”.
Bio
Actress and theatrologist. PhD candidate at the School of Theater of AUTh’s Faculty of Fine Arts (2021), having received a scholarship by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation on the scientific field “Humanitarian Sciences and Arts” (2022). She is graduate of the Drama School of the National Theater of Northern Greece (2004), the School of Drama of AUTh’s Faculty of Fine Arts (2011), the Postgraduate Programme of Physical Education & Sports of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the sector of “Anthropology of Dance” (2020), the Postgraduate Programme of the Center for Research and Practical Applications of Ancient Greek Drama “Desmoi” (2011). She is a holder of the Fit Club Trainer 1st Level Certified Diploma (Anatomy-Physiology Issues on Children’s Kinesiology) by Andy Jackson (1995). She has taken part in seminars delivered by Th. Terzopoulos, M. Marmarinos, L.Koniordou, F.Komninos, E.Lewindson, G.Paraskevopoulos, A.Manolikakis. She has joined forces with various stage directors, while also having worked as a teacher at the University of the Aegean, the theater workshop of the Municipal and Regional Theater of Roumeli, the educational programmes of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, the Industrial Gas Museum of the Technopolis City of Athens, the Marasleion Academy of Pedagogy and of various municipalities. She
has also directed theater plays, featuring children, teenagers, students and adults, as well as the secondary education programme “Through the eyes of another” at the National Theater of Northern Greece.
She has given lectures in speeches and conferences in academic institutions in Greece and abroad. The group “Crazy Colors” has teamed up with prestigious cultural institutions. Indicatively, she has staged plays and performances and the theater of Ancient Olympia, the Delphi, the National Theater of Northern Greece, the National Archaeological Museum, the French Institute of Greece, the Michael
Cacoyannis Foundation, the Regional and Municipal Theater of Roumeli and Kavala, the Theater of Thessaly, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation etc. She is a five-time grant recipient from the Ministry of Culture & Sports.
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