The fourteen International Meetings on Ancient Drama were organised by the European Cultural Centre of Delphi between 1985 and 2009 and largely determined the character of the organisation, its presence, and its contribution to the Greek cultural scene.
For more than two decades, Delphi served as a meeting place where different views on ancient drama could be exchanged and react with one another. It also familiarised Greek audiences with the theatrical traditions and performance codes of other cultures.
The Delphi Meetings
The Meetings lasted eight to ten days on average, and usually featured between seven to eight performances. Until 1990, the Meetings were annual; from 1995 on, they took place every two years.
The artistic and organisational direction of the Meetings was entrusted to the stage director Theodoros Terzopoulos.
Organisationally, the events were divided into three sections:
Other parallel artistic activities were also organised, including exhibitions, film screenings, lectures on specialised topics, etc. The Meeting of Young Artists was added as an independent event from 2007 to 2009.
The venue was the conference complex of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi. The only significant exception was the site of the performances, which were held in the Ancient Stadium of Delphi, within the archaeological site, between 1985 and 2004. In 2005, the performances moved to the European Cultural Centre of Delphi’s modern open-air theatre, the Phrynihos Theatre.
The Meetings held were :
I International Meeting on Ancient Drama, 4-25 June 1985
II International Meeting on Ancient Drama, 15-20 June 1986
III International Meeting on Ancient Drama “HOMAGE TO KAROLOS KOUN”, 24-28 June 1987
IV International Meeting on Ancient Drama, 6-12 July 1988
V International Meeting on Ancient Drama, 29 June – 6 July 1989
VI International Meeting on Ancient Drama “SOPHOCLES”, 2-7 July 1990
VII International Meeting on Ancient Drama, 26-30 August 1992
VIII International Meeting on Ancient Drama “THEATRE OLYMPICS-CROSSING MILLENNIA”, 22-27 August 1995
IX International Meeting on Ancient Drama “ON HISTORY AND MYTHS”, 14-19 July 1998
Χ International Meeting on Ancient Drama “2.500 YEARS OF ANCIENT DRAMA: TRADITION AND PERSPECTIVES”, 30 June-8 July 2000
XI International Meeting on Ancient Drama “THEBAN CYCLE”, 5-12 July 2002
ΧΙΙ International Meeting on Ancient Drama “SOPHOCLES, 2.500 YEARS SINCE HIS BIRTH”, 25 June-2 July 2004
XIII International Meeting on Ancient Drama “THE WOMAN IN ANCIENT DRAMA”, 6-15 July 2007
XIV International Meeting on Ancient Drama “XENOS -METIC”, 3-11 July 2009
The publication Ancient Drama at Delphi (ECCD, 2022; English edition: Agra Publications, 2023) is a systematic record, documenting and presenting all the activities of the fourteen Meetings on Ancient Drama. It includes original articles and essays by theatre critics, researchers and academics who took part in them, and notes by directors and artists in a more personal style. The texts are supplemented by photographs within and outside the text, as well as extracts from publications in the contemporary press. A separate section at the end of the book provides a record of all the events by year (speakers and titles of presentations, theatrical performances, workshops and presentations of working methods, exhibitions and other parallel artistic events).
