UNIVERSITY OF PELOPONESSE
FACULTY OF FINE ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE STUDIES
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PROGRAMME
" MA in Drama and Performing Arts in Education and Lifelong Learning "
A Post- Graduate Studies Programme ( PGSP ) which is different than all the others,
in the Department of Theatre Studies in Nafplio :
"Drama and Performing Arts in Education and Lifelong Learning"
A new Post-Graduate Studies Programme ( PGSP ) has started these days in Nafplio ! October, 2014! Every weekend, the Department of Theatre Studies of the University of Peloponesse feverishly works on Drama and Performing Arts in Education and Lifelong Learning. The Working Group consists of 32 Post-Graduate Students, who are Teachers themselves ( most of them are Primary School teachers, less are Secondary School teachers and Kindergarten Teachers ), Theatrologists or professionals and specialists from other working sectors or studies. The 32 Post-Graduate Students succeeded in their exams - out of 109 candidates in total, coming from all over Greece, thus the competition being hard!
On October 18th, 2014, after the official commencement was saluted by a brief welcome speech from the Chairwoman of the Department, Prof. Alkistis Kontogianni, by Mr Pavlos Christidis on behalf of the Town Mayor, and by the Secretary, Mrs Diamantidou, the soprano Valia Athanasia, a student of the Department, sang the Aria " Una Donna Quindici Anni ", from " Cosi fan Tutte " by Mozart. Soon afterwards , the programme schedule of the semester with all the prominent teachers was distributed to the students and the Drama Workshops started! Instructions concerning the organization, the function and the materialization of the research projects were also given.
In order for the Post-Graduate Students to be informed about the Environment and the Culture of Nafplio and of Argolida in general, so that their research concerning Drama, the Arts and Education could be directed towards these fields, Babis Antoniadis, a guest of the PGSP , gave a speech referring not only to certain Individuals and Events in the Area but also to Collections and Social Phenomena. Also, the Director of the PGSP referred to the Writers of Argolida and praised this unique situation : she urged the students to conduct researches-interviews with these Writers and their Works. Not only did she do that but she also drew their attention to the fact that this could become the structural material of a great Festival-Conference which may take place the following year in Nafplio, in honour of the Writers of Argolida and their Work, a unique situation of the utmost creativity noticed only in this part of Greece.
In this PGSP, 13 students come from Argolida, 14 come from Athens and 5 come from other parts of Greece, such as Ioannina, Zakynthos,Patras, Thessaloniki, Crete. This proves the following:
a) the University gives the residents of the area the opportunity of Post-Graduate Studies within their interests , b) the PGSP itself can attract residents of Athens, c) a PGSP can bring students from all parts of Greece, eg from Athens, to Nafplio, especially during the weekend, offering education to professionals, d) an interesting PGSP can motivate professionals to devote their time in order to be further educated.
The PGSP students showed great enthusiasm and commented very positively on both the 2 first days of their working schedule, which mainly consisted of workshops, and on the highly assisting role the Art of Drama played in their being acquainted with each other, their communication and collaboration. In their evaluation, words such as "great", "splendid", "moving", "touching", "a life experience", "I lived in the Superlative Degree", "what I have been expecting from life", "I feel my life changing","such beautiful hours","exquisitely compound programme" ,"we came so close ,even from the very first hours", "we are a team giving off strength and will ", often appeared.
Have a wonderful start and an even more wonderful route towards whatever new and fruitful comes your way in the Fields of Culture, of Theatre and of Art.