December 10, 2024

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Varvara Lazaridou guarded Epidaurus for 22 summers.

Varvara Lazaridou guarded Epidaurus for 22 summers.

In 1978, when Varvara Lazaredo I first played in Epidaurusin the Trojans of the Art Theater, was in awe of the young actress, and could not imagine that the theater in which most actors dream of playing, would become her “second home.”

At the beginning of every summer, the director of the ancient Epidaurus Theater for 22 years loads her car and drives to the place that has become her “adopted” home. This summer she will take her tours in the sanctuary of Apollo Maliata around the theater, among the lion trees and in the shadow of the mountain. She will be inside the theater at dawn, in the coolness and in the clear, clean air. She will feel the theater breathing in silence as the last spectator leaves and listen to his son-in-law.

But her work does not only include this poetic part: she is the one who controls, coordinates and solves the small and large problems in preparing the shows, making sure that everything goes smoothly until the last spectator, the last contributor, the last contributor, the last truck in the show scene.

Epidaurus has given her many poignant moments, one of which is when she meets old actors who come to see the shows. “I think for some, while they have spent their whole lives in the theatre, they never got here, because of luck or circumstance, not because they don’t deserve it.”

The guardian angel of the theatre who knows every corner of it, welcomes teams, opens her arms to strangers arriving for the first time, to beginners in the “rolls”, to exhausted actors. “The theatre wants you to be a winner,” she says when I ask her about the years that have passed since her first arrival in Epidaurus. “You can’t be sad and go to claim a job or do it well. You are exposed, you can’t hide. I feel very grateful that all my life experiences have come together to achieve what I do today.”

Born in Thessaloniki, she studied at KTHBE and became an actress, as she dreamed, and once she finished she was appointed to the Arts Theater which opened the way for actors who had not attended school, along with Lydia Coniordo And the Pantele Papadopoulos. She was so passionate about theater that, as a student, she would go to Athens from Friday to Sunday to watch performances and follow the most interesting theatrical action. Life brought her to Athens, but she later returned several times to KTHBE to participate in its shows.