Maria Nafpliotou | |
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| Born | 19 June 1969 |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1994-present |
Maria Nafpliotou (born 19 June 1969) is a Greek actress. In addition to lead roles in Greek television and movies, she has delivered many leading roles on the stage, and is also a dancer.
Nafpliotou was born in Athens and still resides there. She took up dancing while at school, initially with the Rodopi Kouvari Dancing School but continued her studies at the Rallou Manou Professional Dancing School, whence she graduated. After she completed her studies, she started her career as a professional dancer as a member of Rallou Manou's Greek Chorodram (1987-1992) and a member of the modern dancing group Andromeda (1990-1992). From 1992 to 1996 she was the lead dancer for the dance theater group Roes, formed by Sofia Spyratou.
In 1992 she made her first appearance on the big screen in the movie Island. In 1993 she was the leading lady of the short-length film From Now On (Apo do kai pera) by Maria Douza. From 1996 to 1998 she studied drama at the George Kimoulis Modern Theater Of Athens drama school. She had previously had acting lessons at the Giannis Rigas workshop. In 1996 she appeared on television for the first time, taking part in the TV film Niovi Was Dancing Her Life (I Niovi horeve ti zoi tis) by Alexandros Papailiou. However, it was in 1998-1999 that she became widely known, starring in the critically acclaimed Mega Channel television series The Throne Room (I Aithousa tou Thronou) as Glafke, a young woman returning to the Greek islands in the 1960s to find out more about her father, who had been executed as a partisan during World War 2. The series, directed by Pigi Dimitrakopoulou, became internationally famous for its multi-dimensional storyline, lush photography, and insights into generational change during the 1960s. Since then she has starred in a number of TV productions, namely Stand by Me (Meine dipla mou) by Reina Eskenazi and The 10 again by Pigi Dimitrakopoulou. Her movie career includes 3 films: Chariton's Choir , for which she received a Best Actress Award in the 22nd Alexandreia’s Film Festival, Soul Kicking (Best Supporting Actress National Award) and Dying In Athens (Pethainontas stin Athina).
In 1999 she began to make an impact on the stage, appearing first as Catherine Holly in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer at the New Stage of the National Theatre of Greece under the direction of Korais Damatis. In the summer of the same year she took the role of Antigone in Euripides' Foinisses, a production of the National Theatre of Northern Greece in Epidavros, Herodion and other ancient theatres. Since then she has appeared in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , Love's Labours Lost , King Lear , Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Ibsen’s The Lady From the Sea, Molière's Don Juan , Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris and The Trojan Women , and Aeschylus' Oresteia . Much of her work has been as a member of the successful Experimental Theatrical Group of the National Theatre of Greece under the direction of Stathis Livathinos, with whom she continued working in Mikhail Lermontov's Masquerade , in J.M.Synge's Playboy of the Western World and in Carmen , an adaptation of Bizet’s opera and Mérimée’s work. In September 2010 she portrayed Dushanka in Goran Bregovic’s monologue Diaries of a Sad Queen, successfully presented in Herodion.
She has also continued to dance, including in two dance theatre pieces written and directed by Constantinos Rigos.
Playing an ancient Greek high priestess, she lit the Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics using the sun's rays, starting the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay. [1] On October 22, 2009, she repeated the performance, starting the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay.[ citation needed ]
The Olympic flame is a symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. Several months before the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece. This ceremony starts the Olympic torch relay, which formally ends with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The flame then continues to burn in the cauldron for the duration of the Games, until it is extinguished during the Olympic closing ceremony.
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis and Alcmaeon in Corinth, and which Euripides' son or nephew is assumed to have directed. It won first prize in the City Dionysia festival competition.
Manos Hatzidakis was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek composers. He was one of the main proponents of the "Éntekhno" form of music, along with Mikis Theodorakis, is the founder of the Orchestra of Colours, an ensemble performing lesser-known works and the music of Greek composers, and influenced a broad swathe of Greek culture through his writings and radio broadcasts.
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The Greek National Opera is the country's state lyric opera company, located in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center at the south suburb of Athens, Kallithea. It is a public corporation under the supervision of the Greek Ministry of Culture and administered by the Board of Trustees and its Artistic Director, currently George Koumedakis.
Master Class is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini. The play opened on Broadway in 1995, with stars Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald winning Tony Awards.
Cybele Andrianou, also known by her stage name Cybele, was a Greek actress.
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A Dream of Passion is a 1978 Greek drama film directed by Jules Dassin. The story follows Melina Mercouri as Maya, an actor playing Medea, who seeks out Brenda Collins, portrayed by Ellen Burstyn, a woman who is in jail for murdering her own children to punish her husband for his infidelity.
Rallou Manou was a noted Greek choreographer, modern dancer and dance teacher.
Marianne McDonald is a scholar and philanthropist. Marianne is involved in the interpretation, sharing, compilation, and preservation of Greek and Irish texts, plays and writings. Recognized as a historian on the classics, she has received numerous awards and accolades because of her works and philanthropy. As a playwright, she has authored numerous modern works, based on ancient Greek dramas in modern times. As a teacher and mentor, she is highly sought after for her knowledge of and application of the classic themes and premises of life in modern times. In 2013, she was awarded the Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Classics, Department of Theatre, Classics Program, University of California, San Diego. In 1994, she was inducted into the Royal Irish Academy, being recognized for her expertise and academic excellence in Irish language history, interpretation and the preservation of ancient Irish texts. As a philanthropist, Marianne partnered with Sharp to enhance access to drug and alcohol treatment programs by making a $3 million pledge — the largest gift to benefit behavioral health services in Sharp’s history. Her donation led to the creation of the McDonald Center at Sharp HealthCare. Additionally, to recognize her generosity, Sharp Vista Pacifica Hospital was renamed Sharp McDonald Center.
Kora Karvouni is a Greek stage and television actress. She graduated from the Greek National Theatre Drama School with a distinction in 2002. She has performed in various theatre productions in Greece, U.S.A., South Korea and Italy collaborating with notable directors such as Peter Stein, Anatoly Vasiliev, Dimiter Gotscheff and Laurent Chétouane. She has also participated in Greek television productions.
Smaro Stefanidou was a Greek theatre, film, television and radio actress.
Rallou Karatza-Argyropoulos was a Phanariote Greek actress, theater director, and dramaturge, also noted as a participant in the Greek War of Independence. She was the second daughter of John Caradja, the Prince of Wallachia, and thus a prominent member of the Caradja family. She was also the wife of John's trusted courtier Georgios Argyropoulos, which also made her titular consort to the Great Banship of Oltenia in 1812–1813. While still a teenager, she was an arbiter of fashion and a promoter of Westernization, as well as, allegedly, a serial seducer. In 1816 or 1818, Rallou convinced her father to finance her artistic projects, and founded the first court theater, at Cișmeaua Roșie of Bucharest. This project, also involving figures such as Costache Aristia and Iordache Slătineanu, made her a participant in the Modern Greek Enlightenment, and supposedly the first Greek-language director. Her pivotal role in both Modern Greek and Romanian theater is widely acknowledged, clashing with the more controversial aspects of her youth—including her endorsement of her father's corruption and her own acts of despotism, such as a sartorial ban on the color white.
The 2022 Winter Olympics torch relay was run from 18 October 2021 until 4 February 2022. After it was lit in Olympia, Greece, the torch traveled in a symbolic relay to Athens on 19 October. The Chinese leg ended in Beijing National Stadium, at the end of the opening ceremony. On 20 October 2021, it was announced that the Chinese leg will have only three days, following a series of displays of the flame in various Chinese cities, starting on 2 February, at the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year as stage 3. Unlike the previous relays, the relay only visited the three venues clusters, the main sights of Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou. The final torch was lit by long-distance runner Dilnigar Ilhamjan and nordic combined Zhao Jiawen.
Yiannis Kyrou was a Greek scenic and costume designer, known for his significant contributions to theater and television in Greece.
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