Workshop
The Directorial Challenge of the Chorus in Ancient Drama
The Case of Sophocles’ Antigone
Workshop Leaders: Radek Stępień & Olga Śmiechowicz

For information and registration for the workshops, please contact adrama@mcf.gr

In contemporary dramatic theatre, actors are generally trained to develop coherent and psychologically complex individual characters. By contrast, forms of performance based on collective action, shared rhythm, and ensemble composition are more commonly associated with physical or musical theatre. Yet these three elements constitute the very foundation of the Chorus in ancient Greek tragedy.

In contemporary productions of ancient drama, the Chorus often presents one of the greatest challenges for directors. Many struggle to unlock its full dramatic potential, frequently shortening or omitting the choral odes in order to accelerate the narrative. In doing so, however, productions risk losing one of the defining features of Greek tragedy.

The protagonists of Greek tragedy are typically kings, queens, princes, or members of the ruling elite. Their fate, however, is never played out in isolation. Instead, it unfolds before a chorus of fifteen representatives of the community—citizens, elders, or courtiers—whose presence transforms an individual’s suffering into a collective experience. It is precisely the Chorus that gives the tragic downfall of the hero its broader civic, ethical, and political significance. Eliminating or diminishing the Chorus therefore means sacrificing one of the essential dimensions of ancient tragedy.

At the same time, the poetic language of Greek tragedy is no longer immediately accessible to contemporary audiences in the way it once was for its original spectators.

This raises a fundamental question: How can the ethical and political ideas expressed through the voice of the Chorus be translated into the language of contemporary performance without losing either their meaning or their dramatic force?

This workshop proposes one possible answer.
Its objective is to equip actors with practical tools for creating fully developed individual characters who also function organically as members of a collective body—the Chorus—representing a specific social group within the play. Each member of the Chorus is approached as a complete dramatic character, possessing a personal history, motivations, attitudes towards the unfolding events, and the capacity to form independent judgments.

The working methodology is based on the exploratory exercise “Interview with the Character”, combined with a series of guided improvisations employing the principles of Active Analysis. The dialogues that emerge through these improvisations often become the starting point for creating new performance material capable of replacing the traditional choral odes. At the same time, the method proves equally valuable when the original text of the tragedy is retained in its entirety. Actors who have developed clearly defined characters and understand their place within the dramatic community are able to participate with greater confidence and expressive precision in any theatrical approach adopted for the Chorus.

The workshop uses Sophocles’ Antigone as its primary case study, where the Chorus consists of the Elders of Thebes. Within the political structure of the city, these elders serve as advisers to King Creon, although real power rests exclusively in his hands.

For the purposes of the workshop, this institutional framework is transposed into a contemporary political context. The Chorus is reimagined as a political group supporting an increasingly authoritarian leader. As the action progresses, Creon pays less and less attention to the opinions of the Chorus and its leader, demanding only their approval of his decisions—including the condemnation of Antigone.

By participating in this improvisational “political faction,” actors are encouraged to explore the contemporary ethical and political dimensions of the tragedy while developing characters that function within a community whose internal structures gradually begin to disintegrate.

The workshop ultimately aims to provide practical tools for constructing collective dramatic structures composed of psychologically convincing individual characters. At the same time, it proposes a methodology that can be applied to the staging of other ancient Greek tragedies.

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Workshop Schedule
• Introduction to the working method. Analysis of the choral odes and the Chorus’ speeches – 3 hours
• “Interview with the Character” – 2 hours
• Preparation and first improvisation – 3 hours
• Discussion and feedback on the first improvisation – 1 hour
• Second improvisation – 3 hours