Rondiris, Dimitris

Born in 1899 in Piraeus . Some sources confirm that he grew up in Piraeus, but claim that he was born on the nearby island of Poros . Initially, he entered the Military School of the Evelpids , which he left after 2 years, going to the law faculty of the University of Athens .

Rondiris’s dedication in dramatic art began in 1918 at the Heteria School of the Greek Theater (Σχολή της Εταιρείας Ελληνικού Θεάτρου), where his teachers were E. Veakis and F. Politis . He first acted as an actor in 1919, collaborating with the Odeon Theater (Θέατρο Ωδείου) and director T. Ikonom . In 1923 he joined the troupe of M. Cotopouli ^[2] . His directorial career began with the production of M. Kalomiris ’s musical dramas The Ring of the Mother (1928) and The First Creator (1930, often translated into Russian as “Senior Master”).

At the end of 1930, having received a scholarship from the Athens Academy , Rondiris left for Vienna, where he attended the Max Reinhardt’s acting and director’s seminar ^[3] . At the same time, Rondiris studied at the University of Vienna (Department of Art History) of art history and ancient Greek philology and got the opportunity to attend rehearsals at the Burgtheater and Vienna Opera . Upon completion of studies, he moved to Berlin , where he got the opportunity to watch rehearsals of the German Theater .

Rondiris returned to Greece in 1933 and associated his name with the (repeated) “brilliant period (opening)” of the National Theater (previously called the Royal Theater), first as an assistant director for F. Politis (1933), and then as a director (December 1934). His production of Electra Sophocles and Hamlet Shakespeare with the troupe of the National Theater in England and Germany in 1939, caused the most enthusiastic reviews of theater critics.

At the origins of the revival of ancient Greek drama

The Greek theater of the Diaspora and the revived Greek state turned to the works of ancient Greek playwrights throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rondyris, being deeply convinced that the natural environment of Greek tragedy was open ancient Greek theaters, put Electra Sophocles in the Odeon of Herod Attica in 1936 and at the Epidaurus Theater , thus reopening, after millennia, the Polycletes Theater for a Greek audience ^[4] . His initiative was interrupted by the war.

After the liberation of Athens in October 1944 and on behalf of Prime Minister G. Papandreou who returned to the country, Rondyris prepared the ceremony of hoisting the Greek flag on the Acropolis of Athens ^[5] . Rondyris led the National Theater in the period 1946-1950 ^[6] . His production of the Aeschylus Orestei trilogy in the Odeon of Herod Attica in 1949, where the audience included leaders of the country of that period, was considered by critics as an outstanding artistic achievement. In 1950, he created the Greek Stage troupe, which lasted until 1952. Rondiris re-headed the National Theater from 1953-1955. In the period 1946 -1955 and as the main director of the National Theater, Rondiris staged plays by Moliere, C. Goldoni, F. Schiller, up to 11 plays by Shakespeare and many works by ancient Greek authors and contemporary Greek playwrights.

Epidaurus Theater Festival

Since 1954, Rondyris opened the Festival of Ancient Greek Drama Epidaurus by staging the tragedy of Euripides Hippolytus (officially the Festival was opened the next, in 1955, by the tragedy of Hekub Euripides, staged by A. Minotis ). The festival has become an annual event, held in the summer months, and continues to this day.

In 1957, after the city hall of Piraeus provided Rondiris with the building of the Piraeus Municipal Theater, Rondiris created the Piraeus Theater

Back to Ancient Greek Drama

With its stage and theater, since 1959, Rondiris devoted his soul and body to an ancient drama. He expressed his personal position on the issue of the revival of ancient drama in the modern era as follows:

We try to be very simple in our work, because the ancients (Greeks) were simple. We strive to express the essence of the ancient drama in a simple form that meets the spirit of Greek tragedy. "

Following this position of his, he tried to avoid the academic static of the choir and introduced elements of modern Greek folklore. Heading the Piraeus Theater, he made 19 tours in 40 countries of Europe , North and South America and Asia , introducing an ancient Greek drama to an international audience. (In 1963, the Piraeus Theater introduced Oresteia in the USSR ^[7] ). During these tours and at international festivals, Rondiris and his Piraeus Theater gave up to 750 performances, having received worldwide recognition and a number of awards. The last tour of the Piraeus Theater took place as part of the cultural decade of the Olympics in Mexico in 1968, where the Piraeus Theater presented Ippolita (October 22, 24, 31), Oresteia (October 25, 26) and Euphenia in Aulida by Euripides (28 , 29th of October).

In the early 70s, Rondiris left directing and retired. Dimitris Rondiris died in Athens on December 20, 1981 .

Rondiris was a director who left his aesthetic and acting views in the Greek theater of the XX century. The actors who worked with him write that he was "a great theater teacher." From the mid-30s, “when the star of the young director then appeared” of the National Theater, and until the end of the 60s, Rondiris presented more than 150 works of the classic, neo-classical and latest repertoire, in which he collaborated with actors such as E. Veakis , M. Cotopouli , G. Glinόs, M. Mirat, A. Minotis , K. Paksin , E. Papadaki, V. Manolid, M. Katrakis , M. Aroni, D. Horn , A. Papatanasiou and others ^[1] .

Melina Mercury wrote about her teacher ^[8] :

Dimitris Rondiris was a genius. He was also the greatest director of Greek tragedy. His teaching of Orestes in the Odeon of Herod Attica was the greatest theatrical experience of my life. Being his student was tantamount to proselytism in the new religion. His disciples became his slaves. He was a genius. Watching another performance in another theater was treason. Talking about cinema was an ideal betrayal. He was also a giant actor. When a discussion of a role culminated, he suddenly began to play that role. He was then forty years old, but with one turn of his body and gaze he could turn into King Lear, at the next moment Horace, into another Ophelia.

In 2016, Rondyris’s daughter, Costula, handed over the director’s archive to the municipality of Piraeus. In turn, the municipality gave the central stage of the Piraeus Municipal Theater the name “Scene of Dimitris Rondiris” ^[9] .

• Χρυσόθεμις Σταματοπούλου-Βασιλάκου, "Ο Δημήτρης Ροντήρης στο Δημοτικό Θέατρο Πειραιά: 1957 - 1959". Στο: Ο Πειραιάς και το Δημοτικό Θέατρο: Πρακτικά Διεθνούς Επιστημονικής Συνάντησης, Πανεπιστήμιο Πειι Νίκος Αξαρλής, Κατερίνα Μπρεντάνου. Πειραιάς: Τσαμαντάκης, 2008, σσ. 46-53.
• Δημήτρης Ροντήρης, Σελίδες αυτοβιογραφίας , εκδ. Καστανιώτης, Αθήνα, 1999

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