Community workshops are coming to mountain villages this February and March, welcoming children and adults, Greek and English speakers. The O Topos en oi Anthropoi workshop series, meaning The Place is the People, draws on the stories, memories, and lived experiences of the people of each area. Each session will be under the guidance of facilitators specially appointed by Thoc and is offered to the public free of charge.

Each activity will function as a platform for expression and creativity for both children and adults, using theatrical tools and techniques, with the aim of strengthening cohesion, imagination and collective identity. At the same time, it will serve as an opportunity to document local stories and to empower both personal and communal identity.

The ultimate goal of the workshops is to strengthen the community’s creative voice, develop bonds between generations, encourage cultural renewal based on residents’ own experiences, and create a local, living theatrical narrative. Ways of disseminating the material produced will also be explored, not only within the participating communities but beyond them as well.

The workshops will happen every Saturday in February and March between 10am and 1pm at different locations. They starts at Ayia Marina Xyliatou Cultural Hall led by Stelios Kallistratis. Residents of the community and surrounding areas, aged 12 to 112, are welcome. The session will focus on the participants themselves and their memories or the stories they already know—or will discover—about the village community. Aiming to build a bridge between past and present, the ‘I am’ and the ‘I am becoming,’ the workshop seeks collaboration, coexistence, and co-creation between children and adults.

In Kyperounta, the workshops will happen at the Sanatorium with Mikaella Theodoulidou and will focus on myths and truths of a charged place. The session will offer a reawakening of memories, where theatre becomes an act of remembrance and collective breath. Through sharing and storytelling, the soul and voice of Kyperounta will be revealed.

The programme will then lead participants aged seven and above to Lania, where Nikoletta Prokopiou will welcome them. This session invites Greek or English-speakers, the residents of the community and the surrounding area to focus on their stories, memories and tales of Lania. The workshop encourages collaboration, bringing the stories of Lania to life, letting its people, letting a tree, a bus and a photograph spark imagination.

The Saturday workshops at the Foini Cultural Centre with Stella Symeou will bring together three different generations to create theatre by reviving local stories. Through this process, participants will seek to develop an appreciation for the place and its people, as well as engagement with its traditions and treasures, realising that nothing should be taken for granted.

O Topos en oi Anthropoi

Community theatre workshops for children and adults in mountain villages. Agia Marina Xyliatou Cultural Hall, Nicosia district. Kyperounta Sanatorium, Nicosia district. Lania Events Hall, Limassol district. Foini Cultural Centre, Limassol district. Every Saturday in February and March. 10am-1pm. Free of charge. Registrations needed. Tel: 99-893677 (Agia Marina Xyliatou), 99-849586 (Kyperounta), 99-948286 (Lania), 99-301991 (Foini)