acting – EGE MALTEPE

4Kasım2015

My Fall of Theater

Kasım 4, 2015Written By ege-maltepeLeave a comment

The season started in full swing; First with music through our Classical for All concert series in Greenwich Village, then PRIVATOPIA ; a new play I’m taking part in as an actor! This was a chance to go back to one of my artistic homes; LaGuardia Performing Arts Center where I have premiered one of my first plays; “TEA for 3” back in 2012.

By the acclaimed writer Maria Efstathiadi, Privatopia is a multi-layered text about the increasing fear of “otherness” and the obsession of exclusivity in modern societies. After being shaken by the horrific news about the refugees fleeing from war in Syria, I think there can’t be a better time for the world premiere of this play.

From the very first reading I was startled by the discussions among the board members of the “gated community”.

“Everyone is talking about alternative lifestyles, we turned it into reality”

I’m playing one of the privileged characters living in this secure, gated community, where everything is in private hands, the food is organic, and the doors are sprayed with cyclonytode to prevent outsiders from entering. And yet, a strange cat was able to get in and even give birth to six kittens!

Gated Community of Privatopia — Gated Community / Privatopia in rehearsal

While the board members are discussing this critical issue of what to do with this CAT, on the other side of the wall refugees are sharing their stories with the audience. The stories that most of us only hear from newspapers.

To me, Privatopia is an absurd, funny and poetic “clownery” opening a window into our own fears. I find fear to be a very distinct feeling that everyone in our modern world of comfort and technology is constantly promoting to sell us stuff like insurance, drugs, and even wars.

What are you afraid of?

Come see* Privatopia at LPAC and let me know what you think after the show!

DATES:

*LPAC is offering $8 tickets for the friends of the cast . So, if you want to come, fill the CONTACT form on the website and I can put your name on my list. Then all you’ll need to do is to mention that you’re on Ege’s discount group list at the box office. And wink 🙂

Click HERE for more info.

How to get there: http://www.lpac.nyc/directions

2Ocak2014

Let's play!

Ocak 2, 2014Written By ege-maltepeLeave a comment

My friends and students are already used to this; I’m always talking about my niece! Defne is almost two years old now,

and the pace of her learning amazes me! Every other day there’s a new song she’s singing in half gibberish half Turkish, or a new game, a new how-to… We skype couple times a week, and her mother feeds me with videos and photos, “feed” is the only correct term to describe it really, because I devour those images. And God bless Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger !
Anyway, my new year’s resolution is not to have a baby of my own, not yet. But the resolution is coming from Defne; her hunger to learn, discover and PLAY and have FUN! She starts the day at 7.30am, and the first thing she says is “Down”, she means let’s get out of the bed and start the day! From that moment on game playing starts, with her dolls, toys, with anything she finds, we paint and draw (her recent discovery is “Murals are cool”:), till she takes a nap, with her aunt’s words “She’s charging herself” . After the nap, the game is on!
This makes me think, I’m a thinker but you already know that, a human being in relatively “normal” conditions, spends her/his whole time “playing”, till the age of 10, even older.

"Where am I?" Defne — “Where am I?” Defne

At least 10 years spent with the hunger to discover and play. Then, usually the things we are “supposed to do” ruin all the fun and most of us become uninterested in learning something new.
Most of us lose the sense of game playing, or we need some alcohol to loosen up first before starting a fun evening… How can we lose something that is so deeply in our core since the day we’re born? Because that’s something built in our system; we are curious and playful creatures! Where does it hide?
I met with Spolin improvisation as an actor in 2007. I was lucky enough to go the acting school founded by Mike Nichols, George Morrison and Viola Spolin’s son Paul Sills.

2013:10 OYUN GUNU - 4 — Spolin Workshop – Istanbul

I was amazed by this technique. It was simple and deep at the same time, and most definitely it was lots of fun! All of the classes were like parties in which we got to be silly, and free as if we were kids. I found this so important because most of my acting training till then was very “serious”. In 2009, I decided to bring this work to my home country and founded SPOLIN-IST. Now we have an expanding group of Spolin players, who constantly ask me when will be our next workshop:)

Viola Spolin, the grandmother of improvisation, touches us deep inside. She takes us to a place that’s so familiar to us that it is incredibly scary. Because it is scary to be your true self. But once you get there, you get addicted to it!
Here’s my new year’s resolution – finally!- I decided to increase the number of Theater Games addicts in New York City! A very affordable weekly workshop is gathering a diverse group of players. Join us, let’s go back to beginning!
http://spolinist.wordpress.com/new-york/