A spectrum of emotions
AGreek actress, Vicky Koumoutsou has acted in TV series, movies and theatrical performances in Greece for over ten years. Four years ago, when she landed in Dubai, she discovered that the city had no ‘ professional’ actors. “Most actors don’t act for a living — all of them have full- time day jobs.” A drama school teacher, Vicky, 31, decided to change that by setting up her own theatrical community called Scenes & Skenes. Whilst ‘ scenes’ stands for a place where an incident in real life or fiction occurs, the Greek term ‘ skenes’ derives from a word meaning ‘ tent’ that has developed a secondary meaning referring to the backdrop used in Greek drama.
For Vicky, the move was a step towards cultivating a serious theatre community in the UAE. “I am looking at paying my actors,” she says. “It would encourage more people to take up acting as a job, complete with proper contracts and salaries.” It would also help her put up better shows. “The biggest challenge is to find a committed cast for one’s show. Since most people are always on the move and perform ( voluntarily) out of passion, it gets extremely stressful to match schedule rehearsals and show dates,” she notes.
Her first production was a Greek modern comedy, Daddy Do Not Die On Friday, staged in November 2015 at DUCTAC, exclusively for the Greek community. She followed it up with an English production in May last year called Birds by Aristophanes, an ancient Greek comedy, which had a cast of 30 actors and dancers from the UAE. Next up was Chocolate Factory in October last year, both in Greek and English. “I am planning to take Chocolate Factory to schools and ours would be the first local group to perform for children. Mostly children’s productions come from places like the UK. They perform for one or two weeks and leave.”
The logo for her company includes the icons of three masks. “The two masks are inspired by the ancient Greek symbol for theatre, which depicts happiness and unhappiness. I added the third one to reflect an expression of nothingness — these days, a lot of us do certain things without any emotion and I wanted to add that to the spectrum.”
Is the Dubai audience receptive to theatrical shows? “They love a good production, which explains why shows that come from abroad are always fullhouse. It is up to us in Dubai to create a high standard show and win the trust of the audience.”
To know more: scenesandskenes. com
Every day and every hour in the theatre offers a chance to experience different emotions. I love to create a new world ( from scratch) for my audience and see how we can bring a change in everyone’s lives through this art form. Through my roles, I get to live many lives” — Vicky Koumoutsou