Makriyannis - 2008
Yannis Simonides Returns to Stockton
On Saturday, March 21, 2008, the Friends of Hellenic Studies of the Richard Stockton
College presented a bi-lingual reading and performance by Yannis Simonides on the
187tth anniversary of the Greek War of Liberation from the Ottomans. Mr. Simonides
narrated the historical background in English and interspersed his recitation with
the words of General Ioannis Makriyannis (1797-1864), a legendary military leader
who at a young age emerged
as a key general of the Greek Revolutionary army, and afterwards as one of the founders
of the Modern Greek State. Makriyannis learned to read and write expressly in order
to produce this extraordinary document of the period during and after the Greek War
of Independenceagainst the Ottoman Turks. Through his Memoirs, his only work, he has
come to be regarded as one of the most important Greek literary figures of the last
two centuries.
Yannis Simonides recited in Greek, immediately followed by English translation. These
narrations were complemented by recordings of Greek revolutionary songs of the period
(kleftika tragoudia) and a slide presentation that illustrated the text. Revolutionary war battles are
depicted via slides of paintings by Zografos which weresponsored and directed by Makriyannis
himself and are now at the Gennadios Library in Athens.
Mr. Simonides is known world-wide for his role as Socrates in a dramatized version
of Plato’s “Apologia” (also performed at Stockton). Born in Constantinople and raised
in Athens, he is a Yale Drama School trained actor/writer and Emmy-winning documentary
producer. His performance work includes plays by Euripides, Aristophanes, Shakespeare,
Brecht, Korres and Pontikas, along with solo and ensemble pieces culled from the writings
of C.P. Cavafy, General Makriyannis, Nikolai Gogol and Plato. He has received support
from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Greek Ministries of Culture and Foreign
Affairs, the A. Onassis, L. Kostopoulos and Levendis Foundations, Time Warner and
the Mobil Foundation.
It was a tremendous honor for us to have such an accomplished, skilled and exceedingly
generous performer at Stockton. We have been twice captivated by his incredible talent
and hope to have him with us again someday.
