I LISTEN PATIENTLY
NAME: ANNA MARIA STEFAN
AGE: 62
PLACE OF RESIDENCE: AMBELOKIPOI
BIRTHPLACE: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
ORIGIN: GREECE AND ROMANIA
ON THE NIGHT OF THE PERFORMANCE ANNA MARIA STEFAN WILL WALK TO THE BYZANTINE MUSEUM, THEN SHE WILL CROSS THE NATIONAL PARK, WILL REACH SYGGROU AVENUE AND HEAD UP ON CHATZICHRISTOU STREET TO REACH DIONYSIOU AEROPAGITOU STREET THAT LEADS TO THE HERODION THEATRE.
Anna Maria is is Greek – Romanian born and raised in Romania by her phanariote Greek mother and Romanian father. She decided to move and live in Greece many years ago with her husband who passed away recently. Her life is dedicated to the victims of trafficking in Greece. Leaving them behind even for a little while isn’t easy-the responsibility is great. She speaks Romanian, Greek, English, French, Italian, a bit of Hebrew and reads Spanish and Portuguese.
She has studied film and theater in Romania and has a flair for writing poems and drawing (especially human and animal eyes). “I know how to listen to people, that is something I know how to do well.” She feels a citizen of the world or a Balkan-Greek citizen in the ancient Greek sense. “I do not want to represent myself on stage, but instead represent and give voice to the silent victims around the world. I would like to appear dressed all in white, wearing a mask. I will be holding a doll also dressed in white, a white angel- white clown.” White is her answer to mourning. She would like to make a statement in silence dedicated to that invisible part of Athens, to hundreds of women and men that keep silent in fear.
She believes that ancient drama is the mother of art and psychology “it has helped me so much in my work. The roots are found there.”
She has read Prometheus Bound a long time ago and she considers it to be a exemplary text. “I would identify myself with the character that knows how to listen and keeps silent”. Sophocles’ Antigone is her favorite play, “the queen of all tragedies. Both sides in the play have a right and that makes Antigone a tragedy and differentiates it from a melodrama.”
© Rimini Protokoll