On stage, on screen and on CD
Though Fenia Papadodima is currently performing at the Grammes club with the Scream the Move band, the prolific 30-year-old is also on stage playing in Dostoevsky’s «White Nights» – a production by the Patras Regional Theater directed Demosthenes Papadopoulos – and rehearsing for the role of Margaret in «Faust,» directed by Themis Moumoulidis, that will open in Patras on April 3 and then in Athens. And though she studied acting at the Paris Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts, the past few years have seen Papadodima becoming more intensely involved in singing and film. «About three years ago, during the summer, I was singing Cuban songs with a band in Crete and Santorini,» she said in an interview with Kathimerini. «Someone from a record company just happened to hear me and the result was an album of stories from around Greece set to music,» she added referring to the album «The Fairy’s Handkerchief» (To Mandili tis Neraidas). She is also working on her second album, this time with composer Giorgos Palamiotis, that will be a blend of Orpheus’s hymns with demotic Greek songs. Her Grammes gigs are composed of songs from film. «The main theme is love, though we did not choose it specifically,» explains Papadodima. «It was just that when choosing the songs, we realized that almost 99 percent of them had a romantic theme.» The songs range from performers as diverse as Public Enemy and Billie Holiday, and are adapted and orchestrated by local talents Dimitris Golias and Angelos Gavriil. Before each show, and catering to another of Papadodima’s passions, the Grammes club screens Greek short-length films by artists such as Panayiotis Fafoutis, Philippos Tsitos, Dimitris Priftis, Katerina Filiotou, Aris Bafaloukas and Constantinos Voulgaris. «There are many good shorts from this generation, from people with good ideas,» says Papadodima. «In contrast to full-length film, I discern an honest effort. When we don’t have a film academy, we cannot expect to have a center for the exchange of information and ideas. The result is a poverty of intellect. And this poverty can be seen in screenplays, in acting, in the whole final result.» In the little spare time she has, Papadodima is writing her first feature-length screenplay. «I am not in a hurry. I have realized that it’s good to take your time, especially in cinema,» says the talented young artist. «Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and you can take many down with you.» Given her musical studies background – mostly piano and some cello – it is surprising that she has not tried her hand at composition. «I just wish I had five lives,» she answers. Fenia Papadodima and Scream the Move, at Grammes, 111 Constantinopoleos, Votanikos, Athens, tel 010.341.4350. Every Monday and Tuesday until the end of February.
