exotic exile

video excerpts, September 2013, Boulder, CO
videography by Heath VanDyke, video editing by Angela Delichatsios

Audience Reviews:
“…alternately fun, funny, beautiful and heart-wrenching. Sherefe (the musicians) are amazing, all the performers spot on, but Angela’s heart seals the deal…”
“…combination of bold and saucy Greek song and dance…”
“…heartfelt history lesson on loss, starting over, and the power of culture and community…”
http://www.boulderfringe.com/programs/2013/theater-2013-programs/flagrante-delicto-theatre-arts/

exotic exile
a tale of the Greek urban blues subculture
in the Boulder International Fringe Festival, September 18-29, 2013

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A Greek scholar and her mysterious singing-dancing sidekick imbue local performers with a passion for
 Greek rebetika music, bringing forth an intoxicating concoction of illicit cultural delights.

Friday, September 20, 2013 at 7:30pm
Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 9:00pm
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 7:00pm
Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 9:00pm
Friday, September 27, 2013 at 9:00pm
Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 5:30pm

Location: Agora at the Riverside, 1724 Broadway, Boulder, CO
Tickets: $12/$10 general/students & seniors; *2-for-1 Deal Sept. 20
Advance Ticket Sales:www.boulderfringe.com

In exotic exile, song and dance tell the rich history of the Greeks of Asia Minor and the bubbling up of rebetika music – a Greek urban blues – in Athens, Piraeus, and Smyrna, a beautiful city of Asia Minor that was destroyed at the end of a disastrous war between Greece and Turkey in 1922.  After the war, a population exchange forced Asia Minor Greeks to leave homelands where their ancestors had been living since antiquity.

The tragedy of relocation and resilience of the refugees affected the joy and pain of emerging rebetika music, and the emotional power of this subculture is translated to a modern U.S. audience through live music, song, dance, literal translation of lyrics, and figurative translation of imagination.

This show was created by a Greek-American woman living in Greece for a year, immersing herself in rebetika music and history, while simultaneously internationally collaborating with musicians and performers in Boulder, Colorado.  Stin ygeia mas!  (To our health!)

Bios of Performers:

Amanda-portrait1 copyAmanda Bishop has been dancing most of her life in one form or another. She discovered her passion for Flamenco in 2002, while getting her BFA from Colorado State in Fort Collins. She was immediately intrigued by the physical challenge and the complex rhythms of Flamenco, and has since moved more deeply into learning about the cultural origins and stories of the Gypsies of Spain. Amanda has studied with a handful of renowned teachers in the US and Spain, including Rene Heredia, Los Farrucos, El Torombo, Concha Vargas, and Juana Amaya. She has also had the privilege of performing nationally and internationally. She is currently involved in self-study and exploration, and when not in the studio, you can most often find Amanda summiting the high peaks of Colorado.

web_SondraB_Headshot-1Sondra Blanchard has been performing, teaching, and making new theatre for 25 years. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz,  the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, and holds an MFA in Theatre: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. Sondra has worked in regional theatre including People’s Light and Theatre Co., 1812 Productions, Mum Puppettheatre, Santa Monica Shakespeare, Westport Free Shakespeare, and Bloomsburg Ensemble Theatre Co. She toured nationally with Enchantment Theatre Company, and has worked internationally as a choreographer and acting coach. Locally, Sondra has performed with Band of Toughs, the Catamounts, Zen Cabaret, Theatre V, and at the Civic Theatre. She has taught at the Arvada Center, Rocky Mountain Theatre for Kids, The Art Underground, Coal Creek Elementary, Mountain Vista High School, Community College of Aurora, and is adjunct faculty at Naropa University. Sondra will be a Fulbright Scholar in 2014 for a semester of teaching in Greece.

Angela DelichatsiosAngela Delichatsios is a theatre performer and instructor based in Athens, Greece.  She teaches Polish/Grotowski-influenced physical theatre workshops and classes in Athens, Greece; Boulder, Colorado; and Boston, Massachusetts.  She is a founder of flagrante delicto theatre arts, and a co-founder of Band of Toughs.  She holds an MA in Acting Techniques from Manchester Metropolitan University/Teatr Piesn Kozla, an MFA from Naropa University’s MFA Theatre: Contemporary Performance Program, and a BA in Social Studies from Harvard University. Recent acting and directing credits in Poland, the UK, and the US, include: Drawing on Schulz, Finders Keepers Losers Weepers, Big Love, Good Girls Don’t But I Do, Swimming Upstream.

James Hoskins


James Hoskins is a multi-instrumentalist living in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado.  Primarily known for his use of the cello in a wide variety of genres, he also performs regularly with the band “Sherefe” on Gadulka(a Bulgarian folk-fiddle), and other Balkan and Turkish folk instruments – in addition to singing in Greek, Arabic, and Turkish.  James has in the last few years been playing guitar and bouzouki due to a deep love of Rebetiko music.  He has also been a modern-dance accompanist for ~22 years, and greatly enjoys performing in improvisational settings such as with “Playback Theater”, and for Meditation.


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJesse Manno
is a composer, improviser, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Boulder, CO, where he is Music Director of the University of Colorado Dance Department.  He has received over 150 commissions for original scores from numerous Theatre and Dance companies.  His work has been presented all over the U.S. and in several European and Asian countries, with support from Meet the Composer Inc., PBS, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others.   Recent collaborators include choreographers Michael Foley, David Dorfman, Nancy Smith and Peter Davison.  He dips into many musical styles, especially Balkan and Middle Eastern Music with the Colorado based ensemble SHEREFE.  He is a frequent performer at festivals, conferences and special events in Islamic, Christian and Jewish cultural settings.  manno@colorado.edu  www.jessemanno.com

imageJanna Meiring is an Inter-Disciplinary Performance Artist, Teacher and Director in the Boulder/Denver area. She has an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University where she studied ensemble-based creation of new work, Mind Body Centering® (BMC), Contemplative Movement, Improvisation and Grotowski Based Physical Acting. In the Denver/Boulder area, Janna has collaborated with The LIDA Project, Control Group Productions, WaxWing Inc. Giving Voice Productions, created and hosted site specific happenings and has performed in several productions including her own work at the Boulder International Fringe Festival. Janna’s style in creating new work stems from physical inquiry through improvisation, and study of principles of BMC®. Her most recent exploration Featherweight was exhibited in 2012 as an Artist-In-Residence at both Denver Performance Research and Work/Space Denver. www.jannameiring.com

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMarcin Mroz was born and raised in Poland. In 2001, he moved to New York City, where he worked with the Grotowski-based theater company, Dzieci, co-creating and performing in several original projects. In 2005, he moved to Boulder, where he has worked with students and alumni from the Naropa University MFA in Contemporary Performance program, co-creating, directing, and performing in several thesis projects, including Army of Me (2008) with Mariela Luzmina. He studied Improv Comedy with Meridith Crosley Grundei. He also has in-depth theatrical clown training with internationally renowned Giovanni Fusetti. He assistant directed Angela Delichatsios on Swimming Upstream (2010) with the Society of Creative Aging. He recently directed a play for The Hitching Post Theater and performed in Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Band of Toughs during the 2012 Boulder International FRINGE Festival.