Youth Theatre on Air (“Theatre in Front of a Microphone”) is an international online and radio festival of theater for children, teenagers and young people, jointly organized by three arts organizations: Poupoulo in Thessaloniki, Motivation in Arts in Paphos and the Creative Drama & Arts Centre in Melbourne. Its aim is to bring Greek language, culture and theatrical expression to Greek communities worldwide through radio and the internet. Open to everyone, the initiative connects Greek children from different parts of the world.
Every year since 2020, theater workshops and schools around the world have submitted their radio plays and performances. More than 4,000 primary and secondary school students have participated to date, from Greece and Cyprus, alongside children from recent Greek migrant families and first-, second- and third-generation Greek communities in Melbourne, Poland and the Czech Republic.
The festival has received consistent support from three major public broadcasters—ERT, SBS Australia and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC)—which have carried children’s voices to Greek communities abroad for seven years. Festival supporters include the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the International Hellenic University, the Laboratory of Language, Language Teaching and Culture at its Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, and La Trobe University in Australia.
Among the award-winning radio productions at the 7th Youth Theatre on Air was “The Blue Bird,” by the Poupoulo theater workshop in Thessaloniki, which received first prize in the secondary education category.
The workshop chose excerpts from Maurice Maeterlinck’s “The Blue Bird.” The group brought together children who had previously participated in the festival as members of Poupoulo and others stepping up to the microphone for the first time.
Some members of the group grew up abroad and faced the additional challenge of performing in Greek, which they met with courage and hard work. Through voice and diction exercises, the children discovered how to create entire worlds and transform themselves into different characters using only their voices and breath.
Director and workshop facilitator: Themis Daniilidi
Media partner: Voice of Greece – ERT