A full spread in the newspaper? THANK YOU! My Greek language comedy & Brussels-based comedy buddies burning bright right here in Greece’s newspaper, Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών today!
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What an incredible article, THANK YOU @mapsara !!!!!!!
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@nikospantelisrds: stop being so cute. I said stop. @billykissa: I don’t know where we’re going with this, but I’m enjoying the roller coaster.
And all the thanks to @vkatsardis inspiring this insane multicultural family life that provides all the comedy content one Alaskan girl can (fly off the) handle
#newspaper
#press
#fullspread
#ηεφημερίδατωνσυντακτών
#εφημερίδασυντακτών
#Εφημερίδα

Going going going! Wait. Performing with him too. Who speaks Greek? You speak Greek? Do you LAUGH in Greek too? PAME!

#standup

#comedy

#nikospantelis

#greek

#supportingact

#guestact

#TamarLevi

#greek
#standupcomedy

@The Nine Brussels, Belgium

Performing live comedy at The Nine. Spectacular location. Those tickets sold out too fast. Hoping they’re going to extend to more shows in the future. Luckily, I’ve been welcomed to perform for the first time at Countdown Comedy Club on the 29th.

Currently at The Nine, next at Comedy Countdown Club in Time Out Pub

Here’s the link for details on the invite to Time Out Pub Brussels.

Arrive for good seats at 7.30. Pay what you can. Can’t wait to make you laugh.

#rememberdatenights? #theyrestillathingright?

Happy New Year! Took a long break from doing any comedy & cancelled lots of shows since October, as you can imagine. Recently invited to perform in this comedy show just around the corner on February 2nd. Recovering from surgery, going to give it my best and see if I can have some release, some catharsis, and make someone else pee their pants for once. I know it’s a sad and hellacious time right now. But we need community. We need friends. And we need laughter. I’m your friend. We haven’t seen each other in ages. Come. Let’s have a laugh

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.be/e/the-nines-first-international-womens-comedy-night-tickets-777006345897?aff=erelexpmlt

Kym Nelson
@carlyblair
Pearl Bass
Delia Tou
Helen Johnson
JoBee Joanna Pszczoła
Niamh Moroney
Sixty Niners Comedy
@elizabeth_van_den_bergh
JoBee Project

Delighted to spend another theatre season collaborating with the Kaleidoscope production team to bring another live art and live music production to the stage. This time we are working on SELENE: the Moon Goddess. Check out the video on the Kaleidoscope website.

An incredible full feature article about my theatre play DELPHI in The Brussels Times today.

See you for our last performance this season on Sunday, 3pm at le Columban in Wavre!

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/422593/delphi-a-childrens-play-using-art-to-help-kids-process-grief?fbclid=IwAR0tYvRB93NQ11YrfHcVcFl02qjXcgbz3JIPF9tssyMPwuv-2CPtl9SvRgg

‘Delphi’: A children’s play using art to help kids process grief

Friday, 24 March 2023

By Danica Van der Merwe

'Delphi': A children's play using art to help kids process grief

Tamar Levi creating a one-line illustration alongside flute player Kalliopi Bolovinou. Photo Credit: Iris Haidau

Delphi is a multidisciplinary theatre play which combines art, music and acting to help children and their parents through feelings such as grief which many children experience growing up.

While Brussels is a dynamic city rich in different cultures and languages, with a large expatriated population, children process the new and changing surroundings of the city very differently – and often need help processing these feelings.

https://0cc5bd414c53c029b3bcc76b477580b4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

It was this notion that inspired writer and illustrator Tamar Levi to create Delphi. Originally a graphic novel and adapted into a children’s play, the idea behind it was to fill in the gap, where she felt children and families were not sufficiently supported on what she refers to as children’s “big feelings”. She noted that while love was a safe and frequent topic, heavier topics such as grief tend to be taboo for discussions in families with children.

On that note, Levi wanted to create something to help parents and their children navigate grief together. As she is primarily a children’s book illustrator and artist, her own art form became the medium to tell that story.

Photo Credit: Andrea Minoia

Although she now lives in Brussels, Levi’s childhood was coloured with the mythology from her home in Alaska. In discussions with her Greek husband, Levi noticed the differences in the mythology and folklore they both had grown up with. With a deepened curiosity of folklore, she wanted to tell the story of Delphi through the lens of different cultural mythologies.

Loosely based on the five phases of grief defined by psychology, Delphi tells the story of a little girl who travels the world and processes her “big feelings” through the cultures and myths of the different nations she visits. Levi wants to clarify that the states of grief are not prescriptive and may be experienced differently by individual people.

Delphi’s journey is illustrated live by Levi, who will portray the protagonist’s journey through one-line drawings. Actors provide verbal context in French, while flute player, Kalliopi Bolovinou, will combine contemporary and classical music.

When asked by The Brussels Times why she feels children in Brussels might benefit from Delphi’s story, Levi explained the context of living in a city like Brussels. “The grief we experience is not necessarily about death,” she explained. “I would say that the grief we process on a daily basis is the fact that we live far away from our loved ones.”

Children in Brussels often grow up without their cousins or grandparents, and are constantly having to say goodbye to friends whose parents find jobs in another country, leaving them and Brussels behind.

Processing these feelings can be tough on children. Levi hopes that Delphi, finding a way to cope with big feelings by writing her own story, will inspire children to do the same. “I would love if children recognise that their diversity is special, and that their parents’ cultures are special, but ultimately that they within themselves, are also special.”

“My art is a buffet”

Levi included many mediums into her play, which she affectionately called a buffet. “I keep telling the actors that this [play] is a buffet. It has art, music, dance, jokes, travel, anger, shouting, quiet time, and sleepy time; and a child might find the thing they are attracted to, to be a helpful method as they process their own feelings.” Her hopes are that children will see the elements of the play and try them at home with their parents.

For Levi, the point of theatre is to help the audience reach a catharsis, which she explained is a term coined during a lecture by Aristotle which refers to expressing emotions and finding acceptance by doing so. Levi shares Aristotle’s belief that theatre is an important tool to reach catharsis and think about one’s own journey through grief and other big feelings.

The creator of Delphi hopes that children will leave the play and want to try out one of the different art forms in it. She explained that sometimes, by doing art, people also reach a point of catharsis and parents can use these calm meditative moments to open up conversations with their children.

Photo Credit: Andrea Minoia

Theatres who have seen the play have suggested an age group of eight to 12 years old. However, Levi’s daughter is six years old and her friends range from five to eight years old and they have all seen the play with their parents, who have provided positive feedback.

Levi’s daughter said: “It’s good to teach kids how to hold their big feelings. If no one teaches you how to brush your teeth you don’t know how to brush your teeth.”

The illustrator believes that it is only a parent who truly knows if their child is emotionally ready to deal with topics like grief. For example, whether they are ready to watch Disney films Bambi or the Lion King. If not, she thinks that the child might not yet be ready to watch the play.

However, it is not only children who can appreciate the play. Levi has more than once been approached by a teary-eyed adult who was touched by elements of the play and she, therefore, does not want to limit Delphi to any one group – although her primary goal of assisting children through their big feelings remains firmly in place.

While the play’s script is French, Levi explained that through the music and live drawings, the audience will be able to follow in any language, and may only miss a few jokes made in French. The play will be performed on 26 March. The ticket price is based on donations between €8 and €25.

A performance will be held on Sunday 26 March at 15:00 the Columban Theatre, Chemin de Vieusart 162, Wavre. Future planned productions will be held in different locations in Brussels.

A few different dates to see my continuous line art performed live in a children’s theatre show, accompanied by award-winning flute player extraordinaire Kalliopi Bolovinou.

If you book tickets for Tuesday the 7th or Weds the 8th of March, you’ll see the amazing Francophone actors Olivier Francart and Juliette Manneback fresh-faced and ready for their first performance of DELPHI right in the heart of Brussels’ European Quarter, Place Jourdan: Le Senghor https://www.senghor.be/event/delphi/

However, if you book tickets to come to Le Columban on Sunday March 26th in Wavre, you’ll get all of the above AND you can bring a toy to exchange with other toys available… https://www.columban.be/portfolio/delphi/

Whichever show you choose to see, I can’t wait to see you there, over-excitedly wave to you and your kids in the audience and share my art with them afterwards. I hope they’ll be inspired to try some continuous line art themselves, making their own: that’s even better!

Look at us being paid to do what we are the best at doing… our art!

Generously funded by «Un Futur Pour La Culture» at the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, my manuscript and continuous line illustrations for this children’s theatre play called DELPHI and our packed multidisciplinary application scaffolded by all of Kalliopi Bolovinou’s musical theatre experience, linguistic skill and wisdom

has been lauded by the panel of judges as “among the best ranked.”

Then the Kaleidoscope production team paired us up with such an incredible human, who also turns out to be a fantastic actor: Olivier Francart will be joining us in a theatre, art & music workshop on stage at Ecole No 8, Avenue du Bois de la Cambre, (Uccle) this Friday.

Then again on stage at Columban Theatre (Wavre) 20-24 June.

Hopefully with actress Cecile Delberghe too.

We already workshopped at the gorgeous Théâtre Mercelis (look at the frescos!) until covid knocked us out.

But then PointCulture swooped in, offered us offices and the SACD Author’s Rights granted access to their co-working spaces…

So here we are, developing what we do best, with theatres and office spaces and actors, and the rough date for the next residency in Brussels is…(drum roll please)… The Senghor theatre in November!

To all those asking me when the final show will be: Spring 2023 is the official answer, The Senghor will have the 2022-23 program finalised in May and only then we will know the exact dates, that’s the way it goes in theatre, apparently.

Let’s just celebrate for now; quality children’s theatre is back on track!

#DELPHI

#ChildrensTheatre

Kalliopi Bolovinou

#UnFuturPourLaCulture

#FédérationWallonieBruxelles

Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles/Officiel

#FWB

Kaleidoscope asbl

Olivier Francart

#ColumbanTheatre

#Wavre

Cécile Delberghe

Théâtre Mercelis

Théâtre Mercelis

Alicia Motta Mower

PointCulture

PointCulture Bruxelles

SACD.Be

#Brussels

#Belgium

#TheSenghor

#L’EspaceSenghor

Thank you for all the birthday wishes. What year is it? Look at my body and you can tell. “Count the rings as you would on a tree. (38!) Count the ridges on the cumulus of my skin.” What to do with all the lines on my body? Make continuous line art of course! The trailer is below. The full theatre performance of the whole journey is in production. Let’s hope we can invite you safely soon.

*quote from Jeanette Winterson’s poetic prose