Nia Vardalos going Greek at the Pallas Theater
“Just a sec; let me get a video of you all to send to my mom and then we can start,” Nia Vardalos exclaimed when she saw us gathered for Monday’s press conference in the foyer of downtown Athens’ Pallas Theater.
The Oscar-nominated Greek-American actor, director, screenwriter and producer is engaged these days in intensive rehearsals with the rest of the cast and crew of “Tiny Beautiful Things,” which opens at the Pallas on May 16.
The play, which is already a box-office hit in New York and Los Angeles, and sees Vardalos in the starring role, is based on the novel of the same title by Cheryl Strayed (published by Key Books), which consists of Strayed’s tender and optimistic answers to a collection of real letters by people struggling with big and small obstacles and problems.
Vardalos herself is a constant font of optimism and vibrancy as she speaks (in Greek, of course) of the adaptation of the US show that is being staged in Athens and of the local cast and crew: Spiros Katsaganis, who translated the play into Greek and co-directs it with Vardalos, and co-stars Dimitris Papanikolaou, Danai Loukaki and Dimitris Kitsos. Vardalos says she saw the latter two’s work in the popular Greek TV series “Wild Bees” and “Maestro” and knew at once that they would be the right fit, “because the play requires everyone to be able to do comedy and drama.”
Naturally, at the center of it all is Vardalos herself, who faced the challenge of performing her entire role in Greek, a language she is not fully fluent in. Still, that didn’t discourage her. In fact, she seems like someone who simply can’t be discouraged. Even if her translator jokingly complains that she filled the script with tongue twisters like “I self-sacrificed” and “I self-destructed,” she pressed on undeterred.
This force of nature is set to take the stage at the Pallas Theater next week, promising to share the play’s cathartic stories with Greek audiences – asking only that they “open their hearts” and listen.
