The Theatre Laboratory of Drama and Speech of the Department of Theatre Studies- University of Patras and the Golfo Festival with the support of the Ionannis & Efterpi Topali Cultural Foundation, proudly announce the winners of the first panhellenic playwriting competition dedicated to Achaean playwright Spyridon Peresiadis.
Launched for the first time in 2025, the awards aim to promote contemporary Greek dramaturgy.
Following a thorough review of fifty-five submissions, the judging committee praised the originality, theatrical craftsmanship, and poetic voicefound across the entries. Guided by criteria including the development of theatrical language, relevance to the competition’s theme, and imaginative storytelling, the panel selected five exceptional plays.
The winning plays will be staged by students of the National Theatre’s Directing and Acting School and of the Department of Theatre Studies as well as members of the Theatre Laboratory of Drama and Speech and brought to life as staged readings by a new generation of actors . Audiences in Patras will have the chance to enjoy all five selected works in January 2026.
AWARDS
First Prize – “Spyridon Peresiadis” Playwriting Awards 2025 (jointly awarded)
- Golf-ω— Meropi Papastergiou
- Lost Sheep in a Foreign Fold — Mavra Kazaki
Second Prize – “Spyridon Peresiadis” Playwriting Awards 2025
- Three on Wrought Iron — Konstantinos Lakis
Honourable Mentions – “Spyridon Peresiadis” Playwriting Awards 2025
- Helmos 207 — Giannis Asdrachas
- Would You Kill Yourself for Me? — Georgia Stefanopoulou
Judging Panel
- Akis Dimou — Playwright
- Giannis Kalatzopoulos — Actor & Director
- Lina Rozi — Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Studies, University of Patras.
BIOGRAPHIES OF AWARD RECIPIENTS
MEROPI PAPASTERGIOU
Meropi Papastergiou has been living and working in Athens since 2016 as an entrepreneur, actress, and translator. She graduated with honors in 2015 from Vassar College in the U.S. with a B.A. (hons) in Drama and Gender Studies. Since 2014, she has collaborated artistically with the One Year Lease Theater Company, based in New York, as a language specialist in their annual residency program held in Japan, India, and Papigo, where she developed her own method of teaching the Greek language to American theater students with the aim of performance. She has also worked as a copywriter and P.R. Associate at the online cinema platform Cinobo. She recently graduated with distinction from the M.A. program Creative Writing, Theatre, and Cultural Industries at the Department of Theatre Studies, University of the Peloponnese. As a playwright, her texts have been presented at Ataka Festival 2025 at the Kypseli Municipal Market, at the Greek Art Theatre’s initiative Connecting Theatre Creators, as well as at the Light the City project of the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.
MAVRA KAZAKI
Mavra Kazaki was born in Thessaloniki in 2001. She graduated from the Department of Performing and Digital Arts of the School of Fine Arts at the University of the Peloponnese. At the same School, she completed her postgraduate studies in Creative Writing. She has worked as a costume and set designer for the theatre. Her first play, titled You Can’t Buy a Smart Car and Turn It Into a Bus, was presented in 2024 in a staged reading at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation as part of her postgraduate program. Her theatrical monologue Carnivorous Plants – Vegetarian Humans is expected to be staged at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus and at the Analogio Festival in September 2025. She now lives in Athens.
KONSTANTINOS LAKIS
Konstantinos Lakis works professionally in graphic design, painting, stage design, and writing. He has held 20 solo and 11 group painting exhibitions. His play Metaxia won 3rd prize in the “New Greek Play” competition in 2018 at Theatro apo Koinou. His short story August Lombark was awarded and published in the anthology Antitheseis (IANOS 2019). His plays Mr. Rem and Metaxia were staged in 2019 and 2021 at ISON Theatre by THEAMA (Theatre of Disabled Artists). In 2021, he wrote the play Margiola for the Preveza Theatrical Workshop, staged at the Roman Odeon of Nikopolis and the ancient Necromanteion of Acheron. In 2022, his play The Behtsis / The Night Watchman won 1st prize in the competition Theatre at the Museum / Stories of Migration under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens and the Industrial Gas Museum. In 2023, for the Preveza Theatrical Workshop, he designed costumes and sets for The Chasm of Kassopi by Frederic Lenormand, at the modern-day reopening of the ancient theatre of Kassopi.
GEORGIA STEFANOPOULOU
Georgia (Gina) Stefanopoulou was born in Athens in 1990. After studying law at the Democritus University of Thrace, she pursued a specialization in Financial Law at the University of Southampton. Based in Athens, she works as a lawyer while also engaging in creative writing. As a playwright, she has authored several works, including The Horses of Diomedes, Comic Death, and Little Canada.
GIANNIS ASDRACHAS
Giannis Asdrachas was born in Lefkada. He is a journalist — a member of ESIEA (Union of Journalists of Athens Daily Newspapers) since 2007 — and for twenty years he worked in cultural reporting in the daily press, from the pages of Avgi to those of Express, documenting theatre, literature, visual arts, and cinema. He has collaborated with cultural institutions, most notably with Art Athina. He has also worked in press offices of ministries, the Hellenic Parliament, the Municipality of Haidari, and for art exhibitions. He has curated publications, including biographies and art albums. He travels, converses, takes notes; he calls himself a collector of stories that eventually find their way onto paper.