Testimonials
“ I first met Peggy when she was doing an MA in drama in education with David Davis at the University of Central England in Birmingham in 1999.A course that over the years has produced so many outstanding practitioners internationally.
David had invited Big Brum to present our new TiE programme, Open Door, for the Masters students.I remember one participant with very striking eyes who was more intensely engaged than most. This was Peggy. Some 9 years later, in 2008, she invited me to Athens teach the children and young people in the Porta Studio, which she had been running since 2004.
Meeting Peggy was no accident, we share a passion for the art form of drama in education, but it was a stroke of good fortune. She is indeed an outstanding practitioner, a teacher-facilitator,with children and young people of all ages. Peggy is also an accomplished drama educator, having trained thousands of teachers and arts education practitioners in her annual seminars over a period spanning 20 years.
Her impact on the development of classroom drama in Greece is a unique and significant one. Peggy has all the tools of the drama pedagogue allied to creativity, her passion for the work and, crucially, a love of theatre. That love of theatre was evident in those expressive eyes I first met 25 years ago. And it’s therefore also no coincidence that Peggy has made a significant contribution to the development of theatre in education in Greece. In 2010 she invited Big Brum to bring our infant TiE programme Suitcase to Athens. In 2011 she commissioned me to write a new version of The Emperor’s New Clothesfor a TiE programme that toured primary schools. And in 2024 I collaborated with Porta once more on The Rope TiE programme for secondary students exploring immigration in contemporary Greece through the catastrophe in Smyrna of 1922. Peggy and I had first discussed doing such a TiE project back in 2012.
Peggy has now moved with her family to Germany. While maintaining her commitment to Porta, where she continues to teach, she has also entered a new phase of her professional development. I am confident it will also prove to be a new phase of creative and innovative development and new work from an inspirational teacher-facilitator, trainer and storyteller.”
Chris Cooper
Director, writer, artistic director of Accident Time - UK
Participating in Peggy Stefanidou’s theater workshops is always an enriching experience. Her expressive and well-crafted storytelling draws the audience into the heart of the narrative, allowing them to take necessary pauses to grasp the underlying causes of events and the characters; choices as the story unfolds. Every time I see Peggy "light the lantern" of her performance, I know I am in for a treat—I will hear the text in a new, refreshing way. The educational drama workshops on literature and storytelling have equipped me with invaluable tools for my work at the library. They introduced me to methods of engaging with literature that not only captivate the audience but also nurture empathy and critical thinking. These seminars have provided me with the confidence to work more effectively with texts, apply educational drama techniques, and offer the children at the library the joy of living the stories in their books. Just as Peggy Stefanidou demonstrated, I’ve learned to transform reading into an immersive experience.
Katerina Froyzaki
SEARCH children library
Pagona Stefanidou connects her deep interest in children’s reading methods with her extensive professional experience in children’s theatrical drama. She integrates the value of reading into the theatrical experience and explores ways to link and merge drama and reading within the context of a children’s library. In recent years, she has continuously developed the reading methods she offers to both children and adults, igniting her "lantern" to create immersive atmospheres through carefully selected literary texts, which she highlights with her distinctive style. She observes texts with the same sensitivity she applies to listening to children’s words, transforming them into reading and theatrical experiences, as well as into a dialogue with our inner selves.
Eirini Vokotopoulou,
Sociologist specializing in the promotion of reading
I first met Peggy Stefanidou on a Christmas morning in 2009. She had invited me for an interview, as a position had opened in the Τheater Lab she had founded together with Xenia Kalogeropoulou. Since then, Peggy has played various roles in my life: boss, collaborator, teacher, and friend. In adulthood, I believe very few people, like her, can truly embody the essence of a teacher. A teacher who opens paths you never imagined existed. Who helps you discover things within yourself that you didn’t even know were there. Even beyond the classroom, her way of thinking, speaking, and relating to parents, young and old students alike serves as a framework for observation and learning. There is much I admire about her. But if I had to highlight one thing, it would be that despite her vast experience, she never becomes complacent. She always wants to challenge herself. Throughout her career, she seeks new paths, re-examines her teachings, her ideas, and her approach, constantly evolving and transforming them. Peggy herself, as a person, embodies everything educational drama aspires to be: an open world that embraces many perspectives and seeks the human essence without dogmatism.
Antonia Vlachou
Theatrologist,
Director of Xenia Kalogeropoulou’s Theater Lab