Poet Koraly Dimitriadis has been getting to work, producing some new pandemic material with the grant she received as part of Creative Victoria’s “Sustaining creative workers initiative”.
Ms Dimitriadis released her first poetry video Most of Melbourne is depressed, which features in her theatre show I say the wrong things all the time.
The original poem premiered at La Mama Theatre in late 2016 under the directorship of Cypriot Olga Aristodemou.
“I had initially written the poem, tongue-and-cheek, like a funny poem about how we are all depressed here because of the long winters because my DNA is Cypriot and I need sun, but in this pandemic it has taken on a whole new meaning,” Ms Dimitriadis said.
Ms Dimirtiadis was inspired to re-write and update the poem when the pandemic hit, pairing it with a video of her going out in an empty Melbourne in an attempt to capture the sadness the virus has caused.
“I know it’s a sad video, but I wanted to put it out there to connect with people who are feeling sad, to help them feel a little less and alone and I think sometimes that can help give people hope,” she said.
Ms Dimitriadis was also recently awarded a Darebin Arts Speakeasy Development grant to work with acclaimed Italian-Australian director Stephen Nicolazzo.
For more information on Koraly Dimitriadis’ work visit www.koralydimitriadis.com