1. Iannis Xenakis’s Theater Studies

It is widely recognized that Xenakis’s war experiences during the Occupation years in Athens were crucial for his later life and work. What is not known, however, is that, in addition to studying at the Polytechnic and participating in the Resistance, Xenakis also attended a singular drama school named ‘Theatriko Spoudastirio’ that was founded by the philologist, writer, and Shakespearean translator Vassilis Rotas (1889-1977). Prominent figures of Greek cultural life taught in this school, which also functioned as an undercover Resistance meeting point, since its students included hundreds of members of the United Panhellenic Youth Organization (EPON), the youth wing of the National Liberation Front (EAM), including Xenakis. As though putting the pieces of a puzzle together, this article attempts to bring to light Xenakis’s early theater studies through recently unearthed sources and the composer’s own rare references, and to also point out an elective affinity between Xenakis’s later treatment of ancient Greek tragedy and the ideas of his former teacher, Vassilis Rotas.