Nia Vardalos on bringing her acclaimed play to Athens — and performing for the first time in Greek
Nia Vardalos, star and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is bringing her acclaimed play Tiny Beautiful Things to Athens — and will perform in Greek for the first time. Euronews Culture sat down with Vardalos ahead of her Athens performance.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/30/nia-vardalos-on-bringing-her-acclaimed-play-to-athens-and-performing-for-the-first-time-in
Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.
Nia Vardalos, star and writer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is bringing her acclaimed play Tiny Beautiful Things to Athens — and will perform in Greek for the first time. Euronews Culture sat down with Vardalos ahead of her Athens performance.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/30/nia-vardalos-on-bringing-her-acclaimed-play-to-athens-and-performing-for-the-first-time-in
Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.
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00:00thank you so much for speaking with me and our euronews culture readers and viewers we are
00:18particularly excited to chat with you right now because you're going to be coming to europe soon
00:23to star in and co-direct your acclaimed play tiny beautiful things in athens and yeah as i
00:29understand it you have a real love for the theater um i believe i've learned the life lesson from all
00:35of this is to uh reveal to the children that a life in arts is a wonderful path i grew up in canada
00:43in winnipeg we have a lot of theater they gave me a grant to go to theater school i mean we have a
00:49lot of theater so i saw musicals i saw straight plays i saw small plays short films everything
00:56we have festivals everything and i knew early on that this is what i wanted to do and then i did
01:03theater lots and lots and lots of theater it was while doing theater while doing second city in
01:08chicago that i started to think that maybe there was a life at saturday night live or um which was
01:17on tv or uh in film which would have to be in los angeles and when i got to los angeles i it was
01:24just a rude awakening because nobody wanted a theater actress with like super curly hair so i ended up
01:30writing my big factory wedding purely in the attempt to play a cousin because i couldn't get a job
01:38otherwise but it all started because my parents took me to theater i mean as i understand that this
01:45will be your first time performing in greek yes it's like wow exciting and terrifying yep yep because
01:52i've always wanted to elevate my grade to get better and what um you know what what is there a better
02:00vehicle than pushing yourself to perform a play i don't know forcing yourself to perform in front of
02:06hundreds or thousands of people that'll do it oh i've cursed him a hundred times because i just think
02:11why why did i oh wait it was kind of my idea okay anyway anyway it was his idea i don't know someone's
02:17to blame but all i do is practice in grief and what drew you to the um to cheryl straid's book
02:25originally tommy kale gave me tiny beautiful things the book and said i think this is a play
02:31and i think this is something we could work on together i read the book and it just it just opened
02:41up old wounds and new possibilities for you and i had never adapted a book i had never played a role
02:53like this i none none of it none of it and it was daunting and terrifying which usually tells me i'm in
02:59the right place creatively if i'm doing something that i think you know i can't do this i should be
03:04doing it and over a three-year period i adapted cheryl's book by uh just pulling out the themes
03:12that i felt were binding for play and uh created narrative arc um by uh really exploring the themes
03:22of love and loss and grief and healing and moving on and you know it's really strange because if i just
03:30stayed in my lane which is to make my big factory wedding movies i would have great life too i just
03:37have to push myself and do things that are so not like me and uh i just feel so creatively satisfied
03:45with all aspects of my career i i never ever would say anything other than the immense gratitude i
03:53feel for the my big factory wedding movies and the gratitude i feel for theater and being able to write
03:59my way into roles is something that i realized happened by accident and i fully accept that this is my
04:07path performing in greece and not only performing in greece but you know to a greek public um you know not
04:14just filming something there but you're actually acting in front of people there does that feel
04:18like quite a landmark moment for you it is it's a heady experience and it's one that i'm going to have
04:26to remove myself from emotionally in order to be able to do the piece without bawling my eyes out all the
04:34way through it i remember when we filmed my life in ruins at the parthenon i had puffy eyes because i was
04:40overwhelmed with the history that is in our genes in our dna is is just ever present in my thoughts
04:52and it's it's just going to be amazing to look out at a fully greek audience is is going to be
05:00wonderful and you know i'm a very emotional person i'm crying right now it's it's just it's going to be
05:07great and every audience is different you never know what's going to happen and it's it's our first
05:13time working together every night they come in we come out and together we're going to create
05:20something that will exist only this one time and tomorrow someone else will come in and we will come
05:27out and it will be different the moment is different the emotions are different the moments
05:32that somebody moves in the audience and you feel it and you incorporate it into the play it's always
05:38different so i'm so looking forward to what it will be
05:42you