It is, therefore, time for boasting, as it is time for work and humility. Starting in 2009, our goal was for a festival, like that of Philippi, to have its own character, its own color, its own rhythm, its own perspective, different every year. It should be able to commission performances, to have its own productions, beyond those that it hosts and welcomes, to be a place of a real appointment that always concerns the present. A "local" festival, with its feet planted in the "here and now" and its head held high, vigilant and restless.

With these thoughts we began. We highlighted new spaces, brought the city and our feelings to life. We saw the fortress, the harbor, rising, widening, people queuing for a ticket, for the journey. The Pleasant Course! We have never hidden that we have a particular fondness for writers, for poets, and for texts; we immediately rushed to them, we asked them for "help," and they generously offered it to us.

We are grateful and proud for the texts they entrusted us, for the performances that were "built" with their words, for the artists who collaborated with us. And now, as we see all these texts gathered here, we understand what it was that kept us, supported us, and encouraged us - amidst so many blessed difficulties we faced - and we feel doubly grateful. We owe them a lot. To Loula Anagnostaki, Vassilis Vassilikos, Theodoros Grigoriadis, Antonis and Konstantinos Koufalis, Giorgos Chronas, Sakis Serrefas, Michel Fays, Diamantis Axiotis, Kosmas Charpantidis, Kostas Akritas, Evripidis Garandoudis, Glykeria Basdeki, Nikos E. Karagiannakidis.

But also to Manos Eleftheriou, Ilias H. Papadimitrakopoulos, Kostas Kanavouris, Lydia Elioglou, who "caught up" with us and were printed before this comprehensive edition. We thank them for the paths they opened for us. Thodoris Gonis Artistic Director of the Philippi Festival and the Municipal Regional Theater of Kavala.

Plays and texts written for the Philippi Festival and presented during the period 2009-2014, have been compiled into a volume titled "The Texts of Philippi" and published by Kapa Publishing in the "Contemporary Greek Theater" series. 13 significant Greek writers, both older and younger, from Kavala and elsewhere, write "on commission" for the Philippi Festival 15 plays and texts inspired by the respective "themes." Vassilis Vassilikos, Loula Anagnostaki, Antonis and Konstantinos Koufalis, Theodoros Grigoriadis, Michel Fays, Sakis Serrefas, Kosmas Charpantidis, Diamantis Axiotis, Kostas Akritas, Glykeria Basdeki, Giorgos Chronas, Evripidis Garandoudis, and Nikolaos E. Karagiannakidis leave their own "legacy" at the Philippi Festival and through their Words "write" a parallel "history" of one of the most significant cultural institutions in Greece.