Programming Partner: The Upfront Initiative
Michail Marmarinos
Artistic Director
Athens Epidaurus Festival, Greece
Speaker Bio
Michail Marmarinos was born in Athens. He studied Biology (with a focus on Neurobiology), Acting, and Theatre Directing. His outlook is ruled by two persistent principles: a) Theatre is the art of the humble history of people. b) There is no moment in everyday life that is not theatre, once the proper gaze is present. In recent years, three principal concerns have guided his work: I. His indisputable attraction to the notion of the Assembly. This biological tropism of humans towards assembling has prompted him to explore the notion of Chorus in ancient Greek drama as an ancient structure that produces contemporary forms, interlinking theatre and everyday life. A structure with unique qualities, a structure capable of generating theatre, text, chaos, history, and politics. A structure-cum-device for the contemporary gaze. II. The ways in which a Subject, that is, the civic body in its capacity as an actor, may urge itself to the threshold of becoming ensnared within reality, within the accidental, thereby transforming into a historical testimony/document, as a method of acting process. In this direction, Biology, alongside his encounter with Alexander Lowen and Bioenergetic Analysis since 1990, have played a crucial role. III. And lastly, those tropes and moments of everyday life — be it insignificant or coincidental — that can “poison” theatricality, thrusting it violently towards the accidental and as a consequence towards poetry, happening, performance, and the documental. This writing mechanism, capable of producing text, constitutes what he habitually calls “Directing as Playwriting”. Additionally, any other theorem inherent in these phenomena. Beyond Greece, his productions have been presented — or he has been invited to direct — at international festivals and theatrical institutions in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Venezuela. He has been invited to lead workshops or contribute with lectures and seminars in Alexandria, Amman, Athens, Berlin (Heiner Müller Gesellschaf), Caracas, Copenhagen, Crete, Florence (Cooperativa Archeologia / Fabbrica Europa), Los Angeles (Getty Museum/ Foundation), Maastricht, Montreal (Théâtre de l’Opsis), Moscow (Anatoly Vasiliev Theatre), Prague, Seoul (Korean National University of the Arts), Sydney, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki, Umbria (La MaMa Umbria International), Wrocław, and Zürich, on the following topics: -Directing as Playwriting A methodology: Interview, ELEVATOR, Sightseeing – Narrativity in the first and third person -The Chorus of Ancient Greek Drama Contemporary metamorphoses of an ancient structure: Principles and methodology -Physical Inhibitions and Bioenergetic Voice A corporeal approach to actor training based on Bioenergetic Analysis Member of the International Heiner Müller Society and the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. Co-founder of the theatre group “Diplous Eros – Theatre Company” (1983–1984), later renamed Theseum Ensemble. President of the Board of the Greek Section of the International Theatre Institute of UNESCO (ITI) from 2005 to 2009. Professor at the School of Drama, Faculty of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2006–2024). He has also taught at the University of Patras and the University of the Peloponnese. General Artistic Director of 2023 ELEVSIS – European Capital of Culture (ECoC), which was awarded the European “Melina Mercouri Award” for the excellence of its programme (2020–2024). Artistic Director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival since September 2025.
Saturday 25 | 04
Ermis Hall | Amalia Hotel
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