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.

REMARKABLE MOMENTS

1987 Strindberg – Strindberg (The first warning), August Strindberg (Athens)

1993 Die Hamletmaschine, Hainer Müller

(National Theatre of Northern Greece – Thessaloniki)

Medea Fragments, Euripides (Brussels)

1994 Camera degli sposi, Giorgos Veltsos (Athens)

1996 Kalldewey, Farce, Botho Strauss (Athens)

1997 Romanticism

A performance by Michail Marmarinos (Athens)

1998 Hamlet – The Snake’s Bite, William Shakespeare

(Athens, Belgrade – BITEF / Belgrade International Theatre Festival)

1998 Electra, Sophocles

(Epidaurus, Thessaloniki, Dion, Philippi)

2000 Agamemnon (The Ghost Sonata), Aeschylus

(Athens, Caracas, Zurich, Tbilisi)

> Honorary distinction at the Fundateneo / Festival International de Teatro de Caracas, shared with “Hamlet” by Eimuntas Nekrošius.

2001 Medeamaterial, Heiner Müller

(Tbilisi, Moscow)

2002-2006 National Anthem. A Theorem about Togetherness

A performance by Michail Marmarinos (Corfu, Athens, Florence, Tbilisi, Moscow, Seoul)

> “Karolos Koun” Award (2002) for Directing a Greek Play and Best Performance by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Music Critics

2004 Romeo + Juliet. The Third Memory, William Shakespeare

(Florence, Athens)

2005 Olympic Games – Instructions Manual

A performance by Michail Marmarinos (Athens)

2005 Agamemnon (The Ghost Sonata), Aeschylus

(Seoul Art Centre – South Korea)

2007 Who is Mr Kellermann and why is he saying those terrible things about me?

[A visit to Kafka’s “Castle”]

A performance by Michail Marmarinos (Athens)

2007–2009 Dying as a country, Dimitris Dimitriadis

(Athens Epidaurus Festival 2007 & 2008, Wiener Festwochen 2008, Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels 2008, Festival d’Automne à Paris 2009)

2008 Stalin – A Discussion on Greek Theatre

A performance by Michail Marmarinos in collaboration with Akilas Karazisis (National Theatre of Greece – Athens, Cologne)

> First Prize at the Politik im Freien Theater Festival in Cologne

2009 The Lives of Saints

A performance by Michail Marmarinos (Athens)

Agora: Εin Chor Stasimon

(Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz – Berlin)

2009–2010 Akropolis. Re-construction, Stanisław Wyspiański

(Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny – Wrocław, Theseum Ensemble – Athens)

> Distinction by the Association of Critics in Poland as one of the ten best performances of the year (2009)

2011 Hercules furens, Euripides

(National Theatre of Greece – Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus)

2012 Romeo + Juliet. The Third Memory, William Shakespeare

(Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre – Tbilisi)

> Honorary distinction for Best Production and Award for Teaching and Acting by the Georgian Theatre Critics’ Union

2012 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare

(National Theatre of Greece – Athens)

2012–2013 Insenso, Dimitris Dimitriadis

(Athens Epidaurus Festival – Athens)

2013-2014 Phèdre, Jean Racine

(Comédie Française – Paris)

2014 Faust I, Goethe

(Onassis Stegi – Athens)

2015 Empire (I have your data), Giorgos Veltsos

(National Theatre of Northern Greece & Thessaloniki Concert Hall)

Noh – Nekyia (based on Book 11 of Homer’s “Odyssey”)

(Athens Epidaurus Festival – Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, National Noh Theatre – Tokyo)

> Ancient Drama Award by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Music Critics (2016)

Nostoi. Histoires de retours et d’exodes

An international production by the Cooperativa Archeologia of Florence, Fabbrica Europa Foundation, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Marseille, and the National Theatre of Tunisia (Tuscany, Carthage)

2016 Lysistrata, Aristophanes

(National Theatre of Greece – Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus)

2016 Don Juan, Molière

(Onassis Stegi – Athens)

2017 Yōkihi (楊貴妃) – Song of Everlasting Sorrow, Komparu Zenchiku

A Νοh Theatre work

(GNO Alternative Stage – Athens)

2018 A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

(Municipal Theatre of Piraeus)

2018 Electra, Sophocles

(Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, International Arts Festival of Shanghai)

> Awards for Direction, Set Design, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Performance by the Shanghai Theatre Academy

2020 Hairdressers/Metapolitefsi

(Theseum Ensemble – Athens / theseum – Α Theatre for the Arts)

2021 Kolokotronis Contemplates the Future….

A performance by Michail Marmarinos and Akilas Karazisis

(GNO Alternative Stage – Athens)

2022 Once to be realized

Music theatre based on uncatalogued works of composer Jani Christou

(Münchener Biennale, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Onassis Stegi)

2022 Ichneutae, Sophocles

(Athens Epidaurus Festival – Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Mount Kyllini, Odeon of Herodes Atticus)

2025 ζ-η-θ, the Stranger – A return to the sources: A visit to three Odyssey rhapsodies

(National Theatre of Northern Greece & Athens Epidaurus Festival)

DISTINCTIONS – AWARDS

1987 His staging of “Climax” by Jean Genet is selected to represent Greece at the III Biennial of Young Artists from Mediterranean Europe in Barcelona.

1991 Honourable mention as Best Actor of the Year for the play “Marty’s Shadow” by Stig Dagerman (Aplo Theatro, directed by Antonis Antypas).

2015 Grand Directing Award as an “Exceptional Artist” by the Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre, Tbilisi, for “Medeamaterial”, “National Anthem,” and “Romeo + Juliet.”

2016 He is bestowed with the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ministry of Culture.

2020 He receives the Excellence Award from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in recognition of his artistic achievements worldwide.

2025 He is bestowed with the title of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ministry of Culture.