The director Michael Marmarinos is appointed Artistic Director of the Hellenic Festival Organization. According to the founding law of the Organisation, the term of office of the Artistic Director is three years. Michael Marmarinos succeeds the current Artistic Director Katerina Evangelatos, who is leaving the institution after a successful six-year term of office. The handover of the Artistic Direction will take place at the end of Katerina Evaggelatou’s term of office, at the end of August.

The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni made the following statement:

“The Hellenic Festival, the leading cultural institution, is celebrating seventy years of irreplaceable contribution to our artistic life, having established itself as a domestic and international reference point. Throughout these years, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and Epidaurus have been one of the main channels of contact between the Greek public and the dominant trends of the global artistic scene. For every Greek artist, their presence at the Festival is the highest expression of their career. This solemn occasion, which completes a cycle, is the perfect occasion to pass the baton from an established artist to a worthy successor. Saying farewell to Katerina Evangelatos, with warm thanks for her six years of work, at the same time, with great pleasure, I welcome Michael Marmarinos, a creator with international acclaim and decades of contribution to our culture, to the Artistic Directorate of the Hellenic Festival. The bar has already been set high at the Hellenic Festival. Katerina Evaggelatou, in six years, in two consecutive terms, leaves a very positive record: A drastically renewed, extroverted and dynamic Festival, which has made many new friends alongside its loyal audience. I thank her warmly for her tireless work and our excellent collaboration. I wish her every success in the new projects with which she will be confronted. Michael Marmarinos needs no introduction and no credentials. He has been treating Art with dedication and ever-renewing inspiration for four decades. Deeply knowledgeable in stagecraft, in constant communication with its trends at a global level, he has given us productions of the highest level, leaving a distinctive personal stamp on our artistic affairs and adding to his rich experience, positions of responsibility, the most recent of which is the absolutely successful Artistic Direction of “Elefsis 2023-European Capital of Culture”. He has all the guarantees for a fruitful tenure – in the very demanding position he is assuming – to contribute to the further extroversion of the Festival, to its opening, to wider common and pioneering currents. He is accompanied by all our wishes for success”.

Deputy Minister of State for Culture Iason Fotilas said:

“In the context of the upcoming completion of Katerina Evangelatos’ second term as Artistic Director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, we express our thanks for the fruitful work she has offered, both in artistic programming and in the extroverted orientation of the institution.

The cooperation has been efficient and consistent, a fact underlined by her intention to stand by the new head of the Festival to ensure a smooth transition.

The director, dramatist and actor, Michael Marmarinos, is the new artistic director of the Athens- Epidaurus Festival. His long artistic career and recognition in Greece and internationally, as well as his artistic vision, are elements that will give the Athens Epidaurus Festival even greater prestige and performances that audiences will embrace with even greater enthusiasm.

We thank Katerina Evangelatos for her contribution and her work and we wish Michael Marmarinos a fruitful and creative term of office”.

Short Michael Marmarinos CV:

Michael Marmarinos was born in Athens and studied Biology, Acting and Theatre. As a director, he has presented his works in Greece – including the Epidaurus Festival – in Europe and North America, drawing from both the classical and contemporary repertoire, as well as from literary and compositional texts, products of a process he himself has formulated as “Directing as dramaturgy”.

He has directed performances of the theatre company “Double Eros” which he founded in 1983-1984 and evolved into “Theseum Ensemble”. He has also collaborated, in leading roles, with renowned directors and, with selective participation, in feature films. He has been teaching theatre since 1994, initially at the University of Peloponnese and, since 2006, as a full professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. At the same time, he has conducted workshops and presented papers in dozens of seminars in Greece and abroad.

His works have been repeatedly honoured with domestic and international awards, having received numerous distinctions in Greece and abroad. From 2006 to 2009, he served as Chairman of the Board of the International Theatre Institute of UNESCO (Greek Section), while from 2020 to 2024 he was the General Artistic Director of “Elefsis 2023-European Capital of Culture”.