MARIA STEFANACHE (Director and theatre researcher)

Maria lives and works in Milan, Italy, and was born in Romania in 1962, yet comes from a Greek (Crete) background. She is a Theatre Directing graduate.

She studied directing at the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica “Silvio D’Amico” in Rome, Italy, studying under the director Andrea Camilleri from 1992-94.

She worked at the “Piccolo Teatro” in Milan, Italy for 3 years as assistant to the last theatre directors to be put on the scene by Giorgio Strehler, from 1995-97.

She then set up the“Scuola Europea di Teatro, scuola di Regia” ("European School of Theatre, School of Directing") in Milan, which was open for 9 years from 1995-2003.

In January 2000 she was chosen among the top young Europena directors by the Union of European Theatres for a "practical course of director training" with the Russian Director Lev Dodin at the Maly Drama Teatr in Saint Petersburg, where she stayed for a month studying and working on European theatre directing.

In July 2000, she was this time chosen at the "Venice Theatre Biennale" to participatre in a "Atelier" of directing, headed by the Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrosius.

From 1993 until now, she has directed tragedies, comedies and plays by Shakespeare, Cechov, Esopo, Euripide, Sofocle, Aristofane, Molière, Seneca and Goldoni.

In October 2003 she opened the “Centro Produzioni Teatrali” in Milan, Italy, producing theatrical performances and video documentaries.

In 2004 she started travelling around Europe to spread the word of her new theatre methodology all over Europe "The past memories of the character" which helps directors in their work with actors to construct their characters.

From 2006 until now she continues to hold training workshops for directors and actors in Paris, spreading her new methoid of working on the construction of characters.

The book "Dal'est al'Italia viaggio di un'artista - Il teatro di Maria Stefanache" or "From the East to Italy, the Journey of an Artist - the Theatre of Maria Stefanache" (Italian version) came out in October 2007, published by Edizioni del'Arco and written by Violetta P. Popescu.