The acclaimed stage and opera director Katerina Evangelatos is the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Hellenic Festival S.A., as decided by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni. Katerina Evangelatos will serve in this capacity for three years according to the charter of the organisation.
Evangelatos graduated with honours from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece as well as studying music at the Hellenic Conservatory. She holds a Master’s degree with Distinction in Stage Directing from the Middlesex University in London (as a fellow of the Onassis Foundation) and another Master’s Degree from the GITIS (Russian Academy of Theatre Arts) in Moscow. She speaks English, French and Russian.
Evangelatos is a member of the Studies Co. of Moraitis School and the scholarship committee of the Alexis Minotis Bequest in Memory of Katina Paxinou of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation.
Evangelatos made her directorial debut in 2006 at the Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece, at which time she also founded and managed the ‘Eisodos kindynou’ stage at the Spyros A. Evangelatos Amphitheatre, where she presented three productions in their Greek debut (La Morte Amoureuse, The Suicide Club, The Spanish Tragedy).
She has directed over 20 theatre and opera productions at major cultural organisations in Greece and abroad, including the National Theatre of Greece, the Onassis Cultural Foundation, the Greek National Opera, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater in Russia and the Theater Augsburg in Germany.
She has also presented performances at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, including Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Idomeneus at Peiraios 260 (2014), Rhesus at the archaeological site of Aristotle’s Lyceum (2015), and Euripides’ Alcestis, a National Theatre of Greece production, in Epidaurus (2017).
Evangelatos has already been commissioned by the Greek National Opera to direct a production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, set to premiere in June 2020 as part of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival programme.
Evangelatos is interested in theatrical education with a focus on ancient drama and has been invited to give theatre classes and lectures both in Greece and abroad. She was recently a guest lecturer at the New York University, where she taught ancient drama. In 2018, she run the International Ancient Drama Workshop of the National Theatre of Greece in Delphi.
She was won numerous accolades and distinctions, including the Award for New Artist by the Theatre and Music Critics’ Union (December 2009) and the Eleftheria Sapountzi Award for her directorial works for the period 2009-2011 (September 2011). Her opera production The Tales of Hoffmann (Perm Opera Theater, 2015) was nominated for 9 Golden Mask Awards (the most prestigious awards in Russian theatre), including those for Best Opera Production and Best Director.
