Theodoros Terzopoulos

Theodoros Terzopoulos was born in Makrygialos village of Pieria, northern Greece. He was trained at Kostis Michailidis School of Dramatic Art in Athens (1965-67), completing his studies at the Berliner Ensemble, Germany (1972-76). Between 1981 and 1983 he served as Director of the Dramatic Arts School at the State Theatre of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki, while in 1985 he founded his own company, Attis Theatre in Delphi.

He has directed several Greek tragedies and plays by the most important contemporary Greek and European authors, bringing performances to numerous international venues. Over the past 35 years, he has presented with his company more than 2,100 performances worldwide. He was the artistic director of the International Meetings of Ancient Drama in Delphi. He is also a founding member of the International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre and President of its Greek department since 1991, as well as organizer of the International Meetings of Ancient Drama in Sikyon, Greece (2005-2006, 2011). His dramaturgical approach to Greek tragedy is taught in numerous schools, academies, institutes, and university departments of classical studies.

He has conceived an acting method that consists of a sequence of physical and vocal exercises aimed at cultivating the fundamentals of acting practice and reconstructing the unity between word and body. Professor Emeritus in academies and universities in Greece and internationally, since 2013 he has directed the summer school “The Return of Dionysus—The Method of Theodoros Terzopoulos” for young actors and directors. Books on his method have been published and translated into many languages, such as Greek, English, German, Turkish, Russian, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Mandarin, Korean, and Arabic.

He has received several awards in Greece and across the world. Since 1995 he has been president of the International Committee of Theatre Olympics; events have taken place in Delphi, Shizuoka (Japan), Moscow, Istanbul, Seoul, Beijing, Wroclaw, Toga (Japan), St. Petersburg, and 17 cities in India.