Maria Varnakkidou (1988) is a Cypriot theatre director who was born in London, UK but currently lives in Cyprus. She studied Modern Drama (2010) at Brunel University and then completed her Master’s Degree in Theatre Directing (2011) at Royal Holloway University in the UK.

She has been working in the theatre and film world for the past ten years with various types of projects. Her interests include devised theatre, immersive theatre, community theatre and creating work for social change and critical thinking.

She facilitated numerous theatre workshops in Cyprus and London. As well as, worked as theatre facilitator in several Erasmus+ projects in Europe. Her facilitation work focuses on theatre for social change.

Her latest directing projects include the devised theatre performances “Routes λ2”(2021), “Κρατήστε το αγκαλιά μέχρι να ξημερώσει” (2021), “Out of Necessity” (co-direction 2021), “Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons” by Sam Steiner (2021) and “Περιπατώ” (2021-22).

Some of her previous devised theatre works include “COME TOGETHER” (2020), “RAM” (2020), “ROUTES” (2019), and the performance “IN-decent” (2017). In 2015 she co-directed the devised theatre performance “The Gaze”. In 2012 she curated and directed the exhibition-performance “Vagina Monologues”.

She was one of the creative directors of the Buffer Fringe Festival 2020-21.

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