Macha MAKEIEFF

Bio

Author, director, visual artist and scenographer, Macha Makeïeff has been directing La Criée, Théâtre national de Marseille since 2011. She has developed a unique project there, inscribed in the urban fabric of the city where she is from and opens wide the doors of the Theater during the day. with the New Hall, redesigned by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, a veritable “third room” which regularly hosts exhibitions. Macha Makeïeff currently chairs the L’ExtrapÔle-Sud collective which
supports creation.

After studying literature and art history at the Sorbonne, the Paris Art Institute and the Marseille Conservatory, Macha Makeïeff joined Antoine Vitez, who gave him his first staging. She creates with Jérôme Deschamps a company and more than twenty theater shows performed in France and abroad.

With Jérôme Deschamps, she directed Les Deschiens (1993, 2002) for Canal + and founded "Les Films de mon Oncle", for the restoration and promotion of the work of Jacques Tati (2000). She is artistic director of the Théâtre de Nîmes (2003-2008) and chairs the audiovisual innovation assistance fund at the CNC (2009-2011).

Macha Makeïeff creates the retrospective exhibition Jacques Tati, 2 Temps 3 Mouvements at the Cinémathèque Française (2009), exhibits at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, in Chaumont-sur-Loire, at the Grande Halle de la Villette, at the Cartier Foundation where she invented Péché Mignon and another delightful performance; she works in various museums.

Macha Makeïeff provides various master classes abroad, chairs the Scientific Council of the Pavillon Bosio Ecole Supérieure d´Arts Plastiques de Monaco. She designed the scenography for the Éblouisant Venice exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris (2018), and invented a flag for the Cartier Foundation and the Boltanski exhibition in Shanghai (2018).

In 2019, she responded to the invitation of the Maison Jean Vilar in Avignon and created the exhibition Trouble fête, Curious collections and worried things, which she reinvented at the Musée des Tapisseries d'Aix-en-Provence for spring 2021.

In opera, Macha Makeïeff performs Les Brigands by Offenbach, L'Enlément au Sérail by Mozart at the Festival Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, then Mozart Short Cuts at the GTP, La Veuve Joyeuse by Franz Lehar, Moscow-Tchériomouchki by Shostakovich at the Opéra de Lyon; La Calisto by Cavalli at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, L’Etoile by Chabrier, Zampa by Hérold at the Opéra Comique, Les Mamelles de Tiresias by Poulenc at the Opéra de Lyon, and Mozart ShortCuts at the Grand Théâtre de Provence. She collaborates with John Eliott Gardiner, William Christie, Louis Langrée, Christophe Rousset, Laurence Equilbey ...

Macha Makeïeff designs the sets and costumes for her shows, as well as the costumes for Jean Bellorini's creations: La Bonne Âme du Se-Tchouan, Karamazov, Erismena, Kroum, Le Jeu des Ombres (Festival d'Avignon 2020) and Tartuffo at Naples Festival. And also Bouvard and Pécuchet by Jérôme Deschamps, Sarah Bernhardt Fan Club by Juliette Deschamps in Perm, Russia ...

At La Criée, Macha Makeïeff created Les Apaches, Ali Baba, directed Lumières d´Odessa by Philippe Fenwick. Offended Souls # 1 (The Inuit) # 2 (The Soussou), # 3 (The Maasai), according to the notebooks of ethnologist Philippe Geslin. Created in 2015 at the Nuits de Fourvière Trissotin or Les Femmes Savantes by Molière was very successful in China in 2018, was shown for more than a month at La Scala, Paris in 2019 and is still touring in France and in abroad. In 2017, Macha Makeïeff created, La Fuite! fantasy comedy in 8 dreams by Mikhail Bulgakov. The adaptation of La Fuite! is recorded for France Culture, and aired in February 2021 in the program Théâtre et Cie on France Culture. In 2019, at the Festival d'Avignon, Macha Makeïeff plays a game of three-cushion billiards with a show, Lewis versus Alice at La FabricA, the exhibition Trouble fête, Collections curieuses et Choses inquiètes, at Maison Jean Vilar and a book Celestial Zone published by Actes Sud. Lewis versus Alice is still on tour.

In 2021, Macha Makeïeff is staging a fourth opus of Offended Souls, #The Hadza, with ethnologist Philippe Geslin. Currently, she is preparing the set, staging and costumes for her next show Tartuffe de Molière which will be premiered in November 2021 at La Criée, given in Paris and on tour until April 2022, as well as a book on the subject.

She publishes essays for Le Chêne, Séguier, Seuil and Actes Sud. She imagined a review for the Théâtre de La Criée, “CRI-CRI”, number 3 of which will be released soon.

Under his leadership, a sound studio was created at La Criée for the recording of readings and other sound shows, to be discovered in podcasts via the Theater's website.