Matteo Destro is a director, mask creator, theatre maker and theatre pedagogist.
Matteo's theatrical career began shortly after graduating Padua University (with a degree in Pedagogy), as a street performer in a red nose.
His desire to expand his theatre studies led him to Jacques Lecoq at the L’École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris, where he also studied with Norman Taylor, Pierre Byland and Alain Gautré.
During his two-year program of study under Lecoq, Matteo also began to seriously explore the theatre creation and the art of Mask. This led him to study at the“Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali” under the guidance of the maestro Donato Sartori. The research and creation of masks and mask theatre would eventually become the heart of his practice. Matteo now says “My main work is theatre pedagogy, mask creation, and the creation of performances. Often those three practices are part of the same creative process.”
Matteo is a founding member of Teatro Punto in Spain and Larven Teatro in Italy, has been a frequent collaborator with Chiendent Théâtre, Anonima Teatro in France and Teatro em Branco in Portugal.
He was also a core faculty member at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation, in Florence, Italy, where he taught Improvisation, Movement Analysis and Technique, and directed the MaMaS (Material-Mask-Space) program, a laboratory of research into the design and creation of masks.
He has given Master Classes at the University of Iowa, New York University and VCE Melbourne University, and also regularly teaches for Divadlo Usmev in the Conservatory of Bratislava in Slovakia, Tiyatro Medresesi in Turkey, as well as Inchicore College of Dublin.
He has collaborated and written and directed performances for various theater companies and theaters, among them: Barabao Teatro (Italy), Boom Circus (USA), Divadlo Usmev (Slovakia), ArtiVarti (Italy), Compagnie ad Hoc (France), Ishøj Teater (Denmark), Larven Teatro (Italy), Iowa Partenership in the Art. (USA), Teatro Immagine (Italy), Aborigenes Teatro (Spain).
In 2016 he founded ATELIER Mask Movement Theatre, an international center for research, theater creation and training, in San Miniato, Italy.
Within Atelier he directs the international school, the Atelier Mamot theater company and the laboratory of experimentation, study and creation of forms, masks and architecture of dramatic space.