CARLOS GARCÍA ESTÉVEZ
FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Actor · Director · Pedagogue · Researcher
Carlos García Estévez (Spain) is the founder and artistic director of Manifesto Poetico, an International Laboratory for Theatre Research. He is an actor, pedagogue, stage director, and researcher with more than 25 years of professional experience across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
Over the years, he has developed a distinctive theatrical language integrating visual, physical, and spatial expression. His work has established him as an internationally recognised practitioner and researcher in Contemporary Commedia dell’Arte, Theatre of Gesture, spatial composition, and the development of new theatrical languages.
Research
His research centres on Spatial Dramaturgy, exploring how space, movement, structure, and collective imagination can become active elements of theatrical language. Alongside this central research, he has developed a range of research and pedagogical laboratories, including MaskPoetica: Contemporary Commedia dell’Arte; Architecture of Gestures; The Space of Comedy; Bouffon: At the Threshold of Consciousness; and Contemporary Tragedy: In Search of Balance – In Search of Unity, among others.
His work moves along the boundaries between the visible and the invisible, the rational and the intuitive, the individual and the collective.
Artistic Career & Collaborations
For nearly two decades, Carlos has toured internationally with his solo mask performance Solo dell’Arte. He has performed with Simon McBurney/Complicite in A Dog’s Heart and The Magic Flute, and with Peter Sellars in Girls of the Golden West. He also works as a movement director for opera, including with Dutch National Opera Academy (DNOA) and Hollands Diep Muziektheater.
Through an artistic-anthropological approach, he investigates how place, people, movement, space, gesture, and collective experience can generate theatrical language. This research informs his TransPoetico Productions, a collaborative approach to creating original performances with local artists, communities, theatres, festivals, and cultural organisations.
Rather than importing a pre-existing theatrical language, Carlos works within each context to develop new forms of scenic expression in dialogue with the artists, communities, and audiences involved.
Training & Artistic Development
Carlos trained with Jacques Lecoq at his school in Paris and was, for over a decade, an associate artist at the Laboratory for the Study of Movement (LEM) at the Jacques Lecoq School. During this period, he contributed to the research conducted there, developing his spatial research The Elastics: An Ecosystem of Structures.
This ongoing investigation into space, forces, structures, movement, and perception has continued to evolve through his work with Manifesto Poetico and has contributed to the development of Spatial Dramaturgy.
Creative Philosophy
His creative process combines rigorous research with a critical, sensitive, and human approach. His work seeks to move, challenge, and invite reflection, opening new perspectives on how we perceive ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Through performance, pedagogy, and research, he continues to explore how theatre can create new ways of thinking, experiencing, responding, and relating.
