Guilherme Meletti Yazbek

Guilherme Meletti Yazbek (he/him) is a Brazilian scholar-artist, educator, theatre director, actor, and theatre critic. His work is grounded in practice-based research, bringing together scholarly inquiry and artistic practice to investigate performance, embodiment, and urban space. His research focuses on improvisation, actor training, and the intersection of architecture and movement in both artistic and everyday contexts, with particular attention to the relationship between queer bodies and cities.

Meletti Yazbek earned his MA in 2022 from the Performing Arts program at the University of São Paulo (ECA-USP), specializing in Theatre Theory and Practice under the supervision of Dr. Luiz Fernando Ramos. His master’s research was interdisciplinary, bridging performing and visual arts, and focused on the theatrical work of Brazilian visual artist Laura Vinci, particularly within the Mundana Companhia group. His research also examined the scenic experiments of the Bauhaus and the so-called “performative turn” of the 1960s and 1970s, including North American minimalism and postmodern dance.

He holds a BA in Performing Arts, with a concentration in Theatre Direction, from the University of São Paulo (2010), where he studied with leading Brazilian theatre practitioners such as Antônio Araújo, Sérgio de Carvalho, Cibele Forjaz, and Maria Thais. As an actor, he joined the Experimental Center for Performing Arts (Núcleo Experimental de Artes Cênicas) at SESI São Paulo in 2015 under the direction of Miriam Rinaldi. From 2018 to 2021, he taught improvisation and actor training using the Viewpoints technique at the same institution. In addition, he has over a decade of experience teaching theatre and movement in middle and high schools in São Paulo.

His artistic training includes intensive programs at SITI Company (Suzuki/Viewpoints) and at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (Laboratoire d’Étude du Mouvement). He has also participated in workshops with international artists such as Thadd McQuade (USA), Torsten Blume (Germany), Francesca Della Monica (Italy), Mario Biagini (Italy), and Brazilian artists including André Malosá, Mariana Muniz, Ricardo Neves, and Wagner Schwartz.

Among his artistic projects are acting in Tiros em Osasco (2016), directed by Yara de Novaes, and co-directing Loucas de Pedra (2016), which received awards for Best Production, Best Lead Actress, Direction, and Lighting Design at the ACESC Festival. In cultural management, he curated Projeto Encontros (2012–2013), a visual and performing arts initiative presented in São Paulo subway stations. He also served as executive producer of Bento Batuca (2018), directed by Luciana Ramanzini and Eduardo Leão, winner of the APCA Award for Best Children’s Musical, and as local executive producer for Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape (2012), directed and performed by Robert Wilson.

Since May 2025, Meletti Yazbek has also worked as a theatre critic, collaborating with the onStage Pittsburgh project, where he writes reviews of the Pittsburgh theatre scene, including local productions, touring Broadway shows, and community theatre. His critical writing extends his research interests by engaging performance as both an artistic practice and a social, cultural, and urban event.