Non-Profit Theater Companies form the pre-eminent nucleus that brought a fresh air of innovation and experimentation in the Greek Theatre during the last three decades. Some of the groups that made history in the Greek Theatre were and still are Non-profit Companies while the majority of Greek theatre companies and groups function under the legal status of AMKE.
An AMKE is not an NGO, as many people mistakenly think. Its legal status does not permit to cash or distribute profits. The AMKE burst into the Greek theatrical scene in the early eighties, when the Minister of Culture then, Melina Mercouri, introduced a legislative framework of public funding for free-lance companies and groups. The result was a real breakthrough – new groups, artists and theatres produced and are still producing the best of Greek theatre.
The AMKE are the companies and groups that have introduced, in our country, contemporary performative, narrative and interpretational approaches as well as the new trends of writing and much of the contemporary international repertoire. The work of AΜKE focuses on new Greek playwrights as well, particularly during the last years when a considerable number of new playwriting was presented in highly acclaimed performances.
The AMKE are the solid, central body of Greek independent theatre. They function as the nurseries of human resources, inexhaustibly feeding (with actors, directors, translators, stage designers, musicians, etc.), our state theatres, mainstream independent theatres and the commercial stage.