Every year a special review committee, which consists of professionals from the arts and the letters, is appointed in order to make a selection among the performances produced in the current theatre season. The selected performances are then staged to be viewed by invited guests of international appeal, such as important international festival directors, theatre critics as well as directors of cultural organizations who can potentially suggest and invite productions abroad.

Every year Athens System closes with a Symposium-panel discussion on a specific topic regarding Greek theatre in the international theatre scene. Theatre guests from Greece and abroad participate in the Symposium, speaking their viewpoints and exchanging experiences.

Athens System was realized for the first time in a pilot phase in May 2007 in collaboration and with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Culture Organization. Eight performances were attended not only by representatives from international festivals and European theatre organizations as well as international journal editors. As an outcome of last year’s Athens System pilot phase 4 out of 8 theatre companies were invited to international festivals. This year Athens System presents 13 performances and opens officially in collaboration and with the support of the newly founded Hellenic National Centre of Theatre and Dance and the Hellenic Ministry of Tourism.

Athens System is an initiative of the Hellenic Centre of the International Theatre Institute, which came to fulfil a necessity repeatedly voiced by the Greek artists as well as the world theatre community as a request for a concentrated presentation of contemporary Greek theatre production and its salient features.