Born in 1957, he studied at the Marseille School of Fine Art. A Pupil of Antoine Vitez at the Chaillot National Theatre in Paris.
In 1987, he created "Inventaires" by Philippe Minyana, which toured abroad and was made in a television version. The start of a long collaboration with this author, he later directed seven of his plays.
From 1989, he directed plays by Noëlle Renaude, Lars Nören, Cervantes, Roland Fichet, Anton Chekhov, Thomas Bernhard, Shakespeare, Michel Vinaver, Christophe Huysman, Eugene O’Neill and August Strindberg.
In 1996, he was awarded the Villa Médicis extra-mural prize in Moscow.
In 1997, Robert Cantarella wrote a manifesto entitled "Pour une formation à la mise en scène" [Training for Theatre Directing]. He created the "Frictions" magazine devoted to the theatre arts.
In 2000, he became the Director of the Centre Dramatique National in Dijon. He inaugurated the "Friction en mai festival", aimed at showcasing new forms of writing for the theatre. He staged "Werther" by Jules Massen at the opera.
Since 1990, he has been regularly directing plays and teaching abroad, in Berlin (Germany), Rabat, (Morocco), Lódz (Poland), Manilla (The Philippines) and Los Angeles (United States).
In 2004, he wrote "Le Chalet" (published by Léo Scheer).
In 2005 he produced the documentary "Carrosserie".
In 2006, he produced plays by Philippe Minyana, "La maison des morts" at the Comédie-Française and "Ça va" in Dijon.
From 2005 to 2010, Robert Cantarella and Frédéric Fisbach were the two co-directors of the CENTQUATRE.
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