Avra was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Arts Barcelona, Columbia University, the Martin E. Segal Centre at CUNY, MIT, the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Surrey, the Institute of Theatre Studies at Freie University in Berlin and was a Japan Foundation Fellow at the University of Tokyo. She has lectured and conducted directing workshops and seminars on directing methodology, practice and ethics; adapting the Greeks and Shakespeare for the contemporary stage, in various parts of the world. 

As the Αrtistic Director of Athens-based Persona Theatre Company, she has directed works from the classical and contemporary repertory, incorporating different forms of technology in her mise-en-scene. Her most recent directing works include Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at Dionysos Theatre in Nicosia (December 2023); Karen Malpede’s Troy Too at Here Arts Center in New York (May 2023); Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (2022) and Enter Hamlet (her adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet) at the Verona Shakespeare Fringe Festival (2022). In 2020 she was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women.