Meet the Participants

Liisi Aibel

Liisi Aibel is an Estonian performing arts manager and curator, working at the Estonian Theatre Agency as an international relations coordinator. Her main responsibilities include curating and organizing the annual Estonian Contemporary Performing Arts Showcase and developing new projects to introduce and promote Estonian performing arts and dramaturgy abroad. She's also the curatorial team member of the Estonian biggest annual theatre festival DRAAMA. From 2013 to 2019 Aibel worked as a co-curator and producer of an interdisciplinary urban festival dedicated to site-specific art called UIT.

Louis Atlan

Having graduated from the National Theatre of Brittany in Western France, Louis works alongside artists such as Pascal Rambert, Mohamed El Khatib, Phia Ménard, and Madeleine Louarn and her company Catalyse. His company proposes a transdisciplinary and multicultural theatre approach, and his two last plays were shown during Young French National Festivals. Lately, he's been selected for "The Ecole des Maîtres 2024" led by Anne-Cécile Vandalem.

Yaiza Berrocal

Yaiza Berrocal Guevara (1991 in Llinars del Vallès) holds a degree in Literary Theory from the University of Barcelona and a master's in screenwriting for film and TV fiction. She authored The Island of Wolves (Dramaturgias Actuales Grant), I Will Not Fear the Beasts (Carlota Soldevila Grant), and The Children's Crusade: Schwob's Visions Remake. Her novel Curling (H&O editores,2022) will be published in English by MTO Press in the fall. She wrote Black Butterflies (Annecy Festival), and her play The Cold Chain (Calderón de la Barca National Prize 2020) will be staged at Sala Beckett in 2025.

Tjaša Črnigoj

Tjaša Črnigoj is a theatre director based in Ljubljana, focusing on documentary and feminist practices. In 2021, she spent five months at an artist residency at Cité internationale des arts in Paris. Her performance Grannies (2020) was selected for Berlin’s Theatertreffen-Stückemarkt in 2022. Her recent lecture-performance series, Sex Education II (2022/2023), was awarded at The Week of Slovenian Drama 2024 and toured Mousonturm Frankfurt and HAU Berlin in 2023 and 2024. Tjaša Črnigoj received the Women on Women Award in 2024.

Carl Martin Eggesbø

Carl Martin Eggesbø is a Norwegian actor, educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and Amsterdam Academie voor Theater en Dans. He has done several projects within film and TV, making his debut in the Norwegian television series SKAM. Since graduating in 2019 he has been part of the ensembles at Trøndelag Teater in Trondheim and Det Norske Teatret in Oslo.

Craig Flaherty

Craig is currently Senior Producer with Abbey Theatre – Ireland’s National Theatre. Specialising in curating and producing for theatre and festivals in Ireland and internationally. He has a keen interest in developing new development platforms for artists as audience development and engagement. He completed the ‘Enchancing Digital Strategies for Cultural Organisations’ with the French Ministry of Culture the Institut Français – ‘Focus Cirque International Focus’

Previous work includes: Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture; Druid Theatre; Galway International Arts Festival

Magdalena Gabert

Magdalena Gabert is an open-minded person, craving new challenges and exploring new cultures. In her work, she is driven by passion, conscientiousness, and the success of the whole team. At JK Opole Theatre, as the International Project Coordinator, she is responsible for acting as an impresario for European and global performances and managing new projects with partners from abroad. She is interested in learning foreign languages, culture, and art. She couldn't live without travelling and constant self-development.

Guilherme Gomes

Actor, director, playwright and theatre producer. In 2016 co-founded Teatro da Cidade. Worked as a playwright, actor and director with various groups and artists; and with the Calouste Gulbenkian and the CCB Foundations on audience mediation projects. In 2019, won the Portuguese Society of Authors Award for Best Portuguese Play. Guest lecturer at ESTC and ACT - Actors' Schools. Artistic director of CRETAlab and the Torres Vedras Municipal Theatre.

Alexandru Ivănoiu

Alexandru Ivănoiu is a Romanian-based versatile independent artist. His work focuses on acting, playwriting, and cultural management. In 2020, he founded IOTA Association and The Improbable Theatre, the first independent audio-drama theatre in Romania, focusing on contemporary dramaturgy. Themes such as emigration, identity and family dynamics, and societal change are central to the texts and cultural projects that he creates.

Krist Lleshi

Krist Lleshi, 30 years old, was born and raised in Shkodra, Albania. She graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree in acting from the University of Arts in Tirana. After graduation, she started working at her city theatre, "Migjeni," in Shkodra for almost five years, where she had the opportunity to work with colleagues, actors, and directors of different backgrounds and nationalities. During these years, she also worked as a freelancer in Tirana, participating in various projects in theatre and cinematography. Recently, she has become part of the performing troupe of the National Theatre in Tirana.

Simon Lyshon

A London-based theatre director, performer, deviser and facilitator, Simon co-founded Engineer Theatre Collective. He has worked with Punchdrunk, Complicité, Secret Cinema, Barbican and The Factory. Simon is currently training in experience design with Odyssey Works. Outside of the theatre he has experience in environmental activism and arts education. Simon's creative heroes are: Shunt, Robert Le Page, Peeping Tom, Nonchalance and Tom Waits.

Lukas Michelitsch

Lukas Michelitsch is a freelance director. He studied drama directing at the Max Re- in- hardt Seminar, Vienna. His diploma production “eure paläste sind leer (ALL WE EVER WANT- ED)” by Thomas Köck premiered in 2023. In his theatrical works, he deals with ancient drama, classical drama, contemporary texts and dramatizations of prose works. He pays particular attention to the spaces in which audience and players meet. At the centre of his work is a close collaboration with the ensemble. Other areas of his work include photography, film and video art.

Johann Otten

Johann Otten (*1991) is a dramaturge, journalist and radio play director. He holds a B.A. in History of the Arts and Business Administration and an M.A. in Dramaturgy from Zurich University of the Arts. In 2018 he became a permanent assistant director at Deutsches Theater Berlin, since 2023 he has worked there as a dramaturge. As a journalist, Johann realised a podcast series with Thilo Mischke, his radio plays have been broadcast on WDR and DLF Kultur. He is interested in the interface between arts and ecology and is convinced that the arts play a decisive role in a climate-friendly transformation.

Miroslav Švoňava

Miroslav Švoňava was born in Rimavská Sobota, Slovak Republic, in 1988. He studied Cultural Studies with a specialisation in arts and culture management at Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia. He has worked for the Theatre Institute and Goethe Institute Bratislava as a PR, marketing, and project manager. Miroslav has also collaborated as a production manager with regional and international festivals. Recently, he worked as a project manager for Slovak National Theatre Drama. He speaks fluently in English and German.

Tinni Torikka

Tinni Torikka is a freelance producer who graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2019 with a major in theatre research. She has worked with various small theatre companies and working groups in Finland. She is currently completing her studies in Cultural Management at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, with a particular focus on leadership. Her thesis explores the internationalization prospects of "Encounters," a piece by the artist collective The Feminist Secret Society of Helsinki (FSSH).