Wesley Ruzibiza is a dancer, actor, choreographer, and director. Raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he moved to Rwanda, his country of origin, in 1999. He was studying financial management at the National University of Rwanda when he encountered the world of contemporary arts. While observing a dance workshop, the choreographer surprisingly invited him to join the group. He took off his shoes and since that day never left. It was through a dance performance that he finally fully understood what had happened in his country, Rwanda, in 1994 and how he could tell his own people’s story to the rest of the world. Ruzibiza holds an African Contemporary Dance and Germaine Acogny diploma. From 2002-2010 he took over the direction of the Dance Department at the University Center of Arts and Drama. Today, he is the Artistic Director of the Amizero Kompagnie that he co-founded in 2005 with the National University of Rwanda UCAD, with which he won multiple international awards. He founded the East African Night of Tolerance international festival (EANT), co-founded the Africa Mashariki Dance network (AMDA), and in 2020 co-founded with his partner Dida Nibagwire, Rwandan actress and producer, the first Rwandan private theater based in Kigali named “L’ESPACE.” He is the co-artistic Director of l’Ecole des Sables in Dakar, an Associate Professor at the Dance and Research Center (CPARC) in Bordeaux, France, and at the Muda Africa Dance School in Tanzania, among others.
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Sonya Armaghanyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. Despite an early childhood influenced by regional instability and war, Sonya’s parents introduced her and her brother to a world that stretched far beyond the borders of Armenia through literature, music, circus, and theatre. For Sonya, theatre became a place of magic and deep emotions. She experienced how the creative process of theatre reveals and reimagines one’s identity, sense of belonging, feelings, and perceptions individually, and in relation to others. These notions are deeply rooted in Sonya’s work as a cultural producer, theatre practitioner, and community engagement specialist. Her artistic practice focuses on creating spaces of encounter between the individual and the collective, and where a shared collective dreaming becomes possible. Sonya is a producer and facilitator of numerous performative workshops and projects in Armenia, Nepal, Switzerland, Greece, Kenya, Rwanda, and the United States. She has previously worked with the International Organization for Migration, where she used art-based approaches for social cohesion and psychosocial wellbeing of persons affected by conflict in Somalia, Mozambique, and Ukraine. She is the recipient of the Swiss Humanitarian Award 2018 for her research paper “Theatre as Psychosocial Approach in Humanitarian Settings,” and was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award 2023 in New York. Sonya is the Founder of The Postcard Theatre- her dream in process. Sonya is in love with love and believes that it is the stories of each one of us that collide and create our Universe.
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László Upor is a dramaturg, literary translator, essayist and university professor. He is specialised in contemporary drama and performing arts. He has worked both with mainstream companies and with a great number of independent artists, physical and puppet theatres. He has published three books and numerous articles on theatre, film, and contemporary circus. His translations include novels, non-fiction and over 50 stage plays. He is former Vice Rector/ Acting Rector of University of Theatre and Film Arts (SzFE) in Budapest where he taught for over three decades. He is founding member of Freeszfe Society, formed by students and faculty who left SzFE after a long battle with the Hungarian government. Read More László Upor

Dovie Thomason, of Lakota, Apache, and Scot Traveller descent, draws on her mixed background in her work. In the four decades of her life’s work with Storying, she has been inspired by Gerald Vizenor’s (Anishnaabe) words:
“Survivance is an active sense of presence, the continuance of native stories…”.
It has led her from the retelling of stories first heard from her grandmother, and then other elder tellers from her own and other indigenous nations—the “preservation” of cultural stories—to the “continuance” through cultural stories speaking to contemporary listeners and issues. These original stories are the braidings of traditional teachings, unspoken stories, family stories of relatives and relationships, erased histories and future imaginings. Read More Dovie Thomason

Cynthia P. Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, teaches, publishes, and organizes initiatives in the field of cultural diplomacy, with a focus on relations with the Muslim world. Ambassador Schneider co-directs the Los Angeles-based MOST Resource (Muslims on Screen and Television). Additionally, she co-directs the Timbuktu Renaissance, an innovative strategy and platform for countering extremism and promoting peace and development, which grew out of her work leading the Arts and Culture Dialogue Initiative within Brookings’ Center for Middle East Policy.
Cynthia teaches courses in Diplomacy and Culture in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where, from 1984-2005, she was a member of the art history faculty, and published on Rembrandt and seventeenth century Dutch art. She also organized exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cynthia publishes and speaks frequently on topics related to arts, culture, and media and international affairs, particularly about the Muslim world. Her writings range from blogs for the Huffington Post, CNN.com, and Foreign Policy to policy papers for Brookings. From 1998-2001, she served as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, during which time she led initiatives in cultural diplomacy, biotechnology, cyber security, and education. Cynthia has a Ph. D. and BA from Harvard University, and she serves on multiple Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards. Read More Cynthia P. Schneider

Trà Nguyễn experiments with theater and builds frameworks to transfer such capacity. Her theater works, typically extremely slow-paced, seek to open up and reside in the quieting space of attention. She earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing at Carnegie Mellon University (US) on a Fulbright scholarship, and has presented her plays and workshops in Vietnam, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and the US. Currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Trà Nguyễn builds infrastructure for experimental theater-making via production, training, and critical discourses with her initiative, The Run – A Theater Project. She also writes screenplays to reflect the osmosis of sciences in modern life, portraying the human struggles to connect in the digitally webbed world. Read More Trà Nguyễn

Ada Mukhína (born 1988 in St.Petersburg / lives in Berlin) is a nomadic artist, theatre director, writer and performer. She creates bold political, investigative and participatory theatre performances across genres and borders. With humour and lightness of touch, she questions the existing systems and investigates distribution of resources, risks and power. She holds a Law Diploma with distinction and two Master degrees in Performing Arts from Saint Petersburg Theatre Academy and London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Before moving to Germany, she was the founder of Theatre project Vmeste which team became one of the flagships of Russian socially engaged theatre in 2010s. Her recent theatre pieces, including performance series about risk in arts and artists-at-risk, Risk Lab, How to Sell Yourself To the West and Exile Promenade, have been presented i.a. at the Berliner Festspiele, the Deutsches Theater and Sophiensaele in Berlin, at the Camden People’s Theatre in London, Maison d’artiste en de production Cromot in Paris, Frascati in Amsterdam, and The Gathering by Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics in Washington, DC. She was awarded a Fellowship from the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), a Global Exchange Stipend in South Africa from the Federal State of Berlin, and the German Chancellor Fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Read More Ada Mukhína

Director, DAH Theater Research Center for Culture and Social Change; Professor, Institute for Modern Dance, Belgrade Dijana Milošević is an award-winning theater director, activist, writer and lecturer. She co-founded DAH Theater and has been its leading director for over thirty years. She was the Artistic Director for theater festivals, was the president of the Association of the Independent Theaters and president or member of several boards. Being involved with several peace building initiatives and collaborating with feminists – activists groups she also serves as a member of the Board at IMPACT- a network of arts and conflict transformation. She has devised and directed theater shows with her company and toured them nationally and internationally as well as directed the work with other companies all over the world. She is a well-known lecturer and has taught at prestigious Universities, writes articles and essays about theater. She is recipient of prestigious fellowships and awards (Fulbright, Arts Link, Helena Vaz de Silva). Read More Dijana Milošević

Teddy Mangawa is a professional theatre actor, director and educator born and raised in the high-density suburb of Mabvuku, Harare, Zimbabwe. He comes from a large family of nine siblings. He loved watching the vibrant theatre scene in his community as a young boy, but never thought he could be a part of it himself. After being convinced to fill in for a sick actor in a production led by his friend, Teddy discovered his calling, and decided to pursue theater professionally. He graduated from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California and became a certified arts manager from the University of Zimbabwe. Teddy joined Savanna Trust as an actor and worked his way up to becoming the Creative Manager. He is an educator and administrator at Zimbabwe Theatre Academy and served as the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Theatre Association from 2017 to 2021. He received two National Arts Merit Awards for Acting and two nominations for Directing. Teddy is Artistic Director of the Mitambo International Theatre Festival and Coordinator of the Accelerating Creative Capabilities and Entrepreneurship Theatre Festival. He uses drama to raise awareness and engage communities on human rights, public health, politics and development issues. Teddy strongly believes that the arts play a crucial role in citizen engagement, particularly in addressing matters of inclusion. Read More Teddy Mangawa

Todd London has been a leading figure in the U.S. nonprofit theater for more than 35 years and was the first recipient of Theater Communications Group’s Visionary Leadership Award for “an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theater field as a whole…” He spent 18 seasons as Artistic Director of New York’s New Dramatists. From 2014-18 he was Executive Director of the University of Washington’s School of Drama, where he held the Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Chair. His many books include two novels, If You See Him, Let Me Know and The World’s Room; This Is Not My Memoir (with Andre Gregory); and theater books, An Ideal Theater; Outrageous Fortune; The Importance of Staying Earnest; The Artistic Home, and Zelda Fichandler’s The Long Revolution (editor). He is founding director of The Third Bohemia retreat and director of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative. Read More Todd London

Todd London has been a leading figure in the U.S. nonprofit theater for more than 35 years and was the first recipient of Theater Communications Group’s Visionary Leadership Award for “an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theater field as a whole…” He spent 18 seasons as Artistic Director of New York’s New Dramatists. From 2014-18 he was Executive Director of the University of Washington’s School of Drama, where he held the Floyd U. Jones Family Endowed Chair. His many books include two novels, If You See Him, Let Me Know and The World’s Room; This Is Not My Memoir (with Andre Gregory); and theater books, An Ideal Theater; Outrageous Fortune; The Importance of Staying Earnest; The Artistic Home, and Zelda Fichandler’s The Long Revolution (editor). He is founding director of The Third Bohemia retreat and director of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative. Read More Todd London

Samwel Japhet is a Tanzanian dance artist, choreographer, and social entrepreneur who found his voice through dance after a rough childhood of homelessness and abuse. He works at the intersection of dance, storytelling, and social issues, using movement as a tool for artistic expression, storytelling, and an invitation to transcendence and critical reflection on social and political realities. His choreographic approach blends dance with visual storytelling, real-life experiences, text, music, and dialogue to explore human relationships and societal dynamics. He is particularly interested in cross-cultural collaboration, building artistic relationships between Africa and the rest of the world. His work has toured festivals and theaters in the Netherlands, South Korea, Israel, South Africa, Portugal, Mozambique, Germany, Ethiopia, Italy and beyond.

He is a recipient of the 2021 Seed Award from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and a 2024-2026 Global Fellow with The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. He is also a Salzburg Global Fellow – Culture, Arts, and Society. A graduate of the MUDA Africa Dance School in Tanzania, he co-managed UMOJA, a multidisciplinary residency program for East African and European artists, from 2021 to 2022. In 2015, he co-founded Nantea Dance Company, a Tanzanian non-profit that produces multifaceted performances and community-based projects. Through his work, he strives to address global challenges and build a culture where art not only reflects reality but also inspires new possibilities. Read More Samwel Japhet