Ndèye Mané Touré holds a Master in Business Administration at the African Institute of Management (I.A.M Dakar), she works in the administration and production of various cultural projects, including dance, music, visual arts, and cinema. With fifteen years of experience, Mané is at the head of Makeda Production, a company under Senegalese law, specializing in the design and production of artistic products and in the organization of events. Mané initiated in 2023 the Bideew Festival which is a constellation of disciplines around astronomy, art, gastronomy, science and technology in rural areas.

Faye Kabali-Kagwa is a cultural curator, arts coordinator, and writer with a keen focus on youth voices. In 2023 Faye was the curator for the Cradle of Creativity Festival which took place in Johannesburg and featured 27 productions from South Africa and abroad. In her work with ASSITEJ South Africa she runs the Unlocking Learners’ Creativity project in the Western Cape, as well as heading the 10Children project, amongst others. Faye was awarded the 2024 Artfleunce Human Rights Youth Activism Award by the Artfluence Human Rights Festival, and in 2021 was named one of the Mail & Guardians Top 200 Young South Africans. She has an uncanny ability to read the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist and builds interventions that go beyond artistic output and is interested in the audience as engaged contributors to her work. Faye’s writing has included reflecting on contemporary theatre and their commentary on land reformation, same-sex schools and coded patriarchy as well as reminiscing on important ephemeral cultural spaces. Faye has been published in the Mail & Guardian, New Frame, and Culture Review.

Joshua Dalledonne is an artistic producer and programmer for live performance and community activations. Believing in the transformative power of creativity, collaboration, and kindness he gathers artists and audiences to make the world a more welcoming place. An advocate for equity-seeking artists and communities, he is deeply invested in a programmatic vision that centres the relationship between audience and artist.

Beginning his career with the UK’s Birmingham Repertory Theatre Josh honed his practice internationally, across Canada, and in his hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada – most recently with Arts Commons as Associate Director Creative. An actor and playwright, his works for young people have been commissioned and produced across Alberta.

Josh serves on the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ advisory committee and as Vice Chair for Calgary Arts Academy. A proud member of the Queer community, he loves skiing, hiking and traveling with his husband Max.

Rodrigo González Alvarado is a cultural practitioner born in Tunja, Colombia, and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work spans a broad range of roles, including performing arts direction, curation, production, translation, and teaching. His main focus is international performing arts festivals, guided by principles of fair and truthful exchange in international relations and the experience of being foreign.

He has coordinated the MARKET/FIBA for six editions (2019–2024), a gathering of presenters, curators, producers, and artists. This event takes place within the Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA), a public festival produced by the Ministry of Culture, where he has also been part of the General Production team. Additionally, he has collaborated multiple times with Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires on contemporary opera productions staged by renowned Argentine artists.

As an artist, he specializes in analog-reality experiences, incorporating documentary objects with no actors or actresses. He has been invited to the International Forum at the Berliner Festspiele's Theatertreffen and the International Workshop at Mülheimer Theatertage; and completed an internship at Berliner Ensemble. He holds a B.A. in Theater Directing from Universidad de Palermo (Buenos Aires, Argentina), where he currently teaches. He is also a faculty member at the Centro Universitario de Idiomas at Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Aya Nabulsi is an accomplished theater producer and cultural programmer with extensive experience in the arts and culture industry across the Middle East and North Africa. Currently serving as Theater Producer and Programmer at Ithra in Saudi Arabia, Aya brings innovative programming and strategic vision to one of the region's leading cultural institutions.

Aya's career spans diverse roles, including Executive Director at Al Balad Theater in Amman, Senior Arts Manager at Seenaryo, and cultural programming consultant for prominent organizations such as Jack Morton and Tajalla for Arts & Culture. With freelance experience in festival management and a focus on audience engagement, Aya has cultivated a deep understanding of creative processes and cultural programming.

Aya holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts with a focus on TV/Radio/Film and Theatre from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Alongside her professional accomplishments, she has honed her expertise through prestigious training programs in festival management, facilitation skills, and leadership, reflecting a commitment to continuous growth and excellence.

Nikos Mavrakis has worked in cultural management since 2014 and in international relations since 2019. He is the founder and managing director of TooFarEast, an Athens- based company promoting the contemporary performing arts through international projects and tours. He collaborates with directors such as Mario Banushi and Prodromos Tsinikoris, and the choreographers Patricia Apergi, Chara Kotsali, Christiana Kosiari and Panos Malactos. Past collaborations include Romeo Castellucci, Jochen Sandig, Sasha Waltz and Euripides Laskaridis. A graduate of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Goldsmiths University of London, he co-founded OMAZ, a non-for-profit platform supporting Greek artists, and is an alumnus of the Festival Academy and IETM member. In 2024, he joined the Goethe Institut’s Global Cultural Relations Programme and in 2025 he will revive Thessaloniki's experimental Amalia Theatre, supporting and presenting emerging artists.

Simon Abrahams is recognised as one of Australia's arts and cultural leaders, with a practice that explores the intersection of art and civic participation. Since 2015, Simon has served as Creative Director & CEO of Melbourne Fringe. Simon is also a current member of the Creative Workplaces Council, Trustee for the Betty Amsden Foundation and a member of the International Society for the Performing Arts programming committee (New York). He is a life member of Theatre Network Australia, an organisation he co-founded. Simon is known for his expertise on children, young people and the arts, and regularly works as an advisor, facilitator, mentor and arts consultant. Simon has previously served as Head of Programming at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing & Ideas and as Executive Producer and Co-CEO at Polyglot Theatre. In his personal capacity, Simon is a proud foster carer, caring for vulnerable and at-risk children in his home.

Srishti Ray is passionate about all performing arts - music, dance and theatre.

Armed with a masters degree in Arts Management, she is presently an Associate Producer with the Bombay based theatre company QTP Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. She has worked on QTP productions such as Lungs (2022), Lunch Girls (2020), Mother Courage & Her Children (2017), White Rabbit Red Rabbit (2016) and NCPA's The Mirror Crack'd (2020), in various capacities.

She previously led Thespo, QTP’s youth theatre initiative, as a Fellow (2016–2018) and remains an active mentor to the current Thespo Team.

She has worked on festivals and conferences such as Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, Art of the Possible, Love, Sex and Data, and the Architecture and Design Film Festival.

Additionally, she co-authored a chapter in The Routledge Companion’s Theatre & Young People, published in 2023.

Besides her theatre work, she has been trained in Kathak for over 15 years and continues to teach the dance form.

Yuan Zhang is a contemporary performing arts practitioner based in Shanghai whose curatorial practices focus on urgent and genuine performance actions amidst the shifts of the times, as well as the performative body and the dynamics of spectatorship in the context of technological transformation. Over the past decade, he has been active on various international performing arts platforms, facilitating exchanges between diverse cultures while engaging in his own creative works, research, writing, and translation activities.

He has served as the in-house performing arts curator at Ming Contemporary Art Museum and as a theatre producer at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center. In 2020, he participated in the program of Re-writing Theater History, and co-curated 2020: The Whole World Has Become a Theater, an archive exhibition on contemporary performance in China since the late 90’s. From 2015 to 2016, he curated the "Being in Asia" performance project and related publications, initiating conversations between contemporary performing arts practitioners in mainland China and various places across Asia. He is a co-founding member of the inaugural Niao Niao Festival in 2016 and ACT Asia International Theatre Festival in 2005.