FELLOWSHIPS AND RESIDENT ARTISTS
fellows
Each year the IAB is delighted to offer a Fellowship Award to colleagues from academia and the professional world. They have each contributed to the student experience or the development of the IAB itself. We sincerely thank them for their involvement with and continuing supports of the IAB.
Drew Mulligan
This year we would like to congratulate Drew Mulligan on his new role as Senior Fellow
Giovanni Meloa
in recognition of his services to Italian and World Theatre
Esteve Soler
in recognition of his services to Catalunya and World Theatre.
Mark Featherstone Witty
in recognition of his services to the Performing Arts and Performing Arts Education.
Jasmin Vardimon
in recognition of her services to the Dance and Performing Arts Education.
John Godber
Andrew McKinnon
in recognition of his services to the UK and World Theatre.
RESIDENTS ARTISTS
Culture Moves Europe (28 October to 1st December 2024)
Marta Keller
Dance Artist and Performer
Artist in Residence
Culture Moves Europe
28th October – 1st December 2024
Short bio/CV
Marta Keller has a solid background in dance, physical theatre, contact improvisation, floorwork, and ballet. She obtained a BA with First Class Honours in Dance from the Institute of the Arts Barcelona in June 2021, after graduating in 2015 from the Leading Universal Division of Teaching in their Choreographic Composition program.
Since 2014, Marta has curated the staging for the a cappella vocal band Spritz for Five, choreographing not only for dancers but also for vocal performers. As a dancer, she has performed with Schuko and Compagnia Arteffetto. Additionally, she has experience working in entertainment, writing, and organizing staff for art festivals and dance competitions, and has directed and assisted directors in drama, physical theatre, and video projects.
Marta’s passion for experimentation keeps her open to a variety of influences, from somatic practices like yoga and Feldenkrais to commercial dance styles like waacking, voguing, and heels. She continually seeks new inspiration by training in different contemporary dance styles, with her most recent experiences including work with Compagnia Zappalà Danza, Alessio Di Stefano, and Tanz Company Gervasi.
Avra Sidiropoulou
Artistic Director of Persona Theatre Company, Director, Associate Professor and Dean at the Open University of Cyprus
Artist in Residence
Culture Moves Europe
28th October – 1st December 2024
Short bio/CV
Avra Sidiropoulou is the Artistic Director of Persona Theatre Company. She has published extensively on directing theory and practice, contemporary performance and dramaturgy and is the author of Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method, (Routledge 2018) and Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre, (Palgrave Macmillan 2011). She is also the co-editor of Adapting Greek Tragedy. Contemporary Contexts for Ancient Texts (CUP 2021) and editor of Staging 21st century Tragedies. Theatre, Politics and Global Crisis (Routledge 2022) and co-editor of a special issue in Contemporary Director Training in the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training Journal.
Her main areas of scholarly specialization include directing theory, the ethics of adaptation, contemporary dramaturgy and practice as research. She was a Visiting Scholar at 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. Her theatre company has received state subsidy and funding from several private foundations, as well as the E.U. 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).
Οther directing works: A Lover’s Melancholy. J. Ford. (Work in Progress). Dancehouse Lefkosia (Nicosia, Cyprus, December 2014); Someone’s Going to Come. J. Fosse. Versus Theatre. Theatre Ena. (Nicosia and Limassol, Cyprus, November 2013-January 2014), Maria Borisova. Based on F. Dostoyevsky’s novella A Meek Girl. Studio Mavromihali. (Athens, Greece, September 2012); Tell-Tale Hearts: The (Un) Told Stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Vafopouleio Cultural Center. (Thessaloniki, Greece, June 2010); Hellenic-American Union (Athens, Greece, October 2010), And God Said. A Parable. Co-produced by Persona Theatre Company and Garajistanbul. Garajistanbul Theatre. (Istanbul, Turkey, April 2009). Invited participation at the 28th Fadjr International Theatre Festival. Sangelaj Hall. (Tehran, Iran, January 2010), Leftovers: Memories are Killing (based on S. Beckett’s novella “The Expelled” –Thessaloniki, 2005); 2012); Clytemnestra’s Tears. Produced by Persona Theatre Company, supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Hellenic Culture Organisation, The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Organisation and the Ioannis F. Costopoulos Foundation. Performed by Themis Bazaka. La MaMa ETC (New York, U.S.A., May-June 2007); Dipylon Theatre (Athens, Greece, April-May 2004); Trilingual production Clytemnestra’nin Gozyaslari/ Clytemnestra’s Tears/Ta Δάκρυα της Κλυταιμνήστρας funded by the European Union within the framework of the micro-project programme for the promotion of Greek-Turkish civic dialogue. Tiyatro Oyunevi ISM2. (Istanbul, Turkey, June 2004.) Official participation in the 40th International Arts Festival “Dimitria” of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. (Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2005). In 2020 she was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women.
Claudio Boschi
Director, Actor, Voice Artist, Playwright
Artist in Residence
Culture Moves Europe
28th October – 1st December 2024
Short bio/CV
Claudio Boschi is an Italian director, actor, voice artist and playwright based in Rome. He graduated from the University of Naples “Federico II”, then obtained a diploma in dubbing, and underwent training with artists such as Orlando Cinque, Argentinian director Agostina Luz Lopez – in the international programme of Betsud Beyond The South –, and others.
After various television experiences, including “La squadra”, “Il Commissario Rex”, and recently “Mina Settembre”, as well as cinematic (“Martin Eden” by Pietro Marcello) and radio work as a voice actor, he has almost entirely dedicated himself to theater and live performance, an artistic dimension in which he is most involved.
Over the years, he has worked on many shows, exploring different paths that have led him to tackle both the repertoire of classical theater and contemporary Italian and foreign dramaturgy, with particular attention to popular theater. Always very attentive to the formative phase of the actor, he has perfected his skills in various master classes focused on acting work, voice use, text reading and interpretation, thus demonstrating a keen interest in study and research.
Active as a director as well as an actor, in 2018 he signed his first foreign direction with “Children are Children”, an international project on “Filumena Marturano” based on the English translations by Eric Bentley and Carlo Ardito. The project was sponsored by the International Network of Italian Theatres.
Among his credits, he has been featured several times at prestigious festivals such as the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia, with shows including “Stasera c’è spettacolo? To play” and as the protagonist of “Celeste” by Fabio Pisano, presented at the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia 2018 and in various venues including the Teatro Bellini in Naples.
In 2021, he starred in the award-winning short film “Amarena”. He collaborates regularly with the award-winning playwright Fabio Pisano, winner of the Hystrio Award and finalist for the Riccione Prize. He published the play “Scacco” and he is working at the moment on a authored monologue play dedicated to Ernest Hemingway.
João Pecegueiro
Actor, Playwright, Lighting/Video Designer
Artist in Residence
Culture Moves Europe
28th October – 1st December 2024
Short bio/CV
João Pecegueiro holds a Master of Arts with distinction from Liverpool John Moores University (2022; Academic Award). Professional Theater School of Cascais (2017). Post-Graduate Degree in Media, Technology & Performance at the School of Higher Education in Theater and Cinema, Lisbon (2023; Next Level Higher Education for All Merit Scholarship).
He is light and video designer at A BARACCA Theatre in Lisbon.
He develops work in the performing arts, in both creative and technical fields. As an artist, he has combined original texts with new technologies, utilizing design and real-time manipulation tools, as well as interactive systems, complementing traditional spaces and conventions, in pursuit of a symbiosis between these aspects in the shows and performances he creates.
He has signed the creations, text, and design of “Basic Notions of Theatre Very Well Explained #1: Character,” “The Hospital Receptionist and his Wife,” “Freya’s Story to an Unborn Baby and an Audience,” and “Why Doesn’t the Madman Dance?”, premiered in Barcelona, and “Hay Copistas en el Prado” and “AUDIÇÕES um manual de sobrevivência – considerando A Arte de Resolver Homicídios Depois de os Planear,” premiered in Lisbon.
He has collaborated with companies such as the Experimental Theatre of Cascais, Comuna – Theater of Research, La Tristura, La Petite Mort, Marionet Teatro, Foco Lunar, A Barraca; and with directors such as Carlos Avilez, João Mota, Beatriz Batarda, Rodrigo Aleixo, Lucas França, Drew Mulligan, Violeta Gil, Celso Giménez, Sara Mérida, Oscar Valsecchi, Diogo Bento, Inês Vaz, Martin Lewton, Vasco Letria, and Maria do Céu Guerra.
He was an assistant director for the shows “Penetrador” (Rodrigo Aleixo, 2018), and “Hipotenusa” (João Henriques, 2018).
He received additional training with Daniel Wetzel (Rimini Protokoll), Molly Taylor-Taylor, Pep Garcia-Pascual, Jorge Silva Melo, Mario Biagini, Hajo Schüler, José Manuel Castanheira, Ayse Tashkiran, Cathleen McCarron, Pascal Rambert, Diogo Bento, Cláudia Jardim, Ricardo Neves-Neves, Miguel Loureiro, André de Campos, and Nuno Cardoso, among others.
He is currently preparing to participate as actor in the rehearsal of the 24-hour durational performance “The Second Woman” (created by Nat Randall & Anna Breckon), premiering in July at the Grec Festival in Barcelona.
Livia Massarelli
Dance Artist, Teacher, Researcher, Holistic Coach
Artist in Residence
Culture Moves Europe
28th October – 1st December 2024
Short bio/CV
Livia Massarelli (1991) is a multifaceted dance artist and expert in meditation and coaching. She works internationally as a performer, choreographer, teacher, researcher, and holistic coach.
In 2020, Livia obtained an MA in Performance from London Contemporary Dance School. In 2017, she performed with the international touring dance company EDGE17 based at The Place (London) and graduated as a postgraduate student from London Contemporary Dance School. In 2013, she graduated with honors from The National Dance Academy of Rome, and in 2015, she completed the professional course at RIDA (Rome International Dance Academy), directed by Sara Lourenco and Andrea Palombi. She has studied and worked with renowned artists, participating in workshops and festivals such as Impulztanz, Biennale Danza, Festival Dei Due Mondi, and Dance Umbrella.
She has created works for diverse spaces, including stages, art galleries, museums, and public spaces such as bridges and fortresses. Livia has collaborated with many artists, including visual artists, musicians, composers, and technology experts like engineers and computer scientists.
Livia has performed nationally and internationally in acclaimed works by Dora Frankel Dance Company, Edge Company, BarberDance, SkogDans, and as part of “The Grain” project with Avant Garde Dance Company. She has performed in Italy, the UK, Scotland, Austria, Germany, and Portugal, in choreographies by Shobana Jeyasingh, Tony Adigun, Patricia Okenwa, Allen and Karen Kaeja, Emanuel Gat, Claudia Castellucci, Malou Airaudo, Rodolfo Leoni, Sara Lourenco, Andrea Palombi, Francesca Lombardo, Ricky Bonavita, and Giovanna Velardi.
Livia has collaborated as a performer in multidisciplinary performances both on stage and in site-specific locations. She was also part of the company “SineNomine”, composed of free artists and prisoners of Maiano Prison (IT), directed by Giorgio Flamini.
Livia’s works combine intellectual research and visceral physicality. She is passionate about collaborations between different artists and explores movement as a unique way to connect with people and stimulate critical thinking. Her works have been performed at venues such as The Place Theatre (London, UK), Caos Centre (Terni, Italy), Tripspace (London, UK), Casa des Artes (Porto, Portugal), The Blue Elephant Theatre (London, UK), Ruskaja Theatre (Rome, Italy), Sala Frau (Spoleto, Italy), and The Italian Parliament in Rome (on behalf of The National Dance Academy of Rome).
Her solo “Lichtspiel Dance” was selected for the festival “Nutrimenti 2011”, and her choreographies have been presented at festivals such as “Terni Festival 2018” (IT), “Resolution Festival 2018-2019” (UK), “Prospettiva Nevskij 2018” (IT), “Terni Festival 2015” (IT), “Festival Arte E Scienza 2014” (IT), and “The Play Space 2017” (UK).
