Fondazione Scientific Committee

President: Ariane Mnouchkine (France)

Theatre and film director. In 1964, after attending the Jacques Lecoq School, she created the Théâtre du Soleil, a theatre collective still active today. She has translated and staged various Shakespeare plays, collaborating with Hélène Cixous for plays and films. She has a professorship in artistic creation at the Collège de France, and two H.C. from the University of Rome (2005) and Oxford (2008). European Theatre Prize (1987), Ibsen Prize (2009) and Goethe Medal (2011).

Patricia Ariza (Colombia)

Founding member of Teatro La Candelaria, actress, director, poet, playwright and activist for peace and women’s movement. She is active in the production, direction and organisation of performances and other activities in support of young people, prostitutes, drug addicts, and people displaced by war. Patricia Ariza founded the Corporación Colombiana de Teatro whose artistic, cultural and social projects promote theatre, peace and human rights. She is part of The Magdalena Project network and since 2006 she has organised the Magdalena Antigona Festival in Bogotá as well as the Women for Peace Festival.

Nora Amin (Egypt)

Egyptian writer, performer, choreographer and director. She began her professional career as a member of the modern dance company at the Cairo Opera House (1993/94), and performed as a leading actress at the Hanager Arts Center until 2002. In 2000 she founded La Musica, an independent theatre group in Cairo. She has published two novels and four collections of short stories.

Patrick Campbell (United Kingdom)

Actor, director and professor of contemporary theatre and performance at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is a member of Cross Pollination, an open and nomadic laboratory for dialogue between theatre practices, and is Associate Editor of the Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies. Patrick began doing theatre as a child in Coventry with Carran Waterfield.

Parvathy Baul (India)

West Bengal singer, painter and storyteller. Her encounter with the Baul living tradition led her to choose a Baul self-taught condition rather than an institutional degree. Since 1995 she has performed in her home state of Bengal, throughout India and at various international festivals. In 2012 Parvathy Baul organised India’s first women’s theatre festival, Tantidhatri, in connection with The Magdalena Project. Since 2021 she organises the Baul Mela on-line.

Claudio La Camera (Italy)

Adviser for prevention and international cooperation programmes, he has worked in many emergency areas around the world for the United Nations and for third sector organisations. He founded Teatro Proskenion and Linea Trasversale theatre network, and from 1996 to 2010 he organised the activities of the University of Eurasian Theatre directed by Eugenio Barba.