Gabriele is an award-winning artist and producer from Italy, working across theatre, film, sound, and curation. Gabriele’s work has been staged internationally including in Japan (Toyooka Theater Festival), Ireland (Dublin Fringe), and in prestigious British venues such as the Barbican and Soho Theatre. Gabriele is the artistic director of Undone Theatre, a company making socially engaged, queer and migrant work. Credits include Edinburgh Fringe sell-out LESSONS ON REVOLUTION (“a five-star paean to the politics of possibility” The Scotsman) and “provocative and thoughtful” (Theatre Weekly) THE BUTTERFLY PROJECT.

Gabriele will be mentored by Robin Belfield.

Betül is an artist based in London and Izmir working across installation, performance, text, video, and printmaking. Her practice examines how language, bureaucracy, and institutional systems shape movement, identity, and belonging. She is founder of sezon, an artist-run space in Izmir, and co-initiator of the Vranofça Archive, focused on migration histories between present-day North Macedonia and Türkiye. Her work has been presented internationally, including at Sharjah Biennial 16, with residencies at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and SAHA Studio.

Betül will be mentored by Inua Ellams.

Rute is a Portuguese-born, London-based director and theatre-maker. She has a strong movement-based practice, and a background in literature, dance and activism. She has an MFA in Advanced Theatre Practice from Central and is an alumna of the Stonecrabs Directors in Practice Programme 2022. She is a co-founder of Popsie Theatre, a collective of queer and international artists making politically-minded, darkly-comedic physical theatre; and of Alento Collective, an interdisciplinary performing arts company making movement and music-driven work.

As director, credits include:  GEORGE (Omnibus Theatre, Royal Theatre Bath, The Lowry);  Felixxx (Drayton Arms Theatre); Mitzi Fitz: Babycakes (VAULT & The Glory); Queendom (Rosemary Branch Theatre).

As performer/co-creator: The Triumph of Death (Theatre Deli & CPT) Not a Girl Not Yet a Woman (Blue Elephant & CPT), ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE? (CPT).

Rute will be mentored by Amit Lahav.

Nobuo is a first-generation migrant theatre practitioner from Japan working across clowning, devised theatre, acting, and applied theatre.

He trained at the New National Theatre Tokyo Drama Studio and holds an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His work explores language barriers, imperfection, East and Southeast Asian heritage and representation, and the live relationship between performer and audience through playful, physical, and intercultural practice. He is a co-founder of SUPER City Clowns, a PoC clown collective.

Nobuo will be mentored by Myanna Buring.

Elisabeth is an award-nominated Belgian-Chinese performer, writer, director and choreographer. They obtained an MFA in Acting at the Guildford School of Acting. Elisabeth loves physical theatre and has a large passion for absurdist, classical and ensemble work. With a Master’s in Art History and a rich background in Classical Music and different performing arts, they draw inspiration from a large range of media and histories for their work. They have recently written their first five-star play, 'Buds, Revolt!'. 

Their recent credits include New Wimbledon Theatre, Hen and Chickens theatre, Baron’s Court, Bread and Roses theatre. 

Elisabeth will be mentored by Nadi Kemp-Sayfi.

Chris is an East Asian writer and performer from Sydney on Gadigal land, Australia.
His play FRANK AND JEN won Soho Theatre's 2026 Tony Craze Award and is in development with Roy Alexander Weise attached to direct. GLOBAL MAJORITY won the inaugural 2026 Ilfeld Prize and will receive its debut London production supported by ACE with Rupert Hands directing. Chris’s actor-muso adaptation of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS will tour the UK in 2026, directed by Tara Noonan. Chris is currently Ransack Theatre’s Associate Artist 26/27.
Chris is the Founder and Director of Fun Guy Theatre, and also of Camino Meets, a free dramaturgical development community for low socioeconomic London playwrights.

Chris will be mentored by Joel Tan.

Tomaž Krajnc is a Slovenian theatre director whose work focuses on identity, power, and the psychology of relationships, often through minimal, actor-led staging. He trained in psychology before completing a master’s degree in directing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Alongside his directing practice, he is developing his own writing, including Semantics, a play examining how language shapes thought, identity, and human connection. He is particularly interested in international collaboration and in creating work that reflects contemporary social questions through diverse perspectives.

Tomaž will be mentored by Jordan Fein.

Jessica is a Swiss-Congolese actress, writer, and theatre-maker. Working across stage and screen, she creates emotionally charged work that blends movement, physical theatre, sharp text, and dark humour. Trained at East 15 Acting School, she is drawn to stories that sit between vulnerability and absurdity, often exploring identity, perception, belonging, and the tension between how we are seen and who we really are. Alongside performing in classical and contemporary work, including at Shakespeare’s Globe, she is developing her own original theatre and screen projects.

Jessica will be mentored by Gabby Wong.

Zidi is a designer and one of the 2025 Linbury Prize Winners. Before moving to the UK, she worked across a wide range of theatre projects in Shanghai, and is now based in London. Her work spans set, lighting, and costume design, continuously exploring ways to approach the stage as an organic whole, bringing different theatrical elements together in innovative ways to create experiences that lift audiences beyond the present. She built a strong foundation in Fine Art at the China Academy of Art before graduating with First Class Honours in Stage Design from the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Most recently, she completed her MA at Central Saint Martins.

Zidi will be mentored by Moi Tran.

Chih-Jou (程之柔) is a Taiwanese movement artist and puppeteer. Her performance credits include Left Hand of Darkness(Tom Lee), RHINOCEROS (by KT Shivak), The Dream King (Teatro Vista), The King and I (Drury Lane), and A Chorus Line as Connie (Metropolis), as well as work with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Roughhouse Theatre, and Chicago International Puppet Fest. Her original works include Hold Your Hand, Above the Water, Lost & Found, and Unfinished Island Songs. Her work has been supported by the Ragdale Foundation, DCASE, and the Chicago Cultural. She is a recipient of the Chicago Arts & Health Pilot for Creative Workers, the Princess Grace Honoraria & Fellowship, and the 3 Arts Award in Dance. 

Chih-Jou will be mentored by Alive David.

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist and designer. He is a Complete Works poet alumni, and facilitates accessible, enjoyable creative writing for participants of all ages and backgrounds. 

His awards include: Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2009, The Liberty Human Rights Award, The Live Canon International Poetry Prize, Magma Poetry Competition, A Black British Theatre Award, The Hay Festival Medal for Poetry, Dora awards for Outstanding Ensemble Performance & Production, and The Alfred Fagon Award 2024.

He has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Tate Modern, Louis Vuitton, BBC Radio & Television. His plays include ‘Black T-shirt Collection’ (Fuel, China Plate, Warwick Arts Centre) ‘The 14th Tale’ (Fuel, Battersea Arts Centre), ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’ (National Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, BAM, A.R.T, Kennedy Center, The Grand Theatre), ‘Three Sisters’ (National Theatre, Soul Pepper, Obsidian Theatre) and ‘The Half God Of Rainfall’ (Fuel, Kiln, New York Theatre Workshop).

MyAnna Buring grew up bilingual (English and Swedish) with Swedish parents while being raised in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman where she attended international schools. She moved to the UK when she was sixteen and has for the last 25 years worked primarily with British production houses. She has featured in independent films such as Ben Wheatley’s Kill List and large studio franchises such as The Twilight Saga. For television she has worked on acclaimed series such as Responder, Ripper Street and Downton Abbey, while on stage she has worked across a variety of theatres such as The Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre, in the West End, and at Theatre 503. While her work has mainly been based in English, she has also acted in Swedish for Norwegian and Swedish TV and film projects. She is a great lover of new writing and strongly believes in the importance of supporting diverse voices within the industry. 

Jordan Fein is a London and New York based theatre and opera director.

Theatre includes Broken Glass at The Young Vic Theatre, Into the Woods at The Bridge,  Fiddler on the Roof at The Barbican, at Regent's Park Open Air, and on UK and Ireland tour (Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival); Dark Disabled Stories at Public Theater and Bushwick Starr (Obie Award for Best New American Play); Rags Parkland Sings The Songs of The Future at Ars Nova (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Musical); Co-Director for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at the Young Vic (Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical), and was Associate Director for the 2019 Broadway revival (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical); Director of The Prologue and Associate Director of Cabaret at the Kit-Kat Club, West End and Broadway (Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical). Opera includes Dialogues of the Carmelites at Opera Philadelphia,  The Marriage of Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia at Curtis Opera Theatre, The Miserly Knight and The Dead City for Bard Summerscape.

Moi Tran is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, cultural worker and educator with a dual practice across contemporary art and design for live performance.

Her design in theatre includes: The Hunger Games (Costume; Runaway, Liongates) Dealer’s Choice, In the Blood (Donmar Warehouse); Moon for the misbegotten; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Costume; Almeida); Why Am I So Single? (Set, West End); The Homecoming (Young Vic); A View from the Bridge (Headlong/ Octagon Theatre, Bolton/ Chichester Festival Theatre/ Rose Theatre Kingston); A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (Headlong/ Barbican); The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe); Henry V (Headlong/ Shakespeare’s Globe); Baghdaddy; Rare Earth Mettle; White Pearl (Royal Court).

Recent art includes: Handling act (Ayala Musuem PH); Anagram Flash Mob (Tekstin Talo HKI); 100days (MoArt VN); Sign Chorus (V&A / National Archives UK); Care Chains Love will continue to resonate (Wellcome Collection UK); Reshaping the Collectible (TATE Modern UK).

Robin Belfield is a theatre director, writer and educator and is currently Associate Director for The Unicorn Theatre.

Directing includes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Unicorn Theatre & The RSC); Anansi the Spider (Unicorn Theatre & Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Twelfth Night or What You Will, Princess Essex (Shakespeare’s Globe); Puss in Boots, Mother Goose (Theatre Royal Winchester); Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Sapho and Phao (The RSC); Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Arabian Nights, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island (Watermill Theatre).

 Writing/Dramaturgy includes: Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale (Tobacco Factory Theatres Bristol); Puss in Boots, Mother Goose (Theatre Royal Winchester) Romeo and Juliet, 37Plays project (The RSC); Hibiscus Hotel, Dat Bahamian Ting (Yellowtale Theatre, The Bahamas).

Nadi Kemp-Sayfi is a queer performer and dramaturg from Egypt. They were born in Cairo, and spent much of their upbringing living around the world, from Hungary to Fiji, Oman to Sri Lanka.

Nadi has spent 14 years in the UK working as an actor, movement practitioner, and creative consultant. They joined the Globe Ensemble in 2021 and is now an Associate Artist at Shakespeare’s Globe, as well as an Associate Learning Practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company. They are company members of Artists on the Frontline and KIT Theatre. 

Acting credits include Cymbeline, The Hakawatis, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeares Globe); Julius Caesar, The Whip, A Museum in Baghdad and King John (RSC); Sherlock Holmes (Regents Park), Macbeth (Donmar Warehouse).

Amit Lahav is the Artistic Director of Gecko. Born in Israel into a mixed Jewish family, Amit grew up between cultures and languages — an experience that has profoundly shaped his artistic voice and his lifelong engagement with questions of identity, home, migration and belonging.

Productions including The Arab and the Jew, The Overcoat, Missing, Institute, The Wedding, Kin and From Here On explore racism, displacement, nationalism, mental health, and the fragile human need to belong. Amit trained as a physical theatre performer and worked with pioneers across dance, visual and physical theatre before establishing Gecko. He has performed in all of Gecko’s productions and continues to lead the company’s creative process as director, writer and choreographer.

Amit is deeply committed to nurturing artists from varied backgrounds and building creative environments where difference is not only welcomed, but essential.

Joel Tan is a Singaporean playwright based between London and Singapore.

In Singapore, his plays have been produced by leading theatre companies like Checkpoint Theatre, Wild Rice, and Pangdemonium, and several are available in a collection, Joel Tan Plays Volume 1, published by Checkpoint Theatre.

Recent work in the UK includes: Scenes from a Repatriation (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2025); No Particular Order (Theatre 503, London, 2022); When The Daffodils (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2021); Living Newspaper with the Royal Court Theatre; Overheard, and Augmented Chinatown with Chinese Arts Now.

His play Love in the Time of the Ancients was a finalist for the 2019 Papatango Prize, and No Particular Order was shortlisted for Theatre 503's 2018 Playwriting Award.

Gabby Wong is a Hong Kong–born, UK-based actor and writer working across stage, screen and audio for over 15 years. She is widely known for playing Yuk Je in the Netflix series 1899 and rebel pilot Wona Goban in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Her screen work also includes KAOS (Netflix), Criminal Record (Apple TV+), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Strangers (ITV) and Unprecedented (BBC/Headlong).

Gabby studied Politics at Bath University before training at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, drawn to storytelling as a way of exploring and commenting on political ideas. She has worked extensively in theatre with companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Court Theatre, Kiln Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East. Her stage credits include Pericles, Troilus and Cressida, The Jew of Malta, Volpone and Love’s Sacrifice (RSC), Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre), Macbeth and Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe), Shanghai Dolls (Kiln Theatre), Life of Pi (Sheffield Crucible), The Duchess of Malfi (Citizens Theatre), Pah-La and Maryland (Royal Court Theatre) and Doctor Faustus in the West End.

Alongside acting, she is a writer and theatre-maker. She is an alumna of the Royal Court Theatre Writers’ Group and a founding member of Papergang Theatre, a collective created to champion British East and Southeast Asian voices in new writing.

Aline David is a choreographer and movement director whose work blends contemporary dance, physical theatre, and cinematic storytelling. She began dancing at an early age, inspired by her mother, a dance teacher, which fostered a deep and lasting connection to movement. Aline trained at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg in France where she studied ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance, developing a versatile and expressive movement language.
She made her professional debut at the Royal Court Theatre, contributing movement direction to the play Gone Too Far! followed by The Brothers Size at the Young Vic. She has since collaborated with leading institutions including the National Theatre, where she has supported actors in developing physical language, character embodiment, and ensemble movement within large-scale productions.
Aline’s work is attentive to space, using it as an active partner in performance. She explores how bodies move through, inhabit, and transform environments, creating dynamic relationships between performers and their surroundings.
Across her practice, she is drawn to storytelling through the body, crafting nuanced, emotionally resonant movement that supports character and narrative across theatre, film, and visual arts.