International Guests

Idan Amit is a graduate of the theatre department at Marymount Manhattan College, New York, and Tel Aviv University’s art faculty. He is an Israeli director, playwright, actor, teacher, translator and lyricist with over 25 years of experience in various aspects of theatre-making, and has worked on over 50 productions of shows, plays, ceremonies and award shows.
Amit specializes in adapting literature for the stage and directing shows for children as well as plays with many participants. He has worked as an associate and assistant director for acclaimed Israeli and international directors and is an experienced drama and acting teacher for young adults and children. From 2017-2021, he served as the secretary of Assitej Israel.

Veerle Kerckhoven (born in 1972) studied Romance languages and literature at Leuven University and obtained her master’s degree in theatre studies in 1994. Veerle started her professional life by teaching French at Sint-Niklaas Institute in Anderlecht. A school project brought her into contact with BRONKS and Oda Van Neygen, then the artistic manager, asked her to come and work there. Veerle started at BRONKS in 2004, assuming responsibility for international relations and networking. A few years later, she had the opportunity to lead various BRONKS productions and coordinated the art education initiative STUDIO BRONKS. In 2014, she assumed artistic management of the house.

Born in 1961
Educated as an actor at the Danish National Theatre School
Diploma in cultural management, Danish Development Centre for Performing Arts

1987 – 1999: Freelance actor in films, television, theatre for adults as well as theatre for children and teens
2000 – 2007: Managing director of Riddersalen, a small municipal theatre for children and adults in Copenhagen.
2005 – 2007: Chairman of the Danish Children’s Theatre Organisation.
2006 – 2015: Chairman of the board at Danish Development Centre for Performing Arts, Odsherred Theatre School
2007 –: CEO of Teatercentrum, a competence centre for the dissemination of children’s and youth theatre and organiser of the Danish Aprilfestival of theatre for young audiences.
2010 – 2014: Member of the advisory board at Danish National School of Performing Arts
2012 - : Chairman of the board at Scenit, an organisation for promoting sales, visibility, access to and documentation of performing arts.

Lovro Krsnik obtained his master’s degree in theatre directing and radio broadcasting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia (2018). He works as a teacher at Private High School for the Arts.

His directing credits include:
Drama: It Could Be Said That Way, Sector 24/1 and 24/2, How to Get Rid of Your Better Half, House Arrest, Tesla-Mind from the Future, Godfather. Rooster. Offender., Let the Good Fortune Always Be on Your Side, Hamlet for You.
Dance theatre: The Doors of Perception, Moved Area, Conversation with a Mark, Paulina & the Great World, Love Fugue for Two Actors.
Children’s theatre: Expelling of the Wicked Monster, Kerempuh.

Erwin Maas is a NYC-based international theatre-maker, curator and educator from the Netherlands. He is the co-founding director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange, fellowship director for International Performing Arts for Youth and programming director of the off-Broadway Origin Theatre Company. Erwin teaches at CUNY Brooklyn College’s MFA performance & interactive media arts programme and is a core member of Theater Without Borders, Georgetown University’s The Lab and the Netherland-America Foundation Cultural Committee. He serves on the artistic advisory board of ISSUE Project Room Brooklyn, First Nation Spiderwoman Theater and DecadesOut, an organisation at the intersection of arts and science policy.
www.erwinmaas.com

Iwona Nowacka (1980) is a translator and curator. She has translated plays for children, teens and adults, including works by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Falk Richter, Carsten Brandau, Katja Brunner, Bonn Park, Milo Rau, Sibylle Berg and Kristo Šagor. She has been awarded many scholarships and grants, most recently the Toledo Mobility Fund residency in Munich in September 2020. She has curated many theatre projects and events, including a festival of German-language drama for young people at Teatr Dramatyczny in Wałbrzych, which celebrated its third edition in 2018. She is also part of the independent performance collective Turkowski & Nowacka.

Giovanna Palmieri is a theatre organiser and instructor. She attended theatre school in Bologna in the 1980s and soon began cooperating on the productions of several theatre companies in Emilia-Romagna. Since 1995, she has collaborated with institutions from the Autonomous Province of Trento and the cultural services centre of S. Chiara/ Trento.
Her strengths lie in organising productions, events and instructional projects for children, youth and educators.
From March 2013 to March 2020, she served as president of Assitej Italy. Since 2016, she has been the artistic director of Y Generation Festival, an international dance and theatre festival for children and young people in Trento/Italy. During the past two years, she has assumed responsibility for programme planning at the association Coordinamento Teatrale Trentino. She is one of the founding members of YDN (Young Dance Network).

Actress, psychologist, Master in Law and Public Policy for Children and Youth.
Founder and director of the company La Negra María Teatro.
Executive director of FITA CHILE Ibero-American Showcase of Performing Arts for Children and Youth.
Former president of the children’s and youth performing arts association TE VEO ASSITEJ CHILE, 2016-2019.
Professional with more than 12 years of experience in project management, design, leadership and team development of artistic creation projects in addition to the direction and production of festivals, national and international tours, audience outreach, conferences, seminars and workshops, among others.

Rob Vriens (1962) is a freelance theatre director. He has worked with various groups in Holland, Belgium and Germany. From 2004-2020, he served as resident director at Theaterhaus Ensemble in Frankfurt am Main, where he directed 30 productions. His work is acclaimed for its ease as well as its powerfully emotional style. Vriens lives and works in Amsterdam.

Aysel Yıldırım (Turkey) works as a professional performer, playwright and director at Boğaziçi Performing Arts Ensemble. She studied translation & interpreting at BU and has an MA in feminist theatre. Her recent directing credits include plays such as “Zabel” and “Lâl Hayal”. In 2018, “Zabel” earned her four national awards as Best Actress of the Year and Best Playwright of the Year. During the pandemic, she directed and performed in the digital theatre series “A Covid Case for Each Day”, “Inside Out” and “Polychrome Portraits”. She is pursuing further studies in theatre for young audiences online in addition to producing YouTube videos with and for young people. 

I am a theatre director for children and teens. I dedicate all my creative power and enthusiasm to ensuring that children and young people receive the high-quality, professional theatre that they deserve.
My current endeavours include staging children’s and youth theatre productions in my own company and organising the Valmiera Summer Theatre Festival, which is dedicated to children’s and youth theatre.
I am also actively involved in the Children’s and Youth Theatre Institute, which operates under the auspices of Valmiera Summer Theatre Festival and prepares young theatre artists to work with children and young people.