ALEXANDRE PIERONI CALADO
Axis 1 - Module 1 - History and Aesthetics of the Stage (20th-21st centuries)
Born in Lisbon, he dedicates himself to theatrical creation and research, currently serving as an Invited Adjunct Professor at the Lisbon School of Theatre and Cinema. His work has focused on a cycle of research, creation, and dissemination projects centered around the roots of violence in the Greco-Latin cultural matrix, resulting in shows such as Lebre (2022), A Parede (2019), A Morte nos Olhos (2018), and O Declive e a Inclinação (2016). He also created Kaspar: Palavra Soprada (2017) and A Arte Degenera à Medida que se Aproxima do Teatro (2017), in addition to a series of recreations of 20th-century Portuguese stagings, such as Dramas de Princesas. A Morte e a Donzela (2015), Woyzeck 1978 (2014), Quarteto (2013), and Pregação (2012).
Holding a degree in Theatre from ESTC (2007) and a PhD in Performing Arts from ECA/USP (2011), he taught at the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema and at the University of Évora, also collaborating with several technical schools. He is a member of the Research Centre in Arts and Communication and has developed editorial work and published articles in the areas of actor theory, training processes and genetic criticism.
ELLEN LAUREN
Axis 3 - Module 4 - Suzuki & Viewpoints
Ellen Lauren has been a faculty member in the Drama Department at The Juilliard School since 1995, where she teaches Suzuki Training and has directed Ellen McLaughlin's Iphigenia and Other Sisters. She is a founding member and co-artistic director of the SITI Company (Saratoga International Theater Institute), created by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki.
As a performer and creator, she has participated in numerous productions by the SITI Company, including Persians, Trojan Women, Radio Macbeth, Hotel Cassiopeia, War of the Worlds, and Orestes. She is a regular guest artist at several international institutions, including the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts (Helsinki), UCLA, and the University of Windsor, and has also been a faculty member at Columbia University and Fordham University.
He is an Associate Artist with the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), under the direction of Tadashi Suzuki, with whom he has collaborated for decades, notably for his work as a performer in Dionysus. He has performed on important international stages and festivals, such as the Moscow Art Theatre, Toga International Festival, Theatre Olympics, Buenos Aires Festival, Vienna Festival, and Hong Kong Festival.
She was awarded the Fox Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement (2008–2010), published in American Theatre Magazine, and is featured in the Modern Masters series dedicated to Anne Bogart. She is currently developing the book The Invisible Body, about her experience with the Suzuki Company.
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JOÃO BRITES
Axis 1 - Module 2 - Fundamentals of Staging
Axis 3 - Module 1 - Theatricality
João Brites (Torres Novas, 1947) is a director, dramaturgist, set designer and founder of Teatro O Bando, recognized as a central figure in contemporary Portuguese theatre. Trained in visual arts in Belgium, where he lived as a political refugee between 1967 and 1974, he developed a career marked by collective creation, scenic experimentation and the relationship between theatre, community and territory.
Throughout his career, he was involved in the creation of several associative structures and festivals linked to the performing arts and directed the Shows Unit of EXPO'98. As an artistic director, he stood out for adapting non-dramatic texts, creating unique characters, and inventing scenic devices installed in unconventional spaces, accumulating several awards and distinctions, including the rank of Commander of the Order of Merit (1999).
He was a professor of acting at the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema (1989–2014), where he developed the CAC methodological system – Actor's Awareness on Stage – centered on the idea of the actor-artist and on working with lived experience, concrete sensation, inner dialogue, and the articulation between interiority, orality, and corporeality. In parallel, he has promoted theoretical and editorial reflection on theatre, collective creation, and artistic practices, consolidating a significant legacy in the Portuguese theatre scene.
JOÃO CABRAL
Axis 3 - Module 3 - Introduction to the Actor's Work
João Cabral was born in 1961 in São Miguel. He holds a degree in theatre from the National Conservatory of Lisbon (1980-85) and a master's degree in Theatre from ESAD (2010-12). He began his career as an actor in 1982. His television work includes productions such as “Mau Tempo no Canal”, “A Banqueira do Povo”, “Jornalistas”, “A Mulher Do Ministro”, and “Jura”. In film, he has participated in movies by João Canijo, Rosa Coutinho Cabral, Fernando Lopes, Jorge António, Fernando Matos Silva, Francisco Manso, Maria Schraeder, among others. In theatre, he has participated in plays directed by Mário Feliciano, Rosa Coutinho Cabral, Carlos Avilez, Paula Sá Nogueira, Diogo Dória, José António Pires, Rodrigo Francisco, Jorge Ribeiro, Carla Bolito, and Álvaro Correia, among others. He directed and staged the ISCSP Theatre Group and the Ultimato University Theatre Group of FPCEUL for several years, with a presence at FATAL. He was a teacher of Dramatic Expression, Interpretation, Movement, Voice, and Dramaturgy at the Passos Manuel Secondary School. He was part of the dubbing teams for Teresa Madruga, Teresa Sobral, and Cláudia Cadima.
JOSÉ MANUEL CASTANHEIRA
Axis 2 - Module 1 - Theatre: A Place to Transform Time
José Manuel Castanheira was born in Castelo Branco. A set designer, architect, and painter, he holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Architecture in Lisbon, where he has taught since 1982. With a widely recognized international career—reinforced by a retrospective dedicated by the Centre Pompidou in Paris—he has created more than 400 set designs in Portugal and abroad, collaborating with over a hundred directors, choreographers, and filmmakers, most notably his long partnership with Rogério de Carvalho.
A member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Performing Arts of Spain, he was one of the founders of the Portuguese Association of Scenography. His work has been presented in several international retrospectives and distinguished with various honors and awards, including the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Ministry of Culture (2025).
Starting from the theater, he develops a multifaceted activity in the areas of exhibition and museology scenography, theatrical architecture, painting and design, combining artistic creation, research and pedagogy. In cinema, he designed the scenography for the film Vai e Vem (2002), by João César Monteiro, and, in the field of theatrical architecture, he participated in several rehabilitation and consulting projects.
Author of several books and essays, he has developed an intense international activity as a lecturer and trainer, serving on academic juries and collaborating with artistic and university institutions.
JULIANA PINHO
Axis 3 - Module 1 - Theatricality
Born in 1984 in the district of Aveiro, she began her theatrical career in the associative movement and amateur theatre. She graduated in Biology and Geology from the University of Aveiro and, later, in Theatre – Acting branch, from the Higher School of Theatre and Cinema in Lisbon. She also attended a year of the Actor Training course at the Evoé Theatre School. Between 2013 and 2022 she was part of the permanent team of Teatro O Bando, where she performed various functions — assistant director, production, actor training — becoming an artistic collaborator in 2015 and a member of the cooperative's board between 2018 and 2022. Since
In 2013, she joined the training team at Teatro O Bando and, in 2023, took over the management of professional actor training – Actor's Awareness on Stage. As a cooperating actress at Teatro O Bando, she has developed creative projects with a strong community dimension. As a director, she stands out for her work in shows aimed at children and young people, in collaboration with various national and international institutions. Since 2022, she has also worked as an independent artist, collaborating on and directing participatory theatre projects.
They promote the creation and active involvement of the community, integrating non-professional participants in artistic co-creation processes that value the diversity of experiences and collective construction in a common territory: the Theatre.
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ROCIO MATOSAS
Axis 2 - Module 2 - Lighting and Light Design
Rocío Matosas is a multidisciplinary artist, art director, and performing arts instructor. She has worked in set design, costume design, and lighting since 1996, with an international career in Europe and America.
She is a member of the Corredor Cultural Association in the Azores, where she is co-artistic director and technical director of the POP Festival – Festival of Arts and Crafts of the Performing Arts, coordinating residencies in set design and costume design.
She develops workshops, seminars, and creative labs. Throughout her career, she has received international awards, including the HOLA Award (New York), the Hugo Award (Buenos Aires), and recognition at European festivals.
TIAGO DE FARIA
Axis 1 - Module 1 - History and Aesthetics of the Stage (20th-21st centuries)
Axis 1 - Module 3 - Dramaturgy and Scenic Composition
Portuguese director, choreographer, trainer, and university professor with an international career since 1998, combining artistic creation, research, and new technologies across academic, professional, and community contexts. A graduate in Acting from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, he specialized in actor training, contemporary dance, and stage movement at London institutions including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Master’s), London Contemporary Dance School (Postgraduate Diploma), Trinity Laban, Khatak, and Butoh.
A university lecturer since 1999 (CSSD, RADA, University of Évora), he served as scientific coordinator at the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and directed CEPIA in Évora, integrating creation, training, and performance research through an international summer school and multidisciplinary festival. Awarded at festivals in Spain and Morocco, he stands out for his work as director/choreographer of Julieta with music by António Victorino D’Almeida (2010) and Ouço-te na Sombra da Praça Vazia Mas Não Sei de Ti (POP Festival, 2023).
Founder of Teatro Manga (A Sacalina, 2019; Emigrantes, 2022), he has developed participatory projects such as the adaptation of Migrantes with students (2022–2023). He is a guest dramaturg of Associação 442Hz (As Estrelas Também Morrem, 2024). Certified trainer since 2001 in acting, movement, directing, history/aesthetics of the performing arts, and writing.
He remains committed to research through practice, exploring movement, directing, choreography, performance, and writing, with a focus on art and activism, aesthetics, and citizenship.
TONY DE MAEYER
Axis 3 - Module 2 - Biomechanics
The Belgian film and theater actor was born in Brussels and studied at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in
Antwerp under Ivo Van Hove. He then continued his studies in workshops led by Luk Perceval, Minako Seki, Enrique Vargas, Thierry Salmon, and others.
In 1996, he met Gennadi N. Bogdanov in Berlin (lecturer in Biomechanics at the former GITIS in Moscow). This marked the beginning of an extremely intensive collaboration that enabled him to apply Meyerhold's Biomechanics principles in practice. As an expert in Biomechanics according to Meyerhold,
he has worked for years at various national theaters throughout Germany, providing artistic and choreographic support for their productions, including those of Christian von Treskow, Dimiter Gottschef,
and Youri Pogrebnitchko.
For many years, De Maeyer has taught and led Biomechanics workshops at theater schools both in Germany and abroad, including the University of the Arts (UdK), the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, the Academy of Performing Arts (AdK) in Ludwigsburg, and the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts (HMDK). He also trains theater ensembles in the principles of Biomechanics.
Since 2018, De Maeyer has regularly collaborated as a choreographer with director Luise Voigt, including on the "Faust"-nominated production of "The Master and Margarita" (M. Bulgakov) at the German National Theater in Weimar and on "Senora Carrar's Riffles / Choking Lead," (B. Brecht / B. Deigner) which was invited to the 2025 Berlin Festival 'Theatertreffen'.
