ERIK EHN is a playwright, educator and theorist of contemporary theater. The former dean of theater at CalArts, the California Institute of Arts, he is the former head of playwriting and professor of theatre and performance studies at Brown University. His published works include The Saint Plays, Beginner, and 13 Christs. /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Ehn

CATHERINE FILLOUX is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for over twenty-five years.  Her plays have been produced around the U.S. and internationally.  Catherine has been honored with the 2019 Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship; the 2017 Otto René Castillo Award for Political Theatre; and the 2015 Planet Activist Award.  Filloux is the librettist for four produced operas, the most recent with composer Olga Neuwirth for Orlando, at the Vienna State Opera.  Her new musical, Welcome to the Big Dipper (composer Jimmy Roberts, and co-book writer John Daggett) was a 2018 National Alliance for Musical Theatre finalist and received a workshop at the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, New York.  www.catherinefilloux.com

ROBERTA LEVITOW (TWB Director) directed over fifty productions in NYC, LA, and nationally; worked for 15 years as the Senior Program Associate/International with the Sundance Institute Theatre Program’s East Africa and Middle East North Africa initiatives; co-founded and directs Theatre Without Borders: co-instigator of The Acting Together Project with the Peacebuilding and the Arts Program at Brandeis University and The Climate Change Theatre Action with The Arctic Cycle. She is a Fulbright Ambassador Emerita with Fulbright grants in Hong Kong, Romania, Uganda and Ethiopia. www.robertalevitow.com

CORE MEMBERS, 2003-present:

Marcy Arlin is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Robert Ascher (University of Iowa) is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Daniel Banks (TWB Associate Director) is a director, deviser, and dance dramaturg. He has directed at National Theatre of Uganda; Belarussian National Drama Theatre; Market Theatre Lab, South Africa; Playhouse Square, Cleveland; HERE Arts Center, NY; NYC and DC Hip Hop Theatre Festivals and worked as choreographer/movement director at Shakespeare in the Park and La Monnaie (Brussels), among others. Daniel is co-director of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization dedicated to dialogue and healing, and founder of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative. He is recipient of TCG’s Alan Schneider Director Award and serves on The Drama League Director Council. He is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle, an organization that uses theatre to foster conversation about our global climate crisis, create an empowering vision of the future, and encourage people to take action. She is writing a series of plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states and was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon Magazine. She is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Damir “Dado” Čobo comes from Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he started to perform in theatres at the age of 12 to escape and oppose the Bosnian segregation politics. He has a BA in Drama from Bennington College, where he worked on numerous performing arts projects as an actor, dancer, director, choreographer, and a lighting designer, as well as doing a Field Work Term internship with Theatre Without Borders. After graduation he moved to NYC where he learned from and collaborated with inspiring artists such as Jim Houghton, Tina Landau, Charles Mee, Tuce Yasak, Daria Fain, Marjani Forte, and many others. In 2018 he started working as a Theatre Arts teacher at United World College in Mostar. Soon after he joined the Mostar Youth Theatre as an actor and director. Recently he worked on the new movie by Jasmila Žbanić “Quo Vadis Aida”, as an assistant art director in the art department. Dado is currently the Chair of the United World College National Committee for Bosnia and Herzegovina and is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

David J. Diamond curates the La MaMa Umbria International Symposia. As a Fulbright Specialist in Theatre, he did a residency with Dah Teatar in Belgrade and he serves as Advisor to BOLD Theatre in Kenya. He received two CEC ArtLink Residencies in Russia. He contributed to Dah Teatar: A Sourcebook. He is a Founder and Trustee of the Barrow Group Theater. He is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders. davidjdiamond.com

JJ El Far is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Tracy Francis is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Juli Hendren is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Monica Trausch LaBadia (Facebook Page Admin) is a writer from Los Angeles, currently based in New York City. Her plays have been seen in New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, and Cambodia, among others. Monica writes comedies about characters who overcome self-doubt, who live without shame, and who love unconditionally. She can be found writing about health, wellness, and energy healing over on her blog, Living Well With UC. She spends her days creating content for Apprenti, a non-profit dedicated to diversifying the tech industry. http://monicalabadia.com/

Dr. Jessica Litwak is an award-winning playwright, an actor, a drama therapist, an educator, a puppet builder, a coach, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of socially engaged theatre. She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective (www.theheatcollective.org), the founder of Artists Rise Up New York and a Fulbright Scholar. She is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.She can be reached at Jessica.litwak@gmail.com

Erwin Maas is a New York based theatermaker, educator and international arts advocate from the Netherlands. He has worked extensively in Australia, Europe, Africa, South Korea and USA. In New York, he directs numerous productions Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway as well as Site Specific. Maas is the Co-Founding Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), Artistic Associate & Director of the Fellowship Program for the International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), and from 2016 to 2020, Maas was the Artistic/Creative Director of the International Society for Performing Arts (ISPA). From 2010 to 2014, he was the Director of Performing Arts for the Cultural Department of the Royal Netherlands Embassy & Consulates in the USA. He currently teaches as Adjunct Professor at CUNY Brooklyn College’s MFA Performance & Interactive Media Arts Program (PIMA) – www.erwinmaas.com

Ruth Margraff is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Elsa Menendez is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Shahid Nadeem is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Margaret Namulyanga (Communications Specialist) is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Giovanni Ortega  (AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SDC) has been working professionally for over a decade. He believes in creating an accepting and inclusive relationship with artists and communities alike regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and class. In the past few years, he’s teamed up with several organizations around the world to observe how the arts and culture are used to inform different populations on how we can decimate discrimination and enhance acceptance.  As a multidisciplinary artist, a public speaker in over one-hundred-forty college campuses and an international collaborator, these experiences have given Giovanni the opportunity to see the variety and diversity of what our society has to offer. He is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders. www.giovanniortega.com 

Lisa Schlesinger (University of Iowa) is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders. She is a playwright and professor of theatre at University of Iowa.  From 2006-2014, Lisa coordinated the Playwriting Program at Columbia College Chicago for eight years before returning to the University of Iowa where she earned her MFAs in Theatre Arts and Fiction Writing from the Playwrights’ and Writers’ Workshops. https://theatre.uiowa.edu/people/lisa-schlesinger

Vidhu Singh is a theatre maker and cultural activist with a passion for storytelling that engages vital issues of our time. Her dramaturgy, scholarship and advocacy of South Asian theater have made her contribution to the American theater truly unique. Cal Shakes recognized this uniqueness by honoring Vidhu with the 2020 Luminary Award in Dramaturgy. She is an Artist-in-Residence at Brava! for Women in the Arts and a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Sarah Cameron Sunde is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.

Roberto Varea’s research and creative work focuses on live performance as means of resistance and peacebuilding in the context of social conflict and state violence.  His writing and editing include the two-volume anthology Acting Together-Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict, and numerous journals.  He directs and dramaturgs community-based projects and teaches at the University of San Francisco. He is a Core-Member of Theatre Without Borders.