Meet Our International Guests Attending the National Circus Festival of Ireland 2023

Adrian is Director of Eden Arts, a Combined Arts organisation based in Cumbria.  He is a member of culture sector panels and bodies in Cumbria and the north-west as part of his role to advocate for impactful arts across sectors.  He works to bring great culture to the north with a passion for arts that are ‘useful’ to communities and places and help to bring about change.

Writer and playwright, actress and former trapeze artist, Marta is the co-director of the C.IN.E. and Ciclop Festival.

She graduated in Performing Arts-Physical Theatre at Institut del Teatre de Barcelona (1992-1996). After that, she studied circus skills in The Circus Space (London) for two years (1998-1999). Back to Spain, she founded the company Res de Res with Biel Jordà, and they both are the creators of very successful circus-theatre shows as Icars, Mara, Tempo, Maria? and (remor), which won a Total Theatre Award to the best physical and visual show in Edinburgh Fringe 2012.

She has travelled around the world with the company and has been nominated three times to the MAX Spanish Theatre Awards.

She has won several dramaturgy awards throughout her career, among them the II Dramaturgy Competition of the Balearic Islands with Abans que arribi l’alemany, the V Transatlantic Dramaturgy Competition (Buenos Aires) with Tocar mare —both in 2018—, and the XV Palanca i Roca Theatre Award in 2020, with Anar a Saturn i tornar. Her latest play is Zona inundable, coproduced by Teatre Nacional de Catalunya and Teatre Principal de Palma.

Zoe Munn is an independent producer working across outdoor arts, contemporary circus and theatre, based in Cardiff, Wales. She produces Performing Arts at Green Man Festival, and is the Welsh lead on the Four Nations Bursary Project for Outdoor Arts. She is part of the Articulture Wales team, facilitating the commissioning and development of artists and work for public space. She has a background of producing contemporary tented circus including a decade of touring internationally with NoFit State, and now works with a range of performance companies producing work at all scales including as Co-Director of Ramshacklicious. She has recently producied large scale collaborative shows for the National Eisteddfod of Wales & Coventry City of Culture, and is a visiting lecturer at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Declan is the artistic director of Katapult, a performing arts studio in Berlin. He formerly worked at Die Etage school of performing arts as the main juggling teacher (13 years) and head of the circus department (6 years). In 2022 Declan published the book “Notes on Creation: Perspectives from contemporary circus”.

Aurelio Rota is president of the Forum New Circus with which he organizes Circus City in Bologna. He is a promoter of the dialogue between traditional and contemporary circus in Italy. He has directed the Lonato In Festival since 2013 and has been in charge of production and organization for Circo El Grito since 2021.

Andrew Loretto is an internationally experienced director, writer, dramaturg and producer for outdoor, indoor and site-responsive performance and theatre. Currently Director of Hat Fair and Playmakers for Play to the Crowd, Winchester.

Andrew was previously director of Right Up Our Street, Doncaster’s Creative People and Places programme, including establishing the DNweekeND festival.  Most recent directing projects include award-winning live and digital experience 878AD for Hampshire Cultural Trust and MOONTOPIA – an interactive live performance adventure with B arts in Stoke on Trent.