Amna Walayat is a Cork-based Pakistani-born emerging mixed media visual artist. Her current practice is based on traditional and neo-Indo-Persian Miniature painting, expressing her hybrid cultural experiences and her position as migrant artist.  Recently, She has mounted her 1^st solo as a part of Cork mid-summer festival under Pluck Project (2022). Her work exhibited in the yearlong exhibition The Narrow Gate of Here and Now at IMMA (2021-2022), 191 RHA (2021), Dublin Arts and Human Rights Festival in Chester Beatty and Mill Theatre (15-24 Oct) and a two-person show at LHQ (March 2021). 

She is interested in promotion of South Asian Art and Culture in Ireland/ Europe. She has worked as Creative Producer in Residence with Cork County Council for her community-based project “South Asia Community Museum in Ireland” and with Cultural Action Europe as MENA Cultural Agent for advising policies.  

Amna has an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History Theory and Criticism from UCC, and an MA in Fine Arts from Punjab University, Lahore. She has worked as Programme Organiser with the Pakistan National Council of Arts; Curator with Alhamra Arts Council (2001-07). She has also worked with Cultural Action Europe as MENA Cultural Agent for advising policies (2021). She is a member of Sample-Studios, Backwater Artists, Art Nomads, Smashing Times and Visual Artists Ireland, and a recent recipient of Arts Council Ireland’s Next Generation Award and Project Arts Centre Bursary Award.

Paolo Vignolo is associate professor of history and humanities at the National University of Colombia, Bogota. He holds a PhD in history at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (E.H.E.S.S.) of Paris. His fields of research and creation deal with public history, cultural heritage and memory studies with a focus on geographic imaginaries, live arts and performance. He is associate researcher at the Centre of Historical, Anthropological and Cultural Research –CIHAC of Panama and has been visiting scholar of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University in 2013. He is also a member of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics of the New York University, the Transformative Memory Network of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the “Collective memory and practices of resistance” work group of The Latin American Council of Social Sciences – CLACSO.

Fernanda Barbosa dos Santos is a journalist and historian who works for Rutas del Conflicto media outlet, with a main focus on investigative and data journalism about conflicts and peace processes in Colombia. She is currently a PhD candidate in human and social sciences at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, with a project about peace journalism, storytelling and memory. She worked as a consultant to the Colombian Truth Commission, as a professor at Universidad del Rosario (Colombia), and as a reporter in local and international sections of Grupo Folha and the Lusa news agency, in Brazil.

Michael McCabe is a performer, theatre director, movement choreographer, facilitator and arts therapist. He is a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq, Paris, France, and The Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, Ireland.

His theatre appearances include The Drowning Room (Project Arts Centre), Borstal Boy, The Risen People (The Gaiety Theatre), A Christmas Carol, The Ginger Ale Boy (Corcadorca Theatre Company), Lives Worth Living (Graffiti Theatre Company), Good Evening Mr Joyce (Samuel Beckett Centre), Diarmuid agus Grainne, An Bradan Feasa, The Libertine, New World Order (Iomha Illdanach Theatre Company), Promises, Promises  (Project Arts Centre), A Day With Daghdha (Daghdha Dance Company), Macbeth, Six Characters in Search for an Author, St. Joan, Ariel (all at the Abbey Theatre), Wheel, Jeckyll and Hyde (Dublin and Prague Fringe Festivals), Resist /Surrender (Dublin Dance Festival), and Where The Shoe Pinches (The Pavilion Theatre). He was clown co-ordinator for 35 clowns and appeared in Barabbas Theatre Company’s production, City of Clowns, at the Dunamaise, Junction and Eargail Arts Festivals, and The Complex, Smithfield and appeared in Pagliacci at The Everyman Place Theatre, as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

His television and film appearances include Aristocrats (BBC), Ireland:1848, (RTE), Window (IFI), All God’s Children (RTE/IFI), Nationwide (RTE). In 2021, Michael will appear in Bean Sidhe, Sweetcake, and Sodium Party, a new feature film directed by Michael McCudden.

Directing credits include: The Dead Woman’s Son (Smock Alley Theatre), A Wonderful Life, Peter Pan’s Cirque D’Imaginaire (TU Dublin Theatre), Showcases 2017-2019 (The New Theatre) and in 2020, The Grimm Tales (Smock Alley Theatre). Recent appearances include Footfalls, The Journey Home, and in Mermaid Arts Centre for Culture night on a work-in-progress, His Left, Her Right, supported by Mermaid and Wicklow Arts Office.

Michael has an M.A. (Honours) in Dramatherapy from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, an M.A. in Modern Drama Studies from University College Dublin, and a B.A. (Honours) in Communication Studies from Dublin City University. He has directed theatre work in the HSE, the Dyspraxia Association of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, St. Michael’s house, and with other special needs organisations and schools with a focus on developing the potential of theatre for working with diverse groups.

Michael has been working as a Movement Director, teaching extensive movement classes for actors at the Conservatory of Music and Drama, TU Dublin, the National Association of Youth Drama, Ringsend Institute, the Department of Performing Arts, Bray Institute of Further Education, and The Gaiety School of Acting (full time course).           

Michael is a resident artist with Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and works with Smashing Times as a performer, director and arts facilitator on a range of projects from Acting for the Future to Legends of the Great Birth to State of the Art.  His theatre company, Ruaille Buaille, is building a physical theatre ensemble style based on the techniques of Jacques Lecoq, Anne Bogart, and Arianne Mouchkine. Michael was movement director on The Merchant of Venice, at Mermaid Arts Centre, and on the world premiere of Guerilla Days in Ireland World premier in Cork last year, due to open in The Olympia Theatre, Dublin on September 3rd.

Michael is a graduate of National University of Ireland, Maynooth, (M.A. Dramatherapy, 2.1 Honours), and was awarded a scholarship to train with internationally renowned theatre director Anne Bogart in New York. Bursary awards include South Dublin County Council, Irish Actors Equity, and The Arts Council. 

Michael recently completed training with SITI Company, New York, while artist in residence at the Civic Theatre, Dublin. Michael also travelled to Japan to train for five weeks at the Suzuki Company of Toga, under the mentorship of Tadashi Suzuki, in association with Smashing Times.