A director interested in documentary theater, Ban often begins his process by interviewing community members on topics that provoke the past and look ahead to the future. His recent work, My Parents Were Awesome, was inspired by Romanians born in the 80’s and their parents’ struggles to live and raise children during those difficult times. Ban’s directorial work has been staged at leading theaters in Romania, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Moldova and Turkey and has been awarded numerous prizes.

Ban is very interested in issues of immigration and family dynamics and wanted to work on a project with artists and communities in the U.S. to better understand the role that theater can play.

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Eldar Tagi and Lena Pozdnyakova, or the2vvo (pronounced “the zwo” = “two” in German), is artist duo based in Los Angeles, CA made up of Eldar Tagi (sound**) and Lena Pozdnyakova (architecture/sculpture*). The duo performs evocative and expressive audio-visual sets that range from minimal electro-acoustic ambient to raw techno and industrial noise. Besides live performances the2vvo record and release music and build spacial installations that are often interactive.

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Originally trained as a doctor, Farid Rasulov has been a practicing artist since 2009. He works in a variety of mediums, creating pieces that include large paintings, installation pieces, 3D graphics, animation and sculpture. 

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As a dancer and performer, “Shika” has studied a range of techniques, traditions and styles throughout the world, including Senegal, to transfer knowledge back to Egypt and build the emerging contemporary dance scene there. He is devoted to pushing the limits of dance and decreasing the gap between dance and street culture through performance in public spaces. In addition to dancing in choreographed works on the street, he also performed in a demonstration at the Cairo Opera House that summoned the power of the arts in defiance of a political decision. He hoped to explore how differences in culture and points of view affect expression through movement and wanted to learn more about site-specific performance and dance video.