Leading of the project:

Write Local, Play Global

Théâtre Massalia

Scènes d'enfance-ASSITEJ France

Leading of the event and the discussion:

Karin Serres, on behalf of WLPG

Assisted by:

Cleiton Echeveste

Ginni Manning

Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas

Kim Peter Kovac

Jenny Koppera

Readings led by:

ERACM

L'échappée belle - Vol plané

Karin Serres is a playwright, novelist and set & costume designer based in Vincennes, France. She is a board member of Write Local, Play Global. Writing in some unknown place being her favorite creative energy, she loves to travel and work, any distance. Keen on collective intelligence and co-creation, passionate about the sensory diversity of the languages, she’s also committed into facilitating a more fair circulation of contemporary playwriting - especially TYA, leading multilingual or sensory writing projects, and working for a greater diversity in worldwide french speaking theatre. Currently playwright in residence at Très Tôt Théâtre, Quimper, Transversales, Verdun and le Nest-CDN de Thionville, she’s also working on a long term with companies such as Entre Chien & Loup and La Loba. 

Cleiton Echeveste is an actor, playwright, director and researcher based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cleiton has a Master’s degree (UNIRIO) in Performing Arts. His thesis investigates gender and sexuality dissidences in Theatre for Young Audiences, based on the work developed over almost two decades with Pandorga Theatre Company. His plays have won awards and been translated into Spanish and published in Brazil, Peru and Argentina. He is a member of the Brazilian Center of ASSITEJ (CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil), where he’s been president of the Board of Directors (2017-2023). He is part of the boards of Write Local Play Global (WLPG) and the International Inclusive Arts Network (IIAN) of ASSITEJ, and regularly collaborates with the ASSITEJ Ibero-American Network. (IBEROASSITEJ). 

Ginni Manning is a playwright, theatre maker and writer from Liverpool, U.K. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and a disabled artist, she is an advocate for inclusive and accessible theatre. She is a creative facilitator who specializes in working with children and young people. She is an active member of Write Local. Play Global, in which capacity she has been involved in events at the ASSITEJ World Congress 2024,  ASSITEJ 2017 Cradle of Creativity, the ASSITEJ World Congress 2020 Mirai Festival, the Catch The Wave Festival and the ASSITEJ Artistic Gatherings in 2022 and 2023. She co-wrote ‘Dipalo’, an ASSITEJ award winning play, with South African theatre maker Lalu Mokuku. She recently worked with Wild Rumpus and Battersea Arts Centre on the immersive show The Oak King and the Holly King. She is currently working with artists Cliodhna Noon of Acting Up! Early Years Arts in Dublin and shadow puppeteer Rachel Riggs. Ginni is also an active board member of the ASSITEJ International Inclusive Arts Network (IIAN) and facilitates collaborations between WLPG and IIAN. In 2024 she received Arts Council England ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ funding to explore the role of the playwright in PYA.

Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas was twice a US State Department Fellow in Palestine (East Jerusalem) and Israel and three more fellowships to Amman, Jordan, where she coordinated translation, into Arabic, the Theater Training Curriculum she created for the Center. She has also done master classes in eleven countries. Along with directing for Kennedy Center TYA (including collaborative projects with the PAC of Amman, Jordan, and the Pakistani Arts Council), from 1991-2021 she served as was co-Founding Producing Director of Center’s groundbreaking incubator for new plays New Visions/New Voices, which assisted in developing 111 works from 97 playwrights and 38 composers, working with 61U.S. and 12 international theaters. In 2011, she co-founded the Write Local Play Global ASSITEJ playwright network, with members in 50+ countries, and still serves as part of its leadership team. 

Kim Peter Kovac is formerly Artistic Director of Theater for Young Audiences at the Kennedy Center, the US national cultural center, where he commissioned and produced 100+ new plays for young audiences. He served on the board of TYA/USA for 19 years, and for 12 years on the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ, including 6 as Vice President and he recently received ASSITEJ'S Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the USA.  Along with his work on Write Local Play Global, he is currently a poet with two published collections. 

 Jenny Anne Koppera has her MFA in Drama/Theatre for the Young from Eastern Michigan University and is active nationally and internationally in the field of children’s theatre. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of Spinning Dot Theatre, a Michigan Theatre company that focuses on supporting and developing global theatre with and for family audiences. She has worked with and received recognition from AATE, TYA/USA, IPAY, ASSITEJ International and has worked with The Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices program, ASSITEJ's Write Local. Play Global. network, Imaginate Children’s Theatre Festival, and Eastern Michigan University. She has sat on the Board of TYA/USA and collaborates frequently with the University of Michigan and the BIPOC Superhero Project.