Theatre Directors: Encounter & Exchange
A new international partnership between Southern Magpie Theatre (UK) and Asociación Cultural Los Zorros de Afuera (Peru)
In June 2026, thirty theatre directors from Australia, Canada, Peru, the UK and the USA gathered in Toronto for Directors Lab North - eight days of shared practice, provocation and question-asking. One question kept returning: how do theatre-makers build sustainable, connected ways of creating work when the institutions around them are under increasing pressure?
That conversation didn't end when the Lab did. In June 2027, Southern Magpie Theatre and Asociación Cultural Los Zorros de Afuera plan to extend and transform this encounter to Cusco, Peru - a new, eight-day international encounter built around closed roundtables, practical workshops, public presentations and performances by local and visiting artists.
At its centre is shared, reciprocal practice: international directors and Peruvian artists working side by side, testing new models of collaboration and building relationships that outlast the week itself: a diverse group of international directors and Peruvian artists working side by side, testing new models of collaboration, sharing rehearsal and producing methodologies, and building relationships that outlast the week itself.
Why Peru, why now:
La Asociación Cultural Los Zorros de Afuera ,led by Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas and Mario Zanatta Salvador, was founded in 2025 to challenge gatekeeping in Peruvian theatre and build platforms for marginalised artists. Already they have built a track record of built a track record of expanding who gets to make theatre in Peru.
Southern Magpie, led by Max Kirk, has spent the past two years deep in international research - from Toronto to Croatia, China to Aotearoa New Zealand - asking how rehearsal methodologies travel between cultures. This project takes that research into practice, as the company looks to further it's work in bringing international practice to the UK theatre ecology.
Sebastian (above) and Max (below) at Director's Lab North 2026
We are currently awaiting a decision on support from the British Council's Connections Through Culture programme.
For more information, including enquiries about sponsorship of this encounter, or partnership with Southern Magpie and and La Asociación Cultural Los Zorros de Afuera on a similar cultural exchange going forward, please get in touch.
We hope for this to be the start of many global encounters. We'd love to hear from you!
