Maya Zbib

Maya Zbib is a theatre director, performer, writer and founding member of Zoukak Theatre Company. She studied theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts, the Lebanese University (2003) and pursued her MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London (2007). In 2011 she obtained a postgraduate degree in International Cultural Cooperation and Management from IL3, the University of Barcelona. Her work including The Music Box and Silk Thread has been shown at international festivals and venues in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and South Asia (Williams College, MUCEM museum, New York Public Library, Queen Mary University, MASSMoCA, Southbank Center…).

Commissioned by the city theatres of Krefeld and Monchengladbach in Germany, she co-adapted and directed Mahmoud Darwish’s A Memory for Forgetfulness with the theatres’ ensemble (2013). She was artist in residence with Zoukak at the Sundance theatre Lab, in Utah (2017); at the BAC in London, as part of LIFT festival (2014); at NYU Abu Dhabi (2015) where she co-directed a production of Frankenstein, entitled Organs, Tissues and Candy Games; at Schwindelfrei Festival in Mannheim (2014-2016) where she created Death Comes Through the Eyes and Irregular, and at Houston University’s Mitchell Center (2015-2016), where she co-directed a promenade performance entitled In Walking Distance as part of CounterCurrent Festival 2015 and Innocent Violence as part of the 2016 edition. A staged reading of her play Ghalia’s Miles was read at the Royal Court in London (2016) as part of the series Told from the Inside and at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (2017). Her installation Limbo of the White Sea was presented as part of On The Move within LIFT 2016 at the Royal Court.

Since 2008, Maya leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak in marginalized contexts in different Lebanese regions. She facilitates collaborations, artistic residencies and events with international artists in the company’s studio where she co-curates since 2013 Zoukak Sidewalks, an international performance platform. She has given talks and workshops and taught at universities and in non-academic contexts, in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Africa.

Zbib is a Chevening/KRSF Alumni (2007), a Cultural Leadership International Alumni (2010), a fellowship recipient of ISPA, New York (2010), was selected as the protégé of Peter Sellars, American theatre, opera and festival director, as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (2011), and she’s a finalist nominee in the Gilder/Coigner International Theatre Award, New York (2014).