Carlos García Estévez is an international artist born in Spain. He is Artistic Director and founder of Manifesto Poetico, an actor, stage director, theatre researcher, pedagogue and specialist in Contemporary Commedia dell’Arte and mask performance. Manifesto Poetico comes from Carlos’ 25 years of research and productions done internationally. He has also performed and directed in over 20 different countries and over 50 different universities. Over his career he has developed his research into interdisciplinary productions and devised theatre that is contemporary. As he learned from Dario Fo, Carlos keeps the spirit of popular theatre in order to create new contemporary theatrical languages that speak to audiences today. Carlos creates work in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia. Recent creations directed by Carlos include Klassiek van de Toekomst (Haarlem, NL, 2017), Hann: Voices of a Bay (Dakar, Senegal 2018) and Pulse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2018), The Gate of Hope (Guadalajara, Mexico 2019), Belfast 1919 (Belfast, Northern Ireland 2019), In The Name Of Humanity (Wikwemikong Unceded Territory, Canada2021) and If I Listened… (Wikwemikong Unceded Territory, Canada 2022). He is currently touring his solo performance Solo dell’Arte. It has been in Spain, France, The Netherlands, Argentina, Romania, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Cyprus, Greece, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Carlos trained with Jacques Lecoq for three years, both at his École Internationale de Théâtre and at L.E.M. (Laboratoire d’Etude de Mouvement).

Paige Allerton is an international performing artist and anthropologist born in Canada. She is Artistic Director and Dramaturge of Manifesto Poetico and Editor of the Laboratory’s research. She directs the company’s department of Anthropology and Content Creation, and the project The Poetics of Survival. She is co-founder and creator of SPATIAL DRAMATURGY. Together with Carlos García Estévez, she is in charge of the conception and direction of Manifesto Poetico’s Open Laboratories and pedagogic activity. She is a movement teacher and performs with masks internationally. She has toured with Manifesto Poetico in more than 14 countries for pedagogic, performance and research activities. Together with Carlos García Estévez she has written two chapters for Routledge publications, “Mask Performance for a Contemporary Commedia dell’Arte” for The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte and “Auto-cours, Enquetes, Commandes. A theatre practitioner’s perspective'” for The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq, after being invited based on their international experience as theatre practitioners. In 2020 she was co-author, together with Giller Prize winning author, Johanna Skibsrud, of the Johns Hopkins University Press publication, Manifesto Poetico: Toward new theatrical languages, as part of the ASAP Journal. Most recently, Paige co-directed the TransPoetico Production If I Listened… (2022) and the TransPoetico Production series, The Epic Borders Trilogy, taking place in Canada, Mexico, and Northern Ireland. Paige trained at the School of Jacques Lecoq, the Laboratory for the Study of Movement (LEM) in Paris, at the University of Toronto (Honors Bachelor of Arts 2014) and with Manifesto Poetico.