JÁ ERASMUS

Caro Bisscheroux is a young Theatre maker, Actress and an Art Director/Production Designer within film. Hailing from Maastricht in the Netherlands, she is currently studying Theatre in Education at the University of arts Utrecht. During her internship at JÁ,  she started off as a Stage Manager for the experimental interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit and helped out with conceptualizing production aspects for the OUR STAGE project.

Georgia Beckmann is a Fulbright grantee originally from Boston, MA, USA. She studied directing and playwriting at Trinity College and at the Trinity/La MaMa Performing Arts Program in New York, ultimately taking on a curricular role for the program following her graduation in 2021. Upon arriving in Portugal in the fall of 2022, Georgia began working with Já International Theatre in a variety of roles, namely as the Production Coordinator for JÁFEST 2023, a Theatre in Palm Digital Resident, a Stage Manager, and the Assistant Director for Já’s experimental interpretation of No Exit as well as being one of the functionaries for the PAL SOUND project

Anastasija Marcenkaite is a Lithuanian theater and cinema actress. Since debuting in front of the camera at the age of 11 in a highly acclaimed movie “The Excursionist”, she has gone on to play diverse roles in Lithuanian and foreign cinema projects as well as stage plays. She holds a bachelor’s degree in acting from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and has over 11 years of experience in professional ballet as well as other dance forms. Besides her main acting career, Anastasija has had the pleasure of helping to develop various artistic , communication and educational projects both in Lithiuania as well as in Lisbon as part of the OUR STAGE project.

Lithuanian artist Monika Valkunaite will teach musical theatre at the Vilnius Conservatory as part of a JÁ initiative before returning to Lisbon to be involved in our summer workshop program…

Turkish playwright Derman Gulmez is currently running international online and offline workshops on storywriting for women with participants from war-torn countries including Lebanon, Syria and the Balkans.

Her brief is to weave these stories into a cohesive memory play to be produced and eventually staged by JÀ exploring a remembered reality scarred by the anguish and trauma of death and devastation.

Lithuanian artist Rugile Sabonyte’s Erasmus program pulls in actors from 3 countries – Lithuania, Canada and Portugal – to do a deep dive into classic Slavic and Eastern European literature and dramaturgy, retooling select stories/plays to be stories for and of the present moment.

Her program is designed to culminate in a special JÁ showcase ‘The Age Of I’ – a curated performance that serves as an exploration of the female ID and volition at its rawest.