Lynn Fu

With nearly two decades of experience in arts and culture, Lynn Fu is a Shanghai- and New York-based independent curator and producer. For many years, she worked at the British Council in Shanghai. She has also served as an ISPA global fellow and Edinburgh Fringe associate, frequently sitting on curatorial panels for international festivals. Her career focuses on international collaborations between China, Asia and the rest of the world while her interest lies in exploring new possibilities of connecting people through the performing arts.

From 2020 to 2022, she worked with the Goethe Institute in Shanghai consulting on disability and inclusion in East Asia. Meanwhile, she was the China Market Advisor for Creative Australia. In 2021, she co-founded Arts Access Shanghai, a platform to increase access to Shanghai's cultural institutions for the local disability community through connection, education and advocacy.

Shoshana Polanco

Shoshana Polanco is a curator, connector, mentor and creative producer with experience working in Buenos Aires, New York, Mexico City and Saudi Arabia, for such major festivals as Mexico’s Cervantino Festival, Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, and TeatroStageFest and Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. She collaborated with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Creative Scotland, Music Theatre Now, Rolex Mentor and Protege Programme, the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts and the Fringe Society, among others.

In New York, she worked at BAM, PS122, Under the Radar and The Builders Association. In Mexico, she worked for La Teatrería. Part of the curatorial committee of festival ESCENICA and the Cervantino Festival, she is currently the head of culture and science outreach in FES Iztacala UNAM, she has mentored young artists and producers in Buenos Aires and currently serves as Vice Chair of International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA).

Sami Pyne

Sami Pyne is the Producing Director at ArKtype, a leading supporter of new and experimental work worldwide, and the Co-Producing Director of the reimagined Under the Radar Festival. Through ArKtype, she has produced acclaimed works with artists such as 600 Highwaymen (A Thousand Ways, The Following Evening), Bryce Dessner (Dream House Quartet), CHRISTEENE (The Lion, The Witch, and the Cobra), John Cameron Mitchell (Cassette Roulette), nora chipaumire (NEHANDA, dambudzo), Sam Green (32 Sounds), Sophia Brous (Invisible Opera), and Timothy White Eagle (The Indigo Room). Upcoming premieres include Bryce Dessner & Kaneza Schaal’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Sam Green’s Untitled Trees Documentary Project, and Penny Arcade’s autobiographical epic The Art of Becoming. In her independent practice, Sami is passionate about demystifying the process for emerging creators in New York City. A 2020 graduate of the Columbia MFA Theatre Management & Producing programme, she is a proud Advisory Committee member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA).

The Creative and Independent Producer Alliance

The Creative and Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA) is a US-based network that prioritizes advocacy, mentorship, and community for producers creating new live performances worldwide. Established in 2020 by 8 producers, CIPA now boasts a membership base of nearly 300 producers who operate outside institutional spaces and create live works beyond traditional frameworks. We value and continuously strive to elevate the essential role of producers in new work development. CIPA hosts a variety of programs, including a fellowship program focused on creative producing, training workshops in Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI), CIPAConnect convenings for exchanging knowledge on relevant industry topics, and direct support for producers attending conferences. For more information or to join our free membership, please visit www.cipausa.org

Freya Waterson

Freya Waterson is an independent producer based in Australia. Prior to establishing her production company VISIONS in 2015, she held roles with organisations in Australia and internationally, working across film, gaming, performance and music. From 2019 to 2021, she was Senior Producer for Chunky Move, appointed alongside the co-directors to lead the company. Her knowledge and international marketplace experience is particularly strong and she has facilitated the presentation of more than 90 performance seasons in 22 countries. Freya is a sought-after international marketplace advisor with expertise across Europe, Asia and North America. Her experience working across scale, context and form has provided a platform for research and collaboration, and she advocates for diverse expressions of independent practice. In 2023, Freya received the Playking Foundation’s Independent Producers’ Fellowship and is a planning team member of The Asian Producers Platform.

Michael Lee

Michael Lee is an independent producer and project manager focusing on cross-disciplinary creation and multi-national collaboration. He previously held roles as Associate Producer and Assistant Project Manager for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, spanning arts education and performance production. One of his recent productions, the multimedia choral concert Garden of Repose, was shortlisted for the 2024 Classical: NEXT Innovation Award. Other current projects include PROJECTPLAYAROUND, a year-long endeavour focusing on the interdisciplinary collaboration between technical arts and performing arts consisting of workshops for emerging media artists and mentoring sessions facilitated by renowned local and international media artists, culminating in a series of showcases.

Michael graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Music Studies from Hong Kong Baptist University, later obtaining a master’s degree in Performance Science from the Royal College of Music (London).