Drew Klein joins Cristina Planas Leitão in the artistic direction of Teatro Municipal do Porto

As of January 2023, Cristina Planas Leitão and the North American programmer and curator, Drew Klein, succeed Tiago Guedes, in a new model of artistic co-direction of the Departamento de Artes Performativas (DAP) of the municipal company Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto, which includes Teatro Municipal do Porto, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva.

The selection of the new name was conducted through an international public tender, launched on July 12, 2022, which favoured a candidate profile with experience in the direction of a cultural institution and in the organization of an international event. Experience in the performing arts area, knowledge and mastery of national and international creation and dissemination networks in this context, equipment management and dialogue between teams, partners, and audiences were also valued.

Drew Klein (born in 1982) was performance director at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), in Cincinnati, Ohio (United States of America). Having joined the institution in 2011 as a curator of performing arts, he created the institution’s first programme dedicated to performance, implementing the Black Box Performance Series and the annual interdisciplinary festival This Time Tomorrow. His work is characterized by promoting collaborative practices and cultural Exchange. He presented for his debut, in the United States of America, several international artists such as Alice Ripoll/Cia REC or Mithkal Alzghair, both presented at the DDD and TMP, respectively, and collaborations with names such as Kate MacIntosh, Ingri Fiksdal, Raquel André, among others.

After Tiago Guedes left, and by nomination, Cristina Planas Leitão assumed DAP’s interim artistic direction. The new artistic co-direction will take office in January 2023.

Cristina Planas Leitão (born in 1983) has taken over the interim artistic direction of the Departamento de Artes Performativas since July 2022. As performing arts programmer, she highlights her collaboration with DAP, under the artistic direction of Tiago Guedes, in the regular seasons of Teatro Municipal do Porto (from 2019), DDD – Festival Dias de Dança, since the 2020 edition, and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva, developing her artistic project and mission since its opening in 2021. In 2011, she was one of the initiators of the desNORTE meetings (2011-2017), in Porto, and was part of the Braga’ 27 consultancy group. Her curatorial aggregation practice is focused on the development of sustainable creation formats, new narratives, and care relationships in the performing arts