TCH Director Biography
Claudio Valdés Kuri (Artistic Director)
Mexican director, Claudio Valdes Kuri, is recognized as one of Latin America’s most acclaimed theatre artists. Founder and artistic director founding member of the ensemble theatre company, Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes (1997 in Mexico City), Valdes Kuri’s extensive work includes Life is a Dream; El Gallo; The Grey Automobile; Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati; Becket or the Honour of God; Where Will I Be Tonight ?and Skin. His original productions have been presented and have toured in Mexico, throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia, the United States, Australia and the Caribbean. He and the theatre producitons he has directed have received critical acclaim in Mexico and internationally including, “Best Theatre Production of 2011 (Brighton Festival, UK) “Best Director of Avant Garde Theater” "Best Dramaturge" and "Best Director of a Theatre Company" (Association of Mexican Theatre Critics 2002),” “Best Visiting Theater Director” and “Best Visiting Theater Production” (Association of Latin Entertainment Critics of New York) and the “Golden Laurel Wreath for Best Direction” (Festival Mess, Sarajevo, Bosnia). The monthly publication “Mexican Leaders” has acknowledged him as one of the top 300 most influential leaders in the country. Valdes Kuri’s work has been commissioned by: Compañia Nacional de Teatro (Mexico), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), International Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, Germany), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels, Belgium), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria)and Brighton Festival (Brighton, UK) He was selected to develop the “Translation and Contextualization” project for Arts International (New York, NY) and took part in the “Artist in Context” program sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center of North Carolina’s Duke University (Raleigh-Durham, NC) Claudio Valdes Kuri holds a degree in film direction from Mexico’s Centro De Capacitacion Cinematografica. His training as an actor began at the age of 11 in 1976 under the tutelage of Susana Wein. He participated in countless productions with her company for the next seventeen years. From 1996 to 1999 he was a member of Carpa Theater of Austria. He was co-founder and bass voice of the early music ensemble Ars Nova, dedicated mostly to renaissance and Latin American baroque music which toured nationally and internationally.He is currently a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores FONCA-CONACULTA (the national arts commission of Mexico.)
…Claudio Valdes Kuri has achieved a privileged position within the theatre world in Mexico.
He confirmed his familiarity with the rules of the theatre by playing with them to construct dramatic works, which unintentionally break the corsets of theatrical structure to create a new language…As a contemporary creator, he knows he can neither forget nor erase tradition entirely. Intelligently, he does not fight this heritage; he uses it as a tool to strengthen the development of his own language and of an absolutely contemporary approach.
— Joan Hernandez, Unomasuno, Mexico City