Dan Colley is an independent theatre and film maker with a focus on ensemble-devised work and theatre for young audiences. He trained as a facilitator with Youth Theatre Ireland and has been making theatre for over 15 years.

His shows Lost Lear (winner of The Scotsman Fringe First Award) and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings have toured internationally to New York, Sydney, The Hague, Stockholm, Wellington, Auckland and all over the UK and Canada.

He is Theatre-Artist-Residence in Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge. Dan's new piece The Maker, a wordless duet about power, status and the origins of the universe for audiences 6+, premiered at Dublin Theatre Festival in 2025.

Frederika Del Nero graduated from RITCS Brussels as an actress after studying literature at Ghent University. She is currently active in theatre as a player, director, playwright and coach but also has a background in radiohosting and voicing. She worked with companies and theatre houses such as BRONKS, 4Hoog, Larf!, hetpaleis, Theater Antigone, Theater Artemis, Crew, BruggePlus Uitwijken, Rode Boom and Tristero. For BRONKS, a youth theatre in Brussels, she works in the education department, guiding the young jury and giving drama workshops. In theatre she was a founding member of the collective K.A.K. that made site-specific plays in empty buildings.

James Riordan is a bilingual theatre maker from Galway. As Artistic Director of Galway based Brú Theatre, his recent directing credits include Somnium (Galway International Arts Festival ‘24), Not A Word ( GIAF ‘23, Barbican,London ‘25) and Ar Ais Arís  which recently toured to the US and Canada. In 2023, he directed the flagship Macnas parade in Dublin and Galway. The Libravian, a Baboró commission in 2021, most recently toured across Canada in 2025. 

In 2024 he was a Resident Director with the Abbey Theatre. He teaches post-graduate Mask, Mime and Movement at Griffith College. www.brutheatre.com/ 

Simon D’Huyvetter (b. 1986) is a Belgian theatre maker and actor who graduated in 2011 from the Drama Department at KASK in Ghent. He has worked as a freelance artist and director with companies such as Kopergietery, DE MAAN, BRONKS, De Batterie, Blauwhuis, BruggePlus, Larf!, and hetpaleis. Since April 2023, he has been the artistic director of 4Hoog in Ghent.

Throughout his trajectory, he has taught theatre workshops to children, young people, and adults, and has guided young participants in socio-artistic projects with De Batterie in Bruges. He is frequently invited as an acting coach and director by emerging makers, especially for productions aimed at young audiences.

Isadora Petrauskas (Panel Chair) is a multidisciplinary artist, scholar and Lecturer in Performance Practices the University of Galway, interested in art with a lowercase a and in how artistic practices can form and inform society(ies). Her practice explores art as a form of resistance through experimental and anti-technical approaches that ‘anyone could make’. 

Working across theatre, performance, ephemeral architectures, visual arts and critical approaches to technology, she is co-founder of the theatre company Teatro Voador Não Identificado (TVNI) and the fine art collective Coletivo Plástico Preto. Her work has been presented at the Hanshan Museum, the Prague Quadrennial, Paradigm Electronic Arts Festival and Ars Electronica.

Cultivate is one of Baboró’s GROW artist support and professional development programmes, in partnership with BRONKS Theatre voor Jong Publiek (BE) and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland’s International Residency Initiatives Scheme (IRIS). This year-long international exchange programme brings together two Irish artists - Dan Colley and James Riordan - and two Belgian artists - Frederika Del Nero and Simon D’Huyvetter - to share their practices and experience, reflect on and respond to work for children across both countries. The programme supports Dan, James, Frederika and Simon to see work for children throughout Belgium and Ireland and to take part in two week-long residencies at BRONKS in Spring and at Áras Éanna Arts Centre on Inis Oírr in the Autumn.

Cultivate is all about artistic cultural exchange, developing practice, sharing processes and perspectives, and establishing collaborative relationships between artists at an international level.

GROW is Baboró’s programme of support and mentoring for artists making or interested in making work for children. Established in 2017, GROW has expanded to include annual and one-off programmes with local and international partners. 

GROW offers a range of opportunities for artists with different levels of experience, varying artforms, diverse cultures and underrepresented communities