Claudio Valdes Kuri

Claudio Valdés Kuri, a prestigious Mexican director, is recognized as one of Latin America’s artists with the most international acclaim. Founder and director of the company Certain Inhabitants’ Theatre, his work includes The Grey Automobile, Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati, Becket or the Honour of God and Where Will I Be Tonight?, all presented in Mexico (his native country), and in Europe, Latin America, the United States and the Caribbean. Specialized critics have given him well-deserved recognition, such as naming him the best director in experimental theatre as well as best group theatre director.

Several important governmental offices have commissioned and co-produced his productions: National Theatre Company (Mexico), National Autonomous University of Mexico, International Cervantino Festival (Guanajuato), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels) and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna).

Claudio Valdés Kuri was selected to develop the Translation and Contextualization project for Arts International (New York City) and took part in the Artist in Context program sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Center of North Carolina’s Duke University and Arts Management program in the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.).

He has received several grants from Cultural Contact, the US-Mexico Foundation for Culture, Young scholarship holders and Co-investment projects from Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts.

Claudio Valdés Kuri graduated with honours as a film director from Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, specializing in Documentary.

Claudio’s training as an actor began at the early age of 11 in 1976, under the tutorship of Susana Wein. He participated in countless productions with her company for the next seventeen years. From 1996 to 1999 he was part of Austria’s Carpa Theater. He has also received considerable recognition as a versatile set designer and lighting expert in Mexico and other countries.

He was co-founder and bass voice of the early music ensemble Ars Nova, dedicated mostly to the rediscovery of Renaissance and Latin American baroque music. Over the last fifteen years, this group has toured Mexico, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, South America, the United States, and the Caribbean.