Maya Zbib is a theatre director, performer, writer and co-founder and co-artistic director of Zoukak Theatre Company (2006) and Zoukak Studio (2008), Beirut. She studied theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts, the Lebanese University (2003) and pursued her MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London (2007). She obtained a postgraduate degree in International Cultural Cooperation and Management from IL3, the University of Barcelona (2011).

Her work is process-oriented and always springs from a personal desire or obsession towards a more global political concern. She is interested in exploring intimacy and hybrid forms of performativity and spatial relationships, as well as feminine narratives within the larger social constructs of assigned gender roles. She employs playfulness, theatricality and liveness to expose systemic violence and various forms of segregation, using archetypal figures and clichés, to break open taboos and tackle the unsaid through poetry and a present positioning within history’s events.

Over the past 15 years, she created over 20 performances with Zoukak Theatre Company, co-devising, co-writing, directing and sometimes co-directing work with her partner Omar Abi Azar. Her performances, including The Music Box, Silk Thread and He Who Saw Everything, have been presented at international festivals and venues around the world (Williams College, MUCEM museum, New York Public Library, Queen Mary University, ITFOK Festival, Southbank Center, Santiago a Mil, Théâtre des 13 Vents…).
Commissioned by the city theatres of Krefeld and Monchengladbach in Germany, Maya co-adapted and directed Mahmoud Darwish’s “A Memory for Forgetfulness” (2013) and “Anatomy Titus: Fall of Rome” (2022) with the theatres’ ensemble. She was artist in residence at the BAC in London, as part of LIFT festival (2014) where she co-directed “The Last Tablet”; at NYU Abu Dhabi (2015) where she co-directed a production of Frankenstein, entitled “Organs, Tissues and Candy Games”; at Schwindelfrei Festival in Mannheim (2014-2016) where she co-directed “Death Comes Through the Eyes” and “Irregular”, at Houston University’s Mitchell Center (2015-2016) where she co-directed “In Walking Distance”, as part of CounterCurrent Festival 2015 and “Innocent Violence” as part of the 2016 edition; at the Sundance theatre Lab in Utah (2017) where she developed “I Hate Theatre I Love Pornography” with Zoukak; and at MASSMoCA (2017) where she created “Listening to the Walls Wear Off their Colour” along with artists Lee Serle and Mateo Lopez . A staged reading of her play “Ghalia’s Miles” was performed at the Royal Court in London (2016) as part of the series Told from the Inside, and at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (2017). Her installation “Limbo of the White Sea” was presented as part of On The Move, within LIFT (2016) at the Royal Court. After receiving the Ellen Stewart International Award, she was in residence with Zoukak at La Mama Umbria (2019) where she directed “The Love Project”, presented at the Spoleto Festival.

Since 2008, Maya leads psychosocial interventions with Zoukak in marginalized contexts in different Lebanese regions and abroad. For the last 4 years, she accompanied Lamia Abi Azar in developing and delivering an extensive training of theatre practitioners in psychosocial mediation techniques. She facilitates collaborations, artistic residencies and events with international artists in the company’s studio where she co-curates, since 2013, Zoukak Sidewalks, an international performance festival and Focus Liban, a platform for the support and diffusion of work by local practitioners. She has mentored several young artists within Zoukak’s Mentorship Program and Production Support Grant, following up on their projects’ development from inception to completion.

She has given talks and workshops and taught at universities and in non-academic contexts, in Lebanon and in various cities around the world; with a focus on devising, physical theatre and developing narrative.
She co-wrote and edited several plays published by Zoukak including “Silk Thread”, “Perform Autopsy” and “Heavens”, in addition to a Theatre for Development Manual.

Zbib is a Chevening/KRSF Alumna (2007), Cultural Leadership International Alumna (2010), fellow of ISPA, NY (2010), protégée of Peter Sellars – Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (2011), two-time finalist – Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award (2014 & 2020), received the honorary citizenship of the city of Palermo (2017), message author – World Theatre Day (2018), and was recently honored within Cairo’s 27th International Festival for Experimental Theatre (2020).