Abel González Melo (Havana, 1980). Playwright and theater director. He holds a Ph.D. in Literary Studies and a master’s degree in Theater from the Complutense University of Madrid, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Theater Studies from the University of the Arts of Cuba. He participated in the International Residency Program at the Royal Court Theatre in London and studied at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. His plays have been staged and published in more than twenty countries, have been translated into a dozen languages, and have won, among other awards, the 2025 Max Aub Ciutat de València Prize (“Carousel”), the BBVA Foundation’s 2022 Leonardo Scholarship (“In Search of the Peregrina”), the 2021 City of Santa Clara Foundation Award (“Outdoors”), the 2020 Casa de las Américas Award, and the 2020 Escena de Miami Award (“Bayamesa”), the 2014 Virgilio Piñera Prize (“Epopeya”), the 2014 Prize from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (“Mechanics”), the 2009 Goethe-Institut Award in Cuba (“Talc”), the 2005 Spanish Embassy in Cuba Award (“Kid”) and the Literary Critics’ Award three times.

He is an associate artist with Argos Teatro, Aguijón Theater in Chicago, and Arca Images, as well as a resident playwright at Teatro Avante—companies that have premiered numerous plays he has written. Since 2022, he has been a member of the artistic department at Teatro de La Abadía and the Corral de Comedias in Alcalá de Henares, an iconic venue inaugurated in 1602, where he has directed plays by Miguel de Cervantes, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Since 2010, he has been the director of the Theater Group at Carlos III University in Madrid, where he has staged both classical and contemporary repertoire.

Laura Cortón is an actress, theater producer, and teacher. She trained in acting at the London-based Rose Bruford College and holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of the Basque Country. For over a decade, she has pursued a career in contemporary theater, combining acting, teaching, production, and cultural management. She is a founding partner of La Belloch Teatro, a company with which she has produced and performed in more than ten theatrical productions, establishing an artistic vision centered on contemporary playwriting and the development of new audiences. Her work as a producer has been recognized with nominations for the Max Awards for productions such as Summer in December and Otoño en abril.

As an actress, she has worked in both theater and film, appearing in productions such as Easterly winds and Fall in April by Carolina África, La Celestina by Eduardo Galán, directed by Antonio C. Guijosa, Does anyone who’s tried it know? by Majo Moreno, or The Speed of Sound by Manuel Benito, directed by Julio Provencio, in addition to being part of the feature film Summer in December, directed by Carolina África.

At the same time, he has developed projects in theater creation and education, collaborating as an instructor in workshops and acting training programs. In recent years, he has also worked in the coordination and production of contemporary theater projects alongside international creators such as Matías Umpierrez.