Marianne de Pury

[2] She enjoyed the performing arts from a young age and, as a teen, she made frequent trips to Paris to see theatre.

[2] There she forged connections with artists active in New York's avant-garde theatre scene as well as the Black Panther Party.

[4][5] In 1965 she began a collaborative project with playwright and director Megan Terry who was working on a devised performance piece for the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club protesting the Vietnam War.

[3] During her time in the United States, de Pury also served as composer-in-residence for the Yale School of Drama[7] and worked as a translator for the French playwright Jean Genet.

[4][5] De Pury is founder of the Santa Fe Ensemble Theatre in New Mexico and has directed free-lance productions in Basel, Bern, Bonn, Dublin, Sarajevo, Melbourne, New York and Cameroun.