Zachary Dorn, Hector Flores Komatsu and Jesca Prudencio have been announced as the first three recipients of the Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship, a one-year travel fellowship created to nurture and inspire young directors ages 21-29.

“This World Theater Fellowship is designed to allow young theater directors a year of open research and discovery outside of their own culture,” Taymor, the Tony-winning Lion King director said in a statement. The fellowships sponsor travel Central/South America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia. “Having spent four years in Indonesia commencing with a one year Watson Traveling fellowship in my early twenties I am fully appreciative of an experience that was both challenging and eye opening. In many ways it was the foundation for much of my subsequent work in the theatre.”

Here’s a look at how the director’s will utilize their fellowships.

Dorn will “study traditional Karakuri Ningyo and work with contemporary Japanese theater artists as a means to observe the ways in which experimental spectacle explores themes of dread.”
Komatsu will “search for Mexico’s hidden theatrical spirit through the exploration of the fiestas and traditions of its rural and indigenous communities.”
Prudencio will “explore traditional forms of puppetry and dance throughout Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines as she develops her interdisciplinary theatrical adaptation of Francisco Balagtas’ poem, Florante at Laura.”

Applications for the second year of the fellowship will be accepted beginning this fall.

Visit tjtwtf.com.