Thomas Irmer

The Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) is a U.S.-based nonprofit public charity founded in 1990 and headquartered in Claymont. The private company is located in the US. CITD connects American theatre makers with peers to foster collaboration, solidarity, and shared knowledge, focusing on regions including Central and Eastern Europe, with current emphasis on Ukraine and other areas. The organization facilitates international artist exchanges, supports collaborative projects, and amplifies partner artists' stories through media partnerships and publications. CITD runs initiatives such as Linkages, which builds long-term connections between emerging theatre leaders, Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings, which organizes translations and staged readings of new Ukrainian plays responding to the 2022 invasion, and Dispatches, which promotes dialogue between professionals and emerging artists addressing challenges like funding cuts and censorship. The organization also supports festivals, commissions new works, provides grants to playwrights, and maintains a database of translated texts to facilitate international theatre collaboration.