The show must go on

New Statesman: "It requires a personality this formidable to run a major cultural event in a country scarred by decades of conflict. Mikey is the driving force behind Colombia's biennial International Theatre Festival, which took place in the capital city, Bogotá, this month. Just days before the festival opened, the Colombian government was very nearly dragged into a war with Venezuela after a row between Colombia's right-wing president, Álvaro Uribe, and his left-wing neighbour, Hugo Chávez. To Mikey's relief, they settled the dispute before the opening night. 'They joked in the press that I asked the president to put off the war until the end of the festival,' she says. One cannot doubt, however, that even if hostilities had broken out, the event would have carried on regardless. 'The first ever year of the festival we had a bomb,' she says. ' We just keep going.'"