WRITER / DRAMATURG
Writing
I write mostly for live performance and stage — non-linear, image- and movement-based work, often created collaboratively and through devised processes. My writing practice sits within alternative models, frequently emerging from ensemble or community collaboration.
I am particularly interested in exploring these alternative modes of “new writing” — cross-disciplainry, devising processes, movement practices, anD image-led approaches.
I Gave Him an Orchid was awarded the 100° Jury Prize in 2014 and published by Wydawnictwo Littera. Inspired by real heartbreak stories — some given, some found, some stolen — this work is an act of public self-help, moving playfully along the boundaries of inappropriateness with poetic meanderings, absurdist melodrama, and stories of people in and out of love. Deconstructing familiar love narratives and placing them in modern-day predicaments, it taps into vulnerability, fear, and desire, inviting the audience to share their own experiences. I Gave Him an Orchid is ultimately a celebration of love, heartbreak, life, and our preoccupation with this perpetual pumping organ. The piece was developed in Berlin and London, premiering at Sophiensaele as part of the 100° Festival 2014, and has since toured to Cammerspiel Leipzig (2017), Prague Fringe Festival (2016), Summerhall Edinburgh (2015), Oval House London (2015), Pulse Festival (2015), Faki Festival Zagreb (2015), Kana Arts Stettin (2014), Best of the Fest at Sophiensaele (2014), and English Theatre Berlin (2014).
Piswer was my first full-length play, first performed at Pulse Festival 2013 and recently redeveloped with Dr. Leila Dawney. I am currently working to adapt it into a short film to be shot in rural coastal areas. The script currently sits on the shelf, available for further production. The play explores the beauty and power of the sea and its dark, unknown depths — our fear of the unknown, the force of nature, and what happens when it collides with human infrastructure. It was conceived as an immersive promenade performance for rural coastal regions, particularly those near nuclear programmes.
Twelve Miles from Nowhere, a collaborative writing project with Action Transport Theatre, toured the UK and was shortlisted for the Writers Guild Award in 2013.
Tamed & Tamed or It’s Hard to Get a Real Horse were written in collaboration with, and with material created by, the company and ensemble. These projects mark a shift towards co-creation models with local communities, developing work responsive to place, space, and participants. Tamed explores conforming to and rebelling against the status quo, investigating our need to belong, our fear of isolation, and the ways our thought, behaviour, and agency are “tamed.”
Our Nuclear Moon (in progress) builds on Piswer, functioning as a docu-drama-sci-fi examining the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. The project investigates post-nuclear communities — created for a nuclear future, yet left purposeless as their life-source is dismantled — exploring changing public opinions, controversies, and myths around nuclear energy, as well as the challenge of managing nuclear waste. This project is a collaboration with sociologist Dr. Leila Dawney and the local community of Sizewell.
Dramaturgy / Directurging
I support makers and writers in developing work with a focus on devised, collaborative, and movement-based processes, including clown and audience-responsive forms. I specialize in physical theatre and visual storytelling, including puppetry and object-based performance. The lines between dramaturgy and direction often merge in my practice, as I am interested in the dramaturgy of all theatrical languages — text, script, physicality, visuality, and spatial journey. I am also interested in multi-lingual work.
I love the questioning, problem-solving, editing, and reworking of material — and the creativity, generosity, and rigor that collaborative practice demands. If you have a project that could benefit from my eclectic dramaturgical eye, let’s chat.