Alia

I am a theatre-maker and director working across Hampshire and the UK. My background is in new writing and site-responsive performance; I ran High Hearted Theatre with writer Marcelo Dos Santos, making productions for Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, Southwark Playhouse, Brighton Fringe, Omnibus London and more. I currently work mostly in participatory practice and co-creation, creating work in collaboration with professional creatives and communities. I am also an artist-researcher with a particular interest in place, space and identity, and how theatre for social change.

I am an actor and theatre-maker with over twenty years experience in the industry. After training at Shakespeare and Company and more than a decade acting on film, television, theatre (and many many Shakespeare roles) I obtained my MFA at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with Distinction. I am also the founder and Co-Artistic Director of Crowbait Club UK and US (an organisation dedicated to the development of new theatrical writing) and Co-Artistic Director of award-winning theatre company, Mary Rose Productions. MRP works with new and emerging to produce rep-style theatre and talent to foster pathways in arts careers with an emphasis on sustainability and education. www.maryroseproductions.co.uk www.crowbait.co.uk

I am a theatre performer, movement practitioner, educator, and parent artist. I trained in the UK, Malta, and Greece, and have worked on performance projects and interdisciplinary collaborations in Europe and the UK for the past 15 years. My creative practice is informed by contemporary performance devising. The work is physical, visual and poetic; it shifts between presence and representation, layers mythologies with true stories and looks for surprising uses of movement, sound and objects. My current creative work focuses on the natural world, ecology and outdoor arts. In my research and projects, I look for meaningful ways to weave the natural world into my movement language, choreographies and performance artworks.