Natalie Katsou - Author

Natalie Katsou is a writer, a stage director and a theatre and performing arts lecturer.

She was born in Athens and she is based in London. She holds a BA degree in Theatre Studies (University of Athens), a BA degree in Acting (Delos-Hatoupi Acting School), and an MFA in Theatre Directing (East 15, University of Essex) under the ‘Alexis Minotis’ scholarship by the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece. She is a PhD candidate under the supervision of George P. Pefanis and her thesis explores spectral figures in contemporary greek dramaturgy. Her research interests included memory, narratives, histories, presence and absence, spectral readings, processing of mourning and performativities.

Her first writing and directing experience came with The Wedding Dress for the Empty Space at the National Theatre of Greece, Athens, 2006. At the same year she co-founded, together with actress Dimitra Vlahou, the company En Spoudi, for which she wrote and directed performances until 2009, participaintg in acclaimed festivals across Greece, such as Theatre Actions Festival at Theatre tis Anoixis and Ermoupoleia in Syros.

Since 2010 she has directed theatre and opera for international venues and companies, such as Arcola Theatre in London, Space in Edinburgh, and Talihmane Theatre in Istanbul.

In 2014, she founded the company Operaview, for which she worked as the artistic director until 2017, directing and producing contemporary opera, merging visual and performing arts, such as photography, circus arts, and dance, collaborating with international artists from diverse backgrounds. Her production of Maria de Buenos Aires, a tango-opera by Astor Piazzolla, was invited at the Bartok Plusz Festival at the National Theatre of Miskolc in Hungary. She has also worked as an assistand director and a dramaturg next to talented professionals and artists in Greece and in the UK.

She works as an associate lecturer at Goldsmiths and London Metropolitan University in London.

She has published the plays Commodity, Seabed and Flying Asparagus (Vakxikon Publications, 2017, 2017, and 2014 respectively), whilst her plays have met the stage in Athens and in London. She has also published the poetry collections idolaters (Kapa Publications 2019), The Desert Behind in collaboration with photographer Yiannis Katsaris (limited edition, 2019), Nyphalidae (Kedros 2015), Cochlea (Kedros 2012) and Magodos (Kastaniotis 2008).

Her work has been translated in english (Yannis Goumas), french (Michel Volkovitch), italian (Massimo Cazzullo), and Spanish (Mario Dominguez Parra), and her work is published in poetry journals in print and on e-zines.

www.nataliekatsou.com

www.operaview.org