Bio
Natalie Katsou is a theatre director and a writer. She studied theatre (BA Theatre Studies) at the National University of Athens, graduating with distinction in 2010, having already obtained her law degree from the University of Athens in 2005. She took her acting degree (BA) at Delos Hatoupi Acting School and studied piano and advanced music at the Athenaeum Maria Callas Conservatory with Stella Perraki. Gaining the Alexis Minotis Scholarship, granted by the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, she moved to London where she took her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Theatre Directing at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. She is currently a PhD student in Philosophy of Theatre and Drama. She lives and works as a theatre director and a drama lecturer in London. Natalie is the Artistic Director of Operaview.
Fluency in French, German and Spanish has enabled Natalie to study and work in various countries, from the University of Limoges, to GITIS in Moscow, and to the Arts Institute in Bali. She has taken part in theatre and poetry projects in Germany, Sweden and Turkey, and has worked extensively in the UK (Arcola theatre, Blackheath Halls, British Youth Opera, The Proud Archivist, Etcetera Theatre, Old Red Lion Theatre, a.o..) and abroad (Experimental Stage National Theatre of Greece, Theatre tis Anoixis, Appollo Theatre Syros, Eilissos Theatre, Talihmane Instanbul a.o.) in theatre and in creative environments. Experience of a wide range of practices and methods has sharpened her skills and broadened her professional horizon both as a writer and as a performing arts practitioner.
Natalie has written plays both in Greek (‘The Wedding Dress’ – for the Empty Space at the Experimental Stage, National Theatre of Greece, 2006, ‘Elisabeth, spirit on fire’- for Athens Theatre Action Festival 2007, ‘Seabed’- for the Greek Playwriting Festival at Aggelwn Vima, Athens, 2017) and in English (‘Minotaur’ for Fourth Monkey Company, Edinburgh Fringe 2012, ‘In between lives’ for Arcola Youth Theatre 2013, ‘Fox-Tales’- commissioned by St. Paul Prep School 2014 and ‘Flying Asparagus’, inspired by Asperger’s Syndrome, presented at the Blue Elephant Theatre 2011 and published by Vakxikon Publ. 2014, ‘Commodity’ for the Greek Voices Festival by Theatre Lab Company at Riverside Studios, 2014, later translated in Greek and invited to the Analogio Festival 2017 at Theatre Technis in Athens, directed by Lilly Meleme, and then transferred to Cacoyiannis Foundation, December 2017-January 2019).
She has published the following poetry collections: ‘Magodos’ (Kastaniotis Publ. 2008- nominated for the DIAVAZO Literature Prize) , ‘Cochlea’ (Kedros Publ. 2012- nominated for the ANAGNOSTIS Literature Prize) and ‘Nymfalidae’ (Kedros Publ. 2015). Her poems have been translated in English by Yiannis Goumas, in French by Michel Volkovitch and in Spanish by Mario Dominguez Parra. Her poetry features in magazines such as POIHSI, and poihtiki and in various e-zines such as poeticanet.gr, e-poema, Mediterranean.nu, Quarterly Review a.o. Her latest poetry work features alongside photos by Yiannis Katsaris in the collaborative poetry/photography book ‘The Desert Behind’, inspired by Morocco, launching at The Hellenic Centre in London in March 2019.
Photoshoot by Yiannis Katsaris
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