Slackline Stories- Our Fabulous Directors!

 Introducing the directors of Slackline Stories, six short new-writing plays being performed at Southwark Playhouse on 26th May…

Megan Stewart

Megan is directing Vitesse by Laura Jayne Ayres.

Megan is a Scottish director, producer and actor, who has operated across New York and London. Her time in NYC included work with the Kraine Theatre, the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, and the Scranton Shakespeare Festival. Former productions across the UK include Scrooge; Jesus Christ Superstar; Joseph; and S’Warm. In 2018, she directed Martin McDonaugh’s The Pillowman in London, and wrote and directed black comedy Nine Lives at the Edinburgh Fringe,in association with The Kings Players. Additionally, she is co-founder of These People Make Pictures, most recently producing The Sea starring Anna Friel and Russell Tovey. In 2019 we will see her working as Assistant to the Live Performance Directors, on dotdotdot’s immersive theatrical production of, The War of the Worlds.  

Júlia Lévai

Júlia is directing Final Proof by Alina Rios

Júlia is a theatre director from Hungary currently training on the MA Directing course at LAMDA. Julia has recently directed a revival of Chris Thorpe’s There has possibly been an incident which premiered in York and later been invited to be part of a festival at Blue Elephant Theatre in London. She is passionate about finding the possibilities of texts which are complex, confusing, and have the ability to reflect with on the world around us.

Callie Nestleroth

Callie is directing Bats by Rebekah King

Callie is a theatre maker, director, and script  reader from the Washington DC, now based in London. She is Artistic Director of The Heroine Chronicles, where she has directed Social Media Suicide (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018), Oh Heroine How I Love You! (touring London and NYC Libraries), and currently developing new projects Dreaming Real and Why We Love Dead Women.  She is a member of the 2018/2019 SDCF Observership Class and assisted on Diana, A New Musical directed by Christopher Ashley at La Jolla Playhouse. Training: MFA Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; Advanced Directing at the National Theater Institute.

Lou Corben

Lou is directing Edge by Emily Brauer Rogers

Lou studied Drama at the University of Lincoln, graduating in 2010. In 2015 she founded Marvellous Machine Theatre Company, which specialises in inventive, homegrown ensemble-devised theatre. Marvellous Machine’s first production, The Tiger’s Bride was described as “a plush and captivating take on one of Angela Carter’s famously subversive fairy tale retellings [with] luxury enough to sink into” (Daily Info), “atmospheric, beautifully choreographed”, “Magical, amazing, full of joy” and “Gaspingly good. So, so tender” (audience comments). She has recently completed the first run of an adaptation of Orlando by Virginia Woolf alongside a diverse company of LGBTQIA+ performers and creatives. The production included live music and foley, shadow puppetry, dance and movement. The company also hosted discussions with LGBTQIA+ academics from Oxford University and the show also raised over £450 for Say It Loud Club, which supports LGBTQIA+ refugees. As well as producing and directing shows for Marvellous Machine, Louise also creates props, puppets and costumes, and designs graphics for marketing. Audience comments about Orlando include “Witty, inspiring, moving, musically smashing” and “I’m uplifted by the whole experience – buzzing in fact!”. Newbury Weekly News said that ORLANDO “succeeds in teasing out provocations within Woolf’s story… [an] intriguing, thoughtful production.”

Ruby Etches

Ruby is directing Not Real Sausages by Hannah Sowerby

Ruby is a Director, Actor and Theatre Maker from Bristol and based in London. She trained as an actor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and since then formed her company; Theatre63. She directed their show Cockroached which toured around several fringe venues across the country and at The Pleasance Courtyard at the fringe. It was nominated for the NSDF Edinburgh Award. Most recently she Assistant Directed at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Franciska Ery

Franciska is directing Chick. by Elle van Lil

Franciska is a Hungarian theatre and opera director and performance maker with a First Class BA in English and Drama from Queen Mary University of London and a Distinction MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths University of London. Her solo work investigates the connections between accent and national identity, and she often works with surtitling and live captioning. Recently she has worked with the National Opera Studio, Fulham Opera and the Royal Academy of Music. She is looking forward to working with Longborough Festival Opera.

Credits as director include: Chick (Southwark Playhouse), Asking For A Raise (Space Theatre), Reboot: Shorts (Bunker Theatre), Calenture (Above The Arts), Trapped (Cockpit Theatre), SE1 (Young Vic Platform)

Tickets for Slackline Stories are available here. See you there!