We are very pleased to announce the appointment of the School’s first Associate Artist.
Nazli-Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh will be working over the next two years on a host of different creative and strategic projects at the School. Nazli brings a wealth of experience to the School. She is a writer, actor, director and arts producer.
Nazli is an Opera Doctoral Researcher at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and was the founder and artistic director of ZENDEH, a theatre company based in the northeast of England that was part of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio of Organisations.
She has directed for the Traverse Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland and The Bush Theatre as part of Black Lives Matters. Nazli’s direction was awarded an Amnesty International Commendation at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
As an actor, she has performed the work of Nassim Soliemanour, Fire Exit and Theatre Uncut. As a librettist of opera, she has been commissioned by the Royal Opera House, British Council and the Shubbak Festival, Birmingham Opera Company, Britten Pears Arts and Oxford Lieder.
She has performed her poetry in response to the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad at Wigmore Hall as part of Poet in the City. Her work as a dramaturg spans the reinterpretation of classics and crafting of new work with award-winning individual artists and researchers. Nazli’s teaching portfolio includes Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Central School of Speech and Drama.
She holds an MLitt Theatre & Performance Practices from the University of Glasgow and an MA in Opera Making and Writing from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. As an artistic doctoral researcher, she engages in combining collaboration with equitable practices through the French opera Carmen.
Nazli is part of the governance committee for the New York based International Society for the Performing Arts of which she is an Arts Council England grad fellow.
Nazli will be working in the rehearsal studio with students from all of the School’s acting courses with a particular emphasis on supporting students in developing their own dramaturgical approach to creating work. She will also be part of the Senior Management Team contributing to the continued development of the curriculum and the overall strategic development of the School.
