Zoe Svendsen

ZOE SVENDSEN is a theatre maker and researcher. Both her research and practice focuses on intercultural exchange and explorations of space in performance, including devising projects with LOT Teatro, Peru, and independent theatre makers from Pakistan. She runs a company, METIS, which specialises in research-based performance projects (www.metisarts.co.uk).

With METIS, Zoe is developing The Bunker Project, exploring hidden war spaces and their uses, in particular the practice of rehearsing for nuclear war. The project is being developed in a residency at the Material Theatres conference/event at the Centre of Excellence for Training in Theatre.

Last year she was mentored by Grid Iron to adapt a Brecht short story for the stage, Four Men and a Poker Game. After being introduced to Belgian director Luk Perceval (Schaubühne, Berlin) at a Young Vic workshop, she has trained/worked with him in Berlin, writing a chapter for the forthcoming book, Making Contemporary Theatre: international rehearsal processes (MUP).

She is currently completing a PhD on the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, at the University of Cambridge, and has given presentations on her academic and performance work in a variety of forums both in the UK and abroad. Zoë used to live in Berlin, and translates from the German, most recently translating Respect, by Lutz Hübner, for Company of Angels. She has been invited to participate in a National Theatre Studio development residency for translation for theatre this summer. Zoe has been selected to participate in the International forum of the Berlin Theatertreffen this May, a workshop/seminar/networking programme for theatre makers from across the world.