Jennifer Bakst

Director and dramaturg. Currently the Creative Associate at ETT. Formerly New Work Associate at Kiln Theatre. Currently directing the 15-18s Young Company at Kiln Theatre, and have worked as a drama facilitator in prisons for the Synergy Theatre Project.

As director, work includes ISH (Roundabout and China Plate); Armstrong’s War (Finborough Theatre); Pocatello (Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts); The Place of Shining Light (Sahar Speaks, Theatre503); Gaza: Opening Signs (charity gala, Shakespeare’s Globe); Bash (Etcetera Theatre); and L’elisir d’amore (UGA opera theatre). Rehearsed readings and short runs include: Deepa the Saint (Orange Tree Theatre, Black Horse Festival, Theatre503); The Darkest Part of the Night; Daniel and El Giro/The Twist (Kiln Theatre); Selkie (Southwark Playhouse and Old Red Lion); A Violet in the Youth of Primy Nature (Theatre 20th Utopia); and Blue Moon and Retrospective (Miniaturists).

As Assistant and Associate Director, work includes The Great Wave and Ugly Lies the Bone (National Theatre); Handbagged (UK Tour and NY transfer); Dessa Rose (Trafalgar Studios); and Samson et Dalila (Deutsche Oper Berlin). Resident Director at Kiln Theatre 2015/16 where I assisted on multiple shows.

As translator, I worked on Summer 14 German-English (Oberon Books).

Credits

01/2020 - present: Creative Associate at English Touring Theatre


02/2020 - present: 15-18s Young Company Director at Kiln Theatre


09/2019 - 12/2019: drama facilitator at YOI HMP Isis for the Synergy Theatre Project


05/2018 – 12/2019: New Work Associate at Kiln Theatre


05/2019 – 07/2019: Associate Director | Handbagged | 59E59 Theaters New York | five week run

Directing the transfer of Indhu Rubasingham’s production of Moira Buffini’s Handbagged to New York


04/2019: Playwriting Tutor | Young Vic Neighbourhood Voices | one session

Leading a session on playwriting for a community group of Lambeth and Southwark based first-time writers aged 25+


10/2018 – 11/2018: Staff Director | Faith, Hope and Charity | National Theatre Studio | two-week R&D workshop

Written and directed by Alexander Zeldin.


10/2018: Director | The Place of Shining Light | Theatre503 in collaboration with Sahar Speaks | two-week R&D workshop

Written by Yasmin Joseph, collaborating with the organisation Sahar Speaks who work with women in Afghanistan. We generated a piece based on the true story of Zahra Joya, who spent years masquerading as a boy so she could go to school under Taliban rule


01/2018 – 04/2018: Staff Director | The Great Wave | National Theatre | five week run

Written by Francis Turnly and directed by Indhu Rubasingham. Having seen through the dramaturgical development of the play both at Kiln Theatre and at the NT Studio, I then joined the team for the production of the play as staff director


01/2017 – 05/2017: Staff Director | Ugly Lies the Bone | National Theatre | four month run

Written by Lindsey Ferrentino and directed by Indhu Rubasingham


08/2015 – 01/2018: Resident Director at Kiln Theatre (then Tricycle Theatre)

Provided ongoing support to the Aritstic Director and Artistic Associate; script reading and reporting; assisted on five productions; and directed readings and workshops – including The Darkest Part of the Night by Zodwa Nyoni, Daniel by Sam Potter, and El Giro/the Twist by Cuban writer Cheddy Mendizabel, translated by William Gregory


01/2015 – 08/2015: Performance Programme Associate at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts

Directed Pocatello by Samuel D Hunter with the second-year BA Acting students; taught classes and seminars; and supported the Principal and Artistic Director. Also co-directed the third-year BA Acting students in Love’s Labour’s Lost with Stephen Jameson at the Unicorn Theatre and the International Theatre Festival in Germany


2013 – 2014: Associate Director of the Finborough Theatre

Directed Armstrong’s War by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee Colleen Murphy; directed Robert McLellan’s The Flouers o’Edinburgh for the Scottish referendum season; translated Sommer 14 from German into English for performance at the theatre and publication by Oberon Books; script reading and reporting; and researching and recommending writers


08/2014: Director | Acis and Galatea | Arcola Theatre | one week run

By Georg Friedrich Handel. Performed in the context of the Grimeborn opera festival


04/2014: Director | Selkie | Southwark Playhouse | two performances

Written by Maud Dromgoole


02/2014: Director | Everything Happens at the Starlight Lounge | Vault Festival | two performances

Written by Ben Francis


01/2014: Director | L’elisir d’amore | University of Georgia Opera Theatre | two week run

By Gaetano Donizetti. A production with MA opera students


2012 – 2013: Resident Assistant Director at Finborough Theatre

Provided ongoing support to the Artistic Director; script reading and reporting; assisted on three productions; and directed readings and workshops


09/2012: Producer and Director | Gaza: Opening Signs | Globe Theatre | one performance

A one-off charity gala performance, raising money for a project with d/Deaf young people in the Deir el Ballah refugee camp in Gaza


06/2011 – 03/2012: Field Worker | Mae La Refugee Camp

I was a field worker in a UNHCR refugee camp, living and working in Mae La on the Thai/Burmese border

Training

Education:

Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts: MA Theatre Directing. 2012

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London: BA Development and South East Asian Studies. 2010