Nicolette Kay

                                       trained at The Drama Centre, London, she worked as an actress for a number of years before founding Muzikansky Theatre Company which was based at The Forum (an independent music venue).  For the company, Nicolette directed plays including the Time Out Critics’ Choice Mary Stuart, The Dreams of Clytemnestra and Mela, all by Dacia Maraini (Battersea Arts Centre),  the world premiere of Seed by Souad Faress the London premiere of Love Child by Joanna Murray-Smith ( the Finborough Theatre) and Mud by Maria Irene Fornes (Etcetera Theatre). She also ran Muzikansky’s unscreen short film nights, ran workshops with young people and adults and created a film festival.

 

After closing Muzikansky she started another company called New Shoes Theatre, also based at the Forum, Tunbridge Wells because she was invited to direct another UK premiere of a Dacia Maraini play; Hurried Steps (Finborough Theatre). The play raises awareness about violence against women and girls. Nicolette has toured this production widely in the UK with New Shoes Theatre.  In Sydney, Australia, she produced the world premiere of a new Hurried Steps story called Kubra. A chapter about the development and the full text of this story will be included in a forthcoming chapter in Staging Violence Against Women and Girls: Plays and Interviews published by Bloomsbury/Methuen. Nicolette specialises in producing lesser known work written by women, most recently,  Jeannie by Aimée Stuart.  Nicolette also directs classical plays with professional theatre students.

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She has contributed a Chapter to Il Sogno Del Teatro. Cronaca Di Una Passione,  Edited by Dacia Maraini and Eugenio Murrali. Other writing includes the published co-translations of Mary Stuart and My Name is Antonino Calderone. Her full length play, Falling Out,  won an Arts Council Award and her screenplay A Short Message was filmed at the Rutger Hauer Filmfactory.

 

As a professional actress, she played leading roles with many companies including Cambridge Theatre Company, Derby Playhouse, The Gate, The Women’s Theatre Group, playing Miss Hoyden in The Relapse  opposite David Jason and Ophelia opposite Edward Fox’s Hamlet at The Young Vic. Nicolette gave a talk for TEDxCoventGardenWomen called “Hidden Stories, Hurried Steps“.