Maisie
Newman


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Working-class,
director, choreographer +
writer for theatre and
opera based in East
London and Bristol. 

Currently directing an adaption of Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Villette’ for Guildford School of Acting

For an up to date list
of most recent credits
and email address,
please see CV .



Maisie is a working class, jewish director, choreographer, writer and dramturg for theatre and opera and an award winning poet. 

Winner of an Eric Gregory award for a poetry collection in 2022

Recipient of the Bryan Forbes Directing Bursary for the National Youth Theatre 2022 - 2023 

Headlong Origins Director 2020 - 2021




Maisie is an award-winning director, writer, and choreographer for theatre and opera from Easton, Bristol. She is a play-lead, collaborative and design lead director. Her work is driven by a deep focus on the human experience and the relationships between people, on both micro and macro levels. Centering the politics of class and queerness, Maisie works across music, movement, design, and space to build multi-layered worlds that stretch a piece to the very edge of its reality.

She has worked as a director for drama schools across the UK, currently directing the premiere of an adaption of ‘Villette’ by Charlotte Bronte for Guildford School of Acting. For Opera she was the librettist for ‘Little Terror’ (English Touring Opera) and choreographer for Candide (Scottish Opera), nominated for a UK Theatre Award.

She was The Bryan Forbes bursary director at the National Youth Theatre, adapting and directing Bakkhai in 2023; A Headlong Origins director across 2019-2020, workshopping Rechnitz (Elfriede Jelinek); Creative fellow at UCL in 2020; and Interim Young Company director at Bristol Old Vic in 2019, directing Antigone.

Her work is highly visual and heavily influenced by European practitioners. She has worked as an artist, academic and writer and has exhibited, curated and performed in some of the UK’s most pioneering spaces which continues to influence her work as a performance director. Her experience as a poet and translator determines her radical relationship to text.

Maisie has an MA in Fine Art from The Ruskin School of Art (Oxford University), a BA in Drama and Theatre studies from Liverpool Hope University and trained at Bristol Old Vic on their ‘Made in Bristol’ programme (2014/25) .

She was recently the Young Company Director at The Bristol Old Vic and creative fellow at UCL University.

She has lead workshops, seminars and lectures on theatre and performance for people aged 5-25 and for undergraduates and post-graduates at universities including Oxford University, York University, UWE and UCL.

CV available here 

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