Natalie Katsou is an associate lecturer in Theatre and Performance in the School of Art, Architecture and Design. And she's also a theatre practicioner and playwright.
Natalie Katsou
Natalie Katsou is a lecturer in Theatre and Performance, a theatre director and a playwright., currently an associate lecturer at London Metropolitan University and at Goldsmiths. Born in Athens, she studied Law (BA at Law School of National and Kapodistrian Univeristy of Athens), Acting (BA at Delos-Hatoupi Acting School), Theatre Studies (BA at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and Music (Diploma in Piano and Certificate in Advanced Music Studies at Athenaeaum-Maria Callas Conservatoire), before moving to the UK, where she completed her postgraduate studies in Theatre Directing (MFA at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex) under the Minotis Scholarship by the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece. Her PhD thesis (at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) explores spectral figures in contemporary dramaturgy, constructing a theoretical framework based on contemporary continental philosophy and performance theory as a tool for dramaturgy, exploring spectral readings, memories, histories and narratives, works of mourning and trauma, space, place and heteorotopias, as well as presence and absence through creative critical analysis and phenomenology approaches. She is the recipient of the Postdoctoral Bridging Award by Goldsmiths and she is currently focusing on her postdoc research combining law and theatre.
Natalie has taught in various HE highly acclaimed institutions, such as Rose Bruford, University of Cumbria and East 15, and she also often delivers series of workshops exploring ensemble, devising with a focus on movement and corporeality, new writing and dramaturgy. She is the founder and artistic director of En Spoudi theatre company (Athens 2006-2009) and of Operaview (London 2014-2017) merging contemporary opera and visual and performing arts and she has directed theatre and opera in the UK and abroad as a freelance director. She has published 5 poetry books, with most recent her collection ‘idolaters’ (Kapa Publishing House, Athens, 2019) and she has written many theatre plays all of which have met the stage in the UK and in Greece.
Teaching: dramaturgy, critical and contextual studies, acting, acting in musical theatre, improvisation and devising.
Research interests include: memories, histories and narratives; trauma, loss and mourning; gender and identities; space, place and heterotopias; intermedial practices and pedagogy; human rights, concepts and justice and the role of creatives; inclusion and social change.
Academic Journals:
Katsou, N (2021) From Hell to Heterotopia: Romeo Castellucci’s Inferno, Performance Research, 26:1-2, 35-47, DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2021.1958639
Katsou, N 2020: Theatre Heterotopias: Sea on Stage. Body, Space & Technology, 19 (1), pp. 1–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.325
Conferences:
Aeschylus' Eumenides: seeking refuge, seeking justice’, lecture presented at the Goldsmiths Law Summer School, hosted at Harokopeion University of Athens on 26 June 2023, organised by Study in Greece, 26-30 June 2023.
'Intermediality and contemporary approaches in contextual studies for undergraduate programmes', for the Conference Global Connections: Performance Practice and Pedagogy by LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore, 30 May – 3 June 2023.
"Let them speak". Haunting figures in the dramaturgy of Iakovos Kampanellis’, for the Conference Iakovos Kampanellis in the 21st Century, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Theatre Studies Dept, November 2022. Conference Proceedings, under publication.
'Theatre without space or the hyperstructure of the virtual stage', for the Conference Theatre and Performing Arts in 21st Cent. The anxiety and the struggle of Redefinition, Theatre Critics Association in collaboration with the University of Athens, 1-3 October 2021. Published in Prousali, E. (Ed.). (2023). Performing Arts in 21st Century. Contemporary Practices and New Perspectives. Athens: Evrasia Publications, pp. 259-266.
'Chaldoupis and Velissaropoulos': The revolution of simulacra in the work of Andreas Staikos’, for the Conference Greek Revolution and Theatre, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Theatre Studies Dept, November 2021. Conference Proceedings, under publication.
'Ghosts in stage directions'. Their appearance in text and the danger of their disappearance in
practice’, for the Conference Greek Theatre in Publication from 19th to 21st Century, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Theatre Studies Dept, 2019. Under publication.
'Spectral figures in contemporary theatre and methods of investigation. A Classification', for the Conference Research Sources in Contemporary Greek Theatre Studies, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Theatre Studies Dept., 2021. Conference proceedings, pp. 287-294. Publication available at here.
Dr Natalie Katsou
Associate Lecturer in Theatre and Performance
n.katsou@londonmet.ac.uk