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MEET MAYRA STERGIOU

Mayra is a professional Theatre Director, Physical Theatre Performer and Performance Artist. She has directed works in the genres of Visual/Physical Theatre, Dance/Puppetry and Opera.

Her directorial approach is strongly movement-based, scenography led and experimental. Her work with actors often integrates aspects of dramatherapy and ensemble building. 

Her conceptual framework derives from the Visual Arts, Existentialism, Political Philosophy and Feminism and is fascinated by the interaction between the body, space and materials. Her practice is inspired and has elements of the Theatre of the Absurd, Antonin Artaud (Theatre of Cruelty), the Movement Laboratory of J. Lecoq (LEM) and Embodied Dramaturgy of Thomas Prattki. Her artistic work is often described both by audience and reviewers as 'Visceral', 'Haunting', 'Emotive' and 'Poetic'. 

She trained in Lecoq Devised Theatre and Performance at London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) and in Dramatherapy at University of Derby. She also trained in Bunraku Puppetry and collaborated with prominent artists such as David Glass, Robin Guiver (War Horse), Mem Morrison (Arts Admin), and with the Institute Internationale de la Marionnette as a resident researcher. In 2012 she co founded Visual and Physical Theatre Company, Vertebra Theatre, where she is the Artistic Director since. She is also an Associate Director of Metapraxis Ensemble since 2017 where she directed works on Experimental Music Theatre. 

Over the years she has trained in a variety of Physical and Ritualistic Theatre Practices such as Theodoros Terzopoulos Method, Voice Coordination with Grzegorz Bral (Song of the Goat), Directing with Sergei Ostrenko, Choreographic Theatre with Enrique Pardo, Tholpavakoothoo Puppetry, in Martial Arts (Taekwon-Do, Wing Chun) and Contact Improvisation. 

She is teaching workshops on Devised Physical Theatre, Embodied Imagination, Embodied approach to design and Bunraku Puppetry in the UK and internationally. As a Visiting Lecturer, she has taught at the University of Roehampton and at MFA Scenography, Central School of Speech and Drama.

She is currently an Associate Lecturer at MSc Creative Computing at the University of the Arts. She is also studying for an Mphil in Performance Practice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

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