Zoë Svendsen

Zoë is a theatre director, dramaturg and translator. Her PhD, completed in 2009, was on the relationship between the conditions of practice and aesthetics in theatre, exploring space and translation at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London.

Drawing on her extensive professional theatre experience, Zoë’s current practise-based performance research focuses on dramaturgy and the concepts of ‘rehearsal’ and ‘attention’. With Dr. Raphael Lyne (English) and Dr. Greg Davis (Experimental Psychology) she is currently developing a research project exploring the relationship between visual attention, subjectivity, text and spatiality in Renaissance drama, using a practice-based approach.

Zoë is Artistic Director of Metis Arts, an Associate Artist with Company of Angels, and a script reader in the literary department at the National Theatre. Zoë’s performance projects utilise small spaces to create immersive audience experiences. These have focussed on contemporary political subjects such as capitalism and poker; climate change; the relation between the real and the virtual.