THE ARTISTS
LAVINIA GRIPPA
Lavinia Grippa is an artist from Italy, who started studying Acting and Performance at University of the Arts London with the only purpose being to become an actor, though through the course she discovered a love for theatre-making and collaborating. She attends weekly classes at The London Meisner Company, the technique strongly influencing her practice. She is a member of The Messy Kind, a laboratory performance collective.
Her solo work includes Behind the mask (2020), a short film exploring the concept of Pirandello's mask in our everyday society, and I Am Nothing Else Than Myself (2022), a performance with the goal of deconstructing our society's structures on the stage. Lavinia is passionate about any kind of art form and her main goal is to be able express her true self on stage.
ARIELLE ZILKHA
Arielle Zilkha is the Artistic Director of Psychonaut Theatre, and a multidisciplinary performer, theatre-maker, producer and composer. She trained on the BA Acting and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts and MA Advanced Theatre Practice course at Central School of Speech and Drama. As a performer, she has performed in venues such as the Omnibus Theatre, the Finborough Theatre, and Camden People's Theatre.
Arielle's work combines different performance disciplines, including song and dance, to explore the absurd, theatre as a live art form and means of deconstruction, and her positionality as a female Jewish-Israeli theatre-maker in London. As the AD of Psychonaut, she strives to create a space for international performance practices to be explored and for an alternative performance scene to thrive in the U.K.
EVA
MATEOS RODRIGUEZ
Eva Mateos Rodriguez is an eclectic artist specialising in performing, singing, dancing and composing, though she is also passionate about writing, photography and fine arts. Born and raised in Spain, she moved to London in 2019 to study BA Acting and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts. Her work, including IN character (2022) has been mostly focused on gender roles and society's impact in them, as well as the aim for a curated aesthetic.
Concentrating on film, she bases her own life experiences and surroundings to create something the audience can relate to and draw upon in their daily life.
JURAJ BENKO
Juraj Benko is an international stage and screen actor, performer and theatre-maker from Slovakia. His process is fuelled by discovering, learning and practising different ways of physical and vocal training, acting methods and approaches from different parts of the world. He has been based in Denmark for the past three years, and since worked on a range of projects, including as part of the international theatre ensemble 'Moon of Asia', under the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium. Their latest production After War (2022), premiered in Gwanju, South Korea and has since embarked on a European tour. His work as a co-creator and actor also includes the physical/dance theatre piece Take Wing (2021) with Eluda Dance Co, inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s ‘A Doll's House’.
His debut solo performance 'Honey Badger', directed by Roberta Carreri, premiered in Denmark this year and is now set for more European performances.
KAROLA KOSECKA
Karola Kosecka is an artist and theatre-maker, originally from Poland but now based in London. She is currently studying on MA Drama and Movement Therapy at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, which will lead her on to creating theatre with minority and excluded groups. Her solo work includes no god chose her (2021), which will be developed into an exhibition later this year.
Karola is the founder of 2119pln, a protest movement based in Poland fighting for the rights of citizens caring for those with disabilities. She aims to form an artistic collective with artists on the autistic spectrum. Her most pleasurable moments in life are walking with dogs and doing nothing with her two younger brothers.
FRANCESCA FATICHENTI
Francesca Fatichenti is a theatre and screen actress, performer, reader, theatre maker and mask maker. She graduated in acting from the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan in 2018, and then studied at the Academie Internationale Des Artes Du Spectacle in Versailles (2021) amongst others.
She has performed across Europe, including in 'La Tragedia è finita, Platonov', which received special mention at the Biennale of Venice and was presented at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. She has presented work at the Festival d'Avignon Off 2021 and Moìs Molière de Versailles 2021, as well as in "2032 Smartfamily" (2022), co-funded by the European Union and Theatre of Buzau (RO).
Her current focus is on exploring the boundaries of art, between tradition and revolutionary innovation, for a new world and society suspended in time.
