Things I Am Not LegalAliens Theatre

LegalAliens’ Lara Parmiani,  Becka McFadden and Emmanuela Lia, creator of Things I Am Not, sit for a chat with Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre.



Roxana is one of very few women born outside the UK who currently hold leadership roles at producing theatres with their own buildings. We discuss how her childhood journey from Argentina to England led her to a career in theatre, why international accents are still taboo on British stages, Brexit, and the challenges of producing innovative, ‘outsider’ theatre. 




Roxana Silbert is the Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre. She has previously served as Artistic Director of Birmingham REP and Artistic Director of Paines Plough. She has been Associate Director at the RSC, Literary Director of the Traverse Theatre, and Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre.




https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/




Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani


Concept: Emmanuela Lia


Director: Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani


Website design: Daiva Dominyka


Social media: Catharina Conte


Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero




Has this conversation resonated with you? Please send us your responses via www.thingsiamnot.com/responses Over the coming weeks and months, our interactive website will gradually morph into a digital gallery featuring audience responses. 




You can also reach us via email info@legalaliens.org, on Instagram at @legalalienstheatre or on Twitter and Facebook at @LegalAliensITC 

Theatre doesn’t exist in a vacuum and the attitudes, cliches, and prejudices we see on stage and in creative practices simply mirror our society. In this episode, we invite back two Things I Am Not artists - Yasmeen Ghrawi and Lanna Joffrey - for a conversation with Zrinka Bralo, CEO of Migrants Organise. Topics include attitudes towards refugee women, the difference between solidarity and charity, and the need to create space in society and the arts for mutual listening
#bonusepisode #refugeewomen #migrantsorganise #solidarity #refugeeswelcome 
Zrinka Bralo was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she worked as a journalist and came to the UK as a refugee. She is now CEO of Migrants Organise, an award-winning, grassroots organising platform for dignity, justice, and welcome for all migrants and refugees. Under the banner of Solidarity Knows No Borders, Migrants Organise is leading the grassroots coalition building the Fair Immigration Reform Movement for systemic change of the UK’s current hostile environment immigration policy. Zrinka is a refugee from Sarajevo, where she was a journalist during the siege in the1990s. She is a founder of the Women on the Move Awards that celebrates the achievements of migrant and refugee women and the winner of the 2011 Voices of Courage Award by the Women’s Refugee Commission in New York.  
Find Yasmeen’s and Lanna’s bios and monologues on https://thingsiamnot.com/


Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani
Concept: Emmanuela Lia
Director: Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani
Website design: Daiva Dominyka
Social media: Catharina Conte
Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero


Has this conversation resonated with you? Please send us your responses via www.thingsiamnot.com/responses Over the coming weeks and months, our interactive website will gradually morph into a digital gallery featuring audience responses. 


You can also reach us via email info@legalaliens.org, on Instagram at @legalalienstheatre or on Twitter and Facebook at @LegalAliensITC 

LegalAliens’ Lara Parmiani and Becka McFadden sit down for a chat with Tamara Rojo, artistic director of the English National Ballet. We ask how migration and artistry intersect in a field dominated by the expressivity and technical ability of the dancing body. What acts of translation might still be necessary? And what’s it like to lead a national company in a country you arrived to as a foreigner? This discussion is part of an interview series with migrant women in leadership positions in the UK. 
Tamara Rojo was born in Spain and trained as a dancer in Madrid. In 2012 she was appointed Artistic Director of English National Ballet in 2012. She combines this role with her dancing career, performing as Lead Principal with the Company.
She won a Gold Medal at the Paris International Dance Competition and a Special Jury Award unanimously given by a judging panel led by Natalia Makarova, Vladimir Vasiliev and Galina Samsova, who asked her to join Scottish Ballet.
Within six months of joining English National Ballet, Tamara was promoted to Principal, and went on to dance the full range of the Company’s principal roles. Derek Deane created the roles of Juliet (Romeo & Juliet) and Clara (The Nutcracker) for her. Her performances as Clara broke all box office records at the London Coliseum and The Times named her “Dance Revelation of the Year.”
Tamara joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal at the invitation of Sir Anthony Dowell shortly after her highly acclaimed Guest Artist debut with the Company in Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle, and danced there for 12 years.
She is a member of the Board of Creative England and Creative Industries Federation, the Anglo-Spanish Society, a Patron of the Ipswich-based DanceEast Academy, Patron of the Flamingo Chicks and Adviser to Spain’s Superior Council of Artistic Studies.
Find out more about Tamara here: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=660961344

https://www.tamara-rojo.com/
#bonusepisode #migration #womeninthearts #ballet #englishnationalballet #tamararojo


Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani
Concept: Emmanuela Lia
Director: Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani
Website design: Daiva Dominyka
Social media: Catharina Conte
Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero


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You can also reach us via email info@legalaliens.org, on Instagram at @legalalienstheatre or on Twitter and Facebook at @LegalAliensITC

We Zoom in for a chat with Nastazja Domaradzka, director, theatremaker and force of nature. We ask Nastazja how her migrant experience and the theatre she grew up watching in Poland have shaped her practice today and delve into British theatre’s seeming pursuit of apoliticality. 
Unpicking this political allergy, we ask Nastazja to help us imagine a better and more engaged future for the work we all love. And - of course - we ask Nastazja to share some things she’s not. Follow Nastazja on Twitter @NastazjaDom
Guest: Nastazja Domaradzka in conversation with LegalAliens’ Lara Parmiani and Becka McFadden.
#bonusepisode #migration #womenintheatre #politicaltheatre #easterneurope 
Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani
Concept: Emmanuela Lia
Director: Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani
Website design: Daiva Dominyka
Social media: Catharina Conte
Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero
Has this conversation resonated with you? Please send us your responses via www.thingsiamnot.com/responses Over the coming weeks and months, our interactive website will gradually morph into a digital gallery featuring audience responses. 
You can also reach us via email info@legalaliens.org, on Instagram at @legalalienstheatre or on Twitter and Facebook at @LegalAliensITC 

10 weeks, 10 voices, 10 stories. Now that all 10 episodes of Things I Am Not have been released, the creative team behind the podcast gets together to talk about what’s surprised us, what’s stayed with us and where we might be going next. This episode is the first in our series of bonus discussion episodes inspired by themes emerging from Episodes 1-10 of Things I Am Not. 


Guests: Catharina Conte, Daiva Dominyka, Emmanuela Lia, Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani
Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani
Concept: Emmanuela Lia
Director: Becka McFadden & Lara Parmiani
Website design: Daiva Dominyka
Social media: Catharina Conte
Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero


Has this conversation resonated with you? Please send us your responses via www.thingsiamnot.com/responses Over the coming weeks and months, our interactive website will gradually morph into a digital gallery featuring audience responses. 


You can also reach us via email info@legalaliens.org, on Instagram at @legalalienstheatre or on Twitter and Facebook at @LegalAliensITC 

“When a Black African migrant woman is in a relationship with a white man, the organ on her body that society gives its highest attention to is her vagina. On the one hand, everytime me and my 'white lover' make love, I am not me and he is not him. I am Africa allowing itself to be taken by settler Europe.”
Rich, complex and fearless, “Way To Becoming” by Sabrina Richmond deals with the black woman’s body as a site of pleasure and contestation. Charting the journey - physical, professional and personal - of a life lived in many countries and their attendant assumptions, Sabrina’s perceptive and deeply human work is an embodied investigation of what we lose, what we bring with us and how important it is to keep asserting - and embracing - the many things we are, not just for ourselves, but for the societies in which we live. 

Find out more about Sabrina here

Written and performed by: Sabrina Richmond
Producing Artistic Director: Lara Parmiani
Concept: Emmanuela Lia
Director: Becka McFadden
Visual Art: Laura Rouzet
Website design: Daiva Dominyka
Social media: Catharina Conte
Original Music: Angelina Rud & Martin Bakero