Madi Maxwell-Libby

I'm a writer-performer, dramaturg and director with a special interest in working with comedy and physically-led work.

I began my performing career doing experimental stand-up comedy and clowning through the Soho Theatre's Comedy. Lab way back in 2015. I then started doing performance poetry - I was the Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion 2016, one of 12 poets selected for BBC 1Xtra's Words First programme, and my credits include commissions for BBC iPlayer, Nationwide, and The Guardian.

My solo comedy show was performed at Latitude Festival, The Roundhouse and The Old Vic (an extract).
I'm now interested in taking my love for language and expanding it into experimental performance. My background across a range of genres - from 'straight' theatre (what does that even mean?) to clowning, poetry and dance - gives me a unique perspective when it comes to dramaturgy.
I love working with writers to help facilitate their ideas and bring new projects into being.

Right now, I'm particularly interested in working with musicians and lyricists to co-create a new musical.

I love working with young people, having mentored a vulnerable young person in screenwriting and audition technique through a charity for the past two years. I've facilitated workshops in schools, prisons and pop-up events across London. I'm also training part-time to be a Steiner-Waldorf teacher.

My pronouns are she/her, and I'm a Sagittarius with a Libra moon.

Credits

2021 - present Writer/Dramaturg, THE (beat) ROVER, dir. Madelaine Moore for MGC Futures

Adaptation of Aphra Behn’s The Rover, set in the 1960s Beat poetry scene.



2018 Writer/Performer, FIERCE SISTERS for Mimbre, Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust
Fierce Sisters was an immersive, outdoor theatre production by all-female physical theatre company Mimbre that reimagined Shakespeare’s female characters on their own terms. I was commissioned to adapt and perform Beatrice from Much Ado into modern-day spoken word, applying her trademark wit to contemporary gender politics whilst maintaining the word-play, imagery and crass jokes that’s so particular to Shakespearean language. Beatrice’s character was the narrator and central link with the audience, guiding them between scenes while also performing a prologue and several original monologues in between.



2016 - 2018 Writer/Performer, MASSIVE SENSE OF URGENCY
I wrote and performed a satirical, multi-disciplinary solo show about an office temp who tries to understand economics using power tools and mime. Incorporating physical theatre, video and audience interaction, it received two rounds of Arts Council funding, and was performed in London at:

The Old Vic – commission for CONNECT: Now, a selection of five contemporary monologues (2018)
Latitude Festival – Cabaret Stage (2018)
Ovalhouse – First Bites (2018)
Brainchild Festival – Comedy Stage (2017)
The Roundhouse – Last Word Festival (2017)
Camden People’s Theatre – SPRINT (2016)

The show was further supported for R&D by: Battersea Arts Centre, Omnibus Clapham, Soho Theatre Comedy Lab. Directors, dramaturgs & collaborators included: Kirsty Housley (The Encounter, Complicite), Caitlin McLeod (The Yard), Eve Leigh (Midnight Movie, Royal Court), Jon Davison



2016 Co-writer/performer, BUFFERING, Edinburgh Fringe Festival

An hour-long comedy show that included poetry, character comedy, surreal sketches and music



Selected Poetry Credits:

BBC iPlayer My poem Kids, Coins, Cuts was broadcast on We Belong Here, 2016, alongside poets Sabrina Mahfouz, Joelle Taylor and Raymond Antrobus
The Guardian Publication of a piece about European identity
Nationwide TV advertising campaign, 2016 and 2018
London Underground Poem for National Poetry Day 2017, broadcast on the London tube
The Natural History Museum Commission to accompany their 2017 exhibition VENOM
KFC Rhyming copy for on 2017’s Friendship Chicken bucket
Forum for European Culture, DeBalie A series of spoken word pieces on Brexit and European identity, in collaboration with fellow UK poet Jacob Sam-La Rose, for Amsterdam’s annual culture festival supported by the Department for Dutch Culture

Training

- London Library Emerging Writer’s Programme 2019 - one of 38 selected out of 600 applicants

- Writing for Musical Theatre - Arvon course, August 2022

- The Actors Class with Mary Doherty - Stanislavski, Chekhov, musical theatre

- Soho Theatre Comedy Lab: Stand-Up 2015 - 2017

- Clowning in Nature with Dr Brown - 10 day residential course

- Roundhouse Resident Artist 2017

- BBC 1 Xtra Words First participant - one of 12 selected

- Introduction to Meisner - 8 week course with The Monobox

-WAC Arts - Acting, Clown, Bouffon, Commedia dell’Arte

- National Youth Theatre 2015

- Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion 2016