Layla Madanat

Layla (She/Her) is a Jordanian-Palestinian theatre-maker based in London, whose practice brings together her experience across the arts and social justice sectors.

Layla was the 2021/22 Peter Hall Emerging Artist Fellow at the Rose Theatre Kingston, and her documentary film and XR work has been selected for both the BFI London Film Festival and Sheffield Doc Fest. She continues to work with new writers to tell marginalised stories and use inter-disciplinary art to spark bold discussions.

Layla was shortlisted for the 2021 Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund in the Directing/Theatre-Making Category. She has also had work shortlisted for Underbelly Untapped, VAULT Origins Award, and the VAULT and Stagedoor People's Choice Award.

She holds a Masters in Gender, Development and Globalisation from the LSE.

Layla has been an Associate Tutor on the MFA Acting at Guildford School of Acting (GSA) for two years, and is an Ambassador Trustee on the Young Vic Board of Trustees.

Credits

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR; First Encounters The Tempest/RSC Tour (2025)

DIRECTOR; New Writing Showcase: Ostan/Park Theatre (2024)

STAFF DIRECTOR; A Tupperware of Ashes/Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre (2024)
- Director of BSL Integrated Production

DIRECTOR/ASSOCIATE PRODUCER; True Story/ACE-Funded R&D (2024)

DIRECTOR; Succession theme is my ringtone/Rose Theatre Studio (2024)

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR; The Empress/Lyric Hammersmith (2023)
- Director of BSL Integrated Production

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR; The Empress/Swan Theatre, RSC (2023)
- Director of BSL Integrated Production

ASSOCIATE CREATIVE PRODUCER; Little Amal's Spring Gathering/King's Cross Granary Square (2023)

CO-PRODUCER; My Brother's Keeper/Theatre503 (2023)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR; Hakawatis/Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare's Globe (2022/23)

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR/PUPPETRY DIRECTOR; Caucasian Chalk Circle/Rose Theatre Kingston (2022)

DIRECTOR; Shai-Ann (Rehearsed Reading)/Albany Theatre (2022)

DRAMATURG; Delicious Fruit/Plaster Cast Theatre, Pleasance Edinburgh Fringe (2022)

CO-DIRECTOR; I, Lord/Theatre Deli Residency R&D (2022)

ASSISTANT PRODUCER; Patricia Gets Ready (For a Date With the Man That Used to Hit Her)/UK Tour (2022)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR; Seven Pomegranate Seeds/Rose Theatre Kingston (2021)

ASSOCIATE TO THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR; The Walk With Little Amal/Good Chance, The Walk Productions - Europe Tour (2021)

DRAMATURG; Period Parrrty/Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, 45 North (2021)

ASSISTANT PRODUCER; The Walk With Little Amal/Good Chance, The Walk Productions - Europe Tour (2021)

DRAMATURG; Chestnut/Eleanor Nawal, Finalist for Screenshot Aware (2021)

CO-DIRECTOR (Documentary Film); mosaic/Sheffield Doc Fest, BFI London Film Festival, Shubbak Festival (2020/2021)

DIRECTOR; She is a Place Called Home/VAULT Festival (2020)
- Shortlisted for the Stagedoor People’s Choice Award, The Vault Origins Award, the Underbelly Untapped Award and longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award

DIRECTOR; A New Dawn/Union Theatre, King's Head Theatre (2019)

DIRECTOR; Colour is too Sweet/King's Head Theatre (2019)

CO-CREATOR; Things We Do Not Know/NSDF (2019)

DIRECTOR; Into the Deep/The Room Above Bristol, Manchester Fringe, Camden Fringe (2018)

Training

Stage One Bridge the Gap (2022 - 2023)
Young Associate, Shubbak Festival (2019 - 2021)
Paines Plough Re:Assemble Dramaturgy Collective (2021)
Bristol Old Vic Directing Scheme with Lee Lyford and Bristol Dramsoc