Chiara D'Anna

I’m a London-based Italian actress, director and movement specialist. My expertise is Commedia dell’Arte, Devised Theatre and Physical Storytelling. As Artistic Director at Panta Rei Theatre my mission is to inspire, challenge and entertain audiences with humour, irony and powerful imagery. My productions integrate physical theatre, dark surreal comedy, storytelling and political satire.

For Panta Rei Theatre I wrote and directed 'Rocinante! Rocinante!' (2010-2012) supported by the Youth in Action EU Funding for the Arts; 'Samhain Night' (2011), 'Don Quixote! Don Quixote!' (2012) winner of the Charlie Harthill Special Prize, Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012; 'A Floating Caravan Under the Moon' (2014/15) and the acclaimed 'Don’t You Dare!' (2018/20) winner of the Concorso Teatrale Internazionale della Città di Chivasso as Best Show, Best Director, Best Actress and Audience Award.

I teach at Goldsmiths University, Rose Bruford College, RADA, East15 and the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. I run Commedia dell’Arte masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Musical Theatre Academy in London. (She/her)

Credits

DIRECTOR, DON’T YOU DARE! Tristan Bates (1 week); Cockpit Theatre (1week), Turin Fringe Festival (3 weeks), European Theatre Festival, Rome (1 week), Chivasso International Festival (2 nights), 2018-2020

COMMEDIA/MOVEMENT COACH, One man Two Guvnors, Derby Theatre, 2019

DIRECTOR, Finding Home, Crisis Art Festival, Arezzo (Italy), 1 week, 2017

DIRECTOR, A Floating Caravan Under the Moon, Crisis Art Festival, Arezzo (Italy), 1 week, 2016 & At Boiling Point Festival, 2015

DIRECTOR, Barbarella Disco Dome, The Coronet Elephant & Castle, 1 night, 2015

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR, Julius, Spitalfields Music Festival, London , 1 week, 2013

CO- DIRECTOR, Family Album, International Commedia dell’Arte Day, Istanbul 2013

DIRECTOR, Don Quixote! Don Quixote! Pleasance Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 4 weeks, 2012

DIRECTOR, Rocinante! Rocinante! Bussey Buildings, CLF Art Café, 3 weeks, 2012

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR, Baroque Box, Greenwich & Docklands Festival, 2 weeks, 2011

DIRECTOR, Samhain Night, Off the Grid, St Paul’s, 1 night, 2011

DIRECTOR, Masquerade, Italian Cultural Institute in London, 2 nights, 2010

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR, Baroccata, Riverside Studios, London, 1 week, 2010

DIRECTOR , Il Mercato del Mondo, Italian Cultural Institute, London, 1 night, 2009

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR, Medousa, Riverside Studios, London, 2 weeks, 2009

Training

I trained at Teatranza Drama School, Royal Holloway University (MA in Physical Theatre) and the Staniewski Centre for Theatre Practices "Gardzienice". This led to my collaboration with Ali Hodge and the international performance ensemble The Quick and the Dead.

At the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław I trained with Zygmut Molik and Andrei Droznin, Master Teacher of Movement at the Moscow Art Theater School and the Vakhtangov School in Moscow; and Head of Movement for the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

I hold a PhD on the legacy of Commedia dell'Arte in Postdramatic Theatre (The Cass School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University, 2019)