Yael Shavit

BA, PGDip, PGCTLHE

Yael is a Jerwood Award winning director and dramaturg collaborating on new work across disciplines both nationally and internationally. Yael centres collaboration and artist development in her practice and has taught actors, directors, designers, theatre makers and writers at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for over fifteen years. Between 2021-23 she was Programme Director of the MA Collaborative Theatre Making at Rose Bruford. Yael works with emerging theatre artists across the UK and has led creative development initiatives for Roundhouse, Apples and Snakes, Kiln, Young Vic and Birmingham Rep amongst others. She has worked extensively with poets and spoken word artists nationwide and holds a post graduate diploma from National Film and Television School in Script Development.

In 2024 Yael joined Projekt Europa’s Artist Advisory Group supporting the company to curate artist development opportunities for and with migrant theatre artists. She was dramaturg for Roundhouse Resident Artists in the lead up to Last Word Festival 2024 and is working on the development of new plays by Casey Bailey and Urielle Klein Mekongo for China Plate Theatre as well as a new theatre project with Dash Arts . She was also reader for the inaugural Victoria Wood playwriting 2024 prize for comedy this year.

Selected credits as dramaturg: Dancing To Music You Hate, Jasmine Gardosi and Band, ACE national tour 2023; Songs for Babyn Yar, Dash Arts, Berlin/London/ Kyiv, 2021; How To Keep Time by Antosh Wojcik, Penned in the Margins/ACE National Tour 2019; Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, by Javaad Alipoor and Kirsty Housley, Edinburgh Festival Fringe First 2019. As director/dramaturg: Dark Corners by Polarbear Battersea Arts Centre/ national tour 2018; Mouth Open Story Jump Out by Polarbear, Unicorn Theatre 2018 (Arts Foundation Children’s Theatre Award Shortlist).