About
Joanna Pidcock is a London-based Australian theatre director, dramaturg, and librettist. As an associate, assistant, or intern director, Joanna has worked on large-scale professional productions at the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Hampstead Theatre, and the Schaubühne, as well as a number of other venues across Europe, and has extensive experience with new work. As a dramaturg, Joanna has been involved in the development of a new work with Katie Mitchell and Alice Birch for the Schaubühne, and has adapted two novellas into opera libretti, one of which has been under development at the Royal Opera House.
Joanna makes work that interrogates conflict and change - personal, structural, societal, emotional, and cultural. She is interested in work that communicates a strong sense of place, as well as adaptations of non-theatrical texts.
Joanna was a 2024 Finalist for the prestigious JMK Award alongside designer Hazel Low. She has also been longlisted for the Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic Theatre. In July 2019, she was the British Council representative artist at the Séminaire en Avignon residency, as part of the Festival d’Avignon. Joanna has been awarded a Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa, allowing her to continue her career in the UK.
As a writer of literary non-fiction, Joanna was shortlisted for the 2021 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, and is represented by Anna Webber at AM Heath.
Joanna has a first-class BA from the University of Melbourne with majors in English and Theatre Studies and Creative Writing, a Diploma of Languages in French, and in 2016 completed a first-class Honours thesis in English and Theatre Studies, developing research methodologies surrounding audience response and the theatrical event.
Selected CV
Current and Forthcoming
Director, UGLY SISTERS, devised with piss / CARNATION, Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024, Winner of the Untapped Award
Director, Very Small Trouble, Evelyn Reidy, Shakespeare’s Globe R&D 2024
Freelance Reader, Fox Literary (Film and TV)
Previous
Associate Director, The Confessions, written and directed by Alexander Zeldin, National Theatre & European Tour, 2023 and 2024
Assistant Director, I, Joan, Charlie Josephine dir. Ilinca Radulian, Shakespeare’s Globe 2022
Librettist, How Was It For You, composed by Francesca Le Lohé, Arts Council Tokyo, Toshima Civic Centre May 2022
Librettist, The Garden Party, composed by Joanna Ward, Royal Opera House/Footfall Theatre, development throughout 2019
Assistant Director, Ravens: Spassky vs. Fischer, Tom Morton-Smith dir. Annabelle Comyn, Hampstead Theatre 2019
Movement Director, Not Dying, Jamie Hale dir. Kate O’Donnell, Barbican Centre 2019
Dramaturg, Saint Somebody, devised and performed by Clara Potter-Sweet, Camden People’s Theatre, development throughout 2019
Director, London with a Perfect Skyline, by Cassiah Joski-Jethi, Exploding Whale/Katzspace 2019
Dramaturg, Project in Development, Alice Birch, dir. Katie Mitchell, Die Schaubühne 2018
Intern Director, La Maladie de la Mort, Alice Birch dir. Katie Mitchell, Théâtre des Bouffes Du Nord 2018
Director, Orpheus Turns, Melbourne Fringe/Meat Market 2017
Assistant Director, Angels in America, Tony Kushner dir. Gary Abrahams, Dirty Pretty Theatre/fortyfivedownstairs 2017
Director, Old Wives Tales, Tallulah Theatre 2016
Intern Director, As You Like It, dir. Peter Evans, Bell Shakespeare 2015
Director, A Streetcar Named Desire, FLW Theatre Company 2014
Director, The Hypocrite, Newman College Theatre Company 2013
Full CV available on request.