Alia is a young director, actor, writer, and hopeful academic in Pōneke. They completed their undergraduate degree in 2020 at Te Herenga Waka and quickly moved onto their MFA(Creative Practice)/Honours 'hybrid' degree in 2021, and after a short break they're now working on a PhD analysing class representation in playwrighting, with the goal of being able to teach and keep making theatre.
Alia is interested in bold, beautiful theatre that's soft still around the edges, works that force the audience to critically think about themselves through a firm but kind message of 'we have to keep working to do better'.
They're a co-founder of Heartbreaker Productions, a feminist theatre collective that strives to represent women and AFAB people as we are, outside of the male gaze.
Their most notable credits include writing, directing, and performing in "Midnight Confessions" (Heartbreaker Productions, 2022), and writing and directing a adaptation of Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" for their MFA in 2022.
They've been on a break for a little while, but they're ready and desperate to get back into telling stories and playing onstage.
Organisation/Company
Name: Heartbreaker Productions
My Role: Co-Founder
Heartbreaker Productions is a feminist production company from Te Whanganui a Tara, made up of four collaborators; Abby Lyons, Alia Marshall, Anna Barker and Mia Oudes.
Heartbreaker Productions are passionate about bringing heartwarming and heartbreaking feminine candor to the stage. They create productions that open the door to the lives of women that exist outside of the male gaze. Their process follows a non-hierarchical system, with a focus on developing new collaborative processes that equalises all voices in the company. They want to continue to tell stories by, for, and with women, AFAB (Assigned Female at Birth) and non-binary people.
The company was formed in 2020 on the greenroom floor of Studio 77 at Te Herenga Waka, each member bringing a plethora of skills and backgrounds to help create work from the ground up.
Their recent works include the award-nominated "Conversations with the Ghost in my Bedroom" (New Zealand Fringe Festival, 2021) performed at Gryphon Theatre, "Trifles" (Six Degrees Festival, 2022) performed on The Stage at BATS, and the inaugural performance of "Midnight Confessions" (BATS Winter Season, 2022) also performed on The Stage.
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