Associate Artists

Nicola Werenowska is an award winning neurodivergent playwright who is
committed to exploring underrepresented voices in her writing. Nicola is on placement with HighTide for one year after winning the Peggy Ramsey/Film4 Award, which celebrates and supports emerging British writing talent. Nicola was 16 when she was a runner up in the Royal Court Young People’s playwriting competition but due to the debilitating effects of her undiagnosed disability it took her another 15 years before she wrote professionally, following her life-changing dyspraxia diagnosis.

Nicola’s work has been produced widely across the UK. She has been on
attachment to Graeae Theatre, the National Theatre studio and a member of the Royal Court National Writers group. She is Associate Artist at the Mercury Theatre, High Tide Theatre and Lakeside Theatre. Recent projects include writing the libretto for The Paradis Files, a new opera, produced by Graeae, which toured nationally including performances at London’s South Bank Centre, and adapting The Secret Garden for Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.

Theatre includes: The Secret Garden (Theatre Royal BSE, 2022); The Paradis Files (Graeae, 2022); Behind Doors (zoom festival short, Mercury, 2020); Late to the Party (community commission, Mercury 2019); Silence (Mercury & national tour, 2018); Guesthouse (Eastern Angles, 2018); Hidden (Oxford Playhouse, Marlowe, Mercury, 2017); Tattooed Under Your Skin (Theatre 503, 2016); Tu I Teraz (Hampstead & on tour 2012/13); CASH! (Mercury, 2013); BirthDate (Nabakov, 2012); Camulodunum (Monologue, Paines Plough’s ‘Come to Where I’m From’ tour, 2010); Hurt (Footprints, 2008); Freedoms of the Forest (Menagerie, 2008); Japanese Stories (dis:play production, Mercury, 2008 ); Peapickers (Eastern Angles, 2007); Aftermath (dis:play, Mercury 2006); Davy’s Day (Mercury, 2004).

Radio/audio includes: Look Me In The Eye (diversity training, Menagerie Theatre, 2020); Amy Dorrit (radio 4 Christmas Classic adaptation, produced by Graeae & Naked Productions, 2018).

Zoë Svendsen is a theatre director and dramaturg, who makes participatory theatre performances and installations exploring ecological crisis and capitalism, as well as reimagining classic texts for the contemporary stage with theatres such as The Globe, the National Theatre, the Young Vic and the RSC. Zoë has recently written the book, Theatre & Dramaturgy, and has been working on a research project as Climate Dramaturg with the Donmar Warehouse, becoming Associate Artist/Climate Dramaturg at HighTide. Zoë is also Associate Artist with Cambridge Junction.

Tassa is a Suffolk-based writer who also works in education and heritage. Indonesian born and raised in London, she has also lived and worked in Germany. She is interested in stress and rhythm and how linguistic shifts create different narrative spaces. Tassa writes around motherhood and womanhood and is concerned with capturing the whispered and hidden worlds that people occupy; her writing travels through dark spaces in search of pieces of hope. She is currently leading a creative project with local mothers and designing sustainable projects with Woodbridge Tide Mill Museum. Tassa is also a creative facilitator and has worked with various theatres and companies including The New Wolsey Theatre, Ellander Productions and Flight of the Escales. Tassa is a graduate of the MA in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy at Goldsmiths University. She was selected for artistic development with Park theatre. Credits include: Two Under Two (Virtual Collaborators Festival); The Daughter Abroad (Theatre503); This Wall (The English Theatre, Berlin); Mothers Milk (ArtsDepot)