About

Hello! I’m Cassi, I’m a director, writer and performer from Croydon, passionate about new writing in theatre and opera. My creative practice focuses on collaborating with others to reimagine canonic material and creating original work which champions global majority voices. Music is an integral part of all my work and I’m always exploring new ways to enrich and expand how we tell stories through music on stage.

My portfolio of work encompasses writing, directing, devising, dramaturgy, performing, composing and workshop facilitation. I also regularly work in drama schools and higher education settings.

I studied Music at the University of York and then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Music so musical storytelling is a cornerstone of my practice and I regularly work as a dramaturg on projects which include a musical element. I am also co-founder of Speaks of Rivers, a physical theatre company who use puppetry, spoken word and music to create original stories for young audiences. Some of my highlights as a performer include making my West End debut in Caroline, or Change, understudying three roles in Into The Woods at Theatre Royal Bath and being part of the original cast of Just For One Day at The Old Vic Theatre.

My debut play Shuck ’n’ Jive co-written with Simone Ibbett-Brown premiered at Soho Theatre and is published by Oberon Modern Plays. Most recently I wrote, composed and directed Home Song an interactive sensory musical for babies (aged 6-18 months!) which premiered at the Unicorn Theatre in February 2025. Following its premiere in 2024, I’m super excited to share A Night with Joséphine with audiences across the UK as we tour to various music festivals this summer!

credits

Director
Home Song (Unicorn Theatre & Talawa Studio); Journey: The Black British Puppet Show (Schools and Community Tour); Untitled Wonderland Musical R&D (Arts Ed, University of Winchester); 24 Hours in A&E The Musical R&D (University of Winchester); Dinner Ladies (Arts Ed); Xpressions (Lyric Hammersmith Studio); In the Deep (Almeida); The Six of Calais & Ruth (Pegasus Opera Company); The Vote (Arts Ed); Miss Gyrus (Camden People’s Theatre); CAMPOWANA (Mountview); The Fourteenth Stop (Arcola Outside; Camden People’s Theatre) Consensual and The Birds (ALRA); Love and Art and You Can Bake (Online); Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Grand Opera House, York)

As Associate Director: Tri-Border (Dir. Dominic Garfield, Hoxton Hall)

As Assistant Director: Edgar (Dir. Ruth Knight, Opera Holland Park); The Flock (Dir. Guy Jones, Minerva Theatre, Chichester); Baylis Youth Company Summer Project (Dir. Pete Cant, English National Opera); Britten’s Albert Herring (Dir. Simone Ibbett-Brown, Harrow Opera)

Writer / Composer
Home Song (Unicorn Theatre & Talawa Studio); A Night With Joséphine (Wimbledon International Music Festival); Only You and I Remain (Workshop); The Fourteenth Stop (Arcola Outside; Camden People’s Theatre; Shoreditch Town Hall); Shuck ‘n’ Jive (Soho Theatre); The Next Jessye Norman (Tristan Bates Theatre)

Dramaturg
Refilwe (Bernie Grants Arts Centre, National Youth Theatre, Talawa Studios); Feast (Wilton’s Music Hall); 4Walls (Derby Theatre); Lavendern R&D (Crypt on the Green); Legally Blonde (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Miss Gyrus (Camden People’s Theatre); Writers Collective (Orange Tree Theatre); The Flock (Minerva Theatre, Chichester); Untitled Wonderland Musical (Arts Ed, University of Winchester, Edinburgh Fringe)

Performer
Joséphine in A Night With Joséphine (Wimbledon International Music Festival); Rudo/Grace in Senzei Na? (Fresk Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival); Swing, U/S Marsha in Just For One Day (Old Vic Theatre); Earth Makes No Sound (Southbank Centre; Hull Jazz Festival; UCL East); Pan in Lavendern (Crypt on the Green); The Third Man (Menier Chocolate Factory); Longitude (Arcola Theatre); U/S Rapunzel, Florinda, Lucinda in Into The Woods (Theatre Royal Bath); Earth Makes No Sound (Southbank Centre; Hull Jazz Festival; UCL East); The Crucible Choral Workshop (National Theatre Studio); Princess Di in Tony! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] (Park Theatre); Madame Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera (UK & Ireland Tour); U/S Radio 1, Radio 2, The Moon in Caroline, or Change (Playhouse Theatre, West End); Lucy Parsons in Haymarket (Actors’ Church, Covent Garden); Megan in Accounting for Beginners (National Theatre Studio); Becoming Angela (National Theatre Studio); Porgy & Bess (Grange Park Opera); Trees in The Pied Piper of Chibok (Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre); Cappuccino Sister/Flute in Son of a Preacher Man (UK & Ireland Tour)