Hello! I’m Cassi, I’m an actress, singer and theatre-maker 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.
I trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Music, having previously studied Music at the University of York. I’m currently lead facilitator for Almeida Theatre’s Young Creatives programme, and an Associate Artist of the National Youth Theatre.
In 2018 I made my West End debut as a performer in Caroline, or Change, I have since toured with The Phantom of the Opera and participated in workshops of new musicals at the Park Theatre, Actors Church, and National Theatre Studio.
In 2020 I co-founded Speaks of Rivers, a physical theatre company who use puppetry, spoken word and music to create original stories for young audiences. Speaks of Rivers’ debut show The Fourteenth Stop premiered as part of Upstart Theatre’s DARE Festival at Shoreditch Town Hall in February 2021 and has since toured to Camden People’s Theatre and Arcola Outside.
My debut play Shuck ’n’ Jive co-written with Simone Ibbett-Brown premiered at Soho Theatre in 2019, is published by Oberon Modern Plays, and streamed as part of Soho’s first on-demand film festival in 2022.
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 including Mountview, Arts Ed, The Dang, ALRA and University of Winchester. Recent and upcoming credits include:
As Performer: 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 (Hull Jazz Festival); 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)
As Director: In the Deep (Almeida); The Six of Calais & Ruth (Pegasus Opera); The Vote (Arts Ed); Miss Gyrus (Camden People’s Theatre); CAMPOWANA (Mountview Backstage Theatre); The Fourteenth Stop (Arcola Outside; Camden People’s Theatre) Consensual and The Birds (ALRA); Love and Art and You Can Bake (American Actors UK E-Plays Vol.1&2); Wonderland (University of Winchester); Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Grand Opera House, York)
As Assistant Director: 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)
As Writer: 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)
As Dramaturg: Legally Blonde (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Miss Gyrus (Camden People’s Theatre); Writers Collective (Orange Tree Theatre); The Flock (Minerva Theatre, Chichester); Wonderland (Edinburgh Fringe and subsequent workshops)