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Isabelle Kettle is a British director of opera and theatre whose work has been produced in London, New York and France. She was the 2019-21 Jette Parker Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House and a 2018 graduate of the Columbia University School of the Arts MFA in Theatre Directing, led by Anne Bogart. Staging classics and new work, she collaborates across many disciplines including film, poetry, music and dance. With experience working in small and large venues, as well as unconventional and outdoor spaces, she has worked with such creatives as writer Anchuli Felicia King, designer Lizzie Clachan, dramaturg Uzma Hameed, and choreographer Julia Cheng.
Opera credits include:
Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell (Ustinov Studio, Bath Theatre Royal), A double bill of Brecht & Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel (ROH Mainstage), Handel’s Susanna (ROH Linbury Theatre), The Marriage of Figaro (Waterperry Opera Festival), Susannah, by Carlisle Floyd (UCOpera, Bloomsbury Theatre), Dido & Aeneas (a site-specific, promenade production at the Queille Festival, Toulouse), Une Education Manquee (Arcola, Grimeborn Festival for Popup Opera), Ariodante (semi-staged, ROH Mainstage). Theatre credits include a world premiere workshop performance of Colm Toibin’s Pale Sister (PEN world voices festival, NYC), Manar, by Melis Aker (LPAC festival, NYC & staged reading at LaMAMA NYC), Arden Creatures (with Footfall Theatre company, Cockpit Theatre London), Machinal (Lenfest Center for the arts, NYC), Lear’s Daughters (with Footfall Theatre company, Hope Theatre London).
Revival directing credits:
Otello (ROH mainstage 2022, director Keith Warner).
Assisting credits include:
Peter Grimes (Opéra National de Paris, Palais Garnier & ROH mainstage, director Deborah Warner), Wozzeck (ROH Mainstage, director Deborah Warner), Theodora (ROH mainstage, director Katie Mitchell), The Knife of Dawn, by Hannah Kendall (ROH Mainstage, director Ola Ince). Projects in Development
The Garden Party, a new electronic opera adapted from the Katherine Mansfield short story, in collaboration with composer Joanna Ward and librettist Joanna Pidcock. (Awarded a PRS women make music grant); Munkination, a VR Hip hop / Opera in collaboration with HAM the Illustrator. (Developed with ROH Audience Labs and participant at CPH: Labs residency 2019) 