Annabel Arden

British actress and director Annabel Arden studied at Cambridge University before moving to Paris in 1981 to continue her training with Monika Pagneux and Philippe Gaulier, two acclaimed teachers at Jacques Lecoq’s legendary pantomime school. After an international tour with Neil Bartlett and the theater troupe “1982,” in 1983 Arden along with Simon McBurney and Marcello Magni cofounded the Théâtre de Complicité, a center for innovative theater with an emphasis on the visual and the physical. For 15 years Arden was a key figure in the company as actress, director, and teacher. Her award-winning production of Dürrenmatt’s The Visit was also staged by the Royal National Theatre in London, while her interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, which Arden produced in 1991, led to an invitation to Opera North, where she made her operatic debut with Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Since that time Arden has staged several productions for Opera North, including Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Verdi’s La traviata. Other credits include Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at English National Opera, Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg at the Teatro Comunale in Florence, and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Rachmaninov’s The Miserly Knight at the Glyndebourne Festival. Her productions of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore have also been staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Houston Grand Opera, respectively. In addition, Arden has created numerous new pieces and experimental productions for the spoken theater and dance; as an actress she performed Sonya in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya on a tour with Kenneth Branagh, among other roles.

August 2011