About
"Something ingenious," - The Stage
I am a composer, performer and theatre director, working in the UK and internationally. Spanning musicals, plays, opera and folk music, my work has been seen and heard as far and wide as Radio 3's In Tune, Barbican, Iggy Pop's Radio 6 Confidential show, Opera North and Scotland's legendary Celtic Connections festival.
"Hilariously funny," - The Guardian
I am a musical dramaturg, combining the above skills to empower artists, theatre companies and festivals with the toolkit to tell epic sonic stories. Currently, I am composer and musical dramaturg on More…Ghost Stories (Hightide). Musical dramaturgy on this production means working with three playwrights from the very beginning of their process, using music and sound as a way of deepening their writing practice and relationship to an audience, before I write a new actor-musician score for the show itself.
“The imaginative direction of the British Anna Pool result in a wonderfully escapist performance that mixes genres in a way that you rarely experience”****"- NRC Netherlands
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I am driven by a need to uncover hidden histories, particularly those of women and queer people, explore folklore and faith experiences and connect audiences to the places they live. This could be directing 18th Century Opera Acis & Galatea (Opera North) whilst exploring it through the lens of HS2 protestors, or writing a new songs with 300 Kent residents for the county’s World War I commemorative site-specific theatre show, Return of the Unknown (Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury). I have recently been commissioned by Spitalfields Festival to perform and curate Frau, That's What I Call Music, a cabaret of words and songs from women and non-binary songwriters. This show will also close Leeds Literary Festival in June 2024.
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“You owe it to yourself to get out there and see this. Now,” – The Upcoming
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Other projects for 2024 include More... Ghost Stories (Hightide), Mother Trucker, a song cycle inspired by the stories of women and queer truck drivers (Spitalfields Festival), SALT (Contemporary Ritual Theatre/ Out There Arts) and The Runaway Royal, a new adaptation of Chabrier's The Reluctant King for family audiences (Opera North). You'll be able to hear my songs at festivals including Secret Garden Party and Folk East, as well as on a UK Tour with "startling and shimmering," (Folk Wales) band, Wise Woman. ​I am the Associate Director for the cult classic musical, Little Shop of Horrors (New Wolsey/UK Tour) and New York Times' bestseller, The Book Thief (DEM Productions/ Bolton Octagon).
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“A highlight of the Dutch season,” – Opera Magazine
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As a theatre maker, I want to be making more work which introduces audiences to classic tales, told in bold new ways including Shakespeare and children’s literature. This might look like writing a score or set of songs for a Shakespeare play, bringing my combined theatre-making practice (performance, composing and directing) to lead on a mid/large scale theatre work, or becoming a musical-dramaturg-in-residence for a theatrical space.
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“A unique brand of theatre that has the potential to deconstruct and revitalise the world of opera and theatre,”- A Younger Theatre
Interested in finding out more specifics about my work including past credits, producing, music and cultural leadership practice? My composing and performance work stands firmly at the cross-roads of theatre-making, songwriting and heritage curation, delighting in where these worlds can overlap and how that affects the stories we tell. This has evolved out of a proudly unconventional musical background which draws on experience as a singer songwriter and musical theatre performer with an enexpected classical composing undergraduate degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Projects as a composer and musical director, include We Are But Shadows (Spitalfields Festival), Medieval Miracles (Eastern Angles), Little Red (Eastern Angles/Theatre Porto) and Return of the Unknown (Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury). I am currently working with playwright Nicola Werenowksa, creating new music for Star Sisters, a play about the Colchester-raised siblings who wrote Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Mixing folk, jazz and musical theatre sounds, I am a founding member of power-folk ensemble Wise Woman, exploring the stories of hidden and forgotten women, with appearances ranging from Radio 3 to opening for BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners, The Young Uns. Our crowdfunded new single, Home Safe, arrived in April 2024. Between 2017 and 2021, I was a member of the classical chart-topping vocal ensemble, Mediaeval Baebes, singing in a myriad of ancient languages and collaborating on projects ranging from Orbital’s new album to ITV film projects. My musical underpinning means I thrive when directing theatre work with music at its core, be it musical theatre, opera, or anything in between. My directing work includes the Dutch premiere of Lady in the Dark (Opera Zuid - winner of Place de l’Opera’s Opera of the Year 2022), Acis and Galatea** (Opera North), These Wondering Stones (Barbican), Dust Child (English Touring Opera), headphone opera adventure SCRAWW (Trebah Gardens/Hall for Cornwall), puppet mystery Apart/Mental (winner of the Bury Court Opera Prize and a Rolf Lieberman Fund award), Boys of Paradise (workshOPERA/Tete a Tete), Trident Moon (Finborough Theatre) and a Wes Anderson inspired Mozart Double-Bill (Pop Up Opera UK- 2019 Off West End Award finalist). I am a highly experienced producer, especially for theatre and immersive music projects within found and heritage spaces including the Museum of London, London Transport Museum, Trebah Gardens and EGG nightclub, successfully attaining over £100,000 from Arts Council England and other sources to create this work. In November, I will direct Flooded!, a site-specific performance for St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk. Working with over 200 local performers, this will be the largest arts project undertaken in the cathedral’s history and combine Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Flood with a new play about a historic flood in Bury St Edmunds. As a producer for Creative Colchester between 2023-2024, I programmed and curated events for the city’s 5000 culture/creative sector workers including inter-disciplinary arts festival, First Thursdays. Currently, I am a trustee of Music Theatre Wales as it develops New Directions, a pioneering music theatre creation programme aiming to address barriers to classical music making.