Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh is the inaugural Artistic Doctoral Researcher of Opera Librettist Practice Based at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where is she is also Professor of Dramatic Writing on the MA Opera Making & Writing.^[1] Her recent opera portfolio includes Royal Ballet and Opera, Aldeburgh Festival Snape Maltings Britten Pears Arts, Birmingham Opera Company, Welsh National Opera, Oxford Song, National Youth Choir, Performance Arts Lab, Tete a Tete and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She was the founder and artistic director (CEO) of ZENDEH, a former Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.^[2]

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh
Born	(1977-02-23) 23 February 1977 (age 48) Tabriz, Iran
Occupation(s)	Leader and Collaborator
Website	Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh on Twitter

Early life

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh was born in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz in February 1977. She came to the UK with her parents when she was very young and also spent some of her childhood in France. Her father was an academic, and the family settled in Edinburgh, where he was working. Her mother's sweet shop was a firm favourite opposite the Royal Lyceum Theatre. Nazli went to James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh and her favourite subjects included Drama, English and Art.

Her first role in England was in 2001 as an Arts Council England trainee director at Leicester Haymarket Theatre now known as the Curve. She was Staff Director at Derby Playhouse and then Associate Director at the Theatre Workshop Edinburgh. In 2004, she founded the ZENDEH (a theatre company) – the name means "alive" in Persian.^[3]

She quotes her influences on her creative practise to include international theatre, politics of Iran and borderlands, sciences, and stories from the silk routes also known as the Royal Road. These can be seen as a direct influence on her creative directing and productions developed within the context of ZENDEH.^[4][5]

Career

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh is Professor of Dramatic Writing on the Masters in Opera Making and Writing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she is also Associate Artist with a focus on collaboration. She is the inaugural Associate Artist at the Oxford School of Drama and External Examiner for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama,

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh was the artistic director of ZENDEH, a theatre company based in the northeast of England that was part of Arts Council England's National Portfolio of Organisations. The company created enchanting theatre that combines poetic elements, mythology and explored global political and social perspectives in a most approachable way. Iranian myths and contemporary reference points appeared in many of ZENDEH's shows reflecting the cultural heritage of Artistic director Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh.^[6] Although the work itself often rejects cultural representation instead creating a more impressionistic, magical realism, visual and physical style of theatre. ZENDEH often explore hidden histories and modern identities, finding the compelling and epic in ordinary stories and crafting culturally eclectic productions. ZENDEH's and Nazli's direction and artistic practice is collaborative; working with artists and the wider public, combining art forms and using digital technologies to continually find imaginative ways to share stories and find human connections.

Over Nazli's career she has developed a strong leadership role in producing diverse theatre in the UK in particular looking at themes of Iran, borderlands and the lives of women.^[7][8][9]

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh serves as a member of the International Society of Performing Arts' (ISPA) governing committee in New York.

Achievements

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh is a multi-award-winning collaborator, notably an Amnesty International Commendation and her work includes the following roles with selected credits: Director (BBC Drama & National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse Theatre, The Bush); Dramaturg (Royal Court, Tamasha, Goethe Institute); Director & Dramaturg (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama); Actor (Edinburgh Festival Fringe Summerhall, Traverse Theatre, Paines Plough Roundabout). She is also a skilled Coach, Mentor, Mediator, Facilitator, Moderator, Trainer and Speaker (ISPA, IETM, Federation of Scottish Theatres, Assembly Theatres and Guildhall School of Music & Drama).

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, through her over ten years as artistic director and CEO with ZENDEH, has developed a unique multi-staged method of creating theatrical productions that is relevant to 21st Century Britain. The ZENDEH method encompasses seven stages that include, but are not restricted to, blue sky thinking; collaboration in multidisciplinary art forms and working with a wide range of associate artists; emphasis on dramaturgy; and re-approaching joint authorship with participation, engagement and research.

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh also led on Arts Council England's Creative Case NORTH,^[10] which is a re-imagining of Arts Council England’s approach to diversity and equality, setting out how these areas can and should enrich the arts for artists, audiences and wider society.^[11][12]

Selected works as Playwright, Performance Poet, Librettist, Screen Writer

• Book of Queens (Oxford, 2025) Opera
• The Flying Shadow (London, 2025) Opera
• My Lifelong Prisoner (Cardiff, 2025) Opera
• My House is Your House (Oxford, 2025) Screen
• You are an ocean in a drop (Oxford, 2025) Screen
• Medea on the Mic (Glasgow, 2024) Theatre^[13]
• Feathers and Beak (New York, 2024) Performance Poetry^[14]
• Feathers and Beak (Brussels, 2023) Performance Poetry^[15]
• Leonard (Birmingham, 2023) Theatre
• TIDE (Alderburgh Festival, Snape Maltings, 2022) Opera
• Paradise Garden (London, 2021) Chamber Opera^[16]
• Paper Dolls (Newcastle, 2010) Theatre
• Khaki (EdFringe, Edinburgh 2006) Theatre
• Safe Passage (Leicester, 2001) Theatre

Personal life

Nazli is the daughter of Dr. M. T. Tabatabai-Khatambaksh and Mrs M. Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh. She is based in London, United Kingdom.^[17]