
About Us
Multidisciplinary Performance - Practice - Research
Vertebra Theatre is an award-winning, multicultural, diverse and queer led company creating bold, visually striking and socially resonant work at the intersection of Dance, Theatre, Opera, and Performance Art. Founded on a commitment to experimentation and collaboration, the company fuses physical theatre, puppetry, music, and expanded scenography to reimagine myth and contemporary narratives for today’s audiences.
Over the years, Vertebra has established a distinctive international presence with productions such as Electra Untitled, developed through residencies and touring in London, Buenos Aires, Lahore, Amman, Barcelona and more. Our collaborations, artistic and research residencies include prominent artists such as David Glass (2020), Zero Theatre and Theodoros Terzopoulos/ Theatre Attis (2022) and partnerships with prestigious theatre venues, major universities and conservatoires such as Castillo Theatre (USA), The British Arts Centre (Argentina), Alhamra Cultural Centre (Pakistan), Arcola Theatre (UK), Guildhall School of Music and Drama, University of Essex and University of Punjab.
Earlier productions like Dark Matter and An Ice Thing to Say have been presented in leading London, UK and European venues including PQ 2023, Little Angel Theatre, Tristan Bates, Nottingham Playhouse and Edinburg Fringe Festival while The Medusa Opera marked a pioneering collaboration between composers, opera singers, and visual artists to expand the boundaries of operatic performance.
With an ensemble of internationally acclaimed artists, Vertebra collaborates across disciplines and cultures, building bridges between traditions while challenging conventional forms. At the heart of Vertebra’s artistic vision is a pursuit of radical empathy, daring aesthetics, and theatre that resonates both viscerally and intellectually.
Meet Our Team

Mayra Stergiou (She / They)
Founder and Artistic Director
Mayra was born in Evia, Greece. She is a Queer and neurodivergent Performer, Choreographer and Director. She trained in Lecoq Devised Theatre and Performance at London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). She also holds an MA in Dramatherapy at University of Derby and an MPhil in Performance Practice from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She also trained in Bunraku Puppetry and collaborated with prominent artists such as David Glass, Robin Guiver (War Horse), Mem Morrison (Arts Admin), and with the Institute Internationale de la Marionnette as resident researcher. Over the years she has trained in a variety of Physical and Ritualistic Theatre Practices such as Theodoros Terzopoulos Method, Voice Coordination with Grzegorz Bral (Song of the Goat), Directing with Sergei Ostrenko, Choreographic Theatre with Enrique Pardo, Tholpavakoothoo Puppetry, in Martial Arts (Taekwon-Do, Wing Chun) and Contact Improvisation.
Recent Credits include: Sisyphys Distressing by Metapraxis Ensemble, Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin & Janni Younge at Pierre Boulez Saal and The Game by Elif Karlidag, Tet a Tet Opera.
She also works as qualified Dramatherapist in social, health care, prison and mental health settings since 2012. She has been a visiting lecturer at various Universities teaching Devised Physical Theatre, Embodied Imagination, Mask and Puppetry (Roehampton, RCSSD, UAL). Her film work 'The Walz of Lost Dreams' has presented at Onassis Cultural Centre (2014) and her scenography work 'An Ice Thing to Say' has been presented at PQ and Athens and Epidavrus festival in 2023 as part of the Rare Gathering Greek exhibition and the World Stage Design (2022). Full CV: www.mayrastergiou.com

Nela Fortunato (She/They)
Performer / Producer​
Nela Fortunato is an Argentinian multidiciplinary artista who fuses acting, directing, dance and singing to explore a dramaturgy of the body. Her training in physical theatre, driven y a full scholarship from the London International School of Performing Arts: Lispa (now Arthouse Berlin), has been the engine of her reaserch into movement dynamics on stage and their vibrant stagings accross various performing formats.
Her curiosity for interdisciplinarity and a transfeminist, queer visión define her unique style: absurd, deformed, agender/agenre. Always projecting future collaborations through this lens.
She has co-created immersive experiences and founded projects raging from innovative festivals to interactive pieces presented internationally. She´s been parto f companies like La Monstruosa Teatro Físico (2014-2021) and usted Está Aquí: immersive, site-specific experiences (2012-present), where she has crafted unique theatrical journeys. Nela has focused on expanding her international network, taking her distinctive performances and pedagogy to stages and educational spaces within Argentina and Spain, UK, Greece, Pakistan.

Elif Nur Karlidag (She/Her)
Composer
Elif Karlıdağ is a Turkish/British neurodivergent composer whose work spans multidisciplinary art projects, community engagement, and stage productions.
Elif’s versatility extends to composing music for documentaries and feature films, including “Hamlet Within” starring Sir Ian McKellen, and “Moments with Mujica,” a documentary about Pepe Mujica. She has also assisted luminaries such as Michael Nyman, contributing to her rich artistic profile. Her diverse interests have led her to create sonic elements for Marguerite Humeau’s sculpture exhibition “Oscillations,” which toured Europe and the USA. Elif has collaborated with esteemed ensembles like the Scratch Orchestra and Ligeti Quartet. She co-founded ELSE (East London Sound Ensemble), an electro-acoustic group dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in the contemporary classical music scene. Her music was performed in prestigious venues, including the Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place, and the Barbican Centre. Recent commissions include work for the English National Opera and the Three Choirs Festival with the Carice Singers, featuring a composition based on a 6000-year-old text from the Issyks. Growing up in different countries, Elif began her musical journey in Bucharest, Romania. She honed her passion at Izmir DEU State Conservatoire, earning a Master’s degree in composition under Istemihan Taviloglu. She further refined her skills at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying under Julian Phillips. Elif is the current holder of the prestigious John Clementi Collard Fellowship from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.

Sam Redway (He/Him)
Associate Dramaturg / Librettist
Sam is an international award-winning, multi-disciplinary dramaturg, director, and writer with a deep passion for co-creation, climate focused arts practice, and creative democracy. His work crosses theatre, opera, new music, and community driven performance and is always informed by equitable practice and the empowered performer.
He is currently developing Don't Step on the Cracks as librettist with Laura Bowler and the Youth Opera Company for Royal Ballet & Opera and a co-created opera with NHS workers and the Manchester Medical Orchestra composed by Dave Roche and directed by Felicity Greenand. Sam is Associate Artist (Dramaturgy) of Smoking Apples Theatre Company (Kinder, Ettie and Offie TYA Awards) and The Spark Arts for Children’s Associate Artist for Building Brave Spaces investigating the performing arts’ roles in improving child voice and agency in schools. Sam was also co-founder of the multi-international award winning Knaïve Theatre Bin Laden: The One Man Show & War With The Newts)
Recent work includes: Dangerous Matter with Zakiya Leeming, Rosie Middleton & RNCM post-graduate singers (director/librettist), Laura Bowler's The Girl With The Hurricane Brain (librettist, Copenhagen Opera Festival), Elif Karlidag's The Game (librettist) and Abel Esbenshade's Horse Person Opera (director, Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival).

Sussie Fairbother (She/Her)
Actress / Writer
Susie Fairbrother trained at London International School of Performing Arts. Theatre includes: 'Family Histories' (Bush Theatre); 'Antigone' (Riverside Studios and Cyprus International Festival of Ancient Greek Theatre); 'Medusa' (SHUNT); 'In the Wake Of' (Rich Mix); 'Trilogy' (BAC and Barbican); 'Kiss the Shadow' (Soho Theatre). Susie also writes and devises her own work.

Stella Evangelia Kasoumpi (She/Her)
Actress / Set Designer
Stella Evangelia Kasoumpi is a Greek performer and Alexander Technique teacher from Athens, Greece, born in May 1982, who also holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Patras. After studying performing arts at LISPA in London, she trained as an Alexander Technique teacher at the Alexander Technique Center Athens and performs in clowning and street theatre.

Mischa Alexander (He/Him)
Marketing Officer / Associate Producer
Mischa is a half-English, half Dutch Theatre Producer. He was born in London in 1998, moving to Amsterdam when he was one, and moving back to London when he was ten. He studied Theatre & Performance Studies (B.A) at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2020. He also completed an M.A. in Creative Producing at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2022. Mischa specialises in theatre producing, production management, and marketing for the arts. He has a particular interest in theatre engaging in contemporary social and political issues, whilst elevating the voices of artists and supporting their development and welfare. Previous credits include Beasts: Why Girls Shouldn’t Fear The Dark (Womxnxarts), The Manikind (Deadweight Theatre), SUS (Dilated Theatre Productions) Badgers Can’t Be Friends (Raving Mask Theatre). He has worked with companies and theatres, including the Soho Theatre, DARKFIELD, The Pleasance Theatre, and Kenny Wax Family Entertainment.​

Claire - Monique Martin (She/Her)
Actress / Sound Designer
Claire-Monique Martin is a British-French neurodivergent actor, musician and producer with Caribbean heritage, trained at the University of Central Lancashire and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She has worked across stage and screen internationally, with credits spanning Shakespeare, contemporary plays and original works, as well as independent films. Claire-Monique is the artistic director of Fractured Time Productions, and her creative practice reflects her commitment to diverse storytelling and experimental performance.
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Depi Gorgogianni (She/Her)
Dancer / Intimacy Coordinator
Depi is a Greek dance artist and movement director working across theatre, film, contemporary dance, and performance art. She holds a Master’s degree in Movement Direction from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and trained professionally at the Rallou Manou Professional Dance School in Athens. Her work encompasses movement direction, choreography, and performance, with credits including Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour (West End, directed by Vicky Featherstone) and assistant roles on Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe. She has collaborated with Proud Haddock theatre company on Square Rounds, The Dog Beneath the Skin, and The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, and with Vertebra Theatre Company on projects led by director Mayra Stergiou (Electra Untitled at Arcola Theatre, At the Heart of Things at Cockpit Theatre). Her choreographic work includes musicals such as Anyone Can Whistle, The Lightning Thief, and Sunday in the Park with George at the London College of Music. She has also worked at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on Henry VIII with director Owen Horsley. In 2022, her movement work was featured at Tate Modern with the #Traceofus Collective. As an educator, Depi has taught movement and contemporary dance at leading UK institutions including ArtsEd, East 15, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, The Place, and the London College of Music. She also lectures at drama and dance schools in Athens, blending international expertise with her dedication to developing future performers. As a performer, Depi has worked with choreographers such as Miguel Altunaga, Quang Kien Van, Jorge Crecis, Polly Bennett, and Mariela Nestora, with whom she was a core member of YELP Danceco.

Pelagie-May Green (She/Her)
Associate Performer / Puppeteer
​Pelagie-May Green is a Belgian performer, writer and an award-winning theatre director who is passionate about the irreconcilable conflict between body and mind, feeling and intellect and illusion and reality. Her passion started in Kunstinstituut Ottogracht where she studied performance art in Belgium after training with Circus Picolini in 2004 and gymnastics from a young age. Pelagie went on to train at East15 Acting school on the Acting and Contemporary Theatre course. She has trained and completed a master course with world-leading artist Jan Fabre, Troubleyn In Belgium, trained and collaborated with puppeteer Sean Garratt (The Table) and also "Anatomy of facial expression" with Medical artist Pascale Pollier. This year Pelagie also became a member of a non-profit organisation ARSIC “Art Researches Science International Collaborations, an international collective where art and science become entangled.
Her most recent acting and directing credit includes 'Think Me In Circles', Vault Festival 2023
Alongside performing, Pelagie has been directing and teaching Expressionism at East15 Acting school, she collaborates and models with the highly acclaimed photographers Daniella Van Zadelhoff, Paulina Otylie Surys and Tom Hunter and writes and devises her own work.

Muneeb ur Rehman (Hie/Him)
Applied Theatre Practitioner
Muneeb ur Rehman is an Applied Performance Practitioner who believes that performance is for everyone. His work invites people from all walks of life – students, community leaders, entrepreneurs, researchers, therapists and performers – to discover their potential through embodied, playful and creative methods. He has facilitated projects across South Asia, Europe, the US, South Africa and Singapore, from setting up Pakistan’s first school theatre department and co-founding NepalImprov to mentoring young creatives and supporting design researchers in bringing human insight into their practice. As the founder of Dramajik, Muneeb continues to explore how performance can nurture collaboration, empathy and imagination. His practice is regularly shared at international forums, and his research has appeared in publications such as Theatre and Democracy and Embodied Playwriting.