ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER

Sînziana Cojocărescu is a London-based Romanian writer, director, and Artistic Director of BÉZNĂ Theatre. She leads interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of performance, research, field-work, and activism, focusing on colonialism, state crime, migration, and the arms trade. Her work spans shows, tours, a durational artistic tribunal, and artist development programmes, created in collaboration with communities, activists, and academic institutions. Sînziana creates space for underrepresented narratives and politically urgent work, using theatre as a site for critical dialogue and structural change. Sînziana is also a screenwriter, and an access support worker and bid writer.

PRODUCER

Claire is an independent theatre producer, passionate about political, socially engaged, and inclusive theatre. Alongside running BÉZNĂ Theatre, Claire runs Off West End award-winning company Out Of The Forest Theatre and her own company Claire Gilbert Ltd. She works closely with Bulgarian activist and artist Lora Krasteva, new writing theatre company Squint Theatre and no more superheroes. Since 2022 she has toured work to India, USA, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechia and Germany, as well as across the United Kingdom. Claire is a proud Essex girl and has been supported by Stage One and Mercury PPD development scheme.

ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Lizzie trained at Drama Centre & since graduating has worked predominantly in TV and Theatre. In 2016 she won The Stage award for her portrayal of Molly in the production of the same name. Lizzie began working with BÉZNĂ Theatre in 2018 and most recently in their 2019 production ILLEGALISED.  Lizzie is also a writer, writing sociopolitical scripts and her most recent film Ned & Me was funded by the BFI and will be released in 2020. 

ASSOCIATE ARTIST

iulia is a Romanian theatre maker and youth worker. Her work is often a subject of tragicomedy, political theatre, clowning and the bouffon. iulia is committed to creating work that integrates social studies and actively includes migrant communities in its development. After collaborating with BÉZNĂ for the first time in 2020 as an actor, she has been working on writing her first theatre play, Rabdă!, with dramaturgy support from Sînziana Cojocărescu. Rabdă! is a multilingual political clowning performance about the tragicomic aspects of alcohol addiction and its connection to patriarchal violence in post communist societies.

ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Ángel López-Silva is a Mexican artist, trained at the Drama Centre London and L’École Philippe Gaulier. He has worked with BÉZNĂ Theatre as an associate artist, since Nico Vaccari's CRIME. In 2015 he joined the theatre group Complicité, where he received the “Best Newcomer” award. Ángel has worked across theatre, film, and television while continuing to explore and develop his own work. His recent credits include "Reina Roja" (Amazon Prime), "FBI: International" (CBS), "Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue" (BBC/MGM+) and a other projects that are yet to be announced.

ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Oana trained at the National University for Theatre and Film 'I. L. Caragiale' in Bucharest, Romania and since graduating has worked constantly in both independent and state theatres throughout Bucharest. As well as having worked with BÉZNĂ since 2014, Oana was the lead singer of a band, and is employed as an actor at Teatrul Mic (The Small Theatre) in Bucharest.

ASSOCIATE ARTIST

Mat is an actor, choregrapher and movement director working in the UK and in Europe, Mat teaches Actors Dance and Movement at RADA, and also directs acting projects. He is currently on the acting staff at LAMDA where he teaches Character Analysis (Movement Psychology) a methodology for actors first brought to actor training by the visionary Yat Malmgren, a late pupil of Rudolf Laban, where the focus of the work is transformation.