Tara is a Canadian theatre artist and educator who now resides and works in Zurich, Switzerland. An award-winning educator and critically acclaimed director/performer, Tara has worked in over twenty countries as a performer/director/educator. 

 

Tara is passionate about teaching pedagogy and specializes in acting, improvisation, physical comedy, modern clown, and devising original works. She believes that a willingness to be vulnerable is the birthplace of innovation and creativity and thus encourages her students to embrace their missteps and to celebrate them with an enthusiastic TA-DA! She invites them to rediscover their pleasure in play and uncover the authentic artist within. Tara’s students have gone on to work professionally all over the world.       

 

Tara received her theatre training from the University of Alberta and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Practice and a Bachelor of Education in Theatre. In addition, she has a performance degree from Grant MacEwan University specializing in Acting and Musical Theatre. Furthermore, she has enriched her knowledge of world theatre traditions by travelling to study with renowned theatre practitioners. She loves comedy and has studied the art of improvisation extensively with the internationally acclaimed Rapid Fire Theatre Company in Edmonton, AB, and The Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City. Tara is passionate about the art of physical comedy and has studied with The New York Downtown Clowns, Eric Davis, Christopher Bayes (Yale School of Drama), Mick Barnfather (Theatre de Complicite) and some of Canada's celebrated clowns: Jan Henderson, Shannan Calcutt, Sue Morrison, and Michael Kennard.   

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Tara has written a book on physical comedy entitled Do That Funny Thing You Do! She has also been published in Scene Magazine numerous times for her articles on clown and improvisation.   

 

Currently, she is living her dream being the Artistic Director of CET and directing CET’s mainstage productions.

Sally Grant gained her BA Hons in Design at The University of Creative Arts, Canterbury. She's worked in a wide range of 2D and 3D creative fields from sculpture, book illustration, printmaking and packaging to setting up her own business - organising and decorating festivals or making pop-up parties look beautiful. Everything interests her.

 

Sally has a passion for all creative processes and a deep drive to make visual statements: designing, making, building, painting, working with fabric... or a mixture of all at once - she's always looking for new ways to invent. She thrives in a pressured artistic environment.

 

Working in a team and learning new skills (or sharing her own) is also really important for Sally so a further degree in Education (PGCE, University of Leeds) allowed her to become a specialist Art Teacher. Working in Montessori, infant and mainstream schools she has directed theatre and creative arts projects and  delivered programmes for Gifted and Talented pupils in the UK.

 

Sally's arrival in Zurich proved a golden opportunity to draw all these things together, when she became involved with Close Encounters Theatre. Designing and making sets and costumes for various stage plays led to new study (Set Design for Performance, St Martins/ Central, University Arts London, 2022) and a wonderful channel for all the creative disciplines Sally is fascinated by. Never happier than when leading a team to help her realise her creative vision, and supporting the growth of young and developing actors, Sally is living her best life working in theatre. 

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Set and Costume Design with Close Encounters Theatre, Zurich.

Stage; Caged (2022), Cabaret (2022), Le Chat Noir (2022), Seven Sins (2022), Frankenstein (2021), Spring Awakening (2021), The Darker Side of Grimm (2020), Metamorphoses (2019)

Film; The Three (2022), Ash Girl (2020)

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Sivan Perlstein was born 1986 in Israel.  She is a director, choreographer, dancer, actress and dance teacher. She completed her Master of Arts BFH in Theatre with specialisation in Expanded Theater at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, Switzerland.

 

Sivan studied dance and dance theatre at  the Seminar Hakibutzim college, Tel Aviv, in the honors program for undergraduate students.

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In 2015, she directed the theatre piece RITALINA, which premiered at the Schlachthaus Theater, Kicks! Festival, Bern. It continued in Stadt Theater Basel, Buchhegg Theater in Zurich then abroad to Starke Stücke Festival (DE) and Szene Bunte Wähne Festival (AT). The piece then performed at the Theater Spektakel Festival in Zurich and was nominated for the award of the ZKB Patronage Prize and the ZKB Audience Prize.

 

In 2018, she directed and performed the theatre piece WWWonderland, which premiered at Schlachthaus Theater. The piece has won the try out competition in Dschungel theater, Vienna and a year after was invited as Gastspiel. In 2018, she created a short dance performance at the Tanzhaus Zurich under the platform SHOW OFF, which was later performed at Tanzwinterthur Festival. Since 2018, she joined Kibbutz Zürich, the first Jewish arts festival, a nonprofit organisation, as the art director.

 

In her own artistic work, Sivan focuses on the relationship between body and space and the launch point of art and education. Throughout her career, she has been working with children of all ages, elementary school until high school, teaching math, creative thinking, orientation, and memory through movement and expression.

 

She divides her time between stage and studio, teaching dance, movement and drama. The privilege to teach and meet new real human material, gives her the drive and inspiration, allowing her to keep on moving. 

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Choreography creation with Close Encounters Theatre, Zurich.

Stage; Cabaret (2022), Le Chat Noir (2022), Can't Stop the Beat (2022), Seven Sins (2022), Spring Awakening (2021), Frankenstein (2021)

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David Bircher, 1997, is a composer/writer/musician from Zurich. He studied composition with Kaspar Ewald and is currently doing a Master in Dramaturgy at the Zurich University of the Arts. He plays piano, bass and accordion and participates in various band projects such as "wackel:kontakt", "KASBEK" and "Kleid", for which he sometimes also composes. As a theatrical artist, he is on the road a lot in various productions, partly as a dramaturge, partly as a musician, often in this double function. He often works with Fynn Malte Schmidt, Leonardo Raab, Tara Brodin and various young directors. www.davidbircher.ch

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Music Direction with Close Encounters Theatre, Zurich.

Stage; Cabaret (2022), Spring Awakening (2021)

Original Composition; Le Chat Noir (2022), Frankenstein (2021)

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Emma Kelly is a dramatist, coach and theatre practitioner who explores dystopian worlds,
science fiction, environmental themes, and psychological horror. Starting with a Theatre and
Visual Practice BA from Brighton University, Emma wrote, produced, and directed
performance installations. After teaching drama at one of England's leading independent
schools, Emma returned to the theatre as a writer. She graduated with an MA in Dramatic
Writing from the Drama Centre, Central Saint Martins, in 2020. Many who have experienced
her work comment on Emma’s brilliant and bizarre imagination. Her voice is dark and
humorous. Her mission is to explore what makes us human.
 

Emma is involved in creative projects in the UK and internationally.

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Plays for Close Encounters Theatre, Zurich.

Productions; Le Chat Noir (2022), Seven Sins (2022), Digital Dreamers (2021), Frankenstein (2021), The Darker Side of Grimm (2021), Love and Empty Places (2020), Extraordinary Tales from a Locked Down World 2 (2020), Extraordinary Tales from a Locked Down World 1 (2020)

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