Clarissa Widya is a co-founder and now Artistic Director of Papergang Theatre, leading the company as a producer.

 

Since Papergang Theatre’s foundation in 2013, Clarissa has facilitated writing workshops and R&Ds, and produced staged readings and scratch nights. In 2018, Papergang Theatre became a charity and Clarissa worked on a rebrand with Kim Pearce before going on maternity leave. A year later, Papergang Theatre returned with more socio-political projects: Tiananmen 30 (2019) at the Omnibus Theatre; Invisible Harmony 无形的和谐 at the Southbank Centre and Freedom Hi 自由閪 followed in 2020, the latter winning VAULT Show of the Week. 

 

Clarissa has collaborated with the Diversity School Initiative, facilitating a workshop to feed into their Manifesto for change. She participated in the Leaders of Tomorrow programme and is part of the Bridge The Gap co-hort.

 

Clarissa is also the Manager of the London Theatre Consortium.

Kim Pearce is the Associate Director of Papergang Theatre and an activist. 

 

Working across a range of disciplines including new writing, dance and video games. Productions for Papergang include Freedom Hi 自由閪 , Invisible Harmony  无形的和谐 and Tiananmen30 . Other directing  credits include Forgotten遗忘  (Moongate Theatre & Yellow Earth Theatre),  Thunderstorm (RSC R&D),  Love Steals Us From Loneliness (Chippy Lane Theatre) and Unearthed (Folio Theatre). As Resident Director: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night Time (National Theatre). Acting coach for Ballet Rambert on Ayesha and Abeya and Peaky Blinders.  She co-programmed the 2020 XR:Decolonise, Decarbonise programme at the Vaults and was part of the team that built and led Turner prize winning architectural group Assemble’s Theatre On The Fly at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2012.

 

She has been a dedicated ally to the BEA theatre sector since first working with Daniel York Loh, Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen and Jennifer Lim in 2014, she joined Papergang in 2016.