Zoë Seaton

Zoë Seaton is founder and Artistic Director of Big Telly Theatre Company, having trained at Kent University, Canterbury. In July 2018, Zoe received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) from Ulster University for her contribution to the arts and is a recipient of The Stage 100 award. She has co-written and directed numerous productions for the company including Granny Jackson’s Dead (NI Science Festival), Frankenstein’s Monster is Drunk (Belfast International Arts Festival, Origin First Irish Festival NYC), Puckoon (UK/ROI tour, West End), Melmoth the Wanderer (UK/ROI tour/Edinburgh), and The Little Mermaid, a piece of theatre in swimming pools (UK/ROI/International – Taiwan/Denmark/Serbia).

She has also devised and directed several pieces of interactive game theatre, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest for Creation Theatre in Oxford, Alien Attack (Paisley, Scotland), Operation Elsewhere (NI/digital) and INCOGNITO, a fragmented reality experience hosted on a mobile app, which is a cross between live theatre and a multiplayer game. Heritage projects include several audio pieces, a series of miniature art installations for shops called Trade Secrets, and an app called Echoes of the Causeway, which was launched in March 2020.

During lockdown Zoe and the Big Telly team transformed their entire program onto digital platforms, creating 25 interactive digital theatre productions, reaching over 13,000 people in 25 different countries and receiving international acclaim from NY Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, CNN, NBC, BBC Arts, BBC Front Row, The Stage.etc. Since then, they have created Brick Moon (a virtual venue), Remote Control (an online audience app), and a VR experience called The House. Big Telly’s work has also featured in a number of industry publications, four books, a number of academic essays and an academic digital transformation toolkit.

Zoe has worked as a freelance director for companies including Hull Truck, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lyric Belfast, Cahoots NI, and Tinderbox and as a mentor for Fonds Soziokultur, Bru Theatre and individual artists. Her productions have won the award for Innovative Theatre two years running at the Origin First Irish Festival NYC, first with Big Telly and recently for a Big Telly/Tiny Dynamite co-production of The Worst Cafe in the World. She has spoken at numerous conferences/events, most recently as part of the British Council delegation at SXSW and at the Irish Consulate in Austin, Texas. Zoe is also on the board of ‘In Place of War’.