Dr Naz Yeni

Dr Naz Yeni For media enquiries please contact the Press Team
Lecturer
Faculty:
Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
School:
Cambridge School of Creative Industries
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Arts and creative industries , Community Arts Engagement , Language and linguistics , Performing arts and dance
Research Supervision:
Yes
Courses taught:

Naz is a theatre-maker and a movement practitioner. She initially trained classically as an actor in Turkey and the UK followed by a keen interest in directing, teaching and research.

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Background

Naz has been involved in all aspects of theatre-making as an actor and director since 1990. Her acting training was in Turkey and the UK, with acting credits including City of Birmingham Touring Opera and directing credits including Turkish State Theatres. After a break from performing, she retrained in physical theatre and contemporary approaches. This has led her to the ensemble tradition of theatre-making. As an acting teacher, she specialises in Michael Chekhov Technique. She is also a Laban and Sesame practitioner, which she practises within community settings in the form of applied drama and dance.

Spoken Languages
  • Turkish
  • English
Research interests
  • Directing
  • Dramaturgy
  • Postdramatic and postmodern theatre
  • Language
  • Practice as research
  • Performance analysis
  • Contemporary stylistics
  • Semiotics
  • Aesthetics

Naz's pedagogic research interests include applied theatre, performer training and drama teaching. Her artistic interests are adaptations and re-tellings, physical theatre, devising, site-specific and immersive performances. Her work is inspired and informed by Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints and Eugenio Barba’s third theatre.

Areas of research supervision

Naz is keen to supervise drama and performance projects in artistic and applied contexts including acting, directing, dramaturgy, theatre-making, performer-training, education, facilitation, and wellbeing.

Teaching

Naz currently teaches on the following modules:

  • Acting (Musical Theatre)
  • Applied Drama
  • Community Theatre
  • Festival of Performance
  • Key Concepts
  • Major Project
  • Performing Activism
  • Workshop Facilitation
Qualifications
  • PhD – Theatre Studies, Anglia Ruskin University
  • MEd – Education, University of Cambridge
  • MA – Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, King’s College London
  • PGCert – Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (Performing Arts), Rose Bruford College
  • PGCE – English & Drama, University of Cambridge
  • DELTA – English Language Teaching, King’s College London
  • PG Diploma – Acting, Birmingham School of Speech and Drama
  • BA – Acting, Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatoire
  • Teacher Training Certificate – Michael Chekhov Acting Technique, MICHA
  • Level 4 Certificate – Laban Creative Dance Leadership, Laban Guild for Movement and Dance
  • Practitioner Certificate – Sesame (Psyche & Soma), Soulworks
  • Level 2 Certificate – Strength & Conditioning, British Rowing
  • Level 2 Certificate – Exercise to Music, YMCA Training and Development
Memberships, editorial boards
  • Book 2.0 – Co-editor & editorial board
  • Arcola Theatre – deputy chair of the board of trustees
  • FITR/IFTR – Translation, Adaptation, Dramaturgy working group
  • TAPRA – Directing & Dramaturgy working group
  • Laban Guild for Movement and Dance
  • KFA Laban Dance Fitness
  • British Rowing
Selected recent publications

Yeni, N., 2018. ‘Performative Provocations of an Academic ‘Theaterer’. Book 2.0. 8 (1&2), pp. 23-28.

Yeni, N., 2018. ‘In Conversation: Alejandro Postigo with Naz Yeni’. Book 2.0. 8 (1&2), pp. 85-100.

Yeni, N., 2018. ‘Migrant Steps: Interview with Goze Saner’. Book 2.0. 8 (1&2), pp. 125-135.

Yeni, N., 2017. ‘Multiplicity in Complicite’s The Master and Margarita’. Between Page and Stage. Edited by Tomasz Wisniewski & Martin Blaszk. University of Gdansk Press.

Recent presentations and conferences

Sep 2024: UTAD – Bahcesehir University (Turkey), Migrant Identities

Oct 2021: (co-convenor) CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON LIVE PERFORMANCE – ARU, Migrant Shakespeare

Jul 2021: THEATRE ECOLOGIES – IFTR, Theatre Stylistics: performance, style, aesthetics

Dec 2020: CULTURAL MEMORY – Hacettepe University (Turkey), Migrant Theatre and Cultural Heritage

Jun 2018: REFUGEE CRISIS – ARU, Fact or Fiction?

Oct 2017: (convenor) MISPLACED – Festival of Ideas (Cambridge), Life Imitating Art