This event is free but ticketed.
A Conversation that never happened, written and directed by Anastazie Toros
Inspired by real stories shared through personal objects, the piece transforms intimate experiences into a collective reflection on resilience, identity, and the meaning of connection. Anastazie directed a script n hand play for us last year, and we are delighted to welcome her back to the Marine Theatre.Please come along to watch this rehearsed script in hand performance.
It’s a free event, the bar will be open and you won’t be called upon to do any more than sit back and enjoy!
Anastazie Toros
Anastazie Toros is a theatre director whose devising approach combines physical theatre with existential depth. She is strongly committed to ensemble-based collaboration and imaginative directing.
Originally from Ukraine, she trained at the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) in the Czech Republic and at Rose Bruford College in the UK. Her directing work spans the UK, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Georgia, where she has developed a distinctive practice rooted in cross-cultural collaboration and innovative storytelling.
Selected Theatre Directing Credits Include: A Fan of War by Polina Polozhentseva (Camden People’s Theatre, 2025); Choking by Iryna Serebriakova (Pro-English Theatre, Kyiv, 2023), Find a Voice by Samantha Priestley and Save the Light by Polina Pologenceva (Barons Court Theatre, London, 2022), Penita la Tragediya by Tatiana Kytsenko (Lesya Ukrainka Theatre, Lviv, 2021), Kurbas by Ivan Svitlychnyi (Les Kurbas Theatre, Lviv, 2021), The Law by Volodymyr Vynnychenko (Lviv National Puppet Theatre, 2021).
*Currently in development for the Edinburgh Fringe, Refuse by Lucy McIlgorm will be performed at Assembly from 1–25 August 2025.
Selected Assistant Directing Work: A Time-Traveller’s Guide to Donbas by Anastasia Kosodiy, Directed staged reading by Andy Barrett (Nottingham Playhouse, 2022), To Love People by Dmitri Bogoslavsky, Directed by Nikoloz Sabashvili (Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre, Tbilisi, 2016)
Academic Profile: Anastazie Toros is a PhD candidate at the School of Design and Creative Arts at Loughborough University (since October 2022), with research focused on ‘Storytelling In The Context Of Mass Migration And Artistic Displacement During The Ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War’. Her work explores the intersection of devised theatre, new writing, and ethical representation in times of war.
Anastazie recently contributed to the IRiS conference panel ‘Conditions of Solidarity: Supporting Ukrainian Refugees, Negotiating Deservingness’ (2024) and presented her paper ‘Applied Theatre Practices in Addressing Tensions and Conflicts’ at the Loughborough University Nationalism Network (LUNN) postgraduate conference. From 2019 to 2022, she also worked toward integrating Applied Theatre into the school curriculum in Lviv, Ukraine.
A Message from the organiser Chris Gill
We have been running play readings once a month at the Marine Theatre since January 2023. The Theatre continues kindly to provide the venue free to support community drama. We have a small group of regular attenders and we are always pleased to welcome new people, whether they want to read or just listen. We will be reading the brilliant, epic play, A Streetcar named desire over July and August (we want to do the play justice by covering it in two sections). Following on from the very successful rehearsed ‘script in hand’ performance of ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ in June, we will be running another rehearsed reading in September. This is a new play called ‘A Conversation that never happened’, written and directed by Anastazie Toros, and the event is being organised in conjunction with the Shute Festival.
If you want to go on our circulation list or have any questions about the meetings, please contact Chris Gill through the Marine Theatre. We are particularly interested in hearing from anyone interested in performing in Anastazie’s play.
Please remember to bring with you a paper or screen copy of the script if you wish to read. We are not able to provide copies.