BIO
Writer and theatre-maker Jo Randerson is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions (theatre company). Recent theatre works include Sing It To My Face, Political Cuts and Grand Opening.
Jo has received the Robert Burns Fellowship, an Arts Foundation New Generation Award and the Bruce Mason Award for playwrighting. She collaborates internationally with visual artists, theatre makers and activists, most recently in Paris, Moscow and Istanbul with Swedish visual artists Goldin+Senneby at the biennales in each city. Her recent play The Spit Children premiered at Antwerp’s largest youth theatre HETPALEIS in May 2014.
Jo often collaborates with communities and lesser-heard voices. Jo is a popular public speaker and progressive thinker about the arts’ relevance in society, and an active part of the social enterprise movement. She is part of a team who have re-purposed a disused bowling club in Vogelmorn, Wellington as a creative community space www.vogelmorn.nz. She teaches at Massey University, Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and on the MFA at Victoria University.
Her new work Soft N Hard is currently touring New Zealand. Jo’s writing has recently appeared in the Journal of Urgent Writing, Pantograph Punch and Future Conditional: Notes for Tomorrow. See www.barbarian.co.nz for more information.
ARTEFACT