Sophie El Assaad is an award winning interdisciplinary artist, with Lebanese and British roots. After spending over a decade in Bahrain, she is based in Montreal, working in theatre as a designer, creator and aspiring director. She founded her theatre company Theatre Nuaj in 2015 and produced and directed her first show entitled VANITAS. Today she is working on writing and developing her next piece, Black Balloon.
Sophie’s individual practice is inspired by artists like Ali Chahrour, Wajdi Mouawad, Dave St Pierre and Sarah Kane; their rawness and relationship in their work to Life and Death evokes what it means to be human and the struggle that it demands. As a creator with a background in visual art, the visual impact of her work is very important; it plays with the juxtaposition of performance and artistic styles from various disciplines, heavily based in movement and imperfections. Currently, her work is focused on the increased level of hopelessness prevalent in young adults facing today’s world and the risks of a Godless generation seeking purpose. Using the current political climate in the Arab peninsula, she seeks to question perspectives from East and West, investigate the person behind the ‘terrorist’ and query the meaning of humanity.
Sophie was part of Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program in 2017 and has worked as a designer for various professional theatre companies, including Repercussion Theatre, Cabal Theatre, Talisman Theatre, Tableau d’Hôte Theatre, Geordie Theatre, Yonder Window Theatre Co and The Segal Centre of Performing Arts.