Molly Owen

I trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where I was given the opportunity to try out directing and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. However, I ended up turning more towards writing, which is what I focussed on until I was introduced to the world of opera and fell completely in love with it. It became a world that I yearned to be a part of but hadn’t thought I had the skills for. Perhaps I could write libretti? For the time being, I settled on the idea of being a lifelong opera-goer. In retrospect, it’s quite funny to think that it took me three whole operas for the penny to drop and realise that opera, too, must have directors. From that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I began undertaking as many ‘observerships’ as I could, including at the Royal Opera House. Early this year I assisted John Ramster on a production of The Flying Dutchman at two opera houses in Norway. More recently, I assisted Rebecca Meltzer on her production of Semele at Waterperry Opera Festival and Opera Holland Park. At Waterperry, I was part of the Young Artists Programme, where we were given the opportunity to direct scenes for their gala. I still devote much of my time writing and am currently developing a musical as well as two projects which bring together classical music and theatre/film.