Rina Vergano

I’m a Bristol-based playwright and dramaturg with a background in European theatre, specialising in new work for younger and family audiences. I lived and worked in Amsterdam for two decades and have translated around 80 plays from Dutch, Flemish and Italian.

My own plays, and play-in-translation, have been produced by The Egg theatre, Grid Iron, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Company of Angels, Trestle Theatre Unmasked, Unicorn Theatre, Theatre Orchard, The Holland Festival and Oerol Festival. I was a Leverhulme Scholar on The Egg children’s theatre (Bath) Incubator scheme and the resulting bilingual play Harold: The Game is being toured in France by Le Velo Theatre and Bob Theatre object theatre companies. My pub play Horses! Horses! had two SW tours produced by Wassail Theatre/Theatre Orchard/BOV/The Inn Crowd rural touring. My children’s show Owl at Home was produced and toured by Theatr Iolo (Cardiff) and is touring China this year. Dramaturgy: Ablutions & Eurohouse (bert&nasi); Glorilla, Les Gloriables, Elvis in Blue Hawaii (Spitz & Co); Snow White, The Snow Queen, Hansel & Gretel NIE Xmas shows at Tobacco Factory.

I also emcee cabaret nights and perform spoken word & comedy, and run DIY low-cost writing retreats in the SW. I especially like making theatre rooted in place and community, and taking live theatre to non-theatre rural locations. I’m very keen to write and develop family/Xmas shows, comedy shows and alternative pantos for SW regional theatres. I like to add artistic value and inject fun into the projects I work on!

Recent Publications

• Poison by Lot Vekemans (translator) - Nick Hern Books, Nov 2017

Awards and residencies

• Leverhulme Scholarship - 2016/17
• Tobacco Factory Script Space Award shortlist - for early version Horses! Horses! script, 2016/17

Current Events and Projects

• THE GURT DOG OF LANGPORT - In development, rural touring show for 2025
• HAROLD: THE GAME - touring France 2024/25
• OWL ATHOME - touring Wales & China 2024