What do you do?

My job is Associate Director at NTS. I choose subjects to make shows and direct them for NTS. I also help in the broad planning of programming.

What was your first job?

Working in Halfords car and bike shop in Glenrothes.

Why does theatre matter?

Theatre matters because humans need stories to understand the world. Watching a live show where we empathise and try to understand others decisions, situations and lives is vital to being human.

Biography

Cora Bissett is a director, actor and writer based in Glasgow. She has been Associate Director at the National Theatre of Scotland since 2014, where she has explored a passion for shows rooted in real life Scottish stories. Her productions with NTS include the hit political Musical 'Glasgow Girls', (With Theatre Royal Stratford East/ Richard Jordan Productions) 'Rites' (With Yusra Warsama/ Contact Theatre Manchester), the multi award winning ‘Adam’ (by Frances Poet) and the near -future trilogy 'Interference.'

Cora also creates work independently, having started up her company Pachamama in 2009 and launched her first production Roadkill created with writer Stef Smith, at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe which won nine major awards including an Amnesty International Award for Freedom of Speech. It toured to Glasgow, Paris, Chicago and New York, winning an Olivier Award for Outstanding Production. Cora has a passion for experimenting with new forms of music-theatre, as seen in the Arches collaborative project she directed Whatever gets you through the Night featuring a wealth of Scotland’s most eclectic and original song writing talent, GRIT-The Martyn Bennett Story (written by Kieran Hurley) celebrating Scotland’s iconic folk/dance maverick (Winning 'Event of The Year' at the Scottish Trad Awards) and Peter Arnott's electrifying Janis Joplin -Full Tilt.

Cora's most recent music theatre project was her own autobiographical story. She wrote and performed in the raucous gig theatre production 'What Girls Are Made of' (Traverse Theatre/Raw Material) and toured it Internationally picking up a Herald Angel.