the origin story...
Earth to maya, a term which for many years represented my overactive imagination-until some amazing creative mentors taught me how to put it to good use. But in the end it was the childhood spent on the road, visiting factories, meeting new people, and embracing different cultures that gave me my love of listening, amplifying, and interpreting the billions of stories that make up planet earth. Now as a mostly (but not fully) formed human, I have a love for the world and a passion to understand all the nuances that make up our collective experience together here. If I had to put a specific theme onto my work I’d say intercultural conflict and global citizenship, but the more i examine those words the less i understand. Where is creativity going to go in this post-globalisation world where mixed up cultures and “reasons to leave” are on the rise? Armed with powerful curiosity, an ever growing directors toolkit a love of play, I’m determined to figure it out.
Maya RRP is Director, performer, and dramaturg, known for making multidisciplinary work pushing boundaries of identity, repressed conflict, and collaboration. Maya was born and raised on the road, working at a professional level from the age of 9, first under the guide of South African Director and performance artist Rehane Abrahams with Theatre FireFLY, then later on working with her families’ social enterprise using immersive experiences to promote humanity and the power of people. By that point Maya had developed a keen love of the theatre; training, working, and apprenticing in almost every position and genre imaginable, from being a stage manager for youth theatres and Burlesque shows, to a production assistant on the West End Musical “The Prince of Egypt”. Anything to get into a theatre to watch and observe the working dynamics of everyone around her.
In 2018 Maya started her BA in Performance: Design and Practice from Central Saint Martins (UAL) which gave her a more structured education in scenography, dramaturgy, and narratology. Despite Maya’s final year coinciding with COVID, Maya saw this as an opportunity to begin experimenting with new forms of cross border collaboration and devising with difference.
Inspired by her early experience, Maya developed a fascination with developing ideas from the everyday and finding unique ways to collaborate with communities of all backgrounds. Maya believes in creating an open and free rehearsal room with the objective of making a welcoming space for participants regardless of personal histories and professional status. In this space Maya believes in sharing yes, but above all failing, learning by doing, and playing.