Nel is a director and writer making playful, collaborative work for adults and young people. This is Nel’s first time working as lead director on an opera, and she couldn’t be more excited to be working with Anna Pool and the team at ETO.

With her company, Bucket Club, Nel’s work includes Arthur (Polka); The Christmas Lobster (Farnham Maltings); Five Children and It (The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath); Catch That Beast! (tour/Birmingham Hippodrome); Fossils (New Diorama, Brits Off Broadway); Launch Party (Farnham Maltings) and Lorraine & Alan (Battersea Arts Centre).

Nel has also collaborated extensively with cycling Shakespeare company, The HandleBards. Work with the company includes their first indoor show The Tempest (Shakespeare North), and national and international outdoor tours of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet. She has also directed Peter Pan and The Importance of Being Earnest with their sister company, Slapstick Picnic.

Nel has been a Resident Director at Tobacco Factory Theatres and the Almeida Theatre. Further directing work includes Piece of Me (Camden People’s Theatre); Crimes of the Christmas Pudding (Lichfield Garrick); The Long Trick (Wardrobe Theatre, Vault Festival); The Love I Feel is Red (Tobacco Factory Theatres) and Speaker (Young Vic 5 Plays). As an assistant and associate director, Nel has worked on Kunene and the King and The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Magic Flute (OperaUpClose); The Trial (Young Vic) and The Light Princess and Living Quarters (Tobacco Factory Theatres).

Work with young people and students includes working as a National Theatre Connections Mentor Director since 2020, running workshops with the Old Vic and teaching at drama schools including Mountview, Drama Studio London and Bristol Old Vic.