Victoria Gartner - Storyteller

Over the last ten years, Victoria has written and directed work around Shakespeare’s life and times in the UK, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

She is the Artistic Director of Will & Co, which she founded in 2015. Her play Will or Eight Lost Years of William Shakespeare’s Life has been touring for three years in both French and English, and was dubbed by The Stage to be "fascinating work."

She imagined Bard in the Yard in the first Covid-induced lockdown in May 2020: now two solo plays about Shakespeare experiencing writer’s block during a plague pandemic. They have been performed in private gardens, schools, care homes and festivals by 35 actors all over the  UK to great public and critical acclaim (The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent), with Dame Helen Mirren as a Godmother.

Victoria has been teaching Shakespeare for many years, giving workshops in festivals and universities as well as at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. She is passionate about giving everyone access to Shakespeare in a fresh and vibrant way, using the body as well as the mind to unlock verse. She is currently teaching Acting and Directing Shakespeare at East15, as well as regularly directing for BYMT (British Youth Music Theatre). She has an MA in English literature with a specialisation in Shakespearean studies as well as a degree in Dramaturgy and Directing.

Victoria also writes poetry, non-fiction, and is currently working on a novel. She was born in Ukraine which her mother fled, and she grew up in French-speaking Switzerland. In her spare time she enjoys drinking wine, embroidery, and singing very badly.