Frank Siera (1989) is a playwright and director. His texts and productions are typically inspired by a true story or a legendary myth, driven by a philosophical approach and written in a poetic and rhythmic style. Music and sound are very important aspects of his work, in his plays as well as in his directed productions.
He graduated in 2012 as a theatre director at the Toneelacademie Maastricht with his own play SPRAAKWATER. SPRAAKWATER is about the silent pianoman who washed ashore in the British coastal town of Sheerness (SPRAAKWATER was translated to German in 2016, to French in 2019 and will be translated to Portuguese in 2021). Ever since he graduated, he mainly worked as a playwright. His texts have been performed in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Brazil.
He wrote for a.o. Dutch National Opera, de Veenfabriek, mugmetdevuurvliegen, het Schrijversgevang, De Kosmonaut, Operafront, De Queeste and his own music theatre collective KASSETT. He wrote his first opera libretto RITRATTO for Dutch National Opera, an original English libretto for an opera which was lauded with 5 stars by the BBC and was nominated for an Edison, the Dutch equivalent of a Grammy Award. The online streaming of the opera went viral after the first premiere was canceled a day prior, due to Covid-19 measurements. A preview of his text SÂLT was selected to be performed for the Dutch King and Queen. His play POETIC LICENCE about the British playwright Joe Orton received rave reviews: "Frank Siera's great text plays a dark game with fiction and reality."
Siera also wrote English song lyrics for the concerts MURAKAMI (jazz and classical ensemble) and MARS: (orchestral oratorio), both composed by Camiel Jansen. His texts have been published in literary magazines Kluger Hans and Extra Extra and at De Nieuwe Toneelbibliotheek. In 2016 he won the prize Fresh Text with his play ONGERIJMD. He directed a.o. at Theater Branoul, Toneelgroep de Appel, De Queeste, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, KASSETT and several music ensembles. For over a decade, he coached a group of teenagers from Atlanta, US and the Netherlands in creating their own theatre or film production every year.
