Nadia Tass is an Australian theatre director and film director and producer. She is known for the films Malcolm (1986) and The Big Steal (1990), as well as an extensive body of work in the theatre, both in Australia and internationally.
Early life and education
Tass was born in Florina, Macedonia, northern Greece before moving to live permanently in Australia. Her original surname is Tassopoulos.[1]
Tass has an extensive history of theatre direction with a diverse range of works. She has directed improvised theatre, classic plays, contemporary pieces and musical theatre. Early works include productions of The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, numerous plays by Euripides including Medea, and by Aristophanes including Lysistrata, Chekhov's The Birds, Three Sisters, and Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca.
In later work, Tass directed This Effing Lady by Maureen Sherlock at the Brunswick Ballroom (2021) and Wicked Sisters by Alma De Groen for Griffin Theatre in Sydney (2020).
In 2019, she directed Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Heather McDonald, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, for Signature Theatre in the Washington, D.C., area.[2][3][4]
Also in 2019, she directed Fern Hill, by Michael Tucker, at 59E59 Theaters in New York City.[citation needed]
In 2016, Tass directed the Ensemble Theatre production of Jane Cafarella's e-baby.[6] It was the Sydney premiere of the play.[7] Tass described the work as "a play for today – the advances in medicine create a new world that allows new possibilities – in e-baby we enter that world and explore the raw truth, the unbridled joy and the paradox of surrogacy through a carefully woven story of love, generosity and a newborn child."[8]
Tass has presented masterclasses around the world. She regularly lectures at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne), and at Deakin University, where she is an adjunct professor. Tass continues to mentor young directors and actors from various educational institutions.