Overview

Inspired by their international practice at London's renown East 15 Acting School and a further desire to collaborate globally, directors Jack Paterson (BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective, Canada) and Denise Yvette Serna (U.S.A.) founded the Global Hive Laboratories.

The first International Hive Workshop took place August 2017 and engaged artistic participants from Canada, U.S.A., Spain, U.K. Italy, France and China.  Some participated in London while other participated long distance through information and communications technology.

Since then our facilitation team has grown to include artistic directors and independent artists from five different countries. We’ve had the honor of joining forces with Fusion Theatre Company, Chez Actors, Baba Yaga Collectif, Pop Magic Productions, En Las Tablas Performing Arts, and the talented women who drive them.

Our goal: An international shared practice.

Denise Yvette Serna (U.S.A.)

Denise is a theatre practitioner and arts activist based in Chicago, Illinois. Credits include HIR (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Earthquakes in London (Steep Theatre Company), For the Love of... (Pride Films & Plays), After Orlando (Pride Films & Plays), (the)forget_me\knot (inappropriate theatre company), La Chingada (inappropriate theatre company), Much Ado About Nothing (The Shaw Theatre), Om Swastyastu from London - The Wailing Woman (Institut Seni Indonesia Denpasar), and Heart’s Core (Refugee Women's Theatre Programme). Denise holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from London’s East 15 Acting School. She is an alumna of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Multicultural Fellowship, and serves as a member of artEquity’s 2016 cohort, a diverse cadre of facilitators who support equity-based initiatives nation-wide.

JAck Paterson (CAN)

Jack is an award winning Canadian and International director whose has studied and practice has taken him across Canada and the U.K. and to Moscow (RU), Denpasar (IND), and N.Y.C. (USA).  His work has ranged from cross cultural, multi-disciplinary and multi lingual devised experiences to classical and new play mainstage projects.  Favourite credits include The List (Vancouver, CAN); a fusion of devising and original practice Romeo & Juliet (Cardiff, Wales); the devised projects Wasting Time (Denpasar, IND) and Odyssey (London, UK);  a fusion of flamenco and text The Love of Don Perlimpin (The Shaw Festival, CAN); the site spessific Women of Troy (Canadian stage, CAN) and the Vancouver premiere of Titus Andronicus (Vancouver, CAN).

katie merritt (U.k)

Katie Merritt BA, MFA is a conservatoire trained Theatre Director, Artistic Director of Fusion Theatre Company, LAMDA Examiner and LAMDA Teacher at St Paul’s Girls’ School, based in North London. Having graduated from East 15 Acting School with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Directing, which included intensive study at Insitut Seni Indonesia in Bali, she went on to set up her own company, Fusion Theatre, dedicated to creating theatre that explores heritage, traditional stories and global issues to enhance our understanding of the past, present and future. With her company they performed a month-long run of ‘Stories from Around the World’, a show written and produced by her company, at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, a run at The Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London in 2017, and at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington in 2018, and have toured consistently around schools across the UK. As a Theatre Director she has been involved with multiple shows, most notably a West End run of a one-woman production of "Henry V", a sold out production at The British Museum entitled "189 Pieces", a funded commission from ’Ideas Tap’ to produce a piece for the Olympic Games 2012, a production of ‘Dokei at The Lion and Unicorn, 'Space Pod' at ‘Theatre 503’ and an interactive, site-specific devised piece called ‘Under Construction’ at a site in North London. Katie is also deeply committed to theatre in education having worked with Watford Palace Theatre as a educational practitioner, with Icarus Theatre Collective as an Education Manager and with companies such as No Ball Games Allowed as a facilitator. She currently has a seat on the Board of Examiners for the London Academy of Dramatic Art and teaches LAMDA at St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith. Her work within these reputable establishments has solidified her commitment to providing professional arts provision across theatres and schools alike. Fusion Theatre is currently touring theatre shows and professional workshops across the UK, to engage people with interactive theatre practice that explores world issues.

iman kerroua (fr)

Iman is an actress, director and writer from Paris. She immigrated to London where she graduated with a Master in Acting from East 15 acting school. Back to Paris, she co-founded La Compagnie Certes theatre company.

Carolina Migli Bateson (itl)

Actress, writer, director
Trained as a ballet dancer at the Accademia Domenichino da Piacenza (Italy) She Graduated in 1995 of the Gaiety school of acting in Dublin where she lived and worked for many years, also worked in London, France, Spain. Back in Italy she trained in TEATRODUE National theatre in Parma, (Master for the European actor through dance, music and theatre) and worked there for many years, collaborating with the Europe theatre festival, the Shakespearian festival in Verona, Viterbo festival and the Summer Solstice festival. At the moment she works with Noveteatro company, she collaborates with Chez art circle of artists, ICON women artist group and Coming out association.