Ella Caldwell

Artistic Director

Ella is a theatre director and actor. She grew up on the far south coast of N.S.W before moving to Melbourne on a drama scholarship, later studying Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne. A founding member of Red Stitch Actors' Theatre, Ella has been Artistic Director of the company since July 2013. During this time, Ella has steered the company’s new writing program, INK. The program has produced numerous acclaimed productions, touring nationally and internationally. In her role as Artistic Director, Ella also established PLAYlist, a biennial site-specific festival of music and new writing.

Most recently, Ella directed the critically acclaimed Australian premiere season of Ella Hickson’s epic work, Oil. In 2018 Ella directed The Antipodes by Annie Baker, which was included in Time Out's top ten shows of the year. Previous directorial work includes the sold-out Victorian premiere season of Joanna Murray-Smith’s Fury and the Australian premiere production of Incognito by Nick Payne, both directed in collaboration with ensemble member Brett Cousins, and the world premiere of Caleb Lewis’ The Honeybees. Ella also directed Watching, an audio play by Vidya Rajan and Morgan Rose, which was commissioned in 2020 and featured 18 actors.

As an actor, Ella stepped in to perform the role of Rosemary in the 2022 world premiere season of Morgan Rose's Fast Food, directed by Bridget Balodis. Previously, Ella featured in Rose's desert, 6:29pm, also directed by Balodis. desert, 629pm went on to a sold out season at Wuzhen Theatre Festival in China on the company’s first international tour. Previous acting credits include The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno, The Village Bike by Penelope Skinner, Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett, Midsummer – A Play with Songs by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre, Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Stephen Lally, The Laramie Project – 10 Years Later by Moises Kaufman, Stop.Rewind by Melissa Bubnic, The Winterling by Jez Butterworth, Crestfall by Mark O’Rowe, Outlying Islands by David Greig, The Night Season by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Bug by Tracy Letts, among others.