Ursula Martinez fuses theatrical concepts, personal experience and popular forms to create innovative challenging, experimental theatre that is highly entertaining and reflective of our contemporary, post-modern world.
At the core of the work is a commitment to exploring humour and what is is to be human.
Ursula Martinez is a London based writer, performer and cult cabaret diva.
She studied theatre at Lancaster University and began her career in experimental theatre, working with companies such as FORCED ENTERTAINMENT and the GLEE CLUB.
In the mid 90’s, she began performing solo on the London club/cabaret circuit and very quickly made a name for herself.
Martinez then combined her experimental theatre background with her cabaret experience. Working with collaborator MARK WHITELAW she produced A Family Outing, an autobiographical theatre show starring herself and her parents, which was a huge success at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Martinez and Whitelaw produced two more theatre pieces, Show Offand OAP.Together with A Family Outing, they formed a trilogy entitled ‘Me, Me, Me!’, which was presented at The Barbican in October 2006 as part of B.I.T.E.
Now an established international artist, regularly supported by the British Council, Martinez continues to produce live performance, both solo and collaborative, for theatre, cabaret, site-specific, installation and nightclub.
She is an original cast member of the contemporary circus/cabaret phenomena La Clique / La Soirée. She is also an associate artist with iconoclastic performance provocateurs Duckie, with whom she created the smash-hit Olivier Award winning show C’est Duckie!
As a director, Ursula Martinez co-directed award winning Office Partywith collaborator Christopher Green, and recently directed Lucy McCormick in her smash-hit, sell-out show Triple Threat.
Martinez has also made several short films including Oh Baby! (1997 Dick Award runner-up) and Venkel’s Syndrome, which premiered at the Berlin International Film festival and won the Silver Spike Award at the 2001 Valladolid International Film Festival.
ursulamartinez.com