A portfolio of Natalie Scarlett's work 2017-2022
I love...
Writing for the senses more than the mind.
Creating performances more akin to poetry than narrative.
Leading actors as a practitioner of devised physcial theater.
TRANSPORTING AUDIENCES TO REALMS BEYOND THEIR OWN THROUGH IMMERSIVE, INTERACTIVE, AND ELECTRIC PERFORMANCES GROUNDED IN VISCERAL REALITY AND INTIMACY.
Cipher Creative Productions
Cipher Creative Productions is a multi-media performance company founded by Natalie Scarlett devoted to serve the artists whose work it presents by focusing on new writing, workshopping, and collaboration on devised work for theatre, film, and immersive experiences. In Shakespeare’s prologue to Henry V the Chorus asks the audience to “let us, ciphers to this great accompt, on your imaginary forces work;” likewise, Cipher Creative Productions asks to help audiences decode meaning through raw and intimate works. Cipher Creative Productions creates experiential, interpretive, and unconventional artistic productions in Colorado.
Director Bio
NATALIE SCARLETT is an English and drama teacher by day and a theatrical director, writer and all around creative person all the time, especially at night. A tireless teacher, Natalie proudly coaches debate, cultivates creative writing club and directs the non-musical theatre program at Liberty Common High School. She is also chair of the Festival of Ideas and the Favorite Poem Project reading series. With the flexible schedule of a teacher, she travels extensively in the summers seeking to further her knowledge and refine her craft. In the summer of 2016 she taught English at The Gyeseong School in Seoul, Korea. The summer before she worked at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn through a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for drama teachers writing a Shakespeare curriculum and studying with literature professors, professional directors and classically trained actors. While working in New York, she revived her desire to bring theatre alive outside the classroom as well as within, and she brings this enthusiasm to the Fort Collins community now. While studying at Columbia University, she actually got to touch a First Folio with her bare hands! She also worked writing poetry curriculum at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago under the leadership of former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Before really pursuing her teaching career in Fort Collins, Natalie backpacked through Europe for eight months while she worked as a freelance English tutor, innkeeper and bike shop keeper. She travelled the country with the Tour de Fat caravan and worked as an editor for Wolverine Farm Publishing. Natalie has a B.A. from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she studied acting and directing. Past directing credits include Sartre's No Exit and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, as well as numerous short plays. She was the first directing student in the history of her college to be chosen to direct a mainstage play as part of her senior thesis. Natalie is also a published poet and short story writer and some of her writing can be found here. While directing is her primary passion, she has acted on the semi-professional and collegiate stage in numerous roles as various as Laura in A Glass Managerie with Harvest Public Theatre and Wilma Eisenring in a punk rock Brechtian version of Beiderman and the Firebugs. She has appeared in Bas Bleu Theatre's production of If We Are Women. She has worked on several productions with OpenStage Theatre, most recently directing Caroline M. McGraw's Ultimate Beauty Bible as well as serving as assistant director on King Lear, Bug, Amadeus, and Anton in Show Business. Natalie and her husband, Aaron Williams, a small business owner and maker, are terrified and electrified as parents to Imogen Eira Eucatasropher Elin in the spring of 2017 and Edwyn Allistair Spark Taliesin in summer of 2020. Natalie is proud of the thriving arts scene in Fort Collins and eager to continue writing, making theatre, producing films and generally contributing to and supporting arts and culture in our community. Cipher Creative Productions is a incubating project with which she hopes to build a new theatre company with a focus on showcasing new work by emerging writers, directors, and actors with a DIY spirit and a focus on rough innovation and community involvement. Some of her most recent work has been as the writer and director of "The Eggplant, and Other Domestic Incidents" and "Slouch and Grouch" at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. In the fall of 2018 she wrote, directed, produced, and performed in an immersive, site-specific performance piece called Water:Works along with Judy Bejarano of IMPACT dance company. In 2021 she wrote and directed her first film, The Lark. She also wrote and directed four performances for the physical comedy duo Slouch and Grouch as well as several short films in collaboration with the duo and other filmmakers. She directed a multi-dimensional production of Nick Payne's "Constellations" in a 360 digital dome for OpenStage theater company in 2020. During the pandemic Natalie was paid to write Creative Help blog posts on how the Fort Collins arts community was thriving for the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District. Natalie then started creating freelance immersive experiences at The Lyric's outdoor art space. She wrote and directed a macabre circus immersive narrative called Pig Roast: Blood Circus in 2021 and a trilogy of immersive performances called CLTFM (Triple Goddes, or, the cult of the feminine) that wove a story of feminine archetypes from multiple cultures and traditions into a self-exploration and feast. She was hired as Head Scriptwriter and writing mentor for a Mango Languages product that will use short videos and media to teach academic vocabulary to public high school students learning English in the classroom. She works at the Culture Mother at The Lyric Cinema creating cultural programming for the whole family. She teachers HS writing and literature.
NATALIE SCARLETT is an English and drama teacher by day and a theatrical director, writer and all around creative person all the time, especially at night. A tireless teacher, Natalie proudly coaches debate, cultivates creative writing club and directs the non-musical theatre program at Liberty Common High School. She is also chair of the Festival of Ideas and the Favorite Poem Project reading series. With the flexible schedule of a teacher, she travels extensively in the summers seeking to further her knowledge and refine her craft. In the summer of 2016 she taught English at The Gyeseong School in Seoul, Korea. The summer before she worked at the Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn through a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for drama teachers writing a Shakespeare curriculum and studying with literature professors, professional directors and classically trained actors. While working in New York, she revived her desire to bring theatre alive outside the classroom as well as within, and she brings this enthusiasm to the Fort Collins community now. While studying at Columbia University, she actually got to touch a First Folio with her bare hands! She also worked writing poetry curriculum at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago under the leadership of former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Before really pursuing her teaching career in Fort Collins, Natalie backpacked through Europe for eight months while she worked as a freelance English tutor, innkeeper and bike shop keeper. She travelled the country with the Tour de Fat caravan and worked as an editor for Wolverine Farm Publishing. Natalie has a B.A. from Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she studied acting and directing. Past directing credits include Sartre's No Exit and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, as well as numerous short plays. She was the first directing student in the history of her college to be chosen to direct a mainstage play as part of her senior thesis. Natalie is also a published poet and short story writer and some of her writing can be found here. While directing is her primary passion, she has acted on the semi-professional and collegiate stage in numerous roles as various as Laura in A Glass Managerie with Harvest Public Theatre and Wilma Eisenring in a punk rock Brechtian version of Beiderman and the Firebugs. She has appeared in Bas Bleu Theatre's production of If We Are Women. She has worked on several productions with OpenStage Theatre, most recently directing Caroline M. McGraw's Ultimate Beauty Bible as well as serving as assistant director on King Lear, Bug, Amadeus, and Anton in Show Business. Natalie and her husband, Aaron Williams, a small business owner and maker, are terrified and electrified as parents to Imogen Eira Eucatasropher Elin in the spring of 2017 and Edwyn Allistair Spark Taliesin in summer of 2020. Natalie is proud of the thriving arts scene in Fort Collins and eager to continue writing, making theatre, producing films and generally contributing to and supporting arts and culture in our community. Cipher Creative Productions is a incubating project with which she hopes to build a new theatre company with a focus on showcasing new work by emerging writers, directors, and actors with a DIY spirit and a focus on rough innovation and community involvement. Some of her most recent work has been as the writer and director of "The Eggplant, and Other Domestic Incidents" and "Slouch and Grouch" at the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. In the fall of 2018 she wrote, directed, produced, and performed in an immersive, site-specific performance piece called Water:Works along with Judy Bejarano of IMPACT dance company. In 2021 she wrote and directed her first film, The Lark. She also wrote and directed four performances for the physical comedy duo Slouch and Grouch as well as several short films in collaboration with the duo and other filmmakers. She directed a multi-dimensional production of Nick Payne's "Constellations" in a 360 digital dome for OpenStage theater company in 2020. During the pandemic Natalie was paid to write Creative Help blog posts on how the Fort Collins arts community was thriving for the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District. Natalie then started creating freelance immersive experiences at The Lyric's outdoor art space. She wrote and directed a macabre circus immersive narrative called Pig Roast: Blood Circus in 2021 and a trilogy of immersive performances called CLTFM (Triple Goddes, or, the cult of the feminine) that wove a story of feminine archetypes from multiple cultures and traditions into a self-exploration and feast. She was hired as Head Scriptwriter and writing mentor for a Mango Languages product that will use short videos and media to teach academic vocabulary to public high school students learning English in the classroom. She works at the Culture Mother at The Lyric Cinema creating cultural programming for the whole family. She teachers HS writing and literature.
