Projects
Catherine is an experienced theatre-maker and director. She is passionate about using collaborative devising methods, improvisation, and active physical analysis in creating new work.
Here you can read about some of her most recent projects.
If you are interested in collaborating with her as a maker, director, or dramaturg, please get in touch.
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DYCP - Climate responsive theatre
In 2024 Catherine was awarded a prestigious Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England to grow her practice in making innovative theatre that responds to the Climate Crisis. During this period, she has been investigating a wide range of approaches to performance including sustainable puppetry, landscape theatre, regenerative and community-led theatre making, and integrating permaculture principles into art processes. She has been graciously hosted by WildWorks, Handmade Theatre, Eden's Cave, and others during this time.
MASO SCHISM
Devised, Created, and Performed by Catherine Abigail Ward and Anna María, MASO SCHISM has appeared at The Coronet Theatre (2023) and The Cockpit as part of the Voila Festival in 2024.
Where is the line between catharsis and self-harm? From the hard-learned lessons of childhood suffering to the trials of adulthood, pain is the ever-present force that shapes bodies and psyches. Best friends Katie and Anastasia have always shared each other's pain, ever since they scraped their knees playing as children. But with adulthood comes complexity, and each woman has developed relationships and rituals with pain that the other doesn’t understand. How far should they be allowed to take the freedom of bodily autonomy? Where do they draw the line?
When we were first creating MASO SCHISM, we were delighted to discover that our work resonated with audiences of many different demographics. A white gay man gushed about how our show forced him to rethink the everyday coping mechanisms he'd picked up to survive being queer in the American midwest; a Black hijabi wrote saying the show had ended up prompting a discussion in her family group chat about the hunger pangs of fasting during Ramadan. MASO SCHISM is a show about women’s pain, and what it might mean to own it.
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SPROUT
Written by Australian writer Jessica Bellamy, Sprout is a vision of an environmentally ravaged Australia of the future, where everything has dried up, run out, or fled. Amongst this desolation, four people start new beginnings. They grow new roots. They crack through dirt. They bud and sprout.
The second production by 7th Floor Theatre, Sprout was co-directed and produced by Catherine Abigail Ward and Hayden Burke. It was an innovative independent theatre production featuring plants donated by the local community and a talented local cast of multi-rolling actors. This was also a 'buy nothing new' production, where all materials, costumes and set were donated or second hand. Sprout created a uniquely poetic vision of an Australia of the future, bringing to life Bellamy's incredibly moving script.
