Joanna Pidcock - Class Of 2011

Joanna Pidcock arrived at Loreto Toorak in the middle of 2000, after moving from New York City. It was a big adjustment, but she felt very warmly welcomed and quickly became involved in Music and Theatre Studies. In 2011 she was School Music Captain, and helped lead Mornane to PAF victory as House Drama Captain. Joanna remembers feeling inspired by Dr Schroor and Ms Thompson, who motivated her to study English Literature at degree level.

 

Joanna completed a Bachelors Degree at the University of Melbourne with Majors in Creative Writing and English Literature, a Diploma of Languages in French, and then an Honours thesis in English Literature. She also did an exchange programme at the University of Edinburgh in 2014 and, in 2015, worked on a ranch in Wyoming.

 

Joanna’s career break came in 2017 when she worked with esteemed British theatre director Katie Mitchell. Shortly after, she moved to the United Kingdom to continue her career as a theatre director, dramaturg and writer, and has been based in London ever since.

 

For the last two years Joanna has been more focused on writing. A Chamber opera for which she has written the Libretto is performancing in Tokyo in May, and she has an essay published in TOLKA, an Irish literary journal. From June onwards Joanna will be the assistant director on I, Joan, a major new production at Shakespeare’s Globe in London about Joan of Arc.

 

Working with Katie Mitchell and Alice Birch is a career highlight for Joanna; their mentorship and support has been instrumental for her development as an artist. In 2019, she represented the UK as Young Artist Delegate to the Séminaire en Avignon, a prestigious international residency at the Avignon Festival. She was shortlisted for the 2021 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize, a major non-fiction award for unpublished authors, and has signed with Anna Webber from United Agents. Her most significant achievement is building a wonderful life in the UK, and forging fulfilling friendships.

In her spare time Joanna swims at the Ladies Pond on Hampstead Heath. She volunteers at an agroecological urban farm, and this summer will be running gardening workshops in East London.

 

A Loreto Toorak education developed a resilience and an intellectual ambition that contributes to her self-confidence. The School also taught Joanna to be a strong, kind, joyful, just, and driven woman, and for that she is very grateful.