Maya Sapone is a London-based Stage Director and Concept Creator specialising in site-specific opera, large-scale youth productions, and multidisciplinary theatre.

Driven by a vision of Giving Voice to Imagination, Maya turns unconventional spaces into vivid theatrical worlds where music, movement, and inclusive storytelling collide. Her directing work spans ambitious, site-specific spectacles, from reimagining Bizet’s Carmen (This is Carmen!) and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for thousands of young performers at Big Penny Social, to staging original youth theatre at Soho Theatre Walthamstow (A Place of Wonder) and international contemporary opera transfers (The Red Room, Aalborg Opera Festival). Across every production, her focus is on leading artists of all ages to find physical freedom, emotional truth, and their own unique voice on stage.

Born in Gabon to a Thai mother and an Italian father, Maya grew up in a rich, multicultural environment, living across Cameroon, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania, the United States, and Italy before moving to the UK in 2001. This global upbringing shapes her instinctively visual, cross-cultural approach to theatre-making and her belief in the stage as a space for universal connection.

Maya trained originally as an opera singer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (BMus Hons, 2005). Before transitioning her primary focus to directing, she performed internationally as a soloist across concert halls, festivals, and theatres most notably earning critical acclaim as Lady Thiang in the Curve Theatre and UK & Ireland tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I. Today, that first-hand performance pedigree informs a deeply musical, movement-led directing methodology - drawing on Dalcroze, Kodaly, and physical theatre principles - that empowers both young ensembles and seasoned performers from the inside out.

Alongside her freelance directing commissions, Maya is a passionate music educator dedicated to championing the transformative role of music, movement, and theatre in young people’s lives—sharing creative strategies and insights with fellow educators, artists, and families through her platform Life as a Stage.