Donna Soto-Morettini was born in Southern California, where she worked as an actress and studio vocalist. She toured the Western United States, Canada and Japan as a Jazz/Rock singer for more than a decade. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Directing from the University of California, Irvine and holds a DPhil in English from Oxford University. She has served as Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, was the founding Head of Acting and Dance at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and also served as Director of Drama and Head of Musical Theatre at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
For the last three years she has served as Casting Director for the BBC reality casting series, with How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, Any Dream Will Do and I’d Do Anything, working with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Cameron Mackintosh. Over the last year she also served as the series’ Performance Coach for I’d Do Anything. She has taught master classes throughout the UK and the US, in subjects as diverse as Jazz Improvisation, Audition Technique, and Shakespearean Verse Structure.
She is a founding member of the steering committee for Musical Theatre Matters: UK, and has served as Grand Jury Member for BAFTA as well as the Global Search for New Musicals. She has produced and directed a number of plays and musicals and over the last five years has produced 7 new musicals at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
She has published articles in Theatre Journal and The Contemporary Theatre Review, and her book, Popular Singing: A Practical Guide to Jazz, Blues, Rock, Country and Gospel is published by A&C Black.
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Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
