Applied Theatre

Izzy has an MA in Applied Theatre: Education and Community Engagement from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2014-2015), and has worked in the USA, India and Kenya as a practitioner on projects with young people.

Izzy is one of the Lead Facilitators for Kiln Theatre's Minding The Gap project, developing original plays with young people aged 11-14 who have recently arrived in the UK.

She co-facilitates Young Queens with Hibo Ahmed-Hussein, a Drama and Poetry group for young women aged 10-14. In Oct 2020, they collaborated with BBC documentary filmmaker Liana Stewart and Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre on a film and poetry project, where the participants performed and devised films on poems they’d written about their Somali Welsh identity and the Black Lives Matter movement.

In 2023, Young Queens collaborated with Al Naaem magazine on an intergenerational photography and film project which was exhibited at Wales Millenium Centre, Ffotogallery Cardiff and The National Library of Wales (which is now archiving the work, and is the first ever archived creative project by Welsh Somalis).

Izzy also facilitates Drama and Storytelling sessions for Cardiff’s Innovate Trust. Izzy is currently teaching Devising and Performance Making on ArtsEd's Foundation Course and The University of East London.

In 2016, Izzy led a 2 year project Bridging the Gap, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation through Tanio community arts company, working in The Bridge Alternative Provision to use Drama as an intervention to work with young people on the Autistic Spectrum. To gain access to the project report ‘How can the creative and holistic approach of Applied Drama be utilised as an educative tool to address issues experienced by young girls/women on the Autistic spectrum’, please get in touch via the HOME page.

Izzy has worked extensively with young people on the Autistic spectrum and with complex mental health in a variety of contexts ranging from Autism units, Pupil Referral Units, schools, youth clubs and psychiatric units across South Wales. She is also an associate artist with the Hidden Voices project: supporting diaspora families with Autistic children to gain access to support and services.

Since 2016, Izzy has worked with Hayaat Women’s Trust, supporting Drama projects led and devised by Cardiff’s Somali community. In January 2020, Izzy co-facilitated and Arts Council Wales funded project Dhaqan Lumay (Lost Heritage) with Nura Araaya Adam, devising a bilingual piece of theatre on Somali culture with 10 young women aged between 10 and 13 from Cardiff’s Somali community.