VOLOZ COLLECTIVE
International Physical Theatre
- About Us -
Voloz Collective is a multi award-winning international physical theatre company that reinvents and recharges physical comedy by exploiting the capacities of the human body and blurring the lines between the theatrical and cinematic. Hailing from three different countries, our team of four was brought together by two years of study at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. With a uniquely non-hierarchical approach to theatre-making, all members serve as actors, directors, and writers, and have a shared responsibility for all creative decisions.
Olivia Zerphy (she/her)
Co-Artistic Director / Performer
Olivia Zerphy is a Paris and New York based director and actor. A recipient of the Molly Thatcher Kazan Award for Excellence in Theatre for her direction of Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal at the Martel Theatre in New York, her work has also been seen at the Moscow Art Theatre School (Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov), The Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference (The Journey, Nancy Riggs) and at La Factorie in Normandy (La Poussière, original work).
Paul Lofferon (he/him)
Co-Artistic Director / Performer
Paul Lofferon is a Paris and London-based director and actor. He began his career in the arts at 18, studying acrobatics at the Circus Arts School of Piste d'Azur in Cannes. Upon returning to Paris, he decided to pursue theatre and studied acting for two years at l'Ecole Internationale de theatre Jacques Lecoq. During this time, he joined the company Theatre de la Feuille, directed by Ata Wong Chun Tat. In September of 2018, the company toured its show Madman in several cities throughout China, including appearing in the Beijing International Fringe Festival. Most recently, he joined a research group led by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne around the show The Man Who at Les Bouffes du Nord. He is also currently involved in Dream by Irina Brook, an adaptation Shakespeare's Midsummer Night Dream.
Emily Wheatman (she/her)
Co-Artistic Director / Performer
Emily Wheatman is a UK based actor and theatre-maker, specialising in comedy and physical theatre. A graduate of L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Emily’s previous work includes working with Manic Chord Theatre and performing in their 5* show Don’t Let Go, performing in La Poussière at La Factorie in Normandy and writing and performing with the Leeds Tealights in their award-winning Edinburgh sketch-comedy show in 2015. Her comedy work has been described as ‘Energetic and clever humour’ (EdFringe Review) and she received a special mention in the 2020 Mandy Comedy Competition: 'clever humour’.
Sam Rayner (he/him)
Co-Artistic Director / Performer
Sam is a theatre-maker and movement director. His movement direction credits for comedy include Jack Whitehall: At Large (UK & EIRE Arena Tour/Hammersmith Apollo/Netflix);
Jordan Brookes: BLEED and SHEEPS: Live and Loud (Pleasance Theatre/Soho Theatre). The List described his work with Jordan Brookes as ‘a fearless display of physicality that shape-shifts from ludicrous tomfoolery to raw menace’. In theatre, Sam co-founded Unleash the Llama - a company that creates genre-fusing comedies - and the New Renaissance Collective - a company that aims to make early opera and theatre more accessible by staging highly-physical adaptations. As an assistant/associate director, Sam’s work includes Broken Wings (Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End/International Tour); The Adventures of Pinocchio (Ambassadors Theatre, West End) and Tick, Tick… Boom (Park Theatre).