Ruth Mariner is a writer and director based in London. She is a fellow of Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her operas have been performed at The Royal Opera House, Lizst Academy Budapest, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has directed and assisted for numerous companies across the UK and Germany including Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, and The Roundhouse. In September 2014, Ruth became first intake to enter Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a writer on the MA in Opera Making course, where she was kindly supported by the Leverhulme Arts Award Scholarship and the Ewen Balfour Award. From 2015 - 16, Gestalt Arts will be incubated by Guildhall's Creative Entrepreneurship Scheme, in association with Cause 4, and mentored by public art company Artichoke (www.artichoke.uk.com). Ruth's work is playful, surreal and emotionally true. She is fascinated by telling stories visually, and how, when combined, music, text and drama give one another qualities they do not possess in isolation. In her current work, Ruth is exploring the idea of how falling in love with someone else is a form of falling in love with yourself, and how very small events can gradually and imperceptibly change the structure of reality. Ruth only ever intends to make opera that is politically and socially relevant to the present climate. (www.ruthmariner.co.uk) Image Credit: Alex Brown