Orion Isaacs is a writer-director and interdisciplinary artist.
Isaacs works across filmmaking, immersive installation, live performance and visual art — seeking to reveal points of connection between seemingly disparate communities and individuals.
They earned an MA & MFA from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Writing For Stage & Film, where they are now a lecturer.
Isaacs has exhibited at the V&A Museum, The Southbank Centre, Live Art Development Agency (LADA), WOW! Festival, Rich Mix, Fringe! Film Festival, Rosa Kwir Malta, Battersea Arts Centre, New York Theatre Workshop, Stanley Arts, UK Jewish Film Festival and across London's LGBTQIA+ performance venues. Their work has been featured in Dazed i-D, The British Journal of Photography and Candy Transversal Magazine.
Selected Projects
Greatest Star, 2023
‘Greatest Star’ is a short documentary about DJ and organiser of Lavender Nights, Jo Gattenberg ~ and how Barbra Streisand has profoundly influenced her life.
Isaacs directed the film, which was selected by UK Jewish Film as one of their five Short Doc Fund winners and premiered at their festival in November, 2023.
Your Rings On Me, 2023
‘Your Rings On Me’ is a live solo performance that meditates on the significance of jewellery in Jewish diaspora histories. In this non-verbal, physically led work, Isaacs uses their movement and a reactive soundscape by Giora, to be in conversation with rings they inherited from their Grandmother. From this personal root, Isaacs connects with an embodied language for Jewish ancestral stories of migration and displacement.
Commissioned by Raze Collective & Stanley Arts.
t-fags, 2022
Collaborating with fellow artist and romantic partner El Hardwick, ‘t-fags’ is a project that aims to photograph and interview trans men, transmasc and non-binary T4T (trans for trans) individuals, couples and polycules who self-identify with the term ‘fag’.
The project launched with a collection of portraits (styled by Nathan Henry) and interviews published in Candy Transversal Magazine, before being expanded into a larger installation for Rosa Kwir in Malta. Isaacs creative directed the project in addition to interviewing participants, which were then woven into a soundscape.
Featured press: British Journal of Photography, Dazed
Passing Gloves, 2022
Supported by Arts Council England, ‘Passing Gloves’ is an immersive exhibition that celebrates the lost and forgotten stories of Jewish boxers in the UK. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Isaacs interviewed Jewish families across London and Manchester, who have a connection to the world of boxing, either first hand or through ancestral ties.
Alongside family archives and oral histories, Isaacs intersperses their own photo-series and short film in collaboration with Sweatmother. The series is a visual dialogue with the lost Jewish boxing archive, confronting the audience with questions surrounding Jewish masculinity, antisemitism in Britain, spiritual and physical endurance, and boxing’s history of empowering the marginalised. The combination of soundscape by Giora, theatre lighting techniques, suspended objects and the visual story elements, creates an exhibition that is both intimate and impactful. The exhibition launched with Rich Mix and was produced by and co-curated with Adam Hemmings.
Click here to see an extended portfolio of the moving image, photographic and audio works contained in the exhibition.
Cramps, 2018 - 2020
Cramps is a drag persona of Isaacs’, incorporating deconstructed drag queen aesthetics, punk music, physical endurance art and guerrilla theatre.
Under the moniker, Isaacs launched ‘Urinal Residency’, in 2018 - a live performance installation that transforms men’s toilets into a bedroom in which Cramps gets extravagantly dressed, applies fantastical makeup and takes up space through music and defiant acts of physical endurance. They showcased ‘Urinal Residency’ at Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and went on to perform the work as part of The V&A Museum’s ‘(De)constructed Masculinities’ programme.
From 2019 to 2020, Isaacs produced and curated a monthly performance club night (also named ‘Cramps’) at The Chateau in Southeast London. The event provided a platform for artists who expand the parameters of drag, cabaret and nightlife performance art. They have been a mentor on Soho Theatre’s Cabaret & Drag Lab and continue to offer support and direction to up-and-coming drag artists.
He Laughs, 2021
The play, ‘He Laughs’ was written and digitally performed by Isaacs for Southbank Centre’s 2021 edition of WOW! Festival. Through riffs on Jewish mythology and biblical stories, the play follows a modern-day pilgrimage home. After 13-years of exile, a young man travels on foot to his childhood town. On his way, he meets shedim שֵׁד spirits who take the forms of old friends, lovers and family.
Voice (1-on-1 sessions and group facilitation)
Isaacs works with trained and untrained singers to develop range, tone, projection, the relationship between chest/head registers and confidence around connecting body to the voice’s full capacity.
Isaacs trained in classical and jazz singing from a young age. With over 20 years experience as a vocalist, they offer students a framework for finessing technique and supporting maintenance of vocal health in a playful and warm atmosphere.
1-on-1 sessions are catered to the individual. Some students are experienced singers, whilst others are coming to the room to connect with their voice for the first time. Isaacs’ approach is holistic and acknowledges how our voices interact with and are affected by our emotional inner world. They recognise the relationship between singing and mental & physical healing.
Their practice centres LGBTQIA+ voices and is sensitive to the role that dysphoria and lived experience can play in vocal expression. Taking a trauma-aware approach, students are encouraged to lead on what they wish to explore for each session — whether that be focussing on a specific technique, rehearsing a song or set, having the opportunity to experiment with their sound in a dedicated space, or diving into a meditation through drone and breath-work.
Click the button below to enquire. Do not hesitate to outline any access requirements when getting in touch.
Orion Isaacs is also available to facilitate group workshops for events and public programming. Get in touch above to enquire.
“Training with Orion has been vital groundwork for my daily practice and touring. They have helped me to both discover new ways of singing and also crucially look after my voice on the road. It’s been a total joy to work with them!”
Testimonials
“The sessions have helped me not only on a technical level, e.g. expanding my range, but have also played a role in my emotional wellbeing, and have supported my creative practice as a singer-songwriter/producer. I have felt held. No judgement, only tender encouragement, with a welcome amount of being challenged. Orion genuinely cares about your growth, and is receptive to individual needs or goals. What has been most important to me is the space to be vulnerable, to be myself - to learn how to allow myself to be witnessed in my feelings; to sing from the heart; to find my authentic, innermost voice. ”
“My time with Orion has been nothing short of magical. They have made me feel comfortable with using my voice in ways I always thought would be out of my range. Their presence and studio is filled with tranquility and they care about making you feel always welcome. I have deepened my knowledge of my body and understood how our voices can be so powerful, and Orion’s guidance has made this easier. They are a flexible, kind, pedagogical artist, and will make sessions fun and adapted to your interests.”
“Orion is one of the kindest practitioners I have worked with. I fully trust them to hold our space together. They have taught me to be comfortable and more confident using my voice. Sessions with Orion have allowed me to explore my voice through singing and reciting poetry in a gentle, challenging, and grounding way. ”
“Working with Orion really helped me to trust in my own voice, and to learn how to build the vocal strength and confidence that I was seeking. They have such an ear for detail, and are intuitive, flexible and holistic in their approach - listening to what both my voice and I need in each moment, and offering an array of vocal exercises to experiment with. I have had voice lessons from multiple teachers previously, but find that with Orion I have made the most tangible and lasting progress, and am able to understand my voice better for it.”
“In my lessons with Orion I have been provided a safe space without judgement, where I am able to reconnect with my voice. It has been both therapeutic and a lot of fun, exploring songs I never thought I could sing. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to build more confidence with their voice.”