Ella Caldwell

Artistic Director/CEO

Ella Caldwell is an accomplished theatre director, dramaturg, actor, and cultural leader. Raised on the far south coast of New South Wales, Ella studied Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne before becoming a founding member of Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, where she has served as Artistic Director since 2014.

Red Stitch has become one of Australia’s most acclaimed small-to-medium theatre companies. During her tenure, Ella has overseen a period of significant cultural change and renewal, increased artist remuneration by over 400%, built national touring, and significantly grown the company’s audience and philanthropic support. Programming has been widely praised for its ambition and relevance, with a strong focus on intergenerational skills exchange, rigorous new writing, and contemporary international work.

Ella curates INK, Red Stitch’s new writing program, which has developed and premiered 20 full-length Australian plays, many of which have toured nationally and internationally. She also established PLAYlist, a biennial site-specific festival of theatre, music, and new writing. 

Most recently, Ella directed the nationally acclaimed revival of Ray Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy. The season sold out an extended 11-week run at Red Stitch before transferring to Theatre Royal Hobart and Her Majesty’s Ballarat. Other directorial work includes the world premiere season and national tour of Monument by Emily Sheehan, and the world premiere seasons of Flake by Dan Lee and Chi Nguyen and The Honeybees by Caleb Lewis, all developed through the INK program. Previously, Ella directed the Australian premiere seasons of Ella Hickson’s Oil, Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, and Nick Payne’s Incognito. Ella also co-directed the sold out Victorian premiere season of Joanna Murray-Smith’s Fury. During lockdown in 2020 Ella commissioned and directed Watching, an audio play for 18 actors written by Vidya Rajan and Morgan Rose, with composition and sound design by Dan Nixon. In 2024, she supported a landmark commercial transfer of Red Stitch’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? directed by Sarah Goodes to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre, in partnership with GWB, AHP and Marriner, with a Sydney Theatre Company season to follow. Ella has also worked extensively as a stage actor. 

Ella is recognised for her strategic leadership and commitment to artist development. She has consistently demonstrated the ability to foster collaborative, inclusive and high-performing creative environments.