Marteena Mendelssohn is a multidisciplinary theater maker and writer whose skills span across theater producing, directing, novel and play writing.  With a degree in Creative Writing and her background as an actor, her perspective is rooted in both cultural storytelling and the magic of word artistry.

While in Paris, she worked alongside her fellow peers at the American University of Paris to create the organization VIVRE Performing Arts where she directed The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (2022), Dryland (2022), Constellations (2023), and The Turn of the Screw (2023). At the same time, she was an assistant producer for Spin Cycle Theater Company, an anglophone non-profit theater company.

After graduating, she has focused on cultivating her writing style and cultural storytelling. Traveling across Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, she has found herself curious about folklore, self-creation, and human connection. Her exploration within these ideas have culminated into her upcoming fiction novel with a release date of August 2026.

Outside of her formal work, Marteena continues to let curiosity guide her artistic practice. Surfing, reading, and travelling have become rhythms that anchor her thinking and allow her to study movement, narrative, and presence in a way that feels instinctive rather than theoretical. These interests have shaped her approach to directing, and have led her to an ongoing question that sits at the center of her practice. How can we cultivate the potential of theater within the limitations of our environment?  Alongside this inquiry lives another. At this particular political moment, what responsibility does a director hold, and what possibilities appear when theater becomes a catalyst rather than a mirror?

Her creative work continues to sit between these tensions. She is currently preparing to offer online workshops focused on audition techniques, character development, and creative process. The intention is to create international access for actors and emerging artists who seek technique, rigor, and imagination without geographic constraint.

Her commitment is to continue evolving as an interdisciplinary creator while leaving space for change, discomfort, and discovery.