About Me
Ally Poole is a Texas native and has recently completed an MFA in Advance Theatre Practice from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Ally is currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Performance at Ohio University's School of Theater. She is also a co-collaborator and sound designer for the female-led theatre collective, Hot Cousin.
Ally received a BFA in Theatre Arts with an Emphasis in Acting and a Music Minor from Stephens College. Upon her graduation she served as the Arts Administration Intern at the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY where she gave a "a tour de force performance" as Maribel Purdy in Catherine Trieschmann's Crooked. Ally has since enjoyed a career as an actor across theatre, film, musical theatre and opera.
Ally attended the 2019 Prague Quadrennial as a member of the 36Q Experimental Sound Intensive. The intensive was comprised of international artists working towards devising an instillation while also exploring the relationship between sound and performance. Ally has also participated in residences through Wendy.Network, Fringe Arts Bath and LADA as a sound artist.
She was most recently seen in The Plague Mask Player's productions of Cymbeline as Imogen and The Cherry Orchard as Lubov. During the heigh of the lockdown, Ally also performed with The Show Must Go Online's digital productions of Henry VIII as Anne Bullen, Antony and Cleopatra, All's Well That Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry VI Part II and The Merry Wives of Windsor.
She can also be seen in Hot Cousin's Don't Talk to Strangers as Carl Sagan and in TOXIC CRAZY LUCKY STRONGER as Ally. Don't Talk to Strangers completed a run to rave reviews at VAULT Festival 2020. Ally made her London theatrical debut in Women of Troy at the Arcola Theatre, directed by Bec Martin-Williams.
Ally has sound designed for: Scandal and Gallows Theatre's production of She Sells Sea Shells by Helen Eastman, which ran at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, A Tingle in the Plumbing: Four Stories of Love & Work for the 2019 Camden Fringe and Sarah Henley's Essence at VAULT Festival 2020.
Ally's headphone piece, 45 Beats: A Soundwalk in the Dark was first commissioned by Fringe Arts Bath: CoLab Sound Exhibit and was then selected as a "Once More With Feeling" project from the Live Arts Development Agency. Ally is also developing her first solo-project, Her Laborious Madness, which is a post-dramatic adaptation of Jorge Louis Borges' short story, The Secret Miracle. Ally is both writing and composing music/sound for Her Laborious Madness and the work will be presented through headphones.
Currently, Ally is developing the follow-up piece to her 45 Beats: A Soundwalk in the Dark entitled, 45 Beats: A Water Walk. The piece was first developed through the Virtual Artist Residency with Wendy.Network. Ally is also enjoying teaching workshops and classes based upon her practice of being both an actor and sound designer/artist. Ally has taught workshops for BA and MA/MFA students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Leeds Conservatoire, Stephens College and the University of Sheffield.