Roxana Cole (neè Haines) is a theatre and opera director based in Glasgow. She was the resident staff director at Scottish Opera from 2018 to 2023, during which time she directed an acclaimed outdoor production of La Bohème (5* The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Scotsman), as well as productions of L’Elisir d’Amore and Così Fan Tutte for camera. Roxana has worked throughout Europe and America, including Associate Director roles at The Metropolitan Opera, Detroit Opera and Welsh National Opera (Golijov Ainadamar). She has assisted directors including Sir David McVicar, Katie Mitchell, Deborah Colker, John Fulljames, Phelim McDermott and Dominic Hill. 

Roxana’s work in opera initially arose from her interest in collaboration and interdisciplinary work. She has training in devising, puppetry and physical theatre, including an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is currently an artist facilitator and dramaturge for The National Theatre of Scotland, working with Nicola McCartney on Caring Scotland/One Hundred Voices. Other recent theatre productions include Miracle on Deanston Drive and Burning Bright at The Traverse Theatre and Oran Mor with A Play, a Pie, and a Pint, and she was also the associate director for an immersive Peaky Blinders experience on the South Bank in London. Roxana was the assistant puppetry director for Circus 1903 (Significant Object) with life-size elephant puppets that toured America and Australia. 

Roxana has a deep commitment to outreach, learning and participation work. For her, this is as significant as creating main stage productions, and she always looks to integrate the two. During her time as staff director at Scottish Opera she devised a series of original productions for their Education Department: Fox-tot! was created for toddlers 12 to 24 months with integrated BSL, and Rubble written by Johnny McKnight and Gareth Williams for the Scottish Opera Young Company. Other work in this area includes creative leadership roles for Royal Opera Covent Garden, English National Opera, Opera Holland Park, English Touring Opera, National Opera Studio, Bloomsbury Festival and the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. She has also directed shows with the post-graduate opera students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Clonter. She has worked most frequently with care-experienced young people, those living with dementia and refugees and asylum seekers. Roxana also worked for the Creativity and Care project within Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s largest creative writing retreat centre from 2021-2025.

She directed Oedipus Rex in summer 2024 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, featuring both a professional and community chorus, in a site-specific and immersive production that promenaded through the National Museum of Scotland. This kind of project is deeply fulfilling and central to Roxana’s values of inclusivity, collaboration and taking ‘community’ or ‘outreach’ work seriously, bringing it to an international stage to the main stage.

Roxana has always been drawn to stories about healing and recovery, and her most rewarding projects have balanced therapeutic work, engagement and social change. For five years, Roxana worked with Reconstruct, training professionals who work with children in the care system, focusing on child psychology, attachment theories, and creating a more child-centred practice. She has been working at the cusp of dramatherapy over the past few years, incorporating therapeutic techniques into her practice and rehearsal rooms. In July 2025, she will graduate with an MSc in Dramatherapy from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh to deepen her training in this area and commit to telling stories in this way.