Roberto Valdo Cortese
Roberto is an Italian startup entrepreneur, data activist, educator, and theatre maker based in London.
His work focuses on building platforms that allow people to gain greater agency over their lives:
helping students excel at school as well as develop precious soft skills;
helping actors in British theatre, film, and TV fight gender inequality using data;
developing compelling stories through feminist theatre and immersive opera.
Tutoring & Coaching
Roberto currently runs Valdo Academics, an international educational consultancy which helps students excel in the IB diploma, discover their passions, and tackle the challenges of undergraduate life.
Valdo Academics' core belief is that good grades are a tool to facilitate students' self-discovery rather than being the primary objective. Alongside the company's proven track record in helping students perform better, this has led to the creation of an in-house pedagogy. As a result, Roberto has established himself as the point of reference for Italian families in London and a key player in the international tutoring ecosystem.
The company was initially called Bloomsbury Circle, before being rebranded to facilitate an expansion in Italy, where the company now focuses its commercial operations.
Social entrepreneurship
Roberto is interested in the ways in which social entrepreneurship can be harnessed to launch, augment, and accelerate creative projects and social initiatives.
Roberto's tutoring business reinvests all of its profits in the arts. The first company they launched was Power Play, an award-winning feminist theatre company which, in turn, finances itself by providing data analytics solutions to arts organisations seeking to promote gender equality within the British film, TV, and theatre industries
Feminist Theatre
Roberto runs Power Play Theatre C.I.C. in conjunction with his two wonderful co-founders Polly Creed and Sophia Compton. At Power Play, he is a producer, dramaturg, and Head of Research on the data analytics branch.
Power Play is a not-for-profit feminist theatre company which takes over non-conventional spaces to set immersive productions that tell stories by women about women.
FUNERAL FLOWERS, LONDON TOUR
Written by Emma Dennis-Edwards
Directed by Rachel Nwokoro
Associate director: Sophia Compton
Co-produced by Power Play Theatre
& Harts Theatre Company
Performed at the Bunker Theatre
FreeWordCentre
Bernie Grants Arts Centre
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Review: ★★★★★ A Younger Theatre ““bursting with power and intense immediacy”
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Review: ★★★★★ Upper Circle - “the most engaging, heart-breaking, yet life-affirming monologue of 2019.”
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Review: ★★★★ The Stage - “engagingly performed and smartly written”
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Review: ★★★★★ Everything Theatre - “powerfully personal, utterly involving”
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Review: Lyn Gardner in Stage Door - “funny, fearless, heart-breaking”
EDINBURGH SHOWCASE 2018
Power Play's first endeavor was a showcase of four site specific shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world.
The project happened at Power Play HQ, a large flat which was turned into an immersive venue in affiliation with The Pleasance Theatre trust.
The plays were:
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Funeral Flowers
Written by Emma Dennis-Edwards
Directed by Rachel Nwokoro
Associate director: Sophia Compton
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Somebody
Written by Matilda Curtis
Directed by Bethany Pitts
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Next Time
Written by Jess Moore
Directed by Polly Creed
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The Empty Chair
Written by Polly Creed
Directed by Seren John-Wood
Select Accolades and press:
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Winners: Filipa Bragança Award for Funeral Flowers
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Winners: Clean Break's Edinburgh mentorship scheme
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Article: What's On Stage on A week in the life at the Festival
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Review: ★★★★ The Scotsman on Somebody
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Review: ★★★★ The Scotsman on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★★ British Theatre on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★★ To Do List on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★★ Marbles Magazine on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★★ The 730 Review on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★ Fringe Guru on Next Time
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Review: ★★★★ Three Weeks on Funeral Flowers
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Review: ★★★★ The Skinny on Funeral Flowers
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Review: "Outstanding Show" Fringe Review on Next Time
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Nominated: The Sit-Up Awards, The Empty Chair
Data Activism
As data activists, Power Play offer data consultancy solutions to arts organizations seeking to make a positive difference in gender inequality in the industry.
Roberto is the Head of Research of Power Play, and manages this side of the company.
50:50 VISION
Roberto is currently project managing 50:50 Vision, the largest study in gender inequality across the theatre, film, and TV industries in the UK, as Head of Research of Power Play in a collaboration with ERA50:50.
The project uses cutting edge techniques in online data harvesting to compare the average career path of male and female actors in the British performing arts industry.
Roberto's project management duties include overseeing compliance, study design, data analysis, and PR, managing a different small team for each of these phases.
WOMEN ON THE FRINGES: EDINBURGH REPORT
Power Play recently completed the first ever statistical study of gender inequality at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world, and second largest ticketed event worldwide after the Olympics, yet it had never been scrutinised in terms of gender equality.
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The study was processed by Roberto alongside UCL econometricians
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It uncovered an alarming 60% gender earnings gap
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It also pointed to systemic barriers against artists without financial safety nets, with a median income as low as £9.52 a day.
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Amongst other findings, the study also showed that women were very well represented at the Fringe, unlike in major theatre venues. Therefore the study showed that there is a leak in the pipeline between the Fringe’s pool of emerging talent and top-level theatre - possibly because of the systemic barriers for women around pay.
DATA ACTIVISM - EDINBURGH 2018
Power Play ran a data visualisation campaign at the Edinburgh Fringe, providing calling cards and statistics about women in theatre to audience members across the Fringe.
The initiative was celebrated by Deborah Frances White from the Guilty Feminist Podcast (a platform with over 50 million downloads).
Power Play representatives were subsequently invited to the "Visibility" episode, which you can listen to below.
Immersive Opera
Roberto is currently working on a contemporary opera that grapples with elements within counterculture, mental health and the notion of theatre space as a revolutionary platform.
The initiative is undertaken by Roberto's production company - The Phobos Laboratory.
The company and the project will be launched in Autumn 2020, in collaboration with award winning composer David Denyer.
Education & Mindfulness
Roberto graduated from UCL with a First Class Honours in Economics & Philosophy. During this time, he was awarded the Faculty Scholarship for Undergraduate Excellence which is conferred to the most outstanding student across a spread of more than 25 degree courses.
Before studying at UCL, he was a full scholarship student at the United World College of the Adriatic having secured a place following a 3% acceptance rate national selection. He graduated top of his class, alongside his two wonderful roommates, with 44/45 International Baccalaureate points (top 0.3% worldwide).
With time, Roberto realised that these achievements were the fruit of much hard work, sought under the potentially harmful premise of attaining serenity through external validation. Following a transformative encounter with mindfulness practice in Plum Village, much of his work became structured around enabling his colleagues and students to be more present and peaceful - e.g. by incorporating MBSR techniques in the workplace.