Amanda Payne is an English-Dutch librettist and performer based in Amsterdam. Her work explores musicality in speech, combining her vocal practice with text-driven theatre. She creates language-centered performances in which rhythm and repetition shape character and narrative. Working across playwriting, poetry, opera and performance, she develops hybrid forms she describes as “spoken operas” – through-composed dialogue that blur the boundary between speaking and singing.  

Amanda trained in Music Theatre at Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam and earned a Master’s degree from the Re:master Opera program at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam in 2024. 

Her performance work includes performing in musical theatre productions in the Netherlands and Belgium with companies such as Stage Entertainment, Theateralliantie and Nanoek, as well as independent music theatre and performance projects across theatre and visual art contexts. Alongside her stage work, she also works as an actor in film and television.