Theatre maker – Storyteller – Maker – Producer – Photographer
Practice
From outdoor landscapes to community gatherings and stage performance, my arts practice brings diverse mediums into playful conversation with the big questions shaping the world.
My work blends theatre, performance storytelling, ritual, ensemble practice, polyphonic song, folk art, community empowerment, site-responsive performance, political activism, interspecies collaboration, mythic narrative, intuitive movement, puppetry and mask. A love of cultural arts, collaboration and ecology sits at the centre of everything I do. I bring the voices of the more-than-human into creative processes, exploring the philosophies that shape why and how we create.
Many of my arts projects involve facilitating spaces of collective imagination in the face of ecological grief and social injustice, supporting expression for communities of all ages and backgrounds. I curate environments that foster care, connection and belonging, while opening honest, reflective conversations about our changing world. My practice celebrates resilience, creativity and the shared stories that help us imagine futures worth growing.
Offering
- Performance storytelling for audiences of all ages
- Theatre creation & production, from research & development to large-scale collaborations
- Physical training blending embodiment, creativity and expressive freedom
- Choir leadership & vocal ensemble facilitation
- Workshops & creative residencies designed to unlock imagination and nurture group processes
- Puppetry and mask making and training
Photography
Lockdown seemed to instigate many unexpected obsessions, and during those hazy months back in my Somerset hometown, I picked up a Rollieflex and began documenting the daily life of childhood through the eyes of my young nephew. Since then, I’ve continued to explore this practice, working largely in black and white portraiture, with a deep fascination of humans and nature. I’m excited to bring photography in to my work, exploring the way creative processes are documented as beautiful moments. If I can help you tell a story in light and shadow, please get in touch.
Journey
From theatres to hospitals, urban centres to moorlands, my path as an interdisciplinary artist has been rich and joyful. Alongside my commitments to environmental activism and social justice, my early adulthood was shaped by a breadth of training in a wide-range of creative disciplines including actor training with Teatr Pieśń Kozła (Song of the Goat) and National Youth Theatre, long-term ritual collaboration and mentoring with Feral Theatre, clown training (Ira Seidenstein and Lucy Hopkins), theatre making (Emma Rice, Handspring Puppetry, Action Theatre, Welfare State International), political theatre (Cardboard Citizens, Asha Center) and community-led arts projects. I’ve created ritual performances for Lost Species Day, devised ecological theatre residencies, rolled around in a moor as a wolf with Dougie Strang, produced environmental installations for ONCA, made masks and puppets for theatre spaces and street protests, and performed at events including the Southbank Festival of Death and the Uncivilisation Festival organised by The Dark Mountain Project.
Following the admittedly bold move of my first storytelling gig being a TED-X event at the age of 23, I cut my teeth performing across Glasgow – in care homes, nurseries and almost everywhere in between. I worked extensively with The Village Storytelling Centre and Eco Drama, and performed as part of Tales in the Tower in Hackney, London. I have been a Directory Storyteller with the Scottish Storytelling Centre and in 2018-2019 completed an extensive residency with Deveron Projects, creating a living myth of The White Wood, a 300-year pacifism and ecology project in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This involved working with the local community and ecology to create a story of peace that would live as long as the oak trees that have been planted here, which was then performed in the woodland itself, retold by Huntly pupils, made into a book, film, and transported on the back of my bicycle along with an oak sapling to COP 21 in Paris.
As a choir leader, I have trained with Rowena Whitehead, Frankie Armstrong, Roxane Smith and Mahdia Daulne, and continue a deep practice in Georgian polyphony, supported by Frank Kane, Nana Mzhavanadze, the late David Tugwell and the Chamgeliani family in Lakhushdi, Svaneti. I love working with groups who have never given themselves permission to sing before, as well as in professional performance contexts.
Having recently emerged from the demands of full-time teaching, newfound spaciousness has allowed me to ground my commitment to activism through my creative practice and collaborations. I’ve also been delighted to return to long-dormant loves including oil painting, printing, writing, music, clowning and somatic work. The recent loss of beloved artists and mentors including Rowena Pearce, John Fox and Michael Harper has given me greater resolve to return to my path as a theatre maker, and I am now working on projects that develop my craft as a director of devised, site-responsive ecological performance.
My creative practice wouldn’t exist without the participation of communities. It is a joy and a privilege to have worked with so many amazing people from around the world. Find out more about this part of my work below.
