I’ve always loved creating imaginative worlds.
I’ve worked as a performer, director, outside eye, actor, writer, and workshop leader since 2005. In that time I’ve worked with some amazing people and put my own shows on stage in venues across the UK.
Professional influences
Holly Stoppit and Philippe Gaulier have been the biggest influences on my work as a performer. So I have this wonderful mixture of truth and lies.
From Holly and the practice of fooling I learned from her I get to play with a state of present honesty on stage. Of knowing and being myself and connecting to the audience with playful authenticity.
From Philippe I got the joy of being a liar, of keeping a secret to myself on stage, of having some thought / quality / idea / feeling / rhythm that only I know and which I keep to myself while letting it influence my performance.
I also learned about their approaches to working with people, the via negativa with Gaulier and the via positiva with Stoppit. He would only say no, until you fought enough with yourself to change something. She would only say yes and encourage the tender, vulnerable self to emerge.
Prehistory
At about 5 my best friend Tom and I would create a new adventure story each afternoon when we played. I began to want to share these creations which meant making up puppet shows behind the sofa. My parents got me to step on stage with the Ewhurst Junior Players aged 9 and I fell in love with it.
The feeling to putting on make-up, the smell of hot lights, the nerves before the show, the absolute joy of being so fully in the moment on stage. I wanted more but when I was asked to join the Senior Players I got scared and pulled away from it.
So after distracting myself with academia I returned to the stage in 2005 and fell in love all over again. The little run of shows took place at the same time as my finals. In a tiny theatre above a pub called the Alma Tavern. That was it, I never looked back, I dedicated myself to performance.