Announcing this year’s Producer Farm participants

Producer Farm 2022 Participants and Speakers Announced

We are thrilled that Producer Farm is returning to Coombe Farm Studios in Devon for 2022.

Kicking-off from Monday 20 June, the week-long residency for Creative Producers is a joint initiative by Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Coombe Farm Studios, Dance Umbrella, Fuel and In Between Time. Now in its sixth year, the programme aims to provide time and space for ten UK based producers who have been working professionally in contemporary performance for the past 5 – 10 years and wish to expand their capacity and capabilities as creative producers.

The Producer Farm 2022 participants are:

Amy Lawrence

Amy Lawrence is an Artist, Curator and Producer from Lancashire currently based in Glasgow. Amy is Associate Producer at Tramway ( Dance and Performance)  and Take Me Somewhere ( Glasgow,) with past roles for Diverse Actions (LAUK) and as co-founder of LEGROOM (2015-2019) a Manchester DIY space for moving. She also recently co-developed GEMBA, a Global Ethnic Majorities support group for GEM Trustees with Jack Tan and Jade Montserrat. Amy recently retired as a Board Representative for the Manchester International Festival where she founded the MIF Young People’s Forum. Amy sees producing and creative practise as interconnected,she creates performative and visual projects using expanded choreography and visual arts and gatherings in arts venues, outdoors and public spaces alongside delivering talks and workshops across the UK and is currently developing a new project with ‘Compass Live Arts’ (Leeds, 2022.) Past projecs have been supported by organisations such as Quarantine, HOME ( Manchester) Royal Exchange Theatre ( Manchester), Dance4 ( Nottingham) Scottish Sculpture workshop, Place (London,) Siobhan Davies Dance (London,) INIVA (London) Dance Umbrella and  BBC Arts New Creatives. 

a-lawrence.com // @_a_lawrence // https://vimeo.com/amylawrence 

Orrow Amy Bell

Orrow is a London based dance artist and producer. Their work encompasses making, performing, dramaturgy, facilitation, and curation. They enjoy slipperiness across embodiment, movement, language and queerness, their practice born of a binary-busting fervour. Orrow is currently Artist Development Producer at The Place where they support artists to develop practice and make new work, and where they also curate Splayed, an international festival of queer performance. Their current DYCP-funded independent research centres trans-ness, creativity and care in dance. Orrow’s solo show The Forecast won a Total Theatre Award and was selected for the British Council Showcase. Orrow has performed for Alessandro Sciarroni, Tino Sehgal, Hussein Chayalan & Damien Jalet, Lea Anderson, Maresa von Stockert, Chiara Frigo and Ser Gina. Orrow was a Work Place associate artist at The Place, Sadler’s Well’s Summer University Artist, writer for EU project Performing Gender and dramaturg for Charlotte Spencer and Livia Rita. They teach and facilitate widely.

Laura Knight

Laura Knight is Creative Producer (Young People) at The Egg Theatre. The Egg is Theatre Royal Bath’s playground for developing, producing, and programming work for and with young people. Laura’s work focuses on facilitating high quality theatrical experiences for young people. Bridging the gap between professionally made work and youth theatre, Laura is an advocate for the rights of children and young people and is passionate about re-addressing common misconceptions about the work they are capable of making. Prior to her work at The Egg, Laura worked in Community Outreach for Oxford Playhouse and a variety of different arts festivals across the country.  

Michael Sells

Michael Sells is a Senior Producer for Dartington Arts. His role involves programming festivals, establishing a participatory outreach programme and developing a residency model.  Previous to this he was a Director at Audioactive, a music charity in Sussex and helped establish The Bottega rooms as a hub for local producers and emerging artists.  He was Head of Projects for Create Arts and was a producer for Cardboard Citizen’s hostel tour and workshop programme. Michael has also worked as a freelance facilitator on writing projects for New Writing South and directed New Town Boys, the UK’s first jungle music play.  

Hannah Williams Walton

Hannah Williams Walton is the Executive Producer at Paraorchestra. Paraorchestra create large scale music experiences seeking to reinvent the orchestra for the 21st Century, as well as removing the barriers for professional disabled musicians to perform at the highest level.  Her role is to work alongside the CEO & Artistic Director to deliver the strategic aims and objectives of the organisation focusing on new commissions, touring, artistic development and exploring new avenues for their work. Before joining Paraorchestra Hannah worked as a Producer at City of Culture Hull 2017 as well as holding roles at Brighton Festival and the Pervasive Media Studio, in Watershed, Bristol. 

Rosie Townshend

Rosie is a theatre producer with a background in both the commercial and subsidised sector. She nurtures creative projects from conception to delivery and is a strategic thinker, realising ambitious projects on time and budget, working with a diverse range of theatre makers on large and small scale productions. Rosie is a freelance Producer and part of the Murmuration Collective and also Senior Producer at National Youth Theatre; prior to this she has been Senior Producer at Royal & Derngate Northampton, Associate Producer on the Oscar Wilde Season in the West End, General Manager for Open Palm Films and produced shows and events at Shakespeare’s Globe. Rosie loves making new work, and when not in the theatre she plans events, weddings and concerts.

Myra Tam

Myra Tam moved from Hong Kong to London in 2021 and now is the General Manager at Frantic Assembly. Prior to that she worked for about 20 years in both Hong Kong and United States as Executive Director, Producer, Programme Manager and Development Manager in numerous arts organisations including theatre companies, arts festival, philharmonic orchestra and community arts organisation serving artists with disabilities. Myra supports artistic projects with a holistic approach from cultivating idea to implementation, marketing to fundraising. As her first encounter with the arts industry in the United Kingdom, Myra is interested to connect with local producers, explore ways to facilitate creative process and engage with artists & audience with more digital possibilities at the post-pandemic era.  

Sammy Gooch

Sammy Gooch is a Producer living and working in Leeds, with extensive experience in delivering large-scale creative projects with world class arts organisations and independent artists. Originally from an arts festival background, Sammy has worked with cultural powerhouses including Transform, Light Night Leeds, The British Library, Incoming Festival, Positively Wellington Venues (NZ Festival) and beyond. At present she is the Creative Producer of innovative artist-led studio Lord Whitney. Across art direction and immersive design, Lord Whitney build cinematic worlds that allow audiences to journey into their imagination, partnering with industry leaders across theatre, heritage, TV, experiential, fashion and beyond. Alongside this role, Sammy is an independent freelancer working across producing, event management, reporting and arts fundraising. 

Joanna Dong

Joanna is the founder and director of Performance Infinity, a Portsmouth/London-based performing arts management agency, offering a range of services to international partners and clients in the performing arts sector. As a creative producer, Joanna is interested in festival curating, international co-producing, and licensing and she is developing her skills in producing theatrical works in non-theatre spaces with community involvement and producing an annual arts festival between Portsmouth and London. Before working in theatre, Joanna worked for both Beijing and London Olympics for sponsor services, licensing, and marketing consulting. Born and growing up in China, Joanna is living in London.  

Lizzy Maries

Lizzy is a Creative Producer and Coach. She’s currently 3 days a week as Digital Producer at Pavilion Dance South West in Bournemouth, leading on a new Digital Programme which centres R&D and access. She also works as a freelance Coach and Facilitator for various arts organisations. 

Previous to this she worked as a Comms Manager at PDSW, Creative Producer at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum and on numerous freelance producing roles in the brilliant South-West.

She’s a Clore Leader, and her personal producing enquiries this year are around compassionate producing, access and inclusion, and carers in the arts.

Speakers for Producer Farm 2022 are:

Rachael Clerke

Ned Glasier is a theatre director, writer and consultant, working primarily with young people and non-professional makers and performers. Ned makes space for teenagers and community

participants to speak about things that are important to them, and to make plays together that

create change. He is the founder and artistic director of Company Three, an award-winning company making theatre with teenagers in North London. He has led projects for theatres including The Young Vic Theatre, the National Theatre, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Company of Angels (now Boundless Theatre), Southwark Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre.

Wabriya King is a trained actress (The Oxford School of Drama) and Dramatherapist (University of Roehampton).

Combining both actor and psychotherapy training, Wabriya has developed a unique therapeutic

support for people working in the performance arts. She provides a tailored approach to each

production, responding to the creative’s individual needs as they arise through the project lifecycle. Through her practice, Wabriya has recognised the body’s frequent inability to differentiate between reality and performance. This means that, in the unique environment of the rehearsal room, the actor is subject to the same stressors inherent within the piece. Wabriya creates a therapeutic, confidential space so that performers can safely explore where fiction blurs with their reality.

Wabriya continues to build upon her understanding of the body’s somatic response to trauma through further study with The Institute of Embodied Psychotherapy.

Donna Munday is a freelance Executive Producer and Arts Management Consultant, having worked as a senior executive in subsidised and commercial theatre for 30 years in a variety of roles, including Executive Producer, Chief Executive, Executive Director and Director of Theatre Production.   

Her current and most recent clients include: Trafalgar Entertainment, London; Royal Shakespeare Company; Working Title Films, London; The Young Vic Theatre, London; Bristol Old Vic; Elliott & Harper Productions, London; Neil Laidlaw Productions, London; Kiln Theatre, London; Birmingham Rep; Sonia Friedman Productions, London; Welsh National Opera, Cardiff; and Fiery Angel, London.

Donna is currently Executive Producer for What’s New Pussycat?, a brand new musical featuring the iconic songs of Tom Jones, which premiered in 2021. Other 2022 projects include consultancy for Playful Productions across their slate of work; providing executive level consultancy for the RSC and Bristol Old Vic on the recruitment of their new Artistic Directors; Consultant Executive Producer for the Young Vic, working on Oklahoma! and Mandela as well as other large-scale productions; and Executive Producer for a new musical in development with Yodan Productions. During 2019-2020 she managed the hit production of Death of a Salesman in the West End directed by Marianne Elliott, she was senior advisor for Trafalgar Entertainment on the UK and international tour of The King and I (Lincoln Center production starring Kelli O’Hara and Ken Watanabe), and for Working Title Films on the development of their new film-to-musical project. Other recent projects include Line Producer for The Prince of Egypt, and executive level recruitment consultancy at Bristol Old Vic for their Executive Director and Birmingham Rep for their Artistic and Executive Directors. During 2017 and 2018 Donna was Executive Producer and General Manager of The Grinning Man for Trafalgar Entertainment, which extended its run twice at Trafalgar Studios, and she is working with Andy Serkis and Imaginarium Studios on the motion-capture production of The Grinning Man.

Prior to returning to her own producing and arts management company, Donna was Executive Producer for Sonia Friedman Productions, London, working on a number of exceptionally successful productions including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Dreamgirls, Funny Girl with Sheridan Smith, Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch and Bend It Like Beckham.

Between 2009 and 2014 she held the senior roles of Director of Theatre Production then Executive Producer at Working Title Films where she was responsible for Billy Elliot the Musical both in the UK and overseas. Other roles in the commercial theatre sector include interim Executive Director at Nimax Theatres (2008 – 2009) and General Manager at Really Useful Theatres (2000 – 2003).

She has held senior roles in a number of subsidised theatre companies, including Chief Executive of Royal & Derngate Theatres in Northampton (2003 – 2007) where she led the £16.5 million capital redevelopment of the theatres, and produced all in-house work. She was also interim Chief Executive of Sheffield Theatres where she led their £15m capital programme, and previously Finance Director of the Royal Court Theatre in London during Stephen Daldry’s Artistic Directorship (1995 – 2000).

In all the above jobs Donna has held senior producing and general management responsibilities and has had executive responsibility for and/or executive or line produced well over 200 productions.

Donna first established her own arts management consultancy in 2007, and her freelance work since then has encompassed working with commercial/West End producers including Trafalgar Entertainment, Working Title, Playful Productions and Elliott & Harper Productions, and national subsidised companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Rep and Nottingham Playhouse. She has also worked for smaller companies including the Bush Theatre and the Park Theatre, and funding and management bodies including Arts Council England and UK Theatre. She has worked with several boards and senior management teams across the UK to facilitate their future strategic planning processes, and undertaken governance reviews and executive recruitment, including headhunting for Executive and Artistic Directors.

Donna is currently Chair of the Board of Headlong Theatre Company and on the board of Hall for Cornwall (both ACE NPO organisations), and on the Board of Batley & Spen Youth Theatre Company, set up in celebration of the late Jo Cox MP. Previous Board positions include the Society of London Theatre, the National Student Drama Festival, the Theatrical Management Association (now UK Theatre), Northampton Local Strategic Partnership, and County and Borough Council Cultural Boards. Donna was also an ACE Regional Council Member for 4 years.

Rachel Nelken is the CEO of Raw Material as well as a freelance facilitator and consultant – Rachel’s 20+ years in the creative sector have included work with many high-

profile and grassroots arts organisations designing, developing, and running creative programmes for communities, developing artists, producing events and shows, and working with strategic music funders, including setting up and developing the PRS Foundation for New Music in 1999. Senior roles in the performing arts as a programmer and producer include Head of Creative Programmes at The Albany in Deptford from 2017-2019, leading a team of producers managing the theatre’s youth and community engagement and award-winning music programmes. As Senior Producer at the Roundhouse in Camden, she led on many high-profile productions including co-productions with the Royal Opera House, Akram Khan Company and Daniel Kitson, Imogen Heap’s Reverb Festival, and three editions of the UK’s largest spoken word festival, The Last Word. Her current role as CEO for Raw Material Music and Media, NPO since 2020 has involved redefining and growing the charity at its Brixton home, developing collective leadership and cultural democracy structures and raising over significant funding towards the programme and building development. Rachel is a Trustee for the National Foundation for Youth Music and a parent to 2 lively and opinionated daughters.

She is passionate about creative arts and music of all genres and is a keen musician, currently studying jazz cello.

Chris Nichols has over 35 years of experience of organisational strategy, leadership, change and consulting in many sectors and roles. He’s had leadership roles in the private sector, education, government and non-profit sectors in the UK and internationally. His global career has taken him to work in over 50 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific across sectors from government to energy, pharma to technology, materials science to consumer goods and more.

He’s been a Partner in Prince Waterhouse, a director of an investment bank, and a professor in a business school. He’s written a book, contributed to several more and produced hundreds of articles. These days he is co-founder of GameShift, a collaborative hub listed in the FT as one of the UK’s leading management consulting firms. He’s a poet and short-story writer and is developing as a visual artist, currently studying on the year-long Porthmeor Programme at St Ives School of Painting. He’s a long-distance walker who lives on Dartmoor in the far south west of the UK.

Richard Nichols is a Consultant, Facilitator, and a Coach who specialises in helping individuals and teams focus on performance, impact and innovation. 

Richard has a background in elite sport, playing golf professionally on the tour for five years, then transitioning into start-ups winning the Student Entrepreneur of the Year whilst studying for his masters. He then combined his love of sport and digital marketing at global sports brand Helly Hansen. 

Richard is qualified with an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Advanced Diploma in Professional Coaching, he is also a qualified Leadership Development Profile Coach (exploring how we make sense of the world, and the impact on our leadership development). His work brings an innovative approach to work alongside conventional coaching conversations, and often includes techniques such as Lego Serious Play and integrates GameShift’s tools and simulations into team coaching, including Leading Through Disruption and the Regions of Opportunities Model.

Working within Media, Tech, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Transport, Logistics, Retail, Education as well as with Government and Third Sector clients, Richard brings a range of industry experience to his work.

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Using painting, installation, and performance, Syrus works with and explores social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. His work has been shown widely, including solo shows at Grunt Gallery in 2018 (2068:Touch Change) and Wil Aballe Art Projects in 2021 (Irresistible Revolutions). His work has been featured as part of the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art in 2019 in conjunction with the Ryerson Image Centre (Antarctica and Ancestors, Do You Read Us?

(Dispatches from the Future)), as well as for the Bentway’s Safety in Public Spaces Initiative in 2020 (Radical Love). Syrus has participated in group shows at the Never Apart in Montreal, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of York University, the Art Gallery of Windsor, and as part of the curated content at Nuit Blanche 2017 (The Stolen People; Won’t Back Down). His performance works have been part of festivals across Canada, including at Cripping The Stage (Harbourfront Centre, 2016 & 2019), Complex Social Change (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres (University of Winnipeg, 2015).