I work with story and transition.

I've spent my life paying attention to people in moments of change.  As a playwright, teacher, and director - now a coach and celebrant. The settings have changed. The work has stayed the same.

I grew up in West Yorkshire and was a late starter. School didn't draw out the best of me, and much of my early professional life was spent in jobs that didn't quite fit. In my late twenties I made a decision to change direction - night school, then York St John University, where I read Theatre, Film and Television.

From there came a career in education - first as an arts manager, then as a drama teacher. Teaching drama drew on everything I'd been quietly developing - the listening, the playfulness, the willingness to let ideas come from anywhere. The classroom was a rehearsal room of sorts, full of young people trying things out, finding their voices, finding out who they were. I was good at it, and I loved it.

The pandemic brought change. I caught Covid early, and developed long Covid, which I still live with and manage. Classroom teaching became impossible, so I refocused - training as a coach and as a celebrant, both forms of work that, like teaching, are about being present for people at moments of change. Over the last five years I've worked with patient advisory groups, locally and nationally, advocating for others living with long Covid.

Theatre is at the heart of everything. I'm a trustee and director at The Oast Theatre in Kent. In 2017 I co-founded Orange Works to take my own writing to the Edinburgh Fringe, and the company has since produced seven of my plays there.

From Edinburgh, our work has grown to festivals and venues across the UK and beyond, including Brighton, Leeds, Faversham, Madrid, and London. 

The work continues to grow and evolve - and so do I.