I create and produce art in the outdoors and with communities, often using mask and puppetry. I create excellent outdoor arts productions, inclusive festivals and community events with an emphasis on social purpose, diversity and community participation that engage people from all walks of life, helping them to connect with each other and to explore the worlds in which they live.

I have over 30 years’ expertise in the field of professional and community co-created project creation and management, backed by a Masters Degree in Performance Culture and Context/Theatre Directing from Gitis Academy Moscow (1999)/University of Leeds (2014) and a BA Hons in Theatre Arts from Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds (1991).

Between January and April 2022, I was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England to travel to the world-renowned University of Connecticut Puppet Arts Program in the USA to study rod, shadow and marionette puppetry forms from around the world and to explore the work of, and practise with puppet theatre, parade and pageant company, Bread and Puppet Theater.

Between 1990 and 2017 I was founding Artistic Director of Faceless Arts an Outdoor Community Arts company and part of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio.

In 2017, I formed Edgelands Arts with long time collaborators and co-directors, Tony Wade and Charlie Wells, to continue our explorations in community arts. I also became Director of Holmfirth Arts Festival in this year whilst helping to develop festivals across South and West Yorkshire.

I have taught applied theatre, visual theatre and community arts practice to undergraduates, post graduates and my international artist peers in Turkey, Slovenia, Leeds, Hull and Liverpool.

In 2021, I was mentor to 11 diverse and disabled emerging outdoor theatre makers in Bradford.

I offer my skills as a freelance Director, Producer, Performer, Puppeteer, Arts Consultant, Trainer, and Mentor

I hold a purple belt in Kung Fu

My daughter gaining a 2:1 BA Hons in Religion, Politics and Society despite lockdown curtailment of her studies.

To create a spectacular outdoor parade and pageant with Peter Schumann, Director of Bread and Puppet Theater USA, for communities in Wakefield and Vermont

Wakefield is a place surrounded by beautiful countryside and green spaces, well connected to the rest of the country through motorways and train services, where artists and artistic talent can thrive and be sustained.