BIOGRAPHIES

Bryony Kimmings l Writer/Performer/Director 

Bryony Kimmings is a performance artist, screenwriter and documentarymaker. She is inspired by female stories, social taboos and dismantling power structures. Kimmings’ work is brutally honest, very funny and often a little tear-jerking. Bryony is a justice seeker, a deep thinker, world fixer, activist and troublemaker all wrapped into one. On screen she likes adapting and reimagining books, creating 3D female characters and writing about class, gender and disability. Bryony’s stage work, Sex Idiot, 7 Day Drunk, Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model, Fake it ‘Til You Make It and I’m a Phoenix, Bitch, has toured all over the world from the National Theatre to the Sydney Opera House. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: birds particularly water birds. 

Favourite part of the show: the epilogue

Tom Parkinson l Composer 

Tom Parkinson is a composer and sound designer working primarily in an interdisciplinary context. He has made the music for over ninety dance and theatre productions in twenty countries. He has worked with/at the National Theatre, Scottish Ballet, The National Theatre of Tunisia, The National Theatre of Bavaria, The National Dance Company of Korea, Prague Chamber Ballet, Complicité, Szeged Contemporary Dance, Phoenix Dance Theatre, The Royal Opera House and Forest Fringe amongst others. In addition to his creative friendship with Bryony Kimmings (Bog Witch is their ninth show together) he has longstanding collaborative relationships with the Dutch dance company Ivgi&Greben and the choreographer Keren Levi. His output ranges from tiny marginal experiments to commercial music. His work has been played on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra, Radio 3, Radio 4, 6Music, World Service, Resonance and Classic FM. He teaches composition at Royal Holloway University of London and his book Theatre & Music is forthcoming with Methuen. 

Favourite parts of the ecosystem: my twin brother, Alex. 

Favourite part of the show: gathering sticks. 

Tom Rogers l Set and Costume Designer 

Tom trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course. He is a set and costume designer working across theatre, opera, dance and television both in the UK and internationally. His work is extremely diverse as demonstrated by his latest three productions: Dylan Mulvaney’s intimate one-woman show The Least Problematic Woman in the World at the Lucille Lortel, New York, the vast immersive Grease for Secret Cinema and Here & Now, the official Steps Musical, currently on a UK tour. West End musical theatre credits include Pretty Woman, 9 to 5 and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Extensive opera work includes designs for Opera Philadelphia, Scottish Opera, Holland Park, Aldeburgh and Teatro Petruzelli, Italy. Dance work includes collaborations with choreographers Ben Duke (for Rambert), Joe Moran (for Sadler’s Wells) and Strictly’s Johannes Radebe for his recent UK tour. Music & TV roles include Costume Designer for Robbie Williams’ Swings Both Ways worldwide arena tour and his ongoing role as Head of Costume on Britain’s Got Talent since 2015. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the miraculous mycelium that allow plants and trees to share gossip underground. 

Favourite part of the show: The Council of All Beings – who doesn’t like to see someone with a fish or fungus growing out of their head?

Will Duke l Projection Designer 

Will Duke is a video and projection designer for the stage. He works across theatre, opera and contemporary dance. He has worked in the UK with companies such as the RSC, Complicité, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, Opera North, the Young Vic and the Bristol Old Vic. Internationally he has worked at La Scala in Milan, Teatro Real in Madrid, Deutsche Oper and Schaubühne in Berlin, Vienna State Opera and San Francisco Opera, St Ann’s Warehouse, Golden Theatre Broadway, Detroit and Houston Opera in the USA. Will received the 2016 Knights of Illumination Award for Best Projection Design for his work on The Encounter, a 2019 Off West End Award for I’m a Phoenix, Bitch and was nominated for a Stage Award in 2022 as part of the design team for Into The Woods. Alongside his work for the stage Will is training to be a permaculture designer and educator and is the co-founder with Bryony of Tellus Studio, the company has been set up with the specific goal of telling entertaining and engaging stories around the environmental crisis on stage and screen. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: water. 

Favourite part of the show: ‘Breathe’ song.

Guy Hoare l Lighting Designer 

Guy Hoare designs lighting for dance, theatre, and opera; he has been based in London since 1998 as a freelance designer but works throughout the UK and internationally. He is currently an Associate Artist at Wilton’s Music Hall, where he has cloaked a number of shows in darkness, including the award-winning production of Dracula by Mark Bruce – with whom he has worked for over 25 years. In 2013, he collaborated with the shadow puppeteers, Indefinite Articles, to create The Firework-Maker’s Daughter which played at the Royal Opera House and the New Victory Theatre in New York. He has created many works in Europe with Gandini Juggling, most recently Heka which was presented at Théâtre de la Ville in 2024 and continues to tour. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: probably the ocean. I love its vastness, its depth, and its unparalleled wetness. 

Favourite part of this show: will be the bit we haven’t created yet at time of writing. That, and the clog-dancing

Lewis Gibson l Sound Designer

Lewis Gibson designs sound and composes music for performance as well as making audio-works for museums and exhibition spaces. He also writes and directs theatre pieces for young audiences. Previously with Bryony Kimmings: A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer and I’m a Phoenix, Bitch. Lewis was a founding member and musical director of the Arab/Anglo company SABAB – (The Speaker's Progress, Richard The Third: An Arab Tragedy, The Al-Hamlet Summit) and is a long-term collaborator with Graeae (Self Raising, The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Reasons to Be Cheerful). Other theatre credits include productions with Crucible, Young Vic, Tim Crouch, National Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Unicorn, Theatre Iolo, Uninvited Guests, RSC, Royal Exchange, Fuel, Bill Kenwright, Nigel Barrett + Louise Mari and Uninvited Guests. He has made audio-works for museums and heritage sites including Hans Christian Andersen Hus (Denmark), Historic Royal Palaces, Tate Britain and Museum of London. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: where streams become small rivers and life is abundant. 

Favourite part of the show: shifts every time we run it, but it’s always when Bryony is in full connection mode with the audience. The sweet spot when it feels like she is talking one to one with each person in the room.

Francesca Murray-Fuentes l Co-Director 

Francesca Murray-Fuentes is a British-Chilean Director and TheatreMaker. She was Resident Director at Oxford Playhouse 2016–17, and at Leeds Playhouse 2015–16. She was recognised in 'The Stage 100’ in 2021 for her contributions to the industry during the pandemic, and her play The Runner was nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. She is on the RSC’s Artist Development scheme, and received her MFA in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck. Selected credits as Director: The Last Taboo of Motherhood? (Fuel); Frida (Northern Opera Group); Alice in Wonderland (Theatre on Kew); Love in the Time of Corona (Jermyn Street Theatre, also as writer); La Llorona (Dance City); King Lear (Rose Bruford); Ref! (Space2); The Runner (Theatre Deli/Oxford Playhouse/Edinburgh Fringe). As Associate Director: Hamlet Hail To The Thief, Pericles (RSC); When You Pass Over My Tomb (Arcola Theatre); Quiz, Local Hero (Chichester Festival Theatre); Blue/Orange (Royal & Derngate); Mother Courage, The Damned United (Red Ladder); 84 Charing Cross Road (Cambridge Arts); Happiness Engineers (Barbican). 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: lakes, rivers, coastlines. I find them endlessly fascinating.

Favourite part of the show: the end! Because of course it’s really just the beginning…

Sarah Blanc l Choreographer and Associate Director 

Sarah Blanc is an Irish choreographer, performer and director based in London. She is Artistic Director of Moxie Brawl, a spicy inclusive dance theatre company who make work that your mum would love. Their award-winning performances have been described as ‘gloriously shambolic‘, ‘wholly absorbing’ and ‘definitely the most fun you’ll have at a dance show’. She has been collaborating with Bryony since 2018 working on A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer (Complicité), I'm a Phoenix, Bitch and Opera Mums (BBC). As a freelance choreographer/ movement director/associate director, her credits include The Dan Daw Show, EXXY (Dan Daw Creative Projects); Oliver Cromwell Is Really Very Sorry (Xnthony Ltd) and organisations such as Southbank Centre, Royal Opera House, Z Arts, Spark Arts, Candoco Dance Company and The Place. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the sea. 

Favourite part of the show: what we call Budots.

Faith Dodkins l Producer 

For twenty years, Faith Dodkins has supported artists working across different artforms to conceive and deliver transformative cultural experiences across the UK and internationally. She is interested in projects that amplify marginalised voices, that have their roots in activism and an ambition to support social change. She has produced work in car parks and concert halls, disused office blocks and ice cream vans, on beaches and online with organisations including Brighton Festival, the Barbican, Shoreditch Town Hall, The Lowry and Brisbane Powerhouse. Faith has worked with TalkShow for the past twelve years and has recently collaborated with trailblazing women artists, Abigail Conway, Victoria Melody and Bryony Kimmings on the development of new work for the stage and in the public realm. Producing credits include: Yap! Yap! Yap! (Gaggle); And the Birds Fell From the Sky (Il Pixel Rosso) and Tighten Our Belts (Brighton People’s Theatre). Between 2012 and 2024 Faith was the Co-Director of The Spire, a performance and development space in East Brighton. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the sun, followed very closely by the sea – experiencing the two together, preferably somewhere in the Mediterranean would be my perfect day! 

Favourite parts of the show: the songs – funny, heartbreaking, beautiful.

Josh Collins l Production Manager 

Josh Collins is a freelance production manager working across opera and theatre. A graduate of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recipient of the Gold Medal. Recent production management credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal Stratford East); John Cameron Mitchell Live (Adelphi Theatre); Letters from Max, Personal Values, King James (Hampstead Theatre); Spitfire Girls (UK tour); The Double Act (Arcola Theatre); An Interrogation (Ellie Keel Productions); Christmas in Exeter Street (Farnham Maltings); Maria De Rudenz (Battersea Arts Centre). Recent Assistant Production Management credits include: Miss Myrtle's Garden (Bush Theatre); The Great Gatsby: A New Musical (London Coliseum); Visit From an Unknown Woman (Hampstead Theatre).

Maddy Wade l Stage Manager 

Maddy Wade has been a freelance stage manager for over ten years, and having navigated the tiniest community venues, worked big commercial musicals, dabbled in international touring, fought the weather on open air productions and everything in between… most enjoys getting stuck in with helping facilitate new writing and regional produced work. She is interested in creative and accessible storytelling, done in as sustainable a way as possible. Productions involving community groups alongside professional casts is also always really fulfilling. Such companies include China Plate, Birmingham Rep, Wiltshire Creative, Nottingham Playhouse. This year’s credits include The Habits and Letters from Max (both Hampstead Theatre Downstairs) before running away to Edinburgh where she is a regular member of Greenside Venues’ production management team. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: conker trees. 

Favourite part of the show: that winter coat!! But also being able to work on something so aligned with my values.

Rob Atkinson l Sound Operator 

Rob Atkinson is a London-based sound engineer and designer with a degree in Sound Technology from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He has worked all across UK theatre, with recent credits including sound No.1 on the UK tour of …Earnest? and sound designer for Mona Loser at Southwark Playhouse. His experience spans sound design, live mixing, teaching, and technical management. Passionate about storytelling through sound, Rob is excited to be working alongside Lewis on this project. Outside of theatre, he enjoys climbing, the London Underground, and spending time with his cat, Bobby. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: bees. 

Favourite moment in the show: ‘Autumn’

David Butler l Video Associate 

David Butler is a creative technologist and video associate/programmer working across theatre, live events, film and television. His previous work with Will Duke includes Hamlet Hail To The Thief (RSC/Factory International 2025), Passing Strange (Young Vic 2024) and Coppelia (Scottish Ballet 2023). 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: ecotones: transitional areas between different biomes.

Favourite part of the show: the Council of All Beings.

Gemma Stockwood l Dramaturg 

Gemma Stockwood is a theatre dramaturg, with credits including the Olivier Award nominated Kyoto (Soho Place in the West End) and a television producer, with a specialism in politics and current affairs. She has filmed with the top politicians of our generation and made television and radio across the BBC's live political programming slate including This Week, The Daily Politics, Election Night and the Today programme, producing some of the BBC’s leading political interviewers and bringing news stories from The Budget to Brexit to life. In a past life she worked in political communications. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: pigs! As a handwashing fanatic I appreciate the (allegedly) cleanest animals on the farm and also their faces are enduringly, grotesquely and comically fascinating. 

Favourite part of the show: I don't want to give it away – but it involves a cat, a baby and a septic tank.

Joey Burford l Assistant Dramatrug and Production Assistant 

Joey Burford is a director and dramaturg who makes politically informed theatre that tries to talk about big things (feminism, mental health, the fundamentally destructive nature of neoliberal capitalism!) while not taking itself too seriously. As assistant or co-director and dramaturg her credits include Stargazers (Periscope Productions); Summer and Smoke (White Horse Collective); Enter Ophelia (Essential Theatre/Three Birds Theatre); Julius Caesar (Essential Theatre) and Slaughterhouse Five (MUST). After working for several years in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia Joey moved to the UK to complete a Masters of Literature (Theatre Studies). In 2025 she has been working on The Play Lottery – next edition coming in December! – and in June she wrote and performed her own piece of semi-autobiographical theatre, Locked Doors, about the (mis)treatment of women in the mental health system. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: I’m a big fan of sea turtles, or my fellow Aussies echidnas.

Favourite part of the show: Mr Tubbs (but also how Bryony has rendered the overwhelm many of us feel in the face climate collapse comprehensible, relatable and offers community as a tool of healing). 

Rafael Vartanian l Animator 

Rafael Vartanian (3D Animation) is a Brighton-based artist who has collaborated on projects worldwide with Disney, Marvel, and the National Theatre, as well as with artists including Yoko Ono and Jeremy Deller. He is thrilled to be working with such an amazing team on Bog Witch. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: has to be fungi – they grow in all sorts of amazing shapes and colours, and they’re also key to one of my favourite ingredients: miso. 

Favourite part of the show: the theme of the ‘Soul Hole’ – that inner void we’d rather not face, which we keep trying to fill in all sorts of ways, whether through shopping, food, or addictions

Nathan Fernée l Animator 

Nathan Fernée is a motion designer creating moving-image work for broadcast, live events and performance. He creates work using an interdisciplinary approach, working across animation, illustration, and 3D motion graphics. Coming from a background in Fine Art Printmaking, he has gone on to create live visuals across theatre, opera, dance and fashion. Commercially, he has worked with clients such as Disney, PBS and Formula E, delivering content spanning events, product launches and immersive experiences. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the sea. 

Favourite part of the show: I like how the show makes you examine your own relationship to climate change. As a Londoner I relate to precountry Bryony's ‘too busy to think of the planet’ kind of energy... which is sort of insane considering how dependent we are on it. Bog Witch gives a very funny, human and relatable perspective of dealing with an overwhelmingly scary issue

Kiera Saunders l Mask Maker 

Kiera Saunders is an artist working in mask making, costume and performance. She co-founded Vomiton, a papier-mâché mask-making collective which explores themes of clowning and the anonymous through upcycling, abiding by the motto ‘Art from Trash is Not Trash Art’. Vomiton have created live shows and have performed on stage with musicians such as Mermaid Chunky at Glastonbury 2025, Snapped Ankles at the Roundhouse and Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass at EartH. Kiera has worked in film as a breakdown trainee with Jane Petrie on the series Say Nothing, on live performance for SAULT's Wings of Faith and for theatre at the Globe, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Charing Cross Theatre. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: soil – it underpins everything, the underdog, but really it provides homes, food, and water! 

Favourite part of the show: Bryony's interrupted dance breakouts in reaction to climactic anxieties, which feel hilariously relatable to the feeling.

Yvette Driver l Prop Maker 

Yvette Driver is a miniaturist and prop maker. She was born in Switzerland and grew up in Manchester but now lives and works in Brighton. You will usually find her covered in glue and sawdust in the studio or working in local art gallery Paxton + Glew surrounded with incredible art and talking about it all day! Previous prop-making credits include the creation of a prawn-ring wreath for an Iceland Christmas campaign and a heart-shaped lifebuoy ring for the charity Choose Love. She was also commissioned to recreate the TV set of Vic and Bob’s Big Night Out in miniature and the wrap party gifts for Daisy-May Cooper's Am I Being Unreasonable. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the sky – the colours, the sunsets, the dark and stormys, the bright bright blues! Rain, snow sunshine and hail providing nourishment to the soil, plants and animals. 

Favourite part of the show: definitely the projections of the sky on the sheets hanging from the washing line – it is so clever and absolutely magical!

Alex Hathway l Prop Maker 

Alex Hathway is an artist, writer and performer who studied theatre at RHUL and trained at Mountiew. Recent credits include writing and performing in ‘Hocus Focus’ for ‘The Magician’s Table’, designing the SpiegelGarden’s venue, part of Brighton Fringe 2025 and prop work for Victoria Melody’s ‘Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak’. 

Favourite parts of the ecosystem: tidal islands, the time I stood on a fault line in the snow. Children. 

Favourite part of this show: Bryony. 

Katie Fenwick l BSL Interpreter 

Katie Fenwick has a BA Hons degree in Theatre Set Design and went on to work as a filmmaker, animator, prop maker and illustrator. She worked as a social worker in an adult sensory team for as long as a round trip to Jupiter and back would take. Later she achieved a post grad diploma in British Sign Language / English Interpreting, and subsequently returned to the domain of theatre and the arts. She has had the privilege of working on a number of shows including; Graeae’s production of The House of Bernarda Alba at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2017; Crooked Dances by Robin French at the RSC’s The Other Stage in 2019. Toured with Bryony Kimmings on I’m a Phoenix, Bitch 2018–19. Other credits include working with companies such as Lost Dog, NIE, Zoo Nation, Leeds Playhouse, BAC, RADA, Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells amongst others. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: the moon. From night-time moon bathing to flopping in the sea being washed in and out of the shoreline by the ebb and flow of the tide. 

Favourite part of the show: the funny observations throughout the piece, of the awkward nature of alternative cultures for metropolitan dwellers.

Deepa Shastri l BSL Consultant 

Deepa Shastri brings over two decades of dynamic experience, having worn many creative hats: actress, artistic sign language director, deaf access consultant, project manager, and creative producer. She consistently champions inclusive storytelling and accessible performance. After contributing fifteen years at Stagetext, alongside supporting the British Deaf Association, Deepa has cultivated expertise in engaging deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences and pioneering theatre access strategies. She is now a Relationship Manager at Arts Council England, where she continues to advocate for equity and representation in the arts. Her credentials as a Sign Language Consultant include Swan Lake (English National Ballet); Ruination (Lost Dog/Royal Ballet and Opera); The Real Thing (Old Vic); Rent (selected scenes; Curve Theatre); Robin Hood (Derby Theatre); The Frogs (Spymonkey/Royal & Derngate); I'm a Phoenix, Bitch (Bryony Kimmings) and many more. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: flora – nature’s hero turning CO₂ into the breath of life.

Favourite part of the show: ‘The Hole’ Song.

Natalie Psillou l Re-lighter 

Natalie Psillou started working in technical theatre whilst studying at university in Scotland. After working at Theatre Royal Winchester as a technician with a lighting specialism for eighteen months after graduation, she joined the team at the Theatre Royal Brighton as a senior technician. Her projects at work include making the theatre more sustainable by the Theatre Green Book standards and creating an initiative for teaching essential skills to those underrepresented in technical theatre so that they can join the industry. Alongside her fulltime jobs, she has worked freelance as a lighting designer and operator for Wessex Dance Academy, Savage Heart Theatre Company and Blue Apple Theatre Company. When she’s not at work, you can probably find her reading a book by the sea. 

Favourite part of the ecosystem: water! 

Favourite part of the show: the transition from autumn to winter.