Theatre Conference 2026 Speakers

Abigail Reeve

Director, National Rural Touring Forum

Abigail Reeve is the Director of the National Rural Touring Forum, an Arts Council England Investment Principles Support Organisation focussed on the development and amplification of the rural and small scale arts touring sector.  NRTF is a membership organisation and supports the work of the major rural and small scale programming partners across the UK, as well as artists and community promoters.  Abigail is a senior arts leader and has previously held positions with Birmingham Royal Ballet as Executive Producer, Rambert Grades as CEO, Arts Council England as Relationship Manager for Dance and Stopgap Dance Company, where she remains a trustee.

Amit Lahav

Artistic Director, Gecko & Dream Awake

Amit Lahav is the founder and Artistic Director of Gecko, the internationally acclaimed theatre company he established in 2002. Over the past twenty-five years, he has created and directed productions including The Overcoat, Missing, Institute, The Wedding and Kin, touring extensively across the world. Alongside Gecko, Amit founded Dream Awake to develop projects across theatre, immersive experiences and live performance, including The Deal, a large-scale immersive production created in partnership with China Merchants Group aboard a permanently docked 1960s cruise ship in Shenzhen. He has also collaborated with The Chemical Brothers and Aurora on the new live music project TOMORA. Amit mentors artists and organisations internationally and is passionate about creativity, collaboration and exploring new ways of making and sustaining ambitious artistic work without compromising creative integrity.

Carolyn ML Forsyth

Executive Director & JCEO Talawa Theatre Company, A Director of Local Theatre Touring Alliance, Talawa Theatre Company

Carolyn is a dynamic, detail-focused producer and arts manager with over 25 years’ experience across theatre, young people’s work, outdoor and site-specific productions, international touring and festivals. She played a key role in launching the UK’s first purpose-built children’s theatre for the Unicorn Theatre, during which time the venue was nominated for the Most Welcoming Theatre Award. Carolyn was also recognised by Action for Children’s Arts for her contribution to the Theatre for Young Audiences sector. A passionate advocate for social justice and diverse cultural leadership, she is a Clore Leadership Fellow (2023–24) and was part of the leadership team that delivered Croydon’s London Borough of Culture programme.

Cath Hume 

CEO Arts Marketing Association

Cath is the CEO of the Arts Marketing Association, Chair of the Family Arts Campaign and a board member of Ensemble Reza. Cath recently oversaw the development of Goose; an AI powered marketing partner designed with and for the heritage sector. Cath has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Surrey, a cultural consultant and the Director of Smart Audiences. Cath has an MA in Theatre in Education and holds the CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing.

Despina Tsatsas

Executive Producer, Royal Shakespeare Company

Despina is Executive Producer at Royal Shakespeare Company (London and International).

She is a theatre producer and culture sector leader with 20 years’ experience across the charitable and commercial theatre sectors. Prior to her RSC role she created a new artist-led live experiences division for prominent UK music entity ATC Music Group.

Previous roles in theatre include Executive Director, Young Vic Theatre; Executive Producer, Punchdrunk International; Executive Director, Frantic Assembly and positions at ATG and Almeida Theatre.  Despina is a Clore Leadership Programme fellow, a Stage One bursary winner and a trustee of Shakespeare’s Globe.

Francesca Moody MBE

Executive Producer, Francesca Moody Productions

Francesca Moody MBE is an Olivier award-winning and Tony-nominated Theatre Producer. She is best known as the original producer of the multi-award winning, Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Baby Reindeer by Richard Gadd. Under Francesca Moody Productions she has developed and produced multiple productions on and off the West-End, including Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! (The Ambassadors Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, HOME Manchester, Underbelly Edinburgh Roundabout) Weather Girl (St Ann’s Warehouse New York, Soho Theatre, Summerhall); Ohio (Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic, Assembly Roxy Edinburgh); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen (Arts Centre Melbourne, Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Bush Theatre, Roundabout) and Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre).

Georgia Gatti

Theatre Producer, Neal Street Productions

Georgia Gatti joined Neal Street Productions as Theatre Producer in 2022. Prior to Neal Street Productions, she was Executive Producer at Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, Producer at The Old Vic under the artistic directorship of Matthew Warchus and Associate Producer at Playful Productions.

Georgia’s producing credits at Neal Street Productions include Hamnet (Stratford, West End, North America tour); Make it Happen (Dundee Rep and Edinburgh International Festival); The Fifth Step (West End) and the forthcoming stage adaptation of the TV phenomenon, Traitors.

Georgia’s producing credits at The Old Vic include King Lear starring Glenda Jackson; Girl from the North Country (also West End and Broadway); Present Laughter starring Andrew Scott; Lungs starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith; a new version of A Christmas Carol by Jack Thorne (also Broadway); Emma Rice’s adaptation of Angela Carter’s Wise Children (also UK Tour); All My Sons starring Sally Field and Bill Pullman and A Very Expensive Poison by Lucy Prebble, amongst many others.

Georgia is also the Producer for The McOnie Company.

Hannah Lake

Director, Touring Transformation Arts Council England

Hannah has over 20 years experience driving new initiatives and change in organisations across arts, culture and heritage. She took on the role of Director, Touring at Arts Council England in November 2022 where she is responsible for policy and investment in touring for all art forms. Hannah led the creation of Arts Council’s first repayable finance scheme, Incentivising Touring, and is now leading the development of a new Touring Service to give organisations greater confidence to innovate and collaborate and achieve greater value for public investment.

Hollie Coxon

Head of ATG INSPIRE, ATG Entertainment

Hollie leads the strategy for ATG Entertainment’s Creative Learning programme, ATG INSPIRE, championing a vision of “locally driven with international significance.”

Her work seeks to transform live entertainment venues into dynamic and inspiring learning spaces for all ages and backgrounds.

Since joining ATG Entertainment in 2012, she has shaped ATG INSPIRE from a regional initiative into a UK wide success story, expanding its reach through major partnerships, funding collaborations, and award-winning work in inclusivity, audience development, and skills-based engagement.

Jenny Sealey OBE

Artistic Director, Graeae

Jenny Sealey OBE has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997.  She has pioneered a new theatrical language-‘aesthetics of artistic access’ embedding BSL(British Sign Language) and English, prerecorded BSL, creative captioning, in ear/ live audio description into the heart of all productions. Her work includes Two, The Fall of the House of Usher, peeling, Bent, Blasted, Diary of an Action Man, Blood Wedding, punk musical Reasons to be Cheerful, operaParadis Files, Romeo and Juliet and her one woman show Self Raising. Outdoor productions include Against the Tide; The Iron Man; The Garden, andThis Is Not For You as part of 14-18Now with disabled veterans. International work includes Blood Wedding (Japan),Romeo and Juliet (Japan andBangladesh) and The Tempest (Japan,Bangladesh and UK). Her 2025 play Bad Lads by Mike Kenny based on a story by Jimmy Coffey about Margaret Thatcher’s Short Sharp Shock regime received 5 star reviews as a crucial part of UK living history.

Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF). She has won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award and was on Desert Island Discs. She is an honorary fellow at Middlesex University, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Kent and Nottingham Trent University and Rose Bruford.

Jocelyn Burnham

Consultant, AI For Culture

Jocelyn Burnham is a leading independent artificial intelligence communicator and workshop leader specialising in AI learning in the creative and cultural sectors through creativity and playfulness. She has delivered over 100 workshops on AI for the creative industries and has been commissioned by organisations including Arts Council England, Tate, The Church of England, the Goethe-Institut, Historic Royal Palaces, Art Fund, Shakespeare’s Globe, RADA, London Symphony Orchestra, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

John R. Wilkinson

Associate Director, York Theatre Royal

John won The Stage’s Big Idea 2026 with a proposal for a fund dedicated to making smaller and mid-scale theatres more accessible.  He has just directed the world premiere of The Last Picture by Catherine Dyson, his second collaboration with English Touring Theatre and York Theatre Royal, following Mugabe, My Dad & Me by Tonderai Munyevu, which won Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards 2022. He was the tenth recipient of the Genesis Future Director’s Award at the Young Vic, where he staged a sold‑out production of Winter by Nobel laureate Jon Fosse. A 2024 Clore Fellow, John sits on the boards of Middle Child, Pilot Theatre, and Stephen Joseph Theatre. From 2017 to 2019, he was Agent for Change at Leeds Playhouse.

Julie Hesmondhalgh

Actor and Writer

Julie Hesmondhalgh, is an award-winning actor and writer, most recently winning an Olivier in 2026 for her supporting role in ‘Punch’. Passionate about championing northern voices, Julie co-runs Take Back Theatre Company in Manchester and the fundraising group, 500 Acts of Kindness and is a supporter of Arts Emergency. Most recently, along with the theatre going community in Oldham, Julie played a key role in the fight to save the Coliseum Theatre from permanent closure.

Juliet Hayes

Risk & Sustainability Manager, SOLT & UK Theatre

Juliet is the Risk & Sustainability Manager for SOLT & UK Theatre; her role is to provide a consolidated and effective industry voice to represent the collective interests of membership in relation to risk management & sustainability issues, providing advice at operational & strategic levels. With 46 years’ experience in the theatre industry, covering all roles within a theatre environment, for both the commercial & subsidised sectors, she is well placed to engage with and provide hands on advice to members, monitoring & evaluating risk controls and offering guidance where appropriate. She also offers bespoke consultancy services in areas of safety, sustainability & safeguarding.

Liam Evans-Ford

Executive Director & CEO, Theatr Clwyd

Liam is Executive Director and CEO at Theatr Clwyd, Wales’s largest producing theatre. Since 2016, under his leadership, the organisation’s turnover has grown from £5m to over £14m, has been recognised with UK Theatre, Olivier, and Stage awards, produced over 80 world premieres, and delivered a £50m redevelopment of its Grade II-listed building. Theatr Clwyd leads social impact initiatives with partnerships involving NHS, Social Services, and housing groups. It also runs William Aston Hall, a 1,000-seat venue, and leads Craidd, a national programme in Wales working to tackle ableism in mainstream theatre-making, as well as Theatr Clwyd Music Trust, which delivers music lessons to over 70 schools and 3,000 students weekly.

Martin Prendergast

Consultant, Martin Prendergast Communications

Martin founded Martin Prendergast Communications (MPC) in 2018 after 11 years at the National Theatre where he was first Deputy Director of Development and then Director of Communications.  Before the National Theatre Martin was at Guardian News and Media for 10 years.

MPC provides strategic communications, public affairs, fundraising and corporate partnership consultancy to the cultural organisations. His current and past clients include RADA, the BRIT School, Mercury Theatre Colchester, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Central School of Ballet, Wilton’s Music Hall, and Arts Council England.

Martin is a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board, a Director of the European Sponsorship Association, a member of Warwick University’s CreaTech Innovation Advisory Board, and a UK Council member of Creative UK.

He is a proud trustee of Theatre Peckham and HOME in Manchester, a Speaker for Schools, and a Governor of the GEM Federation of primary schools in Southwark.

Martin is also a cabaret pianist and singer, performing his show ‘Martin & Friends’ at venues across London including the National Theatre, Crazy Coqs, the 1901 Arts Club and the extraordinary Wilton’s Music Hall.

Nathan Powell

Creative Director, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres

Nathan joined as Creative Director at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres in 2024 and his first production was as a writer, with Takeaway, premiering in April 2025.

Previously Artistic Director of the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF), Nathan has championed emerging talent and forged groundbreaking partnerships, showcasing some of the most exciting new work from across the country. He was the Creative Producer and Associate Artist for 20 Stories High (an Associate Company of the theatres) and is co-founder of New Step Theatre with writer Joe Ward Munrow (their production of DOGS was a sellout in the Playhouse Studio in 2022).

As a director his recent credits include: Alice in Wonderland (Shakespeare North Playhouse); The Mountaintop (Leicester Curve and UK Tour); Sucker Punch (Queens Theatre Hornchurch in association with the National Theatre) and A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction (Headlong and The Barbican in association with Shakespeare North).

Nicolle Cannock

Head of Insights, Dewynters

Nicolle’s career in ticketing began as a box office assistant in 2010. 10 years ago she joined Dewynters taking on the role of Sales and Ticketing Development Manager. Her passion for data, audiences and consumer behaviour led her to establishing the Insights department at Dewynters; a team that she has nurtured and grown to deliver data-driven campaign, audience and sales analysis to our clients.

Paul Blundell

Head of Digital Research & Development, Arts Marketing Association

Paul works with cultural organisations on responsible and sustainable AI adoption. Drawing on 25 years’ experience working in theatres and across the arts, digital projects, data science and AI, he has developed a methodology for helping organisations build responsible AI literacy from the ground up. He has trained over 250 arts professionals, runs sector governance roundtables, and delivers AI policy and leadership training. His work focuses on helping teams hold onto good judgement: when to say yes, when the right thing is to say no and how to stand behind decisions.

Rikki Henry

Associate Artistic Director, Bristol Old Vic

Rikki is the RTYDS Associate Artistic Director at Bristol Old Vic, working alongside Nancy Medina to drive artistic strategy and artist development with a focus on class equity and digital innovation. As a creative technologist, he is currently developing the “Artist Engine,” reimagining theatre infrastructure through AI, exploring the intersection of technology and systemic inequality. A former associate to Peter Brook at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in France and recipient of the Genesis Future Directors and Nestroy Award, Rikki has directed shows across the UK and Europe, including the Schaubühne Berlin, Schauspiel Dortmund, and the Residenz Theater in Germany.

Sarah Howard

Head of Access, Shakespeare’s Globe

Sarah is a senior Arts and Culture professional with over 30 years’ experience across the UK’s cultural sector, working with theatre and dance companies, national and international tours, and major multi-arts venues.

She is currently Head of Access at Shakespeare’s Globe and serves as the Cabinet Office’s Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture. Her previous roles include work with Sadler’s Wells, Park Theatre, Unlimited, Improbable Theatre Company, the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Candoco Dance Company, and the London Disability Arts Forum.

Sarah has also provided strategic access consultancy for major redevelopment projects, including the Southbank Centre, and the Roundhouse, and has served on numerous boards. She is currently a Trustee of Candoco Dance Company and is an active theatre director.

Shawab Iqbal

Chief Executive, Leeds Playhouse

Shawab Iqbal is Chief Executive of Leeds Playhouse, one of the UK’s leading producing theatres and a major cultural institution in the North of England. As an elected Board member of UK Theatre and member of its Policy, Research & Advocacy Committee, he contributes to national discussions on the future of theatre, cultural policy, public investment and the role of arts organisations in civic life.

Alongside his role at Leeds Playhouse, Shawab serves on Arts Council England’s London Area Council following appointment by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan.

Before joining Leeds Playhouse, Shawab served as Executive Director of the Gate Theatre and Executive Producer of Eclipse Theatre. Earlier in his career, he held various roles at the Bush Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Boy Blue and New Adventures, working across new writing, artist development, community engagement and large-scale touring productions. He has also served as Vice Chair of Tamasha and as a Trustee of Northern Stage.

Stacey Carr

Head of Inclusion and Skills, Donmar Warehouse

Stacey Carr is the Head of Inclusion and Skills at the Donmar Warehouse and an independent creative consultant. Driven by a mission to make the arts and entertainment sectors more representative, inclusive, and accessible, she leverages her transatlantic expertise to bridge gaps for underrepresented voices. Previously, Stacey held senior unscripted development roles at Nickelodeon, Endemol Shine North America, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Originally from Reno, NV, she received a Sociology degree from Occidental College in 2004.

Steve Mannix

Chief Executive, Mercury Theatre, Colchester

Steve is currently Chief Executive of the Mercury Theatre, Colchester.  

Previously, Steve has held senior positions with Stonewall, Battersea Arts Centre, Hackney Empire, Graeae Theatre Company, The Albany Empire, Shape and London 2012 alongside various consultancy roles.

Throughout his career Steve has been a board member to several organisations including Chair of Graeae and Vice Chair of ASSITEJ, the Albany, GYPT and Oval House.

He currently serves on the Boards of Visit Essex, Culture Essex, Greater Essex Business Board, All In, National Touring Advisory Board, Essex Music Service and is Chair of the LGBT charity Outhouse. He was appointed an Ambassador for Colchester in 2018, Cultural Ambassador for Essex in 2020 and awarded Colchester Business Leader of the Year in 2024.

Tom De Keyser

Co-founder and CEO, ROYO

Tom De Keyser is co-founder and CEO of ROYO Group, producing and presenting theatre and live entertainment worldwide. ROYOs current UK projects include Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde, 13 Going on 30, Bank of Dave, Here and Now, and Eclipse. Other companies in the group include RTS Entertainment, an international promoter in Asia which has recently presented Peaky Blinders for Rambert, Life of Pi for Melting Pot and Murder on the Orient Express for Fiery Angel. ROYO also owns Studio Twenty, one of the West End’s leading video marketing companies. Tom additionally serves as Chair of the Industrial Relations Committee for UK Theatre leading the collective agreement negotiations with trade unions.

Winsome Pinnock

Playwright

The first Black British woman to have a play produced by the National Theatre, Winsome’s award-winning plays include THE WIND OF CHANGE (Half Moon Theatre), LEAVE TAKING (Liverpool Playhouse Studio, National Theatre, Bush Theatre), PICTURE PALACE (Women’s Theatre Group), A HERO’S WELCOME (Women’s Playhouse Trust at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), A ROCK IN WATER (Royal Court Young People’s Theatre at the Theatre Upstairs), TALKING IN TONGUES (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), MULES (Clean Break Theatre Company) and ONE UNDER (Tricycle Theatre). Her new play THE AUTHENTICATOR saw her return to the National Theatre in Indhu Rubasingham’s inaugural season as Artistic Director, opening at the Dorfman Theatre in March this year. Winsome has also written extensively for radio and television.

The prizes awarded to her work include the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Drama (2022), the Alfred Fagon Award (2018), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation (1990), the George Devine Award (1991), the Pearson Award for Best New Play (1991), and the Unity Theatre Trust Award (1989).

Pinnock was an associate professor of drama at Kingston University from 2005 to 2019 and has also been a senior visiting fellow at Cambridge University. She has worked as a dramaturg with the National Theatre’s New Views program as well as with the Royal Court Theatre’s International Department.