Team

Lucy is the recipient of the Kevin Elyot Award 2020 and Ronald Duncan Playwriting Award. She had a selected play in Bristol Old Vic Open Session 2018/19, is resident artist at Exeter Phoenix and an alumnus of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab. Stage plays include SCORE (A Nation’s Theatre Festival), PULLING OUT and LAMINATED (a pick of Ferment Fortnight in The Stage), plus commissions by Theatre West (ARE YOU THERE?), Villages in Action (UNEARTH) & Theatre Royal Plymouth (SNIP). Her radio drama of PULLING OUT was broadcast on National Prison Radio. Lucy has taught verbatim-inspired theatre at Arts University Bournemouth & The Egg Theatre, Bath. She works part-time in a coastal secondary school and started gathering contributor research on BBC Documentaries’ New Directors Scheme.

Naomi is a freelance producer & theatre/film-maker, a BBC New Creative, and recipient of the prestigious Stage One Producer Bursary. She has created multi-award-winning short dance films as Co-Artistic Director of LeMoon, was previously Performance Programmer at Exeter Phoenix, is producer for Quirk Theatre, and runs Documental Theatre alongside AD & Writer Lucy Bell. Naomi is proud to champion ambitious work coming out of the South West and passionate about prioritising equal access & representation in the arts. She strives to deliver groundbreaking new theatre, where professional & community art is not separated but celebrated together, forming the basis for excellence in her work.

Ngozi is a photographer, journalist and filmmaker who has worked within broadcasting at the BBC since 2011. She directed and edited an award-winning documentary about her travels in Cuba which has been screened at film festivals internationally. Ngozi is on the board of Manchester International film Festival and has performed nationally and internationally in Wheelchair Ballroom and Latin Dance competing for Great Britain.

Fin is a committed advocate of quality arts in the far South West. He grew up in Bodmin and then moved to Exeter where he was the founder and director of The Bike Shed Theatre and Cocktail Bar. He has worked as a theatre producer, programmer for The House Theatre in Plymouth and a part-time farmer on his parents’ farm in Cardinham. He is artistic director of intoBodmin, a prominent theatre venue in his home town.

Sarah was selected as a director on the Old Vic 12 programme 2019. This year she directed the critically acclaimed One Jewish Boy at Trafalgar Studios and was associate director on Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward (dir. Sir Richard Eyre, Theatre Royal Bath/Duke of York’s Theatre). She has a very cluttered mantelpiece: the Edinburgh Fringe People’s Choice Award with Where Do Little Birds Go?, the Origins Award for Outstanding New Work 2016, Brighton Fringe Award For Theatre and The Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award 2015. Sarah has worked across many new writing development schemes, has curated work at Theatre 503 with Lisa Spirling and was chair of the Kings Cross Award for New Writing. Sarah grew up in Coniston and worked extensively in the North West, so is passionate about nurturing culture and stories from communities far from London.

I am an applied theatre practitioner and lecturer in the department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London, where I am also the deputy director of KCL’s Sanctuary Programme, which seeks to include more refugees in higher education and supports academics in war zones.

Previously I worked at the University of Exeter for five years, chiefly in the department of Drama, but also at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies and in the department of Medical Humanities and Human Geography. I was awarded my PhD in Drama by the University of Exeter in 2016.

My three main research areas are applied theatre and arts, migration and diaspora studies, and intangible cultural heritage, particularly in Syria and West Asia.

As a community theatre practitioner, I create work with participants to counter loneliness and isolation, to activate creativity in society by everyone and anyone. I am an associate of Acta Community Theatre and in 2019 I set up Exeter’s first dedicated community arts company called Yalla Arts (currently dormant), which worked with multiple demographics facing isolation in Devon, and the South West, mainly refugees and migrants.

Jessamie is studying on the English and Drama degree pathway at Exeter University and is originally from London. She has worked in and around theatre for many years, including previous experience with theatre companies BOSI, Paddleboat Theatre and the Ambassadors Theatre Company. Jessamie is excited to develop new production skills whilst working as an assistant producer at Documental. In her own work, she’s currently working on ‘NO.19’ a verbatim-inspired radio play. She is also working on a podcast series, titled ‘The Riot Grrlz’, and has founded her own touring Theatre In Education Company, Alarm Theatre.

I live in Devon and am an “expert by experience” living life to the full with an autism spectrum condition. I work for the NHS providing training to staff for better outcomes in healthcare for people with learning disabilities or autism. I love this role because I am passionate about people with learning disability or autism being treated with adequate care and respect so that they remain healthy.

I am a member of Documental’s “Sign and Sign Jukebox” choir which Documental enables. I am really proud of this as I love singing, and feel privileged to be part of the choir as I spent many years of not performing due to loss of self-esteem. The choir gives hope even on my bad days and provides a real sense of community and solidarity.

I want to be part of Documental’s advisory board as I love creativity and the arts. From a young age I have loved performing and believe these things provide a voice and freedom of expression. The arts help people to connect with each other.

Rosie is an actor/writer and lecturer based in the South West. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2019 she embarked upon making her first solo ‘Cycle’ which was due to open at Theatre Royal Plymouth in April 2020- having been postponed due to the pandemic it is now being revived like a phoenix from ashes. She is also bursting at the seams to be a Documental Theatre Associate Artist.

Ben Glass is a Welsh musician based in Exeter. He has a First Class BA Hons in Music Production at the Academy of Music & Sound and is currently studying for his Masters in Popular Music at BIMM (Bristol). Ben likes to draw on a variety of techniques, genres and textures in his compositions. He has composed and designed sound for two award-winning short films and is using his MA to further develop his practice of film composition and sound design.

Ian worked as a film journalist, interviewing many Hollywood names, before starting to write for theatre. His play SHERICA was selected for the 24:7 Manchester Theatre Festival and won both the Best Play and Audience Choice Award, followed by a Manchester Theatre Award. Ian is currently under commission to write a horror movie for Movie Moghul Ltd and has a TV crime drama in development with Saffron-Cherry Productions. Radio work includes CRACKING THE FEATHERS and the adaptation of ALL THE BENS for Bamalam Productions. He is a visiting Scriptwriting lecturer at University of Chester and continues to work as a freelance journalist for publications including Empire Magazine and The Big Issue.

Saraswathi Sukumar is a recipient of the Malorie Blackman Scholarship Award 2021-2022. She studied children’s literature as part of her degree and is currently working on a Young Adult novel based on the story of Snow White. Her writing blends South Asian myths and settings with tales by the Grimm Brothers and the sometimes more gruesome folktales which preceded theirs. Saraswathi also provides creative writing workshops on magic, myth and retelling fairy tales.