Meet the team
Lucy Bell
Artistic DirectorMore
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.
Ngozi Ugochukwu
Advisory Board Memberand Creative Collaborator
More
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 Irwin
Advisory Board MemberMore
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 Meadows
Advisory Board MemberMore
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.
Naomi Turner
Advisory Board MemberMore
Naomi is Live Programme Coordinator at Exeter Phoenix and Theatre Programme Producer at Exeter Northcott Theatre. She is also a theatre and film maker, and one half of LeMoon; a performance and film collective whose work explores the human condition and the importance of place. Her short film ‘Scapelands’, commissioned by BBC Arts/BBC New Creatives Scheme, recently aired on BBC4.
Rebecca Crookshank
Advisory Board MemberMore
Devon-born Rebecca is a writer, international visual artist and was selected as one of the commissioned playwrights for Old Vic 12. Her award-winning solo play, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot was informed by her lived experiences in the Royal Air Force and premiered on 42nd Street, New York. She’s an activist for women’s rights and was nominated for a Liberty and Human Rights Award. Rebecca is currently developing an original TV series with Sky Drama, a play inspired by revolutionary women (supported by the British Council) and working on her first feature film.
Jessamie Edkins-O’Brien
Assistant ProducerMore
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.
Carla Thomas
Company Development MentorMore
Carla is a photographer with a background implementing IT systems for healthcare providers including the NHS. Over the last decade she has led on marketing, events and client experience. She is lending her strategic experience to DT as she is invested in more authentic representation of all parts of British Society in the arts.
Rosie Race
Associate WriterMore
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
Associate ComposerMore
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 Winterton
Associate WriterMore
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
Associate WriterMore
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.
Micha Mirto
Associate DirectorMore
Micha Mirto is a South West-born New Writing director and dramaturg with lived experience of being a sibling carer. She co-founded theatre company Dolls in Amber. Their work explores LGBTQ+ themes and their debut production VILLAIN, INTERRUPTED was an Offie Finalist 2019. Other theatre directing credits include ODDBALL, ROOM SERVICE and SPACE AGE LOVE SONGS all of which received Offie nominations/commendations.
Micha also works across radio and screen, including Disney’s immersive THE NUTCRACKER. She recently worked on the NHS commission MiLife, which has since reached over 15,000 teenagers and been developed into a cartoon starring Jo Brand.
Jenny Eastop
Associate DirectorMore
Devon-born Jenny Eastop is director and producer at Mercurius Theatre for which she has directed 17 productions. Her freelance directing has included London New Play Festival, Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Theatre Studio, Paines Plough, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Bristol New Vic, plus several tours. Jenny has been Associate Director to Michael Blakemore since 2003 in the West End, National Theatre, Chichester Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and on Broadway in New York. Developing contemporary musicals from first script to stage is a particular passion for Jenny.
Joanne Rogers
Singing lead for our signing choirsMore
Joanne is a professionally trained actor and singer based in Exeter. Recently, she worked on the feature film On the Line alongside Harriet Walter & Royce Pierreson. Theatre credits include Medea (Cygnet Theatre) Illuminate (Benchmark Theatre), Boudica (The Wheel), and Kindle (Almanac Theatre) at Vault Festival. Jo led our choir at Made Well C.I.C in 2022 and worked on the development of Mary & The Matrons. Jo has experience working as a professional carer and fronts two popular Devon based bands, The Lateshift and First Edition.