An 18‑month programme dedicated to building meaningful, collaborative partnerships with professional artists and companies to celebrate and support exceptional talent across East Anglia.
2025/26 Associate Artists
Amy Wragg
Amy Wragg is a poet, zine maker, producer, and Director of SoapBox Spoken Word CIC (Ipswich). The first organisation of its kind in the East, SoapBox is dedicated to championing spoken word poetry as a unique artform and is working to create development pathways for talented locals of all ages. With a passion for authenticity and inclusivity, Amy is committed to amplifying marginalised voices, creating friendly events that foster a supportive, and listening environment. Funny, fearless and furious, Amy’s work challenges political constructs and social inequality with tenderness and humour. Fiercely independent, and a lifelong advocate for the grassroots creative communities, Amy works tirelessly to widen access to the arts.
http://www.getonthesoapbox.co.uk/
Ellie Isherwood
Ellie Isherwood is a sound designer, composer, actor / musician and synth-pop artist (BYFYN). Her “dynamic” and“quietly ground breaking” work spans musicals and straight plays alike, embracing an array of forms from site-specific theatre to immersive binaural audio experiences. In 2025, Ellie was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Stiles and Drewe Best New Song Prize with her song “Nice Girls Never Win.” from the upcoming new musical, “VAMP”.
Recent work includes performance and composition for the stage adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s “The Dark” and composition and sound design for “Dweeb-a-mania” at Polka Theatre.
Other recent credits for theatre include; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Orange Tree Theatre); Audiomoves Boogie Pod (Peut-Être Theatre U.K. Tour) Disco Inferno (National Youth Theatre); The Sleep Show (UK Tour); Cartoonopolis (Pleasance); The Gel (New Diorama) The Intrusion (UK Tour); The Dark (Peut-Être Theatre Hospitals Tour); Tender (The Bush Theatre); The Fir Tree (Arts Depot); Son of a Bitch (Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe); The Odyssey (The Unicorn); The Light Princess (The Albany, Deptford / ARC – Stockton Arts Centre); The Glass Ceiling Beneath the Stars (Pleasance); and Ruby Wax: I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was (U.K. Tour)
Work currently in development; The King Stone (R&D with National Theatre Studios Generate program); How To Train The Perfect Woman (R&D with New Diorama Theatre); Lift: A Binaural Audio Play (R&D supported by Arts Council England).
James McDermott
James McDermott is a Norwich based writer and teacher. James graduated from UEA with an MA in Scriptwriting and has trained on The Royal Court Writers Group, Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab, Hampstead Theatre’s Inspire Programme, Mercury Theatre’s Playwrights Development Programme and Menagerie Theatre’s Young Writers Programme. His plays published by Concord Theatricals include ‘Jab’ (Finborough Theatre/Park Theatre; nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play 2024), ‘Time & Tide’ (Park Theatre/tour; nominated for an Off West End Theatre Award for Best New Play 2020) and ‘Rubber Ring’ (Pleasance Islington/tour; winner of New Wolsey’s Pulse Festival Suitcase Prize 2017). Local plays include ‘More Ghost Stories By Candlelight’ (HighTide/tour), ‘The Birds & The Bees’ (New Wolsey/tour), ‘Shanty’ (Sheringham Little Theatre), ‘Ghosted’ (St George’s Theatre Great Yarmouth/Out There Festival 2021) and ‘Robin Good: The Politico-Panto’ (Norwich Playhouse).
James’s poetry collections published by Nine Arches Press include ‘Father Myself’ (2025) and ‘Wild Life’ (2023; longlisted for the New Angle Prize; shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Award). James has written multiple episodes of BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders’ and lectures in creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
Josh Overton
Born and raised in Ipswich, Josh is an Award-winning writer with plays performed all over the UK and internationally. His latest work includes an opera about the Doomsday Clock, a Star Trek parody for the over 70s, and a devilish fire circus show for kids with his company From Below Theatre.
Mae Munuo
Training: Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.
Theatre credits include: Charley’s Aunt (Watermill Theatre) Romeo & Juliet (New Wolsey Theatre); Rough Magic (Shakespeare’s Globe); Box of Delights (Royal Shakespeare Company); I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole! (Complicité) and Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn Theatre).
Audio credits include: Tribe of Two (Radio 4) and Romeo & Juliet (Brickwall Productions).
Mae won the Marc Beeby Award for Best Debut Performance at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2025 for her performance in Tribe of Two. She is currently nominated for a Speakie award for The British Audio Awards. Mae is an associate artist with Complicite and The New Wolsey Theatre. She received funding from Arts Council England for her show Macbeth (a workplace comedy) and directed Hare and Tortoise in 2025.
Martha Loader
Martha is an award winning writer, actor and producer. Her work has been performed across the UK and internationally. She won the Judges Award at the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, 2022.
She is currently working on commissions with the Almeida Theatre, New Wolsey Theatre, Mercury Theatre and Menagerie Theatre Company and recently undertook the prestigious 4Screenwriting and BBC Voices programmes. She was nominated as a writer at The Stage Debut Awards 2024 for her play Bindweed. Her new play The Town won the George Devine Award 2025.
The Paper Birds
Established in 2003, The Paper Birds is a socially and politically engaged theatre company. They are quiet rebels who use thought provoking theatre and engagement as a catalyst to spark conversation and change. They are proud to be based in the South East and have been one of the region’s Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations since 2023.
They are recognised as UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre and have an impressive national and international reach thanks to their high-quality digital offer. They are artists, investigators, entrepreneurs, educators and pride themselves on taking complex, multi-faceted subjects and making them accessible. They have an artistic programme and a creative learning programme and nurture both equally.
They make theatre with and for communities using themes that feel important in the here and now and believe that process is as significant and empowering as product. They are known for their use of verbatim and bringing multiple, diverse voices to the fore. They believe people have more in common than that which divides them, and they seek to unite and bring about dialogue in society through their work.
Each year up to 20,000 young people around the world engage with their work as participants, audiences or co-authors. They are a studied regularly as prescribed leading Contemporary Theatre Practitioner on the AQA Exam Board Drama A Level syllabus and are an Associate Artist of the New Wolsey Theatre. The Paper Birds are currently developing their new show 48 Thoughts Per Minute, which is being written with comedian Jessica Fosteskew and co-produced with the New Wolsey Theatre.
The Paper Birds strive to encourage change one encounter at a time; they want people’s lives to be improved by the arts and to encourage agency through the workshops, performances and conversations that they lead.
Associate Artist Alumni
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Jamie Beddard
Board Member
Jamie Beddard
Board Member
Jamie is Joint Artistic Director of Diverse City and Lead Artist in Extraordinary Bodies.
Recent artistic projects include two Extraordinary Bodies theatre productions; Delicate, (writer and co-director); Waldo’s Circus of Magic and Terror (co-writer with Hattie Naylor); and the New Wolsey Theatre production of The Red Lion (assistant director).
As a performer Jamie has played the title role in the Elephant Man, the Leader in The Messiah at Bristol Old Vic, the role of Mathias in The National Theatre’s production of The Threepenny Opera, and performed in ‘Weighting’, a large-scale outdoor circus show created by Extraordinary Bodies. His acting credits go on to include Quills, I.D, All the King’s Men, Wonderful You, Ubu, Alice in Wonderland, Flesh Fly, 15 Seconds, and Waiting for Godot.
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Spinning Wheel Theatre
Associate Artist
Spinning Wheel Theatre
Associate Artist
Spinning Wheel Theatre is a rural touring company, creating work with and for families in communities across East Anglia. The company incorporates multi-rolling performances, puppetry, song, and accessible devices such as makaton signing to create magical worlds which welcome young audiences to engage in shared cultural experiences. Alongside their touring work, they create bespoke community and schools projects, providing opportunities to explore creativity, acquire new skills, build confidence, improve well-being and meet new people.
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Aspire Black Suffolk
Associate Artist
Aspire Black Suffolk
Associate Artist
Aspire Black Suffolk is an award-winning, not-for-profit community interest company dedicated to tackling the causes of inequality by creating meaningful and lasting creative and educational solutions.
Their mission is to embrace diversity, equality and inclusion, and seek to challenge inequalities through positive action, focusing on young people.
Through grant-funded cultural education projects, they set out to engage with schools, cultural organisations and employers in fun, informative and creative ways.
Aspire Black Suffolk is led by Black female professionals with a shared passion and vision; to change lives, empower communities and raise awareness of the key issues surrounding race, equality and inclusion in Suffolk and beyond.
They are unique. Their genesis was the pioneering exhibition, Power of Stories, which was a milestone in the UK heritage sector and a catalyst for positive change. Their work extends the legacy of the exhibition, aiming to bring unity and greater tolerance to our society.