Actor Tori Allen-Martin and director Phoebe Barran have been named as the new Associate Artists at Chiswick Playhouse. These two incredible talents will work in partnership with the theatre supporting its dynamic work post-Covid. This exciting collaboration will seek to champion new and adventurous work, helping to further highlight Chiswick as a creative hub in the industry.
Tori Allen-Martin (Pandemonium, BBC; London Kills, BBC) is an acclaimed actor, writer, and singer-songwriter, who was named as one of the BBC’s New Talent Hotlist in 2017. Most recently she has co-founded Burn Bright, a non-profit organisation aiming to level the playing field for writers who identify as women, helping to create opportunities and share the stories of the marginalised.
Phoebe Barran is an award-winning director, who most recently won an Off West End Award for her revival of Tryst at the Chiswick Playhouse. Barran will be showcasing her skillset as part of the Chiswick Recharged Festival’s Bare Bones, stripping down two new plays The Woodcutters Tale by Orlando Wells and a new version of Tom Sharpe’s Wilt, adapted by David Spicer.
Tori Allen-Martin comments, I am so honoured to have been asked to work with Chiswick Playhouse as an associate artist. Chiswick Playhouse are committed to developing artists of all disciplines, ages and backgrounds and are passionate about platforming voices that too often feel silenced as well as creating work that will have a vibrant life not only inside, but beyond the fringe circuit. I share these values and am so excited to collaborate with them on finding exciting opportunities to platform new talent, especially marginalised voices. We share a view of Chiswick Playhouse becoming a hub for new work and new connections and I am so proud to put my name to this brilliant and exciting venue, and I myself can’t wait to create magic with them.
Phoebe Barran adds, I am absolutely delighted to be joining the Chiswick Playhouse as an associate artist. I’ve been a supporter of the theatre for many years both as an audience member and from having the opportunity to develop new writing and direct shows here. The theatre itself is such a wonderful space for both creatives and audiences and I’m hugely excited to now be part of the team that will bring some of the best and the brightest to come and work here. I know the Chiswick Playhouse has ambitious plans with both its own programme of productions and partnering with other producers and creatives. I’m so excited to play my part in making those plans a reality.
Mark Perry, Chiswick’s Executive Director, said, The ethos of Chiswick Playhouse is to give a platform to work and creatives so that they can have a life far beyond Chiswick. We want to be a place where we can support artists from all backgrounds to not just create work for our audiences, but also develop themselves and their craft. This is why Phoebe and Tori are such perfect additions to the team as associate artists. Both of them, besides being hugely talented themselves, have made it part of their raison d’être to help and support people around them, no matter whether those people are experienced artists, making first steps into the theatre world or are in some way a neglected voice. We want to firmly establish the Chiswick Playhouse on the theatre map and I am delighted that Phoebe and Tori have agreed to come on board to help us do that.
