Louise Orwin is a contemporary performance artist, making research-based performance and video projects about what it means to identify as a queer femme, in a world that prizes masculinity, straightness, and whiteness. Her work is provocative, political, slippery, and has been performed nationally and internationally. 

I’ve worked consistently with Louise for 3years successfully achieving £120k+ in grants and taking work from R&D to full tours, including international and national venues. I’ve secured new partnerships with venues, funders, freelancers, and those in other sectors that support the work as well as maintaining existing relationships.  I manage all project and organisational budgets, including reporting.

Recent work, FAMEHUNGRY, ran to great success at Summerhall Main Hall at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 (2 x awards, multiple 4 and 5 star reviews) and is currently touring nationally and internationally.

Louise has a chronic health condition and her practice, and mine, centers on inclusivity, care and accessibility.

Fresh Air Festival is an outdoor arts festival with community at the heart of it. I’ve raised over £120,000 over 3 years to bring together opportunities for participation over the summer months which includes  an outdoor arts festival. 

As Festival Director and lead producer my role is multifaceted.  I artistically curate and produce, working with community groups, visual artists, musicians and street theatre companies to create events that are free to enjoy for everyone ensuring access is considered with BSL and quiet spaces.

FAF 2024 took place on 15th September with 2500 people attending. As lead director/producer I have a lot of responsibilities including line management, fee negotiations, commissioning, contracting, production management, partner liaising, fundraising, budget management, evaluation, marketing support and much more!

From Here On was a landmark physical theatre event from multi-award winning theatre companies Good Chance and Gecko’s and made in collaboration with 30 young people from Colchester and Tendring.

From Here On marks the 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport, when nearly 10,000 Jewish children were given safe passage to the UK from Nazi-occupied Europe. It is an artistic remembrance of that history, as well as an urgent call for empathy and action for displaced young people in the present.

As Local Producer I worked in partnership with 3 organisations to deliver From Here On in Harwich with specific responsibilities around young people recruitment/liaison, partner development, logistics, budgets, performance event management, safeguarding, licensing, workshops and follow on programme.

“A pulsing, heart-wrenching, ultimately hopeful piece of physical theatre.” – ★★★★ The Stage

For 30 years The Lemmings have created indoor/outdoor theatre shows and were some of the original pioneering street artists.

I am a strategic lead for the company and have raised over £700k for various projects gaining grants from Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Big Lottery, Essex County Council as well as numerous foundations and charities.  I have toured nationally and internationally at festivals and toured across Southern India with The Smallest Theatre in the World and have produced multiple events which bring together street theatre, storytelling, dance and arts to people in Levelling up for Culture Place, Tendring. With The Lemmings I have supported participatory projects, indoor and outdoor theatre projects, touring to libraries and schools, outdoor arts events, 14-18NOW, filming and much more.

ACE is the national agency for creativity and culture. They help people in every corner of the country to experience and benefit from creativity.

As Touring Relationship Manager, I worked on multiple strands of delivery, including assessing for the Covid Emergency Response Fund, the DCMS Cultural Recovery Fund, Capital, Touring, National Lottery Project Grants and National Portfolio Organisations, as well as being a decision maker for Touring EOI panels, DYCP panels, and chairing with budget management and decision making for Under £30k NLPGs. I also provided funding advice, monitored performance, assessed financial information, identified risk, and provided feedback on artistic and organisational plans.

I also worked as part of a place-based regional group and was co-lead for Priority Place, Tendring, running funding surgeries, meeting with Local Authorities to discuss place-based priorities and supporting strategic investment.

In 2023 I was approached by Chelmsford City Council to run 2 outdoor arts events to celebrate the opening of their new public realm.

I programmed 18+ outdoor artists/organisations and worked with local community groups to create 2 celebratory events that welcomed over 2000 people. 

Responsibilities included programming, fee negotiations, contracting, production management, budget management, evaluation and marketing support and provided experience working and partnering with a City Council.

Caravan Theatre was a black box studio on wheels designed to provide important artistic interventions into the lives of young people and support educational and social institutions with their delivery of wellbeing strategies.

I set up the project in 2015 to tour my own writing which explores issues central to young people’s lives. I toured 3 plays in rep. Can’t Touch This, our first play, looked at sexual harassment on campus. Time of Your Life focused on mental health issues and Ninety Four Thousand, which was commissioned by University of Birmingham, which looked at identifying hate crime. 

I toured to over 22 Universities and engaged over 5000+ students both in person and digitally during the pandemic.

I was commissioned by Essex County Council, Essex Police and a number of charities specialising in domestic abuse to produce 3 short plays in a shopping centre in Chelmsford.

The campaign, Do you see what I see?, was designed to highlight the coercive and controlling behaviour of domestic abuse. It was performed inside a disused shop in Chelmsford city centre, the work was viewed live by over 250 people reached a further 30,000 via  Facebook Live, & has been viewed over 78 thousand times on Youtube and performed Internationally.

On the day it also had the welcome effect of encouraging two members of the public to come forward as perpetrators in order to seek help.