Joe Hancock
Joe Hancock is a director, producer and puppeteer. Equally inspired by a childhood visit to Muffin the Mule, and long family walks on the moor, I set up Burn the Curtain with Alexander in 2008, after many years of adventures in independent theatre production and large-scale outdoor events.
I realised I wanted more from theatre and art in general than it was currently giving me- I wanted audiences to be able to have conversations with actors, not just to be talked at, but to talk with. I wanted art to sneak up on me in the most unexpected places, forest, beach or street, and lighten my day, or at least give me something to think about. Most of all, I could see no reason why ‘creativity’ should be the privilege of the few, when each of us has the ability to inspire and create, not just those with access to so called ‘creative’ spaces and buildings.
“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s. I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.” – William Blake
Favourite moment:
Pinner park where we performed ‘The Adventures of Uncle Lubin’ in 2011 changed rapidly day to day. Once, mid-show, I had to explain to 22 (or more..) footballers that we needed their spot for five minutes, and they sweetly moved over, and watched as a man dressed in a submarine accompanied by sixty people dressed as fish disappeared beneath an enormous blue sheet stretched across their makeshift pitch, before re-emerging to meet a group of mermaids. Afterwards they carried on with their game. Both extraordinary, and completely normal at the same time.
Alexander Warn
Alexander is an actor, stop-motion animator/filmmaker and writer who has been with Burn the Curtain since 2008. As a result he has played Sancho Panza, been an angry Butcher, arrested poets, and plenty more. He has also lost his donkey tricycle down a ditch, and fallen over whilst running – both in front of sell-out crowds. Alexander has made a variety of short films, as well as working on community and academic projects. He loves to explore the surreal side of life, to improvise and be playful with an audience.
From a very young age he was often performing to family, friends, or even just himself. As he studied thinking he’d become a jobbing actor, a realisation formed that it wasn’t quite enough. A few decisions later, he met the right people and then he found what he truly wanted to do – interact with audiences, build shared experiences, and help to capture and tell a variety of communities’ stories.
www.alexanderwarn.wordpress.com
“Ideas are like fish. You don’t make the fish. You catch the fish. You can catch ideas from daydreaming, or you can catch ideas from places.” ― David Lynch
Favourite moment:
It’s great when audiences get lost in the experience. When arresting poets in London, one man was determined to nab one on a charge of being an ‘unlicensed minstrel’. He sang, skipped and danced around poets on a footbridge until they joined in and then shouted “Ha, you are under arrest!” Genius.
Kerrie Seymour
Mess maker, Dream weaver, Games master. Kerrie has a rich history of delivering arts projects in a range of settings including schools, care homes, community centre’s, parks, beaches and forests.
Kerrie thrives on making exciting work that invites participants and audiences to learn new skills and go on an adventure together. She also likes making a mess and building giant things out of willow. Kerrie has been a community artist living and working in the south west for 20 years and has worked with Burn the Curtain since 2015.
Kerrie is the accessibility and community lead for burn the curtain. She has a particular interest in weaving BSL and multi sensory elements into the companies work.
“If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.” ― Maya Angelou
Favourite moment:
Building a giant den in the forest with some young people and seeing how many of us can get in to it to take a big group picture.
Ruth Webb
Ruth Webb is a maker, who loves to be outside. She was lucky enough to have been surrounded by music, stories and theatre since birth. She tried growing up and she tried to find her own way in the world. Life took her down a few wiggling paths, until eventually she found her way back home, to the world of theatre.
She has designed and been part of many shows with Burn the Curtain over the last 8 years. Design of Props and Bikes and Stage management of The Adventures of Don Quixote by Bicycle, Design and performed The Bureau of Extraordinance Survey, Design Costume and Props The Company of Wolves, Design Costume and Props, and Stage managed The Hunting of the Snark and Design Costume Timothy the Tortoise.
Among many of the people she is proud to have worked with…… Stackedwonky Designer, Stage management and Production assistant Theatre Alibi Design Assistant and Quirk Theatre Designer. She also loves building Giants, and running community workshops . She is so very happy to have been able to combine her loves of making and being in the great outdoors in her working life.
Currently she is finding new ways of creating, with natural materials and making fires with children at Forest school.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” ― Albert Einstein
Favourite moment:
Don Quixote. A family came with their bicycles already beautifully decorated to become horsecycles to join us on our adventure, one was a unicorn which they proudly called the unicycle, of course! A moment of pure joy, when you see that a wonderful idea has spread and inspired others to create for themselves.
Theo Moye
Theo is a photographer and filmmaker. His background is in editorial and corporate photography, having worked for local, regional and national publications, and everyone from sole traders to international businesses.
Theo has been worked with Burn the Curtain since the Adventures of Don Quixote by Bicycle in 2012. He has shot photos and video of all the shows and projects since then. He has become accustomed to following shows on foot and by bike, beside rivers, through woods, up and down hills and even in the water, shooting fast-moving performances with whatever light was available as discretely as possible.
“We’re not no travelin’ bureau. Why don’t they get their own ride?”
“We’re eatin’ their food.” ― Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt (Peter Fonda) in Easy Rider
Favourite moment:
When all the conditions come together at the right moment – like the light in the clouds on a very chilly March evening providing the perfect back-drop for the Hunting of the Snark publicity shoot.
Associate Artists
Richard Feltham
As a child Richard saw Footsbarn perform Shakespeare. A powerful formative experience of seeing actors close up: fascinating, terrifying and laugh out loud funny, all bathed in sound, light and costume. This planted the seed that grew into his own creative adventures that have taken him around the globe. He is so grateful for this childhood experience of transformative magic that he his called to share and pass on this experience with generations old and new.
Richard’s performances with Burn the Curtain include The Company of Wolves,The Hunting of the Snark, Desperately Seeking Shakespeare and Timothy the Tortoise. He also regularly performs with Wandering Tiger, most recently in The Magnificent Mysto and Humbug! and the award winning short film Hell’s Bells. He has also twice toured with The Common Players. He’s a producer, director and performer with Playing Dead. He holds a PhD from University of Exeter in Applied Theatre and works internationally using applied theatre in work-based contexts, using the creative power of theatre for positive change. He’s a keen runner, enjoys performing sleight of hand magic and once walked The Great Wall of China on crutches.
Abi Sargant
Abi is a Production Manager, Company & Stage Manager based in Devon.
She has worked all over the world with large scale musical theatre productions & concerts, as well as fringe & small scale provincial shows.
Settling in rural Devon has allowed her to explore more local theatre opportunities. These have included: ’Sand’ with Kook Ensemble (a contemporary circus theatre company), ‘Outlier’ for Plymouth Theatre Royal and the low-cost, family friendly ‘Welcome Weekender’ in Ilfracombe for Landmark Theatres. During the summer of 2025 she was delighted to work with Burn The Curtain on ‘The Wild Shore’ at her favourite childhood beach. What an absolute joy!
Jess May-Cox
Jess is a theatre maker, performer and facilitator from North Devon, who loves working with interesting spaces, often outdoors, and exploring these with music and storytelling. Solo work has included: Selich, Bottom of the Deep Blue Sky, and The Immortality of the Crab.
A graduate of Aberystwyth University’s Drama and Theatre Studies course, Jess has gone on to work widely across the UK, with Burn the Curtain, Theatre Workhouse, Beaford, Made in Bristol and Tiny and Tall, and has worked internationally with Trinacria Theatre Company.
Jess also works as a facilitator with Bristol Old Vic’s Young Company and national schemes like Playhouse, as well as programming Barnstaple Fringe Theatrefest, a magical volunteer led festival in the heart of North Devon.
Elliot Grant
Elliott is a theatre maker and stage manager based in Bristol and North Devon. Passionate about new work and creative development within the South West, he has been involved with the wonderful Fringe Theatrefest since 2017.
He studied Drama with Creative Writing at the University of the West of England, with further training from the Emma Rice Company Summer Camp, Exeter Northcott’s Tech Futures and Bristol Old Vic’s Made in Bristol residency. Elliott has worked with RED Entertainment, Show of Strength, Burn The Curtain, Landmark Theatres, Multi Story Theatre, Beaford, The Bristol Improv Theatre, Kook Ensemble, MakeShift Theatre, Carbon Theatre, Above Bounds, Rhum+Clay and Tiny and Tall; As well as creating his own (very silly) shows with i.e. theatre. www.ietheatre.co.uk
Bernadette Russell
Bernadette Russell is a published author, playwright, storyteller, folklorist, tree planter and rascal who is proud and honoured to have worked with Burn The Curtain as a writer and performer since 2018, most recently on “The Wild Shore”.
A chance encounter with a group performing an ancient mummers play in County Cork, Ireland in the 1980s led her to a lifelong fascination with traditional myth and folklore, and much of her work in influenced by this, but in the words of Gustav Mahler “not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire”.
She has worked with organisations such as the Royal Albert Hall, National Theatre and Southbank Centre, but since 2016 has focused on outdoor, participatory, immersive work and telling the lesser told stories of working-class people (and many other marginalised folk) as well as the more-than-human.
She is storyteller in residence in the ancient Lesnes Abbey Wood in SE London, where she hosts “Rough Magic”- a regular storytelling and seasonal celebration event. She is also one of the storytelling team at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire. Bernadette is an award-winning kindness campaigner and her work in this area has been featured on BBC1, the Observer and the Guardian.
Becca Savory
Becca was raised on a diet of Kneehigh Theatre and the Notting Hill Carnival, and has been in love with outdoor performance ever since. She studied physical theatre and devising at LISPA (London International School of Performing Arts, 2005-07), and has worked on numerous site-responsive and interactive productions, including Hotel Medea and Lament for Medea with Zecora Ura & PJM in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the UK.
Becca moved to the South-West in 2010, where she works as a performer, deviser and drama facilitator. She began collaborating with Burn the Curtain in 2011, co-founding the Exeter Performers Playground, and is co-founder and performer with Exeter-based Inventmore Theatre.
Fiona Fraser-Smith
Fiona currently works as an independent freelance producer and fundraiser, she works with a variety of artists and companies including Burn the Curtain (outdoor promenade theatre), Ruth Mitchell (playwright and performer) and Stacked Wonky Dance (contemporary outdoor dance). Fiona has a deep interest in creative work which reflects the uniqueness of people and place, of landscape and space, and of human relationship with our natural environments.
She lives and works in the rural wilds of North Devon. With many strings to her creative bow, she’s been Director of Appledore Arts and the Appledore Visual Arts Festival, Producer & Programmer for Beaford Arts and a founding Director of the North Devon Biosphere Foundation. Fiona co-produced for Burn the Curtain between 2011 and 2019.
Jonty Depp
Jonty is the UK’s number one Johnny Depp look-alike, sound-alike and act-alike. Covering the many diverse roles of Mr Depp and creating a few characters of his own Jonty Depp is much more than just a celebrity lookalike.
As well as working as an actor, Jonty is also an accomplished Director, Writer and Prop builder and has worked on various film and theatrical projects.
Bryony Reynolds
Bryony is an actor, trained at the University of Exeter, graduating with a BA Honours degree in Drama. She has since toured Macbeth with the Young Shakespeare Company (YSC); performed Twelfth Night with Midsummer Madness at RSC Dell (2013), and with Sun & Moon Theatre at Mission Theatre, Bath (2017); and she has performed both Shakespeare in Hell (Brite Theatre co.) and Twelfth Night (Anthos Arts) at Exeter Northcott Theatre.
In addition to performing Shakespeare’s classics, Bryony has worked in screen and as a physical theatre workshop facilitator. She has been thrilled to work with Burn the Curtain as Wolf Alice in The Company of Wolves (2017) and Captain Isabella in The Hunting of the Snark (2018).
Paschale Straiton
Paschale is a performer, director, writer and maker theatre specialising in playful theatre that blurs the boundaries between performance and the audience – because play is good for everyone, especially for old children who have forgotten that they have permission.She is Co-Director of Red Herring Productions, a company based in North Devon, which produces touring shows and creates events that bring curiosity and fun onto the streets and into remote landscapes. She’s also a regular collaborator with a range of outdoor arts companies including Ramshacklicious, Avanti Display and Walk the Plank. She is a passionate advocate for outdoor arts that bring diverse groups of people together for uplifting shared experience in public space. She was the chair for the National Association of Street Artists for 7 years and is on the Artists Advisory Group for Without Walls.
Claire Rammelkamp
Claire is an actress, theatre maker, and writer from Bristol. She studied literature at Oxford University then joined the National Youth Theatre where she founded her all-female theatre company, Wonderbox. In 2018 Wonderbox became associate company at The Space Theatre in London, although Claire writes their material at home in Bristol. Claire’s plays focus on feminist themes with a comic edge, and her play ‘A Womb of One’s Own’ was a BBC Comedy Writersroom finalist.
She loves to work with other theatre companies to learn new skills. Working with Burn the Curtain in 2017 taught her to perform out in the elements and was the spookiest performance adventure she’s ever been on.
Matt Lawrenson
Matt is a theatre maker and actor. He has toured physical and cabaret theatre performances with ‘The Medicine show’ and teaches drama locally. His most recent role has been as artistic director of ‘Eccentric Exeter’ (comedy history tour) which is due to be performed again this year.
After years of being fascinated by promenade performance possibilities Matthew Lawrenson has happily joined ‘Burn the Curtain’. This cycling collaboration has stepped things up a gear and realigned him to become the bike obsessed Duke of a distant quixotic kingdom.
Alice Tatton-Brown
Alice studied for her BA in Drama at Manchester University, graduating with a first she went on to live, work, and perform in New York, London and Berlin. Before returning to Univeristy to study for her MFA in Theatre practice. As a researcher and a theatre maker, her key interests are; site based, promenade performance, verbatim theatre, and storytelling.
Alice has performed In Battersea Arts centre, Kensington Palace, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Manchester’s Hazard Festival, a Cornish mine, and on a boat in Plymouth, plus a few more unusual locations. Currently working on a solo show, and collaborating with Bristol based artist Martha King, Alice can also be seen in Wild Works Enchanted Palace, in London.
Accessibility
Burn the Curtain specialise in taking audiences to special places, and celebrating the places that are special to you. Sometimes this involves some physical challenge, but no one should feel that these places are off limits to them. We are committed to making sure that anyone can attend our work, and we look forward to making our performances even more accessible in the future. If you want to attend a performance or activity and you have questions around accessibility, please get in touch we will be happy to help.
Recruitment
Participatory outdoor theatre is a unique line of work. Physically demanding but extremely rewarding – every event is different, each show particular to the people who attend it. So we don’t recruit in the usual theatrical manner of holding auditions – often the performers and crew who are best at this kind of work are not necessarily those who have come through a traditional training, but those with a passion for working outdoors in a responsive way. Often our actors and crew pick themselves – this is not just another acting job, but a unique calling. We are always happy to hear from people who want to work with us, performers, makers technicians and volunteers. If you are interested, please get in touch and tell us about yourself.