Online Talks

SARAH-JANE WATKINSON

SJ is an independent producer based in Birmingham, working with UK/Spanish companies Sleepwalk Collective and Little Soldier, UK/Italian collaboration The Polar Bear, Birmingham based physical theatre company Altered Skin and solo artists Paul O’Donnell and Victoria Firth. She’s previously worked as a General Manager with some of the West Midlands’ leading companies and delivers training and mentoring, supporting self producing artists and organisational development. She’s also a board member of the Independent Theatre Council, the management association for the UK independent theatre sector.

Alison King

Alison is Chief Executive of Turtle Key Arts, a performance arts company that devises and produces original work with a particular emphasis on making art available to all. It has had a huge impact nationally and internationally. Alison has been running Turtle Key Arts for over twenty-five years.

Alison has produced many great companies over the years, currently Turtle Key Arts are working with Ockham’s Razor, Amici Dance Theatre, AIK Productions, Open Sky Productions, Kill the Cat and Oddly Moving, all of which have created award winning shows that tour nationally and internationally.

Turtle Key Arts have been at the forefront of developing and delivering outreach and participation projects in the fields of dementia, autism, HIV and dyslexia, working regularly in partnership with such organisations as Reading and Oxford University, Wigmore Hall, English Touring Opera, Royal College of Music, National Portrait Gallery, Lyric Hammersmith and many venues both in the UK and internationally.

Alison originally graduated from Mountview Theatre School and is the Chair of The National Centre of Circus Arts. Alison is a published author on Stage Management and Production and an award-winning film and theatre producer. Alison also is a university lecturer and regularly gives talks on, producing, touring, making work, business planning, company management, creative thinking, project pitching, fundraising and grant writing. Alison has just completed seven years on the board of The Independent Theatre Council, five of those years as Chair.

Atxarte

Atxarte graduated in Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country and following her dance training she moved to London where she completed an MA in Choreography by the LCDS.

She has choreographed her own work as well as collaborating with other dance artists mainly in the Basque Country. She collaborated with Arropaineko Arragua as a member of the group developing the Project ESPAZIOA ETA GAUZAK / AZKUE IKASTOLA (THE SPACE AND THE THINGS) where she taught movement. She has also taught dance to Performing Arts Students at B.A.I (Bizkaiko Antzerki Ikastegia) during several years.

Since 2009 she has worked as a producer and project coordinator in several organisations including ACT FESTIVAL (2009-2014) , BE FESTIVAL as a Senior Producer (current) and ADDE (Association of Dance Professionals of the Basque Country) where she coordinates the Online dance Works Catalogue and the Internationalization strand of the association.

She is also co-founder and member of the collective MAuMA, a platform that facilitates a space to realise artistic projects for its members and others.

For the last two years, she has been the coordinator of Shift Key, a project supported by Creative Europe, a network of European performing arts festivals and joined the BDN Advisory group in 2021.