Winter Mentoring Fête

Hosted with Omnibus Theatre (2014 – 2016), Somerset House (2017), and Creative Job Studio (2018)

Improbable set up the Winter Mentoring Fêtes to provide an opportunity for early-career theatre artists and companies to pick the brains of more established theatre organisations and professionals – people who have been there, done that, got it wrong, (sometimes) got it right, and learned a lot along the way. Our mentors’ experiences ranged from producing and directing to creative co-ordination and general management, giving participants an insight into a diverse array of experiences from within the theatre industry.

The events started with a speed-dating style set up – small groups moved from table to table and met each of the mentor companies in turn. This was followed by a relaxed networking format, allowing participants to go back to any of the mentors to ask any other burning questions they might have had.

(All this with the festive magic of mince pies, music and lots of fairy lights.)

 

2014 mentors:

  • Blind Summit (Mark Down and Stephanie Hay)

  • Gate Theatre (Christopher Haydon and Sandy McKay)

  • Little Bulb (Fiona Baxter, Clare Beresford, Dominic Conway and Alex Scott)

  • Tête à Tête (Bill Bankes-Jones and Anna Gregg)

  • Upswing (Vicki Amedume and Camille Bansoussan)

  • Improbable (Lucy Foster, Lee Simpson and Nick Sweeting)

2015 mentors:

  • Chris Goode

  • Victoria Melody

  • Graeae (Kate Baiden and Helen Jackson-Lyall)

  • Told By An Idiot (Anna Schmitz)

  • Upswing (Vicki Amedume and Camille Bansoussan)

  • Improbable (Ess Grange, Susie Italiano, Nick Sweeting and Rachael Williams)

2016 mentors:

  • Tamasha (Debo Adebayo)

  • Upswing (Vicki Amedume and Camille Bansoussan)

  • Tom Parkinson

  • Martha Rose Wilson

  • Improbable (Angela Clerkin, Susie Italiano and Ben Monks)

2017 mentors:

  • Arcola Theatre (Nick Connaughton)

  • Clod Ensemble (Roxanne Peak-Payne and Olivia Amory)

  • Fuel (Sarah Wilson-White)

  • Tall Stories (Charlotte Lund and Natalia Scorer)

  • Kandinsky (Lauren Mooney)

  • Improbable (Ben Monks, Ess Grange and Lee Simpson)

2018 mentors:

  • Clod Ensemble (Roxanne Peak-Payne and Olivia Amory)

  • Fevered Sleep (Sophie Eustace and Amy Davies Dolamore)

  • Fuel (Sarah Wilson-White)

  • Abiola Ogunbiyi

  • Royal & Derngate (Ashley Bishop)

  • Improbable (Lee Simpson, Ben Monks and Olivia Coxhead)

  • Creative Job Studio (Scott Ramsay Kyle and Kitty Withington)