Creative Associates Alumni
Bridie Squires is a poet, playwright, producer and performance artist from Nottingham.
Previously journalist and editor at LeftLion Magazine, she was appointed Nottingham Trent University’s first Writer in Residence in 2019, and founded Nottingham spoken-word collective GOBS in 2020. Bridie was Producer for Nottingham Poetry Festival and Young Creative Awards, and is Production Manager at British Gestalt Journal.
A Mouthy Poets alumnus, she has performed her poetry in Southbank Centre, London, Badisches Staatstheatre, Karlsruhe, and We Out Here Festival, Cambridge. Bridie has performed alongside Lemn Sissay, Holly McNish, Henry Normal, Yomi Ṣode and Linton Kwesi Johnson. She is Lead Artist at GOBS Collective, Creative Writing Tutor at Headway Nottingham, and has delivered workshops for Nottingham City Council, Archway Learning Trust, UNESCO City of Literature, and Nottingham Community Artists Network. She was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 for Mardy, a poem for Talk and Tongue: The Dialect Poets, and was selected to take part in BBC Words First and BBC New Creatives, where she developed her audio drama Self-checkout, for BBC Sounds, in 2022.
Bridie was awarded both a Develop Your Creative Practice grant and National Lottery funding by Arts Council England to create Casino Zero – her one-woman loop station play based on her experiences as a croupier. Bridie published her debut poetry collection Duck on Bike in 2023. She is currently collaborating with Nottingham Playhouse to continue developing Casino Zero and GOBS Collective.
Bridie applied to our Neville Commission callout last year, and we began conversation about her project Casino Zero; initially we agreed to financially support an R&D for Bridie to work with a director to develop the piece. After further conversation with Bridie it became clear that she was keen to develop several elements of her own performance practice alongside the development of the show, and Amplify offered ongoing support with an Arts Council Project Grant to do just that. We conceived together that Bridie could produce a series of workshops, supported by Arts Council England and Nottingham Playhouse, whereby she could build a bespoke period of personal artist development which could be opened out to the wider artistic community. Develop Your Performance Practice, a series of 15 workshops led by guest facilitators from the region, looking at movement, voice and acting was born – both Amplify artists and GOBS collective artists have taken part in free, quality training over the last 3 months. Casino Zero, written and performed by Bridie, directed by Siobhán Cannon-Brownlie, premiered at Amplify Festival.
Nathan is a British writer-director. In 2020 his play SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION was Shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. It was performed at the Soho Theatre in 2022 directed by Blanche McIntyre (★★★★★ Daily Mail) and was in the repertoire at Staatstheater Kassel in 2023 directed by Manon Pfrunder. His play work.txt (a play without actors) (★★★★★ Observer) and was Offie-Nominated in 2022. It was also invited to the Caravan International Showcase 2022 and went on an international tour (Australia, Germany, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Egypt), it has been translated into six languages. His first play NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU (‘a blazing debut’ The Stage) was invited to Incoming Festival 2019 and toured nationally. He was a member of the Royal Court Invitation Writers’ Supergroup 2018-19 led by Alice Birch and Ali Mcdowall and holds an MA from the University of London in Playwriting. He is represented by Giles Smart at United Agents and Felix-Bloch-Erben in Berlin. He is the Artistic Director of theatre company SUBJECT OBJECT and is a former Amplify Associate of Nottingham Playhouse.
Jacob Seelochan is an actor-writer who was born and raised in Sherwood, Nottingham. Since graduating from The Royal Central School in 2019, Jacob has worked on projects such as Shadow & Bone (Netflix), Don’t Touch Me (Leicester Curve), and Nevergreen (Arcola Theatre). His debut short film, A Casting Room, explored the complexity of being mixed race in the acting industry, and he was a finalist at Pinewood Studios’ Lift-Off Festival 2020.
Jacob Seelochan said, “Nottingham Playhouse holds a special place in my heart. It was the theatre where my parents met. It was where I got my first job, as a Box Office Assistant. It was where I turned 18. It was where I was cast in my first professional show, Arcadia, back in 2014. It was where I really developed my love for performance. So to be asked to join the Playhouse team as a Creative Associate is a huge honour.”
Major Labia are here to smash the patriarchy through vaginal comedy. More raucous than righteous, Major Labia is an all-female comedy collective founded by Artistic Director Siobhán Cannon-Brownlie (The Elves and the Shoemaker, Nottingham Playhouse). Performers include Gemma Caseley-Kirk (My Mad Fat Diary, Channel 4), Narisha Lawson (The New Worst Witch, CITV) and Phoebe Frances Brown (Small Island, National Theatre).
Major Labia are a Nottingham based collective who are graduates and associates of the BAFTA award-winning Television Workshop, and have been tickling audiences for over three years. They tackle the insidious notion that women aren’t funny through live sketch shows, recorded work on their YouTube channel, and educational programmes. They have performed in many theatres across the country including Nottingham Playhouse’s main stage, Battersea Arts Centre and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Major Labia have been supported by PILOT nights, Old Vic New Voices and are a Breakthrough Company at Curve Theatre, Leicester.
Major Labia are elated to be Amplify Creative Associates at their local theatre, and can’t wait to create more seriously silly content for audiences in Nottingham and beyond.
Next Door Dance absolutely adore working with people in an array of community settings and their participatory projects are at the heart of what they do, stand for and believe in. They love delivering projects with lots of different people, creating lasting experiences that are packed with creativity and lots of laughter.
Next Door Dance have worked with arts venues, schools and community groups for the last 8 years. Their work includes collaborations with the Halle Orchestra, Leicester Tigers RFC and English Heritage.
Next Door Dance said, “Creative Associates! We are absolutely thrilled to be working alongside such a prestigious venue. After a challenging year this partnership has come at a great time for us and we are excited to get back to being creative with the support of Nottingham Playhouse. We can’t wait to continue our community outreach work and hope to inspire and engage with more Nottingham folk. Watch this space duck!”
Lewis Doherty is an actor, writer and theatre-maker, originally from Arnold in Nottingham. He went on to study drama at the University of Birmingham and then trained as an actor at the Oxford School of Drama. He has had critical success with his first show WOLF which sold out an Edinburgh run before touring nationally and finishing with a sell-out run at Soho Theatre.
Ben Norris is a playwright, poet, and actor from Nottingham. He is two-time national poetry slam champion (2017 BBC Poetry Slam and 2013 UK All-Stars Poetry Slam) and has appeared everywhere from Latitude Festival to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.