"I could be decked out in white silk, false eyelashes & glitter in front of celebs"

Hometown
Originally Upton, Norfolk, now Walthamstow, London

What do you do?
Along with my business partner Ned, I run street arts company
Creature Feature

What was your very first role in theatre?
Deputy stage manager and then actress at a semi-professional theatre in Norwich

What else have you done in theatre?
I’ve toured in theatre-in-education shows and performed in cabaret at The Comedy Cafe.

As well as running Creature Feature, I am a stilt walker for The Wrong Size, Rin Tin Tin and Circo Rum Ba Ba and run stilt walking workshops at The Circus Space.

Have you got qualifications?
A degree in drama and theatre studies, from Middlesex University. since then I’ve built up further skills at The Mask Studio in London, The Hangar, The Circus Space and Citiskate

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A teacher, like my mother!

What do you do all day?
A gig day would involve performing one of about 15 street/ stilt/ comic character acts I perform with my own company and three other street/circus companies.

The gig could be anything from driving to a local community event in London to a high prestige corporate event or a film launch, to flying abroad for an arts festival for 1-2 weeks to Europe or maybe Canada or China.

I could be rolling around on the floor dressed as a mountain gorilla, sweating the pounds off or I could be decked out in white silk, false eyelashes & glitter in front of celebs!

An admin day at home, by contrast, I spend in front of the computer and on the phone, organising performers, travel arrangements and other such matters for our gigs. I possibly won’t leave the house or even make it out of my pyjamas!

What’s the best thing about your job?*
The variety, I get bored easily! And the fact I’m not tied to a 9-5 office job that means I go to the same place day in day out. I love the fact I travel the world and work with and for the whole spectrum of arts events.

And the worst?
The low pay and uncertainty of income and work

What’s your dream job in theatre?
Right now I yearn to be part of a sustained theatre performance project that means I get to play a part that is challenging and can be worked on and developed during the (hopefully) long run of the show.

It would be with a fully-funded theatre collective who draw on various skills and styles (circus, comedy, street, site specific) to create works performed not necessarily in conventional performance spaces, and collaborate with various practitioners from around the world.

My current work is very transient and one invariably performs for one day only at a time. The nature of walkabout characters means that one performs for short bursts with up to two or three other performers and are totally improvising rather than using structured scenes/ scripts.

Got any wise words for someone who wants to be where you are now?
Expect to work long and hard but enjoy it. Don’t do it for the money–there isn’t any!

Network at every opportunity to get those gigs. Try to create new work every year to keep it fresh and the more skills you have the more employable you are.