Tess

Tess is Artistic Director of Out From Under. She’s a story-teller and maker: usually she makes theatre, sometimes she makes films. She’s a woman. She’s working class.

Some of the hats Tess wears include: Participatory Artist, Writer, Director, Dramaturg and specialist in Theatre of the Oppressed. She is Associate Artist at Mind The Gap and has worked extensively with and for Cardboard Citizens, as well as with other leading theatre and arts organisations: co-creating theatre and facilitating participatory arts processes with and for communities in a range of places: from Mental Health settings, to prisons.

Tess believes we need to do more. She’s passionate about smashing the glass floor, the glass ceiling and every profound barrier in place, for people who are underrepresented, to engaging with and forging careers in the arts.

With over thirteen years’ experience of working with the ‘hardest to reach’ communities (she prefers to think in terms of ‘let’s make it easier to access’), Tess is passionate about working with disadvantaged and underrepresented groups to use theatre as tool for social, personal and political change. Alongside this, she also creates bold and urgent new work: always with a socio-political focus, often in unusual spaces. Recently, her film, We Still Believe In Love, won an award for Best Writing in the Top Indie Film Awards, as well as nominations for Best Experimental, Best Original Idea and Best Soundtrack in a range of film festivals.