Producing & programming

Programming

Putting together a fantastic season of shows, events and workshops for your audiences is vital - the quality, regularity and excitement of new experiences keeps people coming back, building memories and a relationship with your space or brand.

Ellen has programmed for several spaces including for the outdoor and found spaces as festival manager and programmer for Imagine Watford for 4 years.

Ellen also works on community programming and is currently Freelance senior producer for Revoluton Arts, working on community festivals, workshops, walks and talks.

Producing

Ellen has produced and co-produced shows and events for over a decade. See below for a selection of past productions.

Whipped Up!

The babies are truly valued customers in this deliciously entertaining half hour of ice-cream based sharing, caring, music and imagination. - Everything theatre

**** 4 stars

Originally Produced in the U.S. this show was produced by Ellen as a new U.K production. Made specifically for audiences aged 2months to 2 years and their adult caregivers, aiming to give both a fun experience.

Two of Us

We produced the world premiere of this new play about the last meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 2024. It explored men’s mental health and how sometimes opening up to a mate can help. It is hoped that the production will have a future life.

Creative team

A play by Mark Stanfield, Richard Short and Barry Sloane

Based on the screenplay by Mark Stanfield

Director: Scot Williams

Design: Amy Jane Cook

Lighting Design: Katy Morison

Sound Design: Adrienne Quartly

AV Design: DMLK Video

Movement consultant: Ross Owen

Pantomimes - 2018 to 2023

Ellen has produced multiple in-house pantomimes for Watford Palace Theatre.

She is a convert to the artform, having fallen in love with it whilst working on Jack and the Beanstalk. Pantomime is important to venues around the country and to the continued success of UK theatre, as it provides many children (and adults) with their first experience in theatre.

During her time at WPT, Ellen oversaw a period of growth in both pantomime audience and income. Her final pantomime production with WPT in 2023, Beauty and The Beast, provided the highest ever ticket and secondary spend income, and the best audience figures since 2016.

The Lost Spells

A brand new musical featuring live musicians and plenty of magic.

Creative team

Based on the book by Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris

Music & Lyrics: Mary Erskine & Will Dollard

Book: Matt Borgatti, featuring original writing by Robert Macfarlane

Director: Andy Barry

Design: Hannah Sibai

Lighting Design: Sherry Coenen

Sound Design: Daniel Frost

Movement Direction: Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe

Illusion Designer: John Bulleid

Puppet Designer & Maker: Amber Donovan Kahn

Band Leader: Toby De Salis

Show Artwork Illustrations: Jackie Morris

Show Artwork Designer: Rebecca Pitt

The Merchant of Venice 1936

Ellen lead the producing team on the original production, produced in 2023 by Watford Palace Theatre.

The Merchant of Venice 1936 has toured across the UK and transferred to the West End, and will be touring again in 2025.

Creative team

Adapted by Brigid Larmour and Tracy-Ann Oberman

Director: Brigid Larmour

Associate Director: Tracy-Ann Oberman

Costume and Set Design: Liz Cooke

Lighting Designer: Rory Beaton

Composer: Erran Baron Cohen

Sound Designer: Sarah Weltman

Artistic Associates: Annabel Arden & Richard Katz

Sitting in Limbo

Based on the affecting award winning film drama of the same name, we produced the premiere of this new play. After 50 years in the UK Anthony Bryan, (the writer’s brother), was wrongfully detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation. This is his story and is one of many. We worked with our local community groups and held a gala night on the last performance which was Windrush Day.

Creative team

By Stephen S. Thompson

Adaptor: Shenagh Cameron

Director: Philip J. Morris

Lighting Design: Sam Quinn

Sound Design: Dan Frost

Theatre in Museums

Ellen worked with NPO Museum Makers to develop Theatre in Museums, a new programme of museum interpretation through theatre.

She commissioned three new short plays by writer Teresa Burns to be performed promenade around the newly refurbished museum. Together, they produced high quality and engaging plays for targeted demographics that used the beautiful museum as an immersive theatrical setting, keeping costs in budget for the client and maximising audience development.

The project was highly successful in its pilot year (2017) and ran for six years, employing multiple local actors and continuing to bring in new audiences.

There But For The Grace Of God (Go I)

Working with performance and sound artist Adam Welsh, Ellen coproduced his debut show at Soho Theatre in August 2018.

In 1981, a child went missing from a Hollywood shopping mall. Adam Walsh became the most famous missing child in American history. In 2017, a man called Adam Welsh Googled himself and found Adam Walsh… and then he wrote this show.

There But For The Grace Of God (Go I) is a comparison between an unknown living man and a famous missing child. It engages in weighing up the value of a life: what constitutes real success.

By combining true-crime, reenactment, and autobiography, Adam Welsh reflects on the care parents have for their children, but how they can’t always help them. It is a meditation on how tragedy can render the world meaningful, an investigation into not being dead, yet.

Developed at Camden People's Theatre, ARC Stockton, and premiered at CPT in 2017.