Associate Alumni

Fine Comb Theatre are a new writing theatre company established in the North West since 2013. The company makes issue-based theatre, giving a voice to those often unheard, with the aim of provoking thought and stimulating conversation. They have established a reputation for creating stylised, innovative and intriguing productions within delicate subject matters. Inspired by fact, infused with fiction and ingrained in Fine Comb attention to detail.

Rachel McMurray, Artistic Director and writer, has written original scripts for all Fine Comb productions, drawing from her involvement in working in prison theatre and from her own personal experiences. She has a Master of Arts in Applied Theatre with a passion for theatre as a platform for social change. Catherine Morefield, Company Producer, has worked as an actor alongside running the company. She has worked with theatre companies such as Blast Theory and Hydrocracker, and TV productions for BBC2 and Channel 4.

As Associate Artists Fine Comb have undertaken Arts Council funded research and development for their latest piece Not Yours, Mine followed by a four night run in the Coliseum Studio. They held improvisation workshops and hosted scratch nights at the Coliseum, and worked closely with the Learning and Engagement department, facilitating projects for local young people.

RedBobble Arts are a female led company, based in Manchester and Leeds. They specialise in making live performance as well as creating community engagement and education projects.

Kelly Munro-Fawcett is both an actor and Co-Creative Producer at RedBobble Arts and is based in Leeds with her young son Hadley. See her Spotlight page here. Kelly is a passionate advocate for parents in the arts and lives with the reality of maintaining a career whilst managing the needs of a little one. It can be challenging but she wouldn’t have it any other way! She is very passionate about arts for all and is an experienced community development worker and workshop specialist, with a particular focus on working in areas of low arts engagement. She’s also a freelance Producer.

Louisa May Parker was born and raised in Wythenshawe, Manchester and remains very proud of her working class roots. She trained as an actor at The Arden Manchester and more recently completed her MA at Drama Centre London. She was also lucky enough to spend two months training at The Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute, Moscow. Louisa wrote RedBobble’s debut show The Box and as an actor has worked in theatre, film and TV. See her Spotlight page here. She is an experienced workshop leader having worked with companies such as Collingwood Learning and Eyewitness Theatre and has led and developed workshops for communities and schools.

Grant continues as an Associate Artist in 2022

Grant is a digital artist creating theatrical installation work that explores the relationship between live and recorded media and storytelling. 

He initially studied Fine Art Photography in Manchester and London, working on projects with The Theatres Trust and National Piers Society. Recent projects include books on Iceland and Gibraltar, published by Out Of Place Books.

In 2015 Grant co-founded Take Back Theatre with actor Julie Hesmondhalgh and writer Rebekah Harrison, responding to social and political issues.

Recent works have included Connect – a series of phone conversations at HOME, Patient – and audio/visual installation at Oldham Coliseum and Virtual Reality films at The Lowry, the Coliseum and various site specific locations.

Examples of his work can be seen at grantarcher.co.uk 

Speaking in 2020, Grant said: “I’m excited to work with the Coliseum in the development and creation of further digital installation work. The Coliseum works with an exciting range of artists for potential collaborations and is constantly expanding its community links. It is highly motivating to know that they believe in experimentation and the exploration of new forms of telling stories.” 

Hafsah Aneela Bashir is a Manchester based poet and playwright with an MA in Postcolonial Literary and Culture from the University of Leeds.

She is founder and co-director of the arts collective, Outside The Frame Arts, passionate about platforming voices outside the mainstream. She works with marginalized and underrepresented communities delivering creative writing workshops centred around identity and empowerment.

Her work has been published by Crocus Books in various anthologies. Her debut poetry collection, The Celox And The Clot  published by Burning Eye Books, launched last year with Manchester Literature Festival, where she is currently writer-in-residence. Her recent works include a monologue for Memories Of Partition with Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and a PUSH Festival commission this year with her play Cuts Of The Cloth, exploring Muslim women’s experiences of the war on terror. Current work is the development of a SICK! Festival catalyst commission exploring mental health in the South Asian community.

Previously an Open Exchange Supported Artist with Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and a ‘Leader of Tomorrow’ with the Artistic Director’s Leadership Programme, she has recently been awarded the prestigious Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2019-20.

In 2020 Hafsah created the Poetry Health Service, a Homemakers co-commission from Oldham Coliseum Theatre and HOME, Manchester.

She blogs at hafsahaneelabashir.wordpress.com and tweets at @Hafsah_A_Bashir & @artsOTF

Caitlin Gleeson is a theatre maker, facilitator and writer whose work includes solo performance, interactive theatre and community arts, and often explores autobiography, gender and place. She is experienced in delivering arts projects with communities and works with the Octagon Theatre, Royal Exchange and Contact.

Caitlin toured Pour and Serve, a site-specific solo performance on the language of sexual harassment. In development is Vera, a collaboration with Ross McCaffrey which uses the story of a pioneering astrophysicist to ask why we believe some people more than others; and Dungarees, a show that uses humour, autobiography and a host of unhappy lesbian TV characters to explore how coming out can be dangerous, exhausting and radical.

Nana-Kofi Kufuor is a writer hailing from Stockport. His influences range from film to TV and theatre to radio. Nana-Kofi received a BA Hons in Film and Television production from the University of Cumbria in 2014 and achieved his Master’s Degree in 2018 in Screenwriting for Film, Television and Radio from the University of Salford.

Nana-Kofi’s style of writing comes from his own experiences; he has worked in provisions in education for years and has seen young people from all financial backgrounds and the vast inequalities in modern day society. He writes to expose and humanise the people that mainstream media currently and historically has taken delight in mocking or ostracizing. He started playwriting in late 2017 and wants to take theatre to places it doesn’t ordinarily go and create stories that are rarely seen on stage.

He was shortlisted for the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award in 2019 and in 2020 Nana-Kofi wrote My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored for Box of Tricks, which toured the North West, presented by Red Ladder Theatre Company in 2021

Sorcha is a Yorkshire actor, writer and theatre-maker based in Manchester. She trained at ALRA North and has taken part in the Royal Court writers group. She has performed with the John Godber Company, Contact and Co:LAB Festival at Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Her first play Ladybones ran at VAULT Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe 2019, and has been recorded as an audio drama for Audible.