About Us
The Team
Michelle Allen - Co-founding Director
Michelle is a writer.
Michelle has worked in the creative industry for over fifteen years and was the Assistant Producer for Curated Acts at Reading Fringe Festival in addition to producing and writing independently as one half of Cast Iron Theatre.
After script reading for the BBC Writers Room and Theatre 503, Michelle gained an MA Screenwriting at Nation Film and Television School (NFTS) and was the winner of NBC Universal & SyFy Channel's Original TV Pitch Competition for the series Mimicry, which was developed to treatment stage with mentoring from Carnival Films.
Michelle’s plays have been staged in London, the US and Brighton. In 2021 she was selected to attend the Curtis Brown Breakthrough Novel Writing programme for her manuscript, Otherlings, which will be released in 2025 as part of her new publishing imprint - Precocious Press!
Michelle is also a creative strategist and mentor, working with people who don’t fit into neat categories: creative thinkers, business owners, and neurodivergent people who want to build something real without burning out or boxing themselves in. Michelle is currently qualifying as a personal trainer, bringing strength and body-based support into the wider work she does with creative clients.
For Michelle, building a strong creative life includes your body, your business, and your story, not just one piece at a time.
She’s the host of the Resting Biz Face podcast.
Find out more about Michelle’s work: www.infiniteupstart.com
Andrew Allen - Co-founding Director
Andrew is a writer, director, host and workshop facilitator.
Andrew has taught drama for almost two decades, working with children, young people and adults. He teaches improvisation in corporate and community settings, and leads workshops and mentoring for emerging writers and directors.
Andrew trained in theatre-making and performance, he also writes and directs. His writing has been staged in Croydon, Chelmsford, Brighton, Reading, Edinburgh and London.
Andrew wrote and directed One Woman Alien which features Katy Schutte. He has recently written a short story collection and has a number of short stories published by Candy Jar Books
Through his other business, Confidence in Communication, Andrew consults and trains people and corporations on public speaking, facilitation and confidence building.
Non-Executive Directors
Steph Weller - Independent Producer
Old Vic 12 (2018-19); Stage One bursary holder
Steph is an Old Vic 12 trained and Stage One supported theatre and festival producer. Steph is co-founder of PlayWell Productions CIC, working to elevate visibility and give equality of opportunity and voice to artists and their stories. These stories include (but are not limited to) the voices of: the queer lived experience; women and those who identify as non-binary; those who identify as disabled; and the lived experience of people of the global majority.
Commissions and credits include shows that engage with communities historically underserved by theatre offerings including: queer communities (Very Special Guest Star, Omnibus Theatre London; I Ain’t Dumb, Belgrade Theatre Coventry; Clown Sex, VAULT Festival London, Edinburgh Festival, Wardrobe Theatre Bristol), people living with disability (Live To Tell: A Proposal for the Madonna Musical, Omnibus Theatre London, Camden People’s Theatre London), and those from the global majority (Black Power Desk, premiering 2025). Other shows in development include the disability-led musical Lesbian Pirates! and coastal musical With Courage. Via their Dark Room scheme, China Plate is supporting Steph through the ongoing development of Black Power Desk.
Steph has worked for and with a whole range of organisations including China Plate, Reading Rep, Reading Fringe Festival, Fizzy Sherbet, Tonic Theatre, and Inspector Sands.
Zsuzsi Lindsay
Cultural Placemaking Officer, Reading Borough Council
Zsuzsi is the Cultural Placemaking Officer for Reading Borough Council, supporting both the Cultural Services and the Housing and Development Team.
She has worked in the creative sector for the last 20 years in both in the UK and abroad.
As a result of her experiences, she has developed a passion for delivering and designing cultural projects with social impact outcomes. Seeing first-hand the impact that cultural projects can have on wellbeing, sense of self and place, community building and academic achievement.
Outside of her role as Cultural Placemaking Officer she is a mum of three, founder of the Reading Fringe Festival, space animator, planet protector and keen novice biker.
Sally Orr
Dramatherapist & Youth Theatre director
Sally specialises in children and teenagers with a passion for supporting mental health through drama and finding out what issues her groups can use to explore their own experience in life- through drama and all the creative arts, using drama, music, movement and the visual arts .
She has run her youth theatre DQ Brighton for nearly 20 years and has produced and directed numerous plays around Brighton with her enthusiastic groups , connecting with funding partners in the UK, including UK Youth for teenagers and AGE UK, with arts groups for older people . She has a strong belief in arts for all whatever your ability.
Sally has also worked in education as a Dramatherapist, and more recently with East Sussex Discovery college and Culture Shift CIO to run creative groups to support the mental health of local 11-20 years olds . This has been a huge positive learning curve and also she has also learnt how to make Street Art! She has also worked in the NHS for 30 years as a Registered nurse practitioner , supervisor and learning mentor.