ABOUT US
WE ARE ZOO CO
Zoo Co is an award-winning theatre company creating powerful, playful productions which have performed to audiences across the UK and around the world. We are also a registered charity.
All of our performances are Relaxed Performances so everyone gets to feel comfortable in a theatre.We strongly believe in the power of engagement and that everyone should be able to participate.We believe that theatre is better when everybody is invited.A lot of our work is accessible for deaf audiences, using Creative Captioning and integrated British Sign Language.Our casts and creative teams include artists who are d/Deaf, disabled, neuro-diverse, hearing, non-disabled or neuro-typical.
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ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY
Zoo Co offers an extensive and dedicated attitude to creating valuable, meaningful and important engagement projects and opportunities.​ Zoo Co practitioners have facilitated workshops and projects with charities, companies, schools, colleges and universities including Delight, Croydon College, Coulsdon College, Cornerstone Arts Centre, Fourth Monkey Theatre Company, Royal Holloway University, Prospero Theatre and many other organisations. We dedicate ourselves to maintaining a sharing, generous attitude towards engagement work as a vital part of our creative output.
Our Team
Flo O'Mahony
Artistic Director
Maria Laumark
Assistant to the Artistic Director
Hannah Skaili
Assistant to the Creative Access Director
Michelle Hudson
Interim General Manager​
Fleur Rooth
Creative Access Director
Alannagh Cooke
Project Administrator
Tom Ryalls
Development Director​
Amy Smith
Executive Director
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Joshua Goodman
Night Shift Producer
Our Board
Ellie Claughton
(Chair)
Executive Director, Improbable
Ellie is a theatre producer specialising in company development and management of socially-engaged and participation-led touring theatre projects. She is currently Interim Executive Producer at Paines Plough and Co-Director of Barrel Organ and previously Senior Producer for LUNG Theatre and Breach Theatre. She began her career at Headlong and trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in MA Creative Producing. She is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for She Productions. She is also a faculty member of the CGO Institute.
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David Bellwood
Head of Access at the National Theatre
David has worked in theatre for over 20 years, having started as a dancer in the world tour of Riverdance. He is Head of Access, where he is responsible for physical and cognitive access to theatre productions and educational work for patrons, students, volunteers and staff. David has worked in a number of theatres both directly and as a consultant, and until 2021 was Access Manager at SHakespeare's Globe. On behalfShakespeare’s Globe, David accepted the Leonard Cheshire award for Most Inclusive Employer. Theatres he has consulted for include the Donmar, Old Voc and the National Youth Theatre.
He was chairperson at Deafinitely Theatre, a Deaf-led ACE NPO, as well as arts lead on the Southwark Dementia Action Alliance, working on infrastructural and social changes in the community to aid those living with dementia. He is currently He is an advocate for the inclusion of performers who are deaf, disabled and neurodivergent and works with several companies to promote inclusive work.
Grace Dickson
Freelance Producer & Co-Founder
Grace Dickson is a Newcastle-born producer, general manager and production accountant with a keen eye for powerful, socially relevant new writing, producing predominantly through her company Grace Dickson Productions. Grace works across the industry in roles including Associate Producer at Francesca Moody Productions, Producer for Lagahoo Productions, Accounts Assistant & Bookkeeper at Runaway Entertainment, and co-founder of HD General Management. Her recent work is supported by the Stage One Bursary for New Producers.
Che Ramsden
Strategy Consultant
Ché is a strategy consultant, and previously spent ~10 years in the charity sector. She is a school governor and a Trustee for People & Planet, and served on Unite the Union’s LGBT+ Committee. Her main interest is ensuring that people’s lived experience is at the heart of the pursuit of social justice. She has a longstanding commitment to the Arts and sings semi-professionally.
Robert Stephenson
Life Coach
Whilst he has an incredibly rich background in theatre and performance prior to coaching, he has also been involved with different aspects of higher education institutions. He has worked on degrees at several universities; running a module in Theatre and Education at Essex University, as well as contributing work to Anglia Ruskin's Masters in Education and the Arts. Initially training as an NLP Practitioner and hypnotherapist, then went on to pass his Diploma in Transformational Coaching, before adding a number of other accredited coach training courses to his toolkit, including David Drake's Narrative Coaching, Simon Western's Analytic Network Coaching, Peter Hawkins Advanced Coaching, and Claire Dale’s Physical Intelligence program.