What is WOVEN?
Based in Swindon and Southampton, the WOVEN network offers opportunities for peer-led meetings, soft skills training and practical theatre workshops, social events, and sharing projects and working practices. Our hope is to build a community where members with diverse skillsets can connect, form working relationships and support each other.
Whilst theatre is our passion, we welcome African, Caribbean and Global Majority creatives working in any live performance artform to join us in sharing and embarking on this journey together.
How did WOVEN start?
Tangle’s Artistic Director Anna Coombs started WOVEN in 2023 as a safe space for African, Caribbean and Global Majority creatives to meet and connect as an artist-led community.
How to Join:
WOVEN is free to join. In some circumstances we remunerate participants for their travel costs and time.
To find out more, please email our Associate Producer Esther Afikiruweh on ap@tangletheatre.co.uk
AUTUMN & WINTER PROGRAMME
getting the most out of woven
Delivered by Edson Burton
We’re kicking off our WOVEN programme with Edson Burton who will meet with everyone, share his practice and give vital advice when it comes to developing your artform.
Dr Edson Burton is a poet, and writer of drama for radio, stage and screen. His work has been produced by Show of Strength, Trinity Community Arts, and the Bristol Old Vic. He is co-founder of Black theatre company Dip & Fall Back and is Bristol Old Vic associate artist. Edson’s academic specialisms include: Afrofuturism, The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Race and Representation.
SOUTHAMPTON
Date: Thursday 9 October, 5:30pm - 6:45pm (followed by optional attendance of JULIUS CAESAR at 7:15pm)
Venue: Mayflower Studios (142, 144 Above Bar St, Southampton SO14 7DU)
SWINDON
Date: Monday 13 October, 2-4pm and 6-8pm
Venue: Create Studios (10 Carriage Works, London St, Swindon SN1 5FB)
getting to grips with arts council funding (online workshop)
Delivered by Ruth Kapadia
Ruth has been at Arts Council England for over 15 years, working in the diversity team, advising applicants and assessing grant applications. She previously worked in a small provincial theatre, for a mental health charity and for an artist development agency.
Away from work she loves to travel in India, and looks after rabbits when their people are away on holiday.
Dates: Wednesday 15 October, 6pm & Thursday 16 October, 12pm
Location: Online
Presenting your art (online workshop)
Delivered by Deanna Rodger
An hour-long session offering a range of ways to share your creative practice. Packed with group/solo exercises and activities, we will explore loud and quiet approaches, short bursts and long-term campaigns, and leave with a clearer sense of our style and where we might challenge ourselves.
Deanna Rodger is an international poet, performer and facilitator. She featured on The Art That Made Us (BBC1) and her reimagined version of ‘If’ which was read by Serena Williams for International Women's Day (BBC Sport). Her poetry has been welcomed across the world including Mexico, Sudan, and Lebanon and has been commissioned by Adidas, FIFA, St Paul’s Cathedral, Nationwide, Young Vic and Amnesty International.
Deanna is a Clore Fellow, a Pervasive Media Studio resident working with creative technology and poetry and founder of Who Knows Poetry, a creative facilitation training platform. From London, she lives in Bristol with her three daughters and husband.
Dates: Wednesday 5 November, 6pm & Thursday 6 November, 2pm
Location: Online
creative FACILITATION: using your artform to lead sessions
Delivered by Sydney K Smith
Building on techniques for communicating your creative practice, this workshop explores how to use your artistic skills and perspective to facilitate meaningful learning experiences. Learn how your unique creative approach can become a powerful tool for guiding discussions, workshops, and collaborative sessions. We'll cover facilitation fundamentals while helping you discover how your art form naturally lends itself to engaging and inspiring others in group settings.
Sydney was born in Ghana and moved to Greenwich, south-east London, as a child. The youngest of five siblings, he leaned on his imagination—through books and roleplay with friends—as a way to escape the everyday and search for something more. It was only natural that he found his way to acting.
He first joined Tangle in 2008 and has since enjoyed collaborating on a range of exciting projects. For Sydney, the greatest joy has been helping to bring creative communities together as part of the Tangle family.
As a performer, Sydney is passionate about improvisation and emotional truth in delivery. Recently, he has been working in film as well as appearing in several London West End productions.
Dates: Tuesday 25 November & Wednesday 26 November
Locations: Swindon (Create Studios) & Southampton (Mayflower Studios)
woven in swindon is Supported by
“Woven is a truly brilliant project that celebrates and provides valuable support to diverse communities within Swindon’s creative sphere. It is a project that is making a real difference to local people through building connections, providing opportunities, enhancing skills, and building confidence and that’s what Community Grants are all about.”