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
2026 winter PROGRAMME
Managing budgets
Delivered by Kirsty Reilly
Date: Monday 2 (10am) - Tuesday 3 February (6pm), 2026
Online
This hour long session led by our very own Director of Producing and Administration Kirsty Reilly will focus on the important aspects of financial knowledge in creative projects such as learning the basics of finance, practical skills such as how to put together and balance a budget, types of budgets and more.
Kirsty Reilly is a Midlands based experienced arts manager. She has previous experience in finance, operations, HR, strategy development, and project management. Kirsty has worked as Company Manager at Live & Local and Development Officer at Earthfall Dance. Kirsty is a graduate of Aberystwyth University and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She also holds an AAT Level 3 Qualification in Accounting.
how you reframe your creative work for different settings
Delivered by Deanna Rodger
Date: Wednesday 25 (11am) - Thursday 26 February (6pm), 2026
Online
The talented Deanna Rodger is back with a fabulous workshop outlining how to rework your existing projects into performable pieces. Ever wondered how to develop a short story or poem into a performance piece, or adapt a scripted scene into a standalone monologue?
Deanna Rodger is an international poet, performer and facilitator. She featured on The Art That Made Us (BBC1) and her reimagined version of ‘If’ 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 commissions include; Adidas, FIFA, St Paul’s Cathedral, Nationwide, Young Vic, and Amnesty International. She is the recipient of a number of grants and residencies.
how to produce a memorable event
Delivered by Esther Afikiruweh
Date: Thursday 12 (6pm) - Friday 13 March (10am), 2026
Online
Tangle’s Associate Producer Esther is here with a crash course on how to produce and event manage a memorable production. From an initial idea to planning, pre production and the management of the event, this workshop will give you the important building blocks for a successful production.
Esther is a freelance creative practitioner with a passion for bringing bold ideas to life. She has wide-ranging experience producing and programming artistic festivals, experiential projects, combined arts, TV, and heritage events. She specialises in combined arts and is passionate about using creativity as a tool for social change. Her skills include artist development, producing, project management, and coordinating artistic programmes across cultural sectors.
2025 AUTUMN PROGRAMME
getting the most out of woven
Delivered by Edson Burton
Dates: 9 & 13 October, 2025
Locations: Swindon (Create Studios) & Southampton (Mayflower Studios)
Kickstarting our 2025 autumn WOVEN programme, Edson Burton welcomed WOVEN participants in Southampton and Swindon, shared his practice and gave vital career advice before seeing JULIUS CAESAR on tour.
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. He has worked as a consultant and coordinator for a range of national and regional history based projects.
Getting to grips with Arts Council Funding
Delivered by Ruth Kapadia
Dates: 15 - 16 October, 2025
Online
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.
presenting your art
Delivered by Deanna Rodger
Dates: 5 - 6 November, 2025
Online
This hour-long session offered a wide variety of ways to share our creative practice. Packed with group and solo exercises and activities, WOVEN participants explored loud and quiet approaches, short bursts and long-term campaigns, and left 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’ 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 commissions include; Adidas, FIFA, St Paul’s Cathedral, Nationwide, Young Vic, andAmnesty International. She is the recipient of a number of grants and residencies.
creative FACILITATION: using your artform to lead sessions
Delivered by Sydney K Smith
Dates: 25 - 26 November, 2025
Locations: Swindon (Create Studios) & Southampton (Mayflower Studios)
This workshop was designed to teach artists how to use their creative practice as a powerful tool for guiding discussions, workshops, and collaborative sessions. The workshop covered facilitation fundamentals while helping artists discover how their 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. 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.
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.”