Actors Touring Company produces international contemporary theatre that travels – making the global, local and the local, global.
We are one of the only British theatre companies committed to producing international plays; and to touring the work of those global voices throughout the UK (and beyond).
Matthew Xia, one of British theatre’s most exciting talents, has been Artistic Director since 2019. Matthew brings with him fresh thinking about the global identities within contemporary British society. Matthew’s work explores voices from the cultures that make up our globe and our nation – and the ways in which they intersect.
- We create theatre with a global perspective
- We engage with the issues, the events and the changes that impact and affect all of us – across society – at this moment in history
- We are the only British theatre company dedicated to the production of international plays for UK audiences
- We give voice to ‘the other’, exploring cross-cultural and internationalism, how tribes and nations interact, exist with and effect one another in a hyperconnected world
- We place the actor at the heart of our ethos
- We employ a lean aesthetic which promotes environmental sustainability
OVER 110,000 PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD
have seen ATC’s productions since 2023.
MATTHEW XIA
Artistic Director
HELEN JEFFREYS
Interim Executive Director
Helen Jeffreys (she/her) has over 20 years’ experience in theatre as an Executive Director and Producer. Prior to working with ATC she was Executive Director and CEO of Tara Theatre and a trustee of the organisation. She is also currently CEO parental cover at City of London Sinfonia.
Helen has been Executive Director for Theatre Centre and Akademi South Asian Dance; General Manager and Producer at the Young Vic Theatre and General Manager at Hampstead Theatre. Helen also headed up the producing team at Bush Theatre. She began her career as a line producer at Almeida Theatre.
Helen has worked as a freelance consultant and evaluator for Arts Council England as well as numerous theatres across the UK.
JULIANA BEARSE
Administration Director
Juliana Bearse (she/her) is a theatre maker and producer from the New York. She received her Bachelor of Fine arts from the University of Connecticut.
Before moving to London, she worked professionally in New York in both administrative and creative roles in theatre, arts access, and community support.
She’s worked with theatre organizations including Theatre for a New Audience, The Rattlestick, The Wild Project, and the Lark. Her most recent work, with Repair the World NYC, focused on distributing supplies and resources to folks experiencing socioeconomical barriers in Central Brooklyn.
Juliana’s work focuses on keeping the HUMAN at the centre of every interaction.
Her goal in her administrative work is to be a conduit for clarity and to strengthen the foundation for all.
KATE ALHASHIMI
Finance Director
Kate (she/her) was born Baghdad Iraq and raised in East London; Kate’s traditional Arab name is Inaam-Catherine Alhashimi.
She trained in Technical Theatre and Stage Management at RADA before studying Arts Admin at Birkbeck College, University of London. Kate then spent over ten successful years as a Stage Manager for a variety of organisations including Birmingham Rep, the RSC, Unicorn Kids Theatre and in the West End.
Having moved into administration Kate worked for English Heritage, Soho Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Stratford East, before undertaking senior management contracts with Colchester Arts Centre, Culture&, Talawa Theatre Company, Oval House, Daily Life Ltd, Jacksons Lane, Discover Centre for Children, Eastern Angles, Shape East Architectural Centre and Hoxton Hall.
Current clients include Actors Touring Company, WeareUnit, and Curious Directive.
DUBHEASA LANIPEKUN
Associate Director
Dubheasa (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theatre maker, filmmaker and photographer, making work that interrogates the theme of liberation, and with a deep interest in the politicised lives of people. As a Director she has a particular focus on new writing, with work including: A Bit Salty (Bush Theatre, R&D), the pool (Talawa); Best Fit (Theatre Peckham); Union Jack (Riverside Studios); All My Daughters (Greenwich and Riverside Studios); Resurrections (Golden Goose); Bone (Omnibus); and Deb & Joan (Canal Café). As an Associate/Assistant Director, she has worked at venues including Almeida Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Kiln Theatre and Bush Theatre. She received dramaturgy training from The Royal Court on their Script Panel programme, has trained as a director on both the Springboard and Fresh Direction programmes at the Young Vic, and through StoneCrabs Theatre Company’s Directors In Practice programme. In her lens-based practice, she was a Sundance Institute Ignite Fellow, winning a place with her debut short film, Blue Corridor 15 (Dazed, BBC New Creatives, ICA).
Laila Alj is an actor, voiceover artist, and theatre producer from Casablanca, Morocco. She has an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University in the US and has 15 years of professional experience as a theatre practitioner.
Career highlights include ‘Bodies of Water’ (ATC), ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ (RSC), ‘Hakawatis’ (Globe Theatre), ‘Ignorance’ (Hampstead Theatre), ‘66 Minutes in Damascus’ (LIFT/Sao Paulo Biennale), ‘Mr. BigStuff’ (Sky), ‘Landscapers’ (Sky/HBO), ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ (Paramount), ‘Margaret White and the Alcoran of Mahomet’ (BBC 4), ‘French Like Faiza’ (BBC 3), ‘Lullaby’ (BBC 4).
She is a founding member of MENA Arts UK and also took part in Tamasha’s inaugural Digital Producing Traineeship. Currently, Laila is the producer at Theatro Technis, a proudly independent theatre in Camden.
Sudha Bhuchar (she/her) is an actor/playwright and a pioneering artistic leader. She is co-founder of Tamasha theatre company where she served as co-artistic director for 26 years.
She has written extensively for Tamasha and her landmark plays include Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral (winner of Barclays/TMA Best Musical) an adaptation of the booker shortlisted A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry, and Strictly Dandia (all with Kristine Landon-Smith). Her solo plays include The House of Bilquis bibi (Lorca’s The House of Bernada Alba transposed to contemporary Pakistan) and most recently the critically acclaimed My Name is… which Sudha also adapted for Radio 4.
Sudha’s extensive acting career includes Eastenders, Doctors and Casualty for the BBC, Stella for Sky tv, and most recently she played Sonia Rahman in Coronation Street. Theatre credits include Khandan by Gurpreet Bhatti and Sudha is a regular contributor on Radio 4.
Alan Evans (he/him) is General Counsel and Director General for Legal Services at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and a member of the department’s Executive Committee. Alan has held a number of other senior legal posts in government – including Legal Director at Defra and BEIS – and chaired and served on several departmental and cross government boards. Earlier in his career, Alan was a legal adviser to the Cabinet Office and at the European Commission. Prior to working in government, Alan practised international commercial litigation at law firms in the City of London. He is a past member of the Law Society’s European and Employment Law Committees.
Alan is passionate about theatre – regularly attending productions at a broad range of venues. He is also a strong advocate for diversity, including as a senior diversity champion in government over the last five years.
Sarita Godber currently works as Chief People Officer at the Science Museum Group. Her remit spans leadership of the People, Talent & Culture, Volunteering, Corporate Information, Health & Safety and Security functions across the group.
With experience of working across a range of sectors including museums, arts & culture, STEM higher education, non-profit and commercial, Sarita has extensive experience operating as an executive director, leading large teams to deliver organisational transformation and culture change. Prior to joining the Science Museum Group, Sarita worked as Director of HR and Organisational Development at City St George’s University, a specialist medical and health sciences university with a primary focus on enabling its cultural transformation. Sarita developed her career in the culture sector at the world-renowned arts complex, Southbank Centre, where she was instrumental in seeing the organisation through its major transformation programme.
Sarita is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, has performed a range of Trustee/Non-Exec roles including for charities as well as in primary education, and is a member of the Workforce Committee for the University of West London.
Sanpreet Janjua (she/her) is a fundraiser with experience in the arts and cultural charitable sector. She started her career as an Arts Fundraising Fellow through the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Fundraising Fellowship Programme. Having completed her Fellowship at Nottingham Playhouse, as well as a few years in post as Fundraising Officer, she is now Development Manager at Young Sounds UK.
Sanpreet is passionate about making artistic and creative experiences available to all. She also loves theatre, especially contemporary and new writing by often marginalised and overlooked writers.
Professor Nick Tyler (he/him) CBE FREng is the Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering at UCL and the Director of the UCL Centre for Transport Studies. Nick combines highly diverse fields in his research, from civil/transport engineering and architecture to neuroscience, psychology, physiology, ophthalmology, audiology, orthopaedics, lighting, olfaction, haptics, sound, and acoustics. He has a particular interest in performance arts and how the built environment enhances or detracts from these for either performers or audiences. To do this he has created a £50M massive (44,000m3) multiscale multisensorial Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL) to allow him and his team to study the interactions of environments, people and their activities at life-scale – as a means of ensuring that we design and construct environments that are accessible and enjoyable for everyone. He is a co-investigator of the UCL Ecological Brain Doctoral Training Programme and the RELIEF Centre, where he is working on social space in refugee camps in Beirut. Apart from research into access to trains and platforms for London Underground and London Buses, issues around hearing, seeing in urban environments, and navigation for people with dementia. Nick is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, and the Royal Society of Arts, and was appointed CBE in 2011.
Margherita Laera (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent. Her research focuses on the intersections between contemporary performance, modern languages and translation. She is co-Director of the European Theatre Research Network and the Arts Lead for the Kent’s Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme. Margherita is the author of Playwriting in Europe: Mapping Ecosystems and Practices with Fabulamundi (Routledge Focus, 2022); Theatre & Translation (Red Globe Press, 2019) and Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy (Peter Lang, 2013), and editor of Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat (Bloomsbury, 2014). Her website of teaching and learning resources, Performing International Plays, has been nominated as ‘Outstanding Drama Education Resource’ at the Music and Drama Education Awards 2022. Margherita also works as a theatre translator from and into Italian and English. She won the Theatre and Performance Research Association Early Career Research Prize for 2018.
Geraldine Brodie (she/her) is the Professor of Translation Theory and Theatre Translation and Vice-Dean (Advancement) at University College London. Her research centres on theatre translation practices in contemporary London, on which topic she speaks and publishes widely. Recent publications include her monograph The Translator on Stage (Bloomsbury, 2018) and the volume Adapting Translation for the Stage, co-edited with Emma Cole (Routledge, 2017). She is a member of the Clore Leader network, which draws its members from across arts, culture and the creative sector.
Geraldine is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. She has worked in audit, tax, professional development and graduate recruitment for KPMG in London and New York and is the director of a private property investment and management company specialising in the residential and commercial sectors in South East England.
She has served on a range of charitable, voluntary and industry boards and organisations, most recently including the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham and the Barbican Centre Trust. She is also a member of the Wates Foundation, an independent grant-making family trust supporting the charitable and voluntary sector.
Maria M Delgado (she/her) is an academic, critic and curator. Professor and Vice-Principal (Research and Knowledge Exchange) at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, she has published widely in the area of European theatre and Spanish-language theatre and film. Publications include Federico García Lorca (Routledge 2008), ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres (MUP 2003, revised Spanish language edition 2017), Contemporary European Theatre Directors (2nd edition, Routledge, 2020), Contemporary European Playwrights (Routledge, 2020), A Companion to Latin-American Cinema (Wiley Blackwell, 2017) and seven further co-edited volumes.
Her film work includes 25 years as a programme adviser on Spanish and Spanish-American cinema to the London Film Festival, and curatorial/programming work for the Ciné Lumière, ICA and BFI Southbank. Maria writes on film and theatre for a range of publications including Sight & Sound, The Theatre Times, and European Stages, and is a guest contributor to a range of BBC radio programmes. She is on the board of Governors of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and on the committee of the International Ibsen Award.
Eleni Gill (she/her) is a deputy director in the Government Legal Department (GLD), currently advising the Department for Education. Prior to that she held other senior lawyer posts in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Cabinet Office. Eleni is co-chair of GLD’s Pro Bono and Volunteering Network. She previously served for a number of years as an Independent Governor on the Board of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, including as a member of the Board’s diversity and inclusion committee. In her spare time Eleni engages in activities reflecting her lifelong love of theatre. She attends a diverse range of theatre performances regularly and enjoys being part of the volunteer team that stewards productions at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Feeroza Patel is a senior communications leader with 20 years experience across multiple disciplines covering corporate reputation, press and public affairs, brand development and multi-channel campaigns.
Her most recent role was as Director of Communications at London & Partners, the growth agency that promotes London, where she led the global PR, brand, crisis and internal communications teams.
Feeroza is passionate about theatre and the wider cultural sector and was previously a Board trustee at The House Mill, a grade II listed tidal mill in East London.
Teunkie is a Dutch-British theatre-maker. From 2019-2024 Teunkie was Creative Associate and then Head of Artistic Development at the Young Vic.
As director, his work includes the trilogy A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha’s Place and Clybourne Park at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam for Well Made Productions, awarded the 2017 Amsterdam Award for the Arts. He directed the Netherlands premieres of The Mountaintop (Meervaart), Waterdragers (Zuidelijk Toneel), Lungs (Compagnietheater) and Motortown (Rozentheater, Royal Theatre The Hague).
In the UK, he adapted and directed HATE after La Haine (Barbican, Oxford Samuel Beckett Trust Award shortlisted) and directed Yasser (Assembly Rooms Edinburgh; Arcola Theatre; Chopin Theater Chicago; Royal Theatre The Hague), Winter (Orange Tree Theatre), and Women Laughing (Old Red Lion, OFFIE Nomination Best Director). He co-devised Our National Health Stories’ 75th anniversary programme of the NHS at AVIVA Studios.
His debut play Tikkun Olam was produced by Original Theatre Company at Riverside Studios for its Originals Playwriting Award. His translations of David Eldridge, Simon Stephens, debbie tucker green, Katori Hall, Duncan Macmillan, Alfred Uhry and others have been performed by the National Theatre of the Netherlands, Senf and others. As script developer and consultant he has worked with Oostpool, Dailes Theatre Latvia, National Theatre of Kosovo and elsehwere.
Teunkie was Resident Director on ANNE: The Diaries Of Anne Frank On Stage at Theater Amsterdam, and worked at HOME, as Staff Director at the National Theatre and as Trainee Director at the Orange Tree Theatre.
CASTING
We have no casting opportunities at the moment. Usually we employ Casting Directors on all of our projects, and as such do not accept unsolicted CVs.
Team & PRODUCTIONS
We have no job opportunities at the moment.
SCRIPTS
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer a reading service or accept unsolicited scripts.
Please contact ATC’s publicist, Kate Hassell at Bread and Butter PR.
You can contact Kate on: 07921 264 564 or kate@breadandbutterpr.uk
TOURING INFORMATION
ATC tours in the UK and internationally. In this section, you will find information on our current projects. Please take a look at the information and get in touch if you’d like to discuss how we can visit you and your audiences.
CURRENTLY BOOKING
Please check back soon for more information on how to book our 2025 shows in your venue.
PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT
We have a portfolio of productions both in repetoire and in development, which are potentially available for UK and international touring. If you would like more information please contact us on atc@atctheatre.com
COMPANY POLICIES
