Fizzy Sherbet

Anna Girvan is a London based director. She is originally from Newcastle and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for an MA in Directing. Anna is passionate about giving platforms to under-represented voices and her proudest moment was working with Young Vic Taking Part creating a
piece of theatre with a company of 30 homeless people called Go Between.

As a Director her work in theatre includes Our Country’s Good at Tobacco Factory Theatres, Twelfth Night at the Southwark Playhouse, Rudolf at the Midlands Arts Centre, The Internet Was Made For Adults at the Vaults Festival, Go Between, Someone Else and Room 504 at the Young Vic. She will next be directing The Invisible Man for Northern Stage.

Assistant and Associate Director work includes Leopoldstadt at The Wyndham, Noises Off! at The Garrick, Exit the King, The Red Lion and The Beaux’ Stratagem at the National, People, Places and Things on UK tour, Hamlet and King Lear for the RSC and on UK and US tour, Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe and Happy Days at the Young Vic.

Athena Stevens is a writer, performer, director and social activist. She is the Artistic Director of Aegis Productions Ltd, the writer in residence at the Finborough Theatre and a Creative Council member and an Associate Artist at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. In 2019 she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for her play Schism. In 2021 Athena won the OFFIE Award for Best New Play for her play Scrounger.

Athena is a Trustee for the Young Women’s Trust, a Trustee for Theatre Deli, a Patron for Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, a co-founder of the Primadonna Literary Festival, a National Freelance Task Force member and a founding member of the Women’s Equality Party.

Born in Chicago, she now lives in London. Athena was born with athetoid cerebral palsy.

Lily McLeish is a British-German director working in theatre, dance, opera, film, video-installation & podcast. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Fizzy Sherbet. She is an associate artist and curator at gallery Seippel in Cologne. In 2021 she was OFFIE finalist for Best Director for her production of Scrounger and her audio production of White Tuesday won an international audio fiction podcasting award at The Sarahs in New York. She is associate director to Katie Mitchell on productions all over Europe, including live-cinema, operas and plays. www.lilymcleish.com

Tamara von Werthern is a German-British writer. She is the co-founder and producer of Fizzy Sherbet. Her plays are published with Nick Hern Books, other work includes poetry, essays and crime fiction. Awards include ‘Best Screenplay’ at Lift-Off Season Awards 2019. www.tamaravonwerthern.com

Josephine Starte is an award-winning writer-performer. Also an improv comic she’s an associate of Live Beasts, and co-founder of GUM improv. She is one of the co-hosts of the Fizzy Sherbet podcast. As an actor she has won Best Actress in the NoBudge Independent Film Awards and Best Duo in the LA Independent Short Awards. As a writer she’s been an invited drama fellow at the Alpine Fellowship’s Venice symposium, shortlisted for Screen Australia’s ROAR award and longlisted for the Bruntwood as a playwright, amongst other prizes.

Sophie Williams is the Author of Millennial Black & Anti-Racist Ally, Ted Speaker, Founder of @OfficialMillennialBlack, and Racial Equity Consultant. Sophie is a regular panelist, speaker, consultant, and workshop facilitator with a focus on anti-racism, and Diversity and Inclusion. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Bustle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Refinery29, Elle, and Grazia. In her day job, she is a Global Manager of Production Planning at Netflix.

Sophie is a regular panelist, speaker, consultant, and workshop facilitator with a focus on anti-racism, and Diversity and Inclusion. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Bustle, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Refinery29, Elle, and Grazia.

Sophie regularly hosts presentations, workshops and training sessions for businesses such as Apple, The Rio Ferdinand Foundation, UK Civil Service, Sky, and Cambridge University

Before beginning writing, Sophie had a career in advertising, particularly in social agencies, where she has held the positions of COO and CFO.

Photo credit: Rebecca Petts Pavis

Steph J Weller Steph is a theatre and festival producer, based in Reading. Via her company PlayWell Productions, Steph nurtures and commissions new work, including Live To Tell: (a Proposal for) The Madonna Musical, Sharks are Terrorists, and musicals Black Power Desk, and Lesbian Pirates! and With Courage. She produces the award-winning Reading Fringe Festival and the Fizzy Sherbet Podcast promoting work by women playwrights. Steph is an Old Vic 12 producer and holds a Stage One bursary for commercial producers. https://www.playwellproductions.co.uk

At the helm of Ameena Hamid Productions Ltd. is London based creative producer, festival curator and facilitator Ameena Hamid. Ameena’s work focuses on putting underrepresented voices centre stage and she is particularly passionate about increasing inclusivity and representation in theatre. Ameena has been heralded as “a true role model to the future generations” by Official London Theatre and is the youngest producer currently working and youngest ever female producer on the West End having cut her teeth as Associate Producer on Death Drop. https://www.ameenahamidproductions.co.uk