Our aim is to dig out untold stories and present them to audiences in engaging ways. Each production blends distinctive writing with adventurous staging, and involves working alongside communities in the creation of the work. Our process is driven by curiosity. We want to get to know the people in a particular place and find the story that needs to be listened to.
Ein nod yw cloddio straeon sydd heb eu dweud, a’u cyflwyno i gynulleidfaoedd mewn ffyrdd gafaelgar. Mae pob cynhyrchiad yn cyfuno ysgrifennu unigryw â llwyfannu anturus, a chyd-weithio ochr yn ochr â chymunedau. Caiff ein proses ei yrru gan chwilfrydedd. Rydyn ni am ddod i adnabod pobl mewn mannau penodol, a darganfod y stori sy’n mynnu cael ei chlywed.
Creative Team / Tim Creadigol
Papertrail is led by Artistic Director, Bridget Keehan, supported by our current Artistic Associates Jonny Cotsen & Siân Owen.
Bridget has created theatre for Alma Theatre, thecpr.org.uk, shermantheatre.co.uk, nationaltheatrewales.org & theatrclwyd.com. She developed her directing skills with Eugenio Barba, Elen Bowman, Katie Mitchell and Ian Rickson. Bridget has facilitated performance and writing projects in a wide range of settings, including prisons and young offender institutions. For several years she was Writer-in-Residence at HMP Cardiff where she established a prison magazine and directed several theatre productions. She has worked in Literature development for The Africa Centre in Covent Garden and for Literature Wales, and was Director of Community Engagement for Sherman Cymru. She holds a doctorate on theatre in prisons and has taught at the University of South Wales and the University of Birmingham. She was Leverhulme Artist in Residence at Swansea University and currently teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Jonny Cotsen is a performance artist and consultant for inclusion in the arts. He is a keen advocate for better access in the Arts and wrote the Arts Council Wales’ Toolkit for venues and theatre companies, which provides guidance on how to improve access for Deaf audiences in Wales. He also runs inclusive drama workshops and is a Deaf Equality trainer for people with and without disabilities.
Jonny’s performance credits include: ‘Louder Is Not Always Clearer’ (Mr & Mrs Clarke) ‘English’ (Quarantine and National Theatre Wales), ‘Ways Of Being Together’ (Jo Fong) & City Road Stories (Sherman Theatre).
He is part of the British Council’s Connections Through Culture: India-UK Together, and is working in collaboration with an Access Consultant based in Mumbai with the aim to design a Manifesto For Accessible Arts Festival (MAAF). Jonny’s story features in a documentary ‘Born Deaf, Raised Hearing’ part of the ‘Our Lives’ series for the BBC. He began working with Papertrail in 2019 and is delighted to begin work on developing a new show with the company.
Siân was born and raised in Newport, South Wales. She is a graduate of the MA Writing for Performance Programme at Goldsmiths College. Her play RESTORATION won the Oxford Playhouse New Writing Competition. She has been part of the Sherman Cymru Advanced Writers Group and the Royal Court Studio Group. She has been part of the invitational BBC Writers Group-Welsh Voices and was long-listed for the BBC/NTW Wales Writer in Residence Scheme 2019. She is currently on attachment at the National Theatre.
Recent theatre includes UNDER MILK WOOD (additional material) for the National Theatre. HOW TO BE BRAVE for Dirty Protest (Welsh tour and Edinburgh Fringe)
Her recent Radio 4 play “Another Place” was nominated for Best European Radio Fiction of the Year at The Prix Europa Awards 2021.
Siân is currently under commission at the National Theatre and Box of Tricks Theatre Company. She began working with Papertrail in 2020 and through the company’s association with Clean Break is writing a new play, Visits, rooted in the stories of women and children separated by imprisonment.
Board Members
Suzanne has been working in arts, cultural and events marketing for over 20 years. She trained as a journalist at University of Wales, Cardiff. While working as a radio presenter and news reporter she got her first taste of promotion and marketing. Since then Suzanne has acquired a professional diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has worked with local authorities, charities, cultural organisations and was Marketing Manager for Blaenau Gwent Council, Sherman Theatre and more recently she was Marketing Director for National Dance Company Wales. She now works freelance as a Marketing and Communications Consultant.
Branwen is a playwright, theatre maker, director and performance lecturer based in Cardiff and works in Welsh and English. She is a member of Dirty Protest and is Co-Director of Os Nad Nawr theatre company. Branwen has a doctorate in new writing and has collaborated and worked with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Sherman Theatre, Papertrail, Criw Brwd, Dirty Protest, Agent 160, Frân Wen and Sgript Cymru. Branwen is currently Literature Manager at the Sherman Theatre.
Amanda is Associate Professor in Human Geography and the Geohumanities based at Swansea University. Once upon a time, she worked in theatre as a stage manager, director and assistant producer, but now tends to write about practitioners rather than being one.
Her research forges interdisciplinary connections between Cultural Geography and Theatre Studies on a variety of fronts, but themes of racial diversity, transnationalism and geopolitics form the main focus of her work. She is particularly interested in the relationship between war and performance, and currently researches arts revival, reconstruction and development in post-conflict societies, notably Cambodia. Amanda is committed to the politics of diversity and to highlighting the experiences of marginalised groups.