Companies & Artists

FONT is a collection of artists from Nottingham and the surrounding area. These are artists that have performed at previous years' festivals, will be performing at this year's FONT or support our aims for making Nottingham a hub for new work. These artists include:

2Magpies

2Magpies is a Nottingham-based theatre company with an eye for inquiry. We create new and exciting devised live performance in unique site-responsive locations in Nottingham and beyond, previously making work performed in restaurants and motorway underpasses. Our work seeks to forge mutually beneficial business links fuelling the local economy and promoting independent businesses.

Act 2

Act 2 is a new writing company and development platform for emerging playwrights and theatre-makers. We develop new performance work through staged readings using Nottingham based actors and creatives whilst providing dramaturgical feedback to writers through written reports, round the table readings and from audiences at public sharing events.

The Actors Workshop

The Actors Workshop strives to nurture new talent, enhance the skills of experienced actors and provide opportunities to develop careers in the industry. Our sessions are delivered by top professionals bringing both quality and variety to our classes. Our friendly weekly workshops run Monday and Wednesday evenings in the city centre. If you would like to be part of The Actors Workshop please get in touch.


Andrew 'MulletProof' Graves

Described as “Blisteringly brilliant’, Andrew ‘Mulletproof’ Gravesregularly tours the UK and he has been featured on 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews Show and the recent BBC Four documentary Evidently John Cooper Clarke. His latest collection, Light At The End Of The Tenner, was released in 2014 and he is currently touring with his brand new show God Save The Teen.


Andy Szpuk, with Paul Quadros

Andy Szpuk is the writer and performer of Austerity Café as well as other works of literature. He is a member of DIY POETS. Paul Quadros plays guitar, and makes the coffee, as well as playing trombone with local acts such as Fat Digester, The Last Pedestrians and the Invisible Orchestra.

Ash Dickinson

Ash Dickinson is a multiple slam champion, including Edinburgh,Cheltenham and BBC Radio. He has performed in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Spain, Jordan, Germany and headlined many shows and festivals throughout the UK. "Impressive wordplay" - The Times.

Ava Hunt

Ava trained as an actor working in TV, film and theatre for over thirty years including Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, etc. She has also worked as director Nottingham Playhouse, youth theatre at Derby Theatre, Shared Experience producer/programmer Hull Truck Theatre and as a Senior Lecturer at Derby University. She lives in Derbyshire and plays sax for Cromford Community Band.

Ben Davies 

Ben is a comedian from Nottingham who played FONT Fest's Rough Cuts at Rough Trade event in 2015.


Ben Norris

Ben Norris is an actor, writer, and UK All-Star Poetry Slam Champion. He has performed all over the country, from Latitude to the Royal Festival Hall, had his work broadcast numerous times on BBC Radio and last year performed his award winning solo show to 5-star reviews and sell-out crowds at Underbelly in the Edinburgh Fringe.

Bread&Roses

Bread&Roses wants to provoke debate and questioning. They delve behind the labels and stereotypes that plague our society and give stigmatised communities their voice back. The audience is at the heart of all of their performances. By using live music, song, dance puppetry and comedy they make politics accessible and entertaining for a wide variety of people.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill is an actor and writer, born and raised in Fort Nottzbut resident in LDN. As a writer, Daniel’s show about Nottingham, Our Style is Legendary, sold out off West End and at the Nottingham Playhouse before being offered a transfer to the Theatre Royal. As an actor Daniel has worked regularly at the Nottingham Playhouse, as well appearing on stages and TV sets around the world. Daniel is in Doctor Who alongside Peter Capaldi and with Johnny Depp in the new Alice in Wonderland film, coming out in 2016. Yer get meh?

Daniel Nicholas

Daniel Nicholas is a lot of things, but he tells people that he’s a writer and a comedian. Whether they believe him or not is another story. Sometimes he does other things though, he is one of the hosts for Conversation Garden, alongside Jack Britton and Lewys Holt. And is not averse to making non-funny things.


Fowl Humour

Fowl Humour is a Nottingham based theatre and comedy company that explores the use of comedy in performance. Producing award winning comedy nights, the company started in 2012 before focusing their attention to producing theatre earlier this year. As a theatre company they hope to provide a platform for comedy performance and new writing.


The Gramophones

The Gramophones are a playful, female theatre company, who devise witty honest theatre with a twinkle in its eye. We place the audience at the centre of our performances; taking them on a journey we spark the imagination, making eyes bright and chests warm. Colourful characters, playful physicality, and inventive storytelling come together to create accessible theatre that roars with mirth and beauty.


HandMade Theatre

HandMade Theatre makes unique, interdisciplinary work with performance at its heart. We specialise in making interactive performances, which engage our audience in unusual ways. We make artwork primarily for families, telling stories through creative happenings and live performance. We believe the best ideas come through collaboration and participation - therefore we facilitate every event to be unique, tailored by those of any age who join us in play.

Jack Boyles

Jack is a comedian from Nottingham who played FONT Fest's Rough Cuts at Rough Trade event in 2015. 


Jack A.G. Britton

Jack A.G. Britton is a performance maker and performer based in Leicester. He makes theatre, comedy, music and other stuff and is an associate artist with Derby Theatre’s In Good Company. He combines elements of comedy, storytelling, low-fi technology, audience interaction and physicality to create informal and contemplative work.

Jack Burrows

Jack Burrows is a Mansfield based writer; his most recent works beingDreadful Objects So Familiar and Suddenly. Jack’s monologue Absence of Consequence was picked for last year’s No Lie Notts competition, run by Act 2, for Font Fest 2015. He says "It was wonderful to be a part of such a great event, highlighting great new work in Nottingham."

Kayleigh Phillips

Kayleigh Phillips is a Nottingham born writer. Measuring Us was her second piece of writing and first to be seen by an audience. Since FONT Fest 2015, she have written a 50 minute play and an 80 minute play. She is also part of Write Club that meets at Nottingham Playhouse - She tends to use lots of characters in her plays and staying true to her roots, there is always an East Midlands twang to her writing.

LaPelle's Factory

LaPelle’s Factory is a provocative and playful contemporary performance company based in Nottingham. LaPelle’s Factory is sometimes mysterious and otherworldly, sometimes simple and straight down the line. We’re messy people. We like laughing at ourselves and challenging each other. Anyone who’s up for being disturbed and delighted is invited along for the ride. We collaborate with a mixed bag of artists to re-imagine and recycle, tying ourselves in knots and trying not to over-think it.


Lewys Holt

Lewys is a freelance dance artist working in North Yorkshire and the East Midlands, UK. His work takes the form of performer, improviser, producer and choreographer. Lewys will present a work in progress excerpt of his new solo piece, Of, Or At A Fairly Low Temperature, developed in partnership with Nottingham's Dance4 and will perform in a dance improvisation with fellow dance artists.

Little Wolf Parade

Little Wolf Parade produce and curate work of Live and Performance Artists in Nottingham. We put on big events or fit into other existing festivals, and provide workshops in Performance Art and Live Art. We aim to explore different spaces and how to present this form of art to different audiences.

Louise White

Louise White makes devised theatre with participation at its heart. Passionate about theatre without a forth-wall, Louise’s work is highly interactive – producing works that create a sense of community within her audiences. With a mix of autobiography, social contexts, and a pinch of the ridiculous, Louise conjures up fun experiences that are all about breaking down social boundaries.

Major Labia

Major Labia are a comedy collective of witty women. Graduates of the BAFTA-winning Television Workshop, the group has strong improvisational skills, and their approach to exploring representation is more raucous than righteous. Major Labia are here to offer an amusing look at society’s treatment of women, and are convinced that their sketch using Lady Macbeth’s 'Out damned spot’ speech to vilify tampon tax, was the sole cause of Call Me Dave’s recent arrival of humanity on the issue.


Michelle Mother Hubbard

Michelle Mother Hubbard is a Nottingham based poet, storyteller, African drummer, workshop facilitator, community activist. She is a founder member and co-ordinator of Nottingham's longest running monthly spoken word open mic event BLACKDROP, now in its 13th year. BLACKDROP is the first Thursday of every month, currently held at The Lofthouse in the LaceMarket.


Mouthy Poets

Mouthy Poets is a collective of 50 young people, supporting each other to develop their voices and tell their stories. We believe that young people are capable of great, hilarious and challenging things. If there isn't vocabulary for our hardship, our experiences – we develop our own.


Next Door Dance

Next Door Dance is a local dance company, for local people. We aim to work across communities in Nottinghamshire, bringing dance directly to their doorstep. Formed in May 2014, Next Door Dance is made up of five dance artists who work extensively across Nottinghamshire; teaching, making and project managing.

Nonsuch Theatre

Nonsuch Theatre is an international physical theatre company based inNottingham. A collective of performers from six European nations, Nonsuch create original contemporary devised performance, work across the UK delivering high quality educational and outreach projects and collaborate with creative spaces to produce exciting and inspiring events.


Olwen Davies

Olwen Davies is a performance maker, artist, writer and actor. Olwen is co-­founder and co-­artistic director of LaPelle’s Factory. Olwen collaborates with performance companies and artists along side making solo work. With an interest in the repossession of cultural images on screen, comedy and the uses of recorded and live moments in performance, Olwen creates work that explores the audience’s relationship with technology and with each other.


Plain and Simple Theatre Company

The Plain and Simple Theatre Company aims to engage, enthuse and entertain audiences with evocative and provocative stories told with heart, soul, and smiles. Our brilliant team has performed at theatres, arts centres, comedy clubs, village and community halls, schools, churches, restaurants, pub rooms, offices and living rooms.


Russian-Red

Jodie & Greg Russian-Red are installation and performance artists who create immersive experiences exploring the political and emotional aspects of life as an artist in all its glamorous, slap-dash, boring and shambolic beauty. Jodie comes up with most of the ideas and Greg serves as the eye candy.


Saraa Rain

Saraa Rain is a writer and spoken word artist from Nottingham who has written and performed at festivals, theatres and events over the last 13 years throughout the UK. She is also a member of the Blackdrop Poetry Collective. Saraa’s writing confronts societal issues such as ‘race’, gender, relationships and everything, in, around and out of the box.


Sheep Soup Productions

Sheep Soup is a young company that has evolved alongside The Television Workshop, with a focus on creating dynamic, accessible and collaborative original theatre. Following the success of Curse Of The Devil's Verse (Nottingham Playhouse, Edinburgh Fringe and Leeds Carriageworks) and Mrs Green: The Musical (Nottingham Playhouse, Leicester Curve, Edinburgh Fringe) Sheep Soup are back with a sketch show to get you going.

Studio 82

Studio 82 are a Nottinghamshire based theatre company focussed on developing and producing new writing; predominantly by Jack Burrows, with the aim of working with other writers in the future. We aim to have the plot fit into a sentence and the themes into a paragraph, whilst also invoking conversation amongst the audience once the piece is done.

Zoo Indigo

Zoo Indigo is a contemporary performance company based inNottingham, playing with the innovative integration of new technologies. Through the use of humour, popular music and the reprocessing of cultural images fused with autobiography, the company explores the banalities of the everyday juxtaposed to the grandeur of the cinematic.