About.
Kayleigh is a theatre director, facilitator and producer living in Manchester. She
creates reinterpretations of classics, interactive and site-responsive work and digital experiences.
“I seek to facilitate democratic rehearsal processes with a focus on collaboration and co-creation. I believe wholeheartedly in social mobility and in theatre as a public service and seek to create and enable theatrical work which retains it’s entertainment value whilst expanding expectations of form, quality and ultimately ourselves. Born and raised in Essex, I moved to Manchester nearly 10 years ago after having lived in Japan, London and New Zealand. I am particularly interested in using music, movement, gaming and digital technology to layer meaningful experiences and engaging communities and young people to explore their own creativity.”
Kayleigh was long-listed for the JMK Directors Award 2021 & 2023; shortlisted for Les Enfants Terribles Award for Best Girl by by Christine Mackie (Downton Abbey/Coronation Street); won GM Fringe Award for Best Comedy Play & Manchester Theatre Award for Best Fringe Performance for The Loves of Others & received a JMK bursary & Leverhulme Arts Scholarship to assistant direct Javaad Alipoor (The Believers Are But Brothers) & Kirsty Housley (The Encounter - Complicite) on Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Scotsman Fringe First 2019 / Sundance 2021).
She co-founded the ACE funded Shakespeare partnership between Hope Mill Theatre & Girl Gang for which she directed Lear (2023), Much Ado About Nothing (2022), Hamlet (2018) & Romeo & Juliet (2019) & co-produced Taming of the ‘Shrew’ (dir. Hannah Ellis Ryan & Amy Gavin) & A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Kate Colgrave Pope). She has directed work at Shakespeare North Playhouse, Hope Mill, Pleasance Courtyard, Lowry, Oldham Coliseum, Hidden Door Festival, 53two etc & has received commissions by & created new work at Royal Exchange, Contact, HOME (as Associate Artist with supported company Babel Theatre), Dukes Lancaster, Oldham Coliseum (Venues North supported production) & Unity Theatre.
Kayleigh works extensively with young people & vulnerable groups. She has facilitated for Royal Exchange, Barbican at HOME with Tamasha, Cardboard Citizens, Futures Theatre, NCS, Talk the Talk etc. She has trained actors at LIPA, (Liverpool Insitute for Performing Arts), Rose Bruford, ALRA North (Academy of Live and Dramatic Art), ICTheatre (Institute of Contemporary Theatre) and Hope Aria Academy and couches for LAMDA exams.