Laurie took up his role as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Northern Broadsides in June 2019. His work for Northern Broadsides includes Christmas Broadsides, Quality Street, The Aftermath and As You Like It.

Between 2012 and 2016 Laurie was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS)  for whom he directed The James Plays trilogy by Rona Munro. They premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014, where he won a Herald Angel, before transferring to the National Theatre in London, where they won the Evening Standard and Writers’ Guild Awards for Best Play. In 2022, Laurie returned to Scotland to direct James IV: Queen of the Fight.

Also for NTS he directed his own adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat, and The 306: Dawn.

Previously he was Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate where he directed the European premieres of Tennessee Williams’ Spring Storm and Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, both transferring to the National Theatre, London, and winning him the 2010 TMA Award for Best Director and a nomination for Best Director at the Evening Standard Awards. He also directed new versions of The Bacchae, Blood Wedding and Hedda Gabler as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Frankenstein (with Frantic Assembly), The Duchess of Malfi, Follies and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

He has directed for theatres around the UK including the Traverse, Birmingham Rep, Salisbury Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, The New Vic, Leeds Playhouse and the National Theatre.

At the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, where he was the Associate Director to Alan Ayckbourn, he directed over 20 new plays including Villette (with Frantic Assembly) and a micro-musical season. His Watford Palace production of Dangerous Corner was re-mounted at Leeds Playhouse and transferred to the Garrick Theatre, West End in 2002. He also directed Kiss of the Spiderwoman at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Nightfall at The Bridge Theatre and Genesis Inc. at Hampstead Theatre.

Sarah looks after our finances. With a background in event management, she’s worked in production, administrative, and senior management roles in the arts and now specialises in finance and company management.  

Alongside her role with us, Sarah is a freelance practitioner working with various arts & cultural organisations. Previous to Northern Broadsides, she was the Executive Director for Unlimited Theatre. She oversaw their transition from a producing model to a grant-making model in 2023 and continues to manage the charity behind the scenes as their General Manager. She is also a Company Director for Designing Dialogue (S.H.E.D), a spin-out CIC from the University of Derby. 

Shazia is someone who is deeply passionate about cultural enrichment and is motivated by the profound impact that the arts have on shaping societies, fostering unity, and preserving the rich tapestry of our different cultures and diasporas. Shazia has had the opportunity to work as a producer in theatre, film and visual arts across North West. Shazia believes collaboration and transparency is key because it leads to valuable interactive experiences for the team, stakeholders, community and audiences. More information about Shazia can be found here: www.shaziabibi.com

Lucy is a freelance artist and facilitator.

Over the past few years, she has contributed to the local arts scene with performances, workshops and collaborative works.

More recently, she has developed a comprehensive arts programme for Sowerby Bridge Fire & Water, a local grass-roots community arts centre.

In her personal practice, Lucy specialises in mixed media art.

She has produced various, often immersive, events in Manchester and Sowerby Bridge.

Lucy is dedicated to fostering inclusive and supportive artistic environments and is a mental health first aider. 

Beyond her professional work she enjoys making her own clothes, printmaking, wild swimming, singing, writing and attending live music events.

Lucinda has worked in theatre production; human resources and welcoming disabled people since 1993 – in the West End; across the UK; in subsidised and commercial theatre companies.  For many years, she has negotiated and advised on working conditions of workers in the theatre industry.  Lucinda put the first audio-descriptions into the West End and many regional theatres as Director of VOCALEYES; ran a major access campaign for the Mayor’s office and set up the Relaxed Performance Project. 

 In 2015 Lucinda moved to Manchester from London to form her HR consultancy.  She works with small, middle and large-scale dance, opera and theatre companies on all things difficult (investigations, any type of goodbyes, training, writing contracts and policies or devising tailor-made solutions for the way forward).  

Alicia has worked in theatre for over 20 years and has taken on various roles in that time as an actor, facilitator and art’s administrator. She started out as a mentor with the National Youth Theatre which led onto more facilitation work various companies. She worked at the Unicorn Theatre as Finance and Education Officer and then as Assistant Youth Theatre Director. She was also Head of Children’s theatre at East End Shed. Nowadays she still wears several hats as an actor, musician, storyteller, facilitator and teacher. She has performed with Northern Broadsides in their touring production of Quality Street.

Nelli is a Finnish born, non-binary creative currently living in Scarborough. They’re passionate about asking questions others might not, advocating for marginalised voices to be heard – and included – in the theatre industry. While studying Drama at York St John’s University, Nelli fell in love with Samuel Beckett’s works which in turn inspired them to write their own absurdist material.

 Their current day job is a double whammy of Assistant Producing and Talent Development Co-ordinating at Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.

Andy is a financial professional with charitable ambition, desiring to use his skills and expertise to support and enable worthy not-for-profit activity. He trained as a chartered accountant within local accountancy practice in East Yorkshire and in 2015 joined Hull Truck Theatre as Financial Controller, playing a key behind-the-scenes role during the excitement and intensity of Hull 2017 UK City of Culture. In late 2018 Andy took up his current appointment as Finance Director of Hull Churches Housing Association.

The aims of Northern Broadsides to be sustainable, compassionate and irreverent in everything chime strongly with Andy’s personal values. He passionately believes that art makes life better and is delighted to be serving as a trustee of the company.

Jesse works on climate change, mainly with projects about government policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. She collaborates with campaigners, scientists, communities, companies, and media around the world, including in Europe, Africa, China. Her day job as a director of thinktank Agora Energiewende sometimes requires wearing a suit, while her weekend activities sometimes involve protests with costumes, banners and uncomfortable campsites.

Lucy is currently the MA Acting Course Leader at ALRA North. She is a theatre director who trained on the MFA Theatre Directing course at Birkbeck, the National Theatre Studio Directors Course led by Katie Mitchell and RADA. She then trained and was resident at the Royal Exchange Theatre under Sarah Frankcom. Lucy was Artistic Director of award winning theatre company, Changing Face, from 2014-2017. She has directed for the Southwark Playhouse, Arcola, York Theatre Royal, Bristol Old Vic, Oxford Playhouse, Park Theatre and Queens Theatre Hornchurch, amongst others. She has been an associate and assistant director for the Bristol Old Vic, Royal Exchange, RADA, and the Young Vic. Lucy has worked in drama schools for several years including East 15, Mountview, Fourth Monkey, Identity, ALRA and RADA.

Karl is an educator and the managing director of The PurpleDoor, the UK’s first truly free theatre. Through research with the Shakespeare Institute and fifteen years of experience in participatory and outreach arts, Karl has published research into working-class engagement with theatre and had work funded by the Arts Council and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. His work for stage and screen has toured the UK and Ireland and won numerous awards. He is the editor of Educate Yourself, a new collection of essays designed to bring empathy in education around some of the most pressing topics of the 21st century.

We write as burn, create visual-sound-and-perform as gobscure. We use plural as a reflection of our broken-mind. We’re Artistic Associates with Museum of Homelessness and Disability Arts Online (both lived experiences). Our last play joey was a testing ground commission (New Wolsey Theatre) in association with Greyscale, published by Aurora Metro, named ‘experiment of the year’, British Theatre Guide. From being a teenager under Thatcher to ‘rewriting the future’ with real creative resistances. provoked 2 madness by the brutality of wealth currently tours supported by BOOST: the Third Angel Mentoring Scheme and is about our revenge (13 years of reading, graduating from Open University, 2016) on one ‘support workers’ what dya need books for yr homeless? Currently turning mazer (part of Northern Broadsides’ Digital Squad) into a full length play.