Buckle for Dust is a company dedicated to telling stories.
We have a passion for new plays with a twisted take on the everyday world. We fight to create opportunities for theatre’s most distinctive voices. We believe that stories for the stage should be imaginative, metaphorical and visually brilliant.
Claire Birch - Creative Producer
Claire is a freelance producer and the Associate Producer at ETT.
For ETT productions include Rum and Coca Cola by Mustapha Mantura at West Yorkshire Playhouse and National Tour, Lovesong by Che Walker and Omar Lyefook at Brighton, Latitude and Edinburgh Festivals and National Tour, and various readings. She assisted on The Grapes of Wrath and The Hypochondriac which toured Autumn 2009.
Producing credits include: Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill at BAC for Caroline Steinbeis (winner of the JMK Director Award 2009), A Christmas Carol Jacksons Lane, December 2008, Dov and Ali by Anna Ziegler Theatre503 June 2008 and Cotton Wool by Ali Taylor Theatre503 in April 2008.
Claire produced the Royal Court Young Writers Festival 2006/07 including two productions; The Eleventh Capital and the Olivier Award Winning Gone Too Far as well as 8 readings. In March 2007 she produced Breakfast Hearts and Choirplay for Tickle Theatre Company at Theatre503.
As an assistant producer for London Artists Projects she worked on a wide range of projects and productions including the opera Elephant and Castle at the Aldeburgh Festival 2007. She has worked as a general manager for Magpie Dance and Jacksons Lane.
Lou Ramsden - Co-Artistic Director
Lou is currently one of the‘503Five’, a group of writers on attachment with Theatre503 in London. As part of this attachment she has contributed short plays to Decade and All I Want For Christmas. Her full-length play Breed was produced at Theatre 503 in September 2010. Earlier in 2010 she completed a nine week attachment at the National Theatre Studio, and the play she started writing there is currently being developed.
She is also currently under commission to BBC Radio 4. Her previous radio work includes four Afternoon Plays, two short dramas for the Woman’s Hour slot, and a series co-written with Nancy Harris. Her most recent Afternoon Play, Dos and Don’ts for the Mentally Interesting, was adapted from the blog by Seaneen Molloy, and won a Mind Mental Health Media Award in November 2009.
Her previous stage work has been featured at the Edinburgh Fringe; in the Royal Court’s Young Writers Festival; and at the Young Vic, as part of Paines Plough’s Wild Lunch season. She is a former member of the Royal Court's Advance Writers' Group, led by Hanif Kureshi and Simon Stephens.
Radio : Dos and Don’ts for the Mentally Interesting, Blood In the Bridal Shop, In Form, Gunpowder Women, Lilly’s Mum, Tree Splitting, Sampler T6. Currently under commission with Pouring Poison.
Theatre : Breed (Theatre 503), 2004 (part of Decade at Theatre 503), The Half-Widow (developed at the NT Studio), Hundreds and Thousands (commissioned by Theatre Absolute, later developed with Arts Council funding), Gas and Air (Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Pleasance Theatre London), Black Snot (Royal Court Young Writers Festival, Jerwood Theatre Upstairs), The Devil of Great Titchfield Street (Paines Plough Wild Lunch, Young Vic).
Lou is represented by Giles Smart at United Agents.
Lisa Spirling - Co-Artistic Director
Lisa directed Cotton Wool and was the recipient of the Creative Residency Award at the Hospital Club, London. She has then gone on to work alongside directing heavyweights such as Rupert Goold, Michael Grandage and Matthew Warchus. This has seen her direct the most recent cast of the hit show Enron into the West End and on National Tour, she was then invited to America to the Alley Theatre, Houston to direct Boeing Boeing. Alongside this Lisa continues with her commitment to new writing as Programming Director (now Affiliate Artist) at Theatre503 and now as Associate Director for Neil LaBute on his upcoming West End Show In a Forest Dark and Deep.
Lisa graduated from Royal Holloway University of London and trained as a director at LAMDA and the National Theatre Studio. She is the recipient of a Creative Industries Award from The Hospital Club, London. On graduation she worked for the National Theatre’s Education Department and went on to run their ground-breaking Art of Regeneration Program, before moving in to directing full-time.
Directing Credits Include: Boeing Boeing (Alley Theatre, Houston), Terminal 4 Play (Theatre503, Latitude Festival), Cotton Wool (Theatre503, Meyer-Whitworth Award Winner), Idiots of Ants (Pleasance, Edinburgh and on tour, Eddy nominated 2009), Beowulf (Storm on the Lawn, Theatre Royal Bath), Blood Wedding and Six Characters in Search of an Author (The Year Out Drama Company), Can’t Stand Me Now (Royal Court Theatre, reading), Beauty and The Beast (Jacksons Lane), The Vagina Monologues (The Pleasance, London); No One Move (Barons Court Theatre), Gas & Air and New York Threesome (Edinburgh Fringe and The Pleasance, London).
As Associate Director: Enron (West End & National Tour) The Hypochondriac (Liverpool Playhouse and English Touring Theatre).
As Staff Director: Danton's Death (National Theatre)
As Assistant Director: King Lear (Headlong, Young Vic and Liverpool Everyman), Boeing Boeing (regional tour), The Daughter (The Wedding Collective), 1001 Nights Now (Northern Stage, Regional Tour); 24 Hour Plays (The Old Vic); The Little Tempest (National Theatre Education).
Lisa is represented by Giles Smart at United Agents.
Ali Taylor - Co-Artistic Director
Ali wrote Cotton Wool and won the 18th Meyer Whitworth Award.
He is a former member of the Royal Court's Advance Writers' Group, led by Hanif Kureshi and Simon Stephens. Ali is currently under commission to Curve in Leicester and the National Theatre Studio.
Theatre: The Machine Gunners (Polka), A Little Neck (Goat & Monkey, Hampton Court Palace), Overspill (Soho Theatre & Churchill Theatre Bromley, Winner of the Metamorphosis08 competition), 59 Cups (Topos Allou, Athens), Porcelain (Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Workers Writes Festival), America Street (Paines Plough Wild Lunch, Young Vic), November (Union Theatre, Box of Tricks), Hive9 (Islington Community Theatre).
Radio: Cinders (BBC Radio 4), Eight Feet High & Rising (BBC Radio 4)
Ali is represented by Charlotte Knight at the Rod Hall Agency
Buckle for Dust is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales.
Company number 6541343.
Buckle for Dust is a not-for-profit organisation.