Mina Barber and Tabby Lamb Announced as Theatre Royal Stratford East Sky Arts Associates

Theatre Royal Stratford East has announced that Mina Barber and Tabby Lamb are the two new artistic associates for the Sky Arts Artistic Associates Bursary at Stratford East.

In January, Sky Arts appointed Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East Nadia Fall as one of five new Sky Arts Ambassadors to mentor the next generation of talent as part of its continuing mission to champion emerging artists and support cultural recovery when the industry needs it most. As part of this initiative Fall has created two artistic associate posts for emerging theatre makers to join the theatre's artistic team.

Nadia Fall, Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East said:

"We are delighted to announce Mina Barber and Tabby Lamb as our new Sky Arts artistic associates. Mina a former actor turned director and writer, whose first theatre experience was the Stratford East panto as a child and Tabby writer and queer activist, also based in the East End, are both incredibly talented. As theatre-makers they bring an exciting new creative energy to our theatre as well as a genuine connection to our East London community."

Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Sky Arts and Entertainment, said:

"We are thrilled to have helped enable Mina and Tabby's new roles at Stratford East and look forward to seeing and hearing the fresh new work we know they will help create."

Mina Barber is a Writer and Director and was invited to join the BBC London Voices Group in 2018 and was commissioned as part of a group of writers to write monologues for the 'Hear Me Now' project, which was published in 2018 and presented as part of a Festival at Theatre 503 in February 2020. Most recently Mina was invited to join BBC Writersroom Drama Room 2020/2021 where her script was selected from over 3,000 submissions. Mina is also about to start a 1 year placement with the BBC Children's in house team and is currently working with Documental Theatre on a 15 minute radio piece. As a director for Theatre and Film Mina has worked with the Young Vic on playwright Ross Willis' A Million Fuckboy Sperms as part of the Young Vic Directors Programme. She has also worked with Theatre Royal Stratford East, Theatre 503 and most recently in the West End as an Assistant Director on the critically acclaimed and Olivier nominated BBC comedy Upstart Crow by Ben Elton starring David Mitchell. For film Mina has directed two shorts with Slackline Productions titled I Dreamed I was Brigitte Macron and with Kick it Down Productions titled 3,800 miles both recorded during lockdown. Most recently Mina directed a production of A Doll's House adapted by Tanika Gupta at the Central School of Speech and Drama that was live recorded and streamed in January 2021 and has just finished working on a digital theatre piece for Theatre Royal Stratford East titled Hysterical - The Hilarious History of Hysteria.

Tabby Lamb is a non-binary writer and performer based in East London and a graduate of the Theatre Directing course at Dartington College of Arts. Similarly inspired by Carly Rae Jepson and Tennessee Williams, she strives to tell stories that explore the intersections between popular culture and politics. Their debut solo show SINCE U BEEN GONE, which Tabby wrote and performed, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019, after previewing at the Gate Theatre. The show was spectacularly received by audiences and garnered a glowing 4* write up from the Guardian who called the play "bold, honest and swollen with love". Tabby is an associate writer with Middle Child, she's on attachment at the Oxford Playhouse via their Playhouse Playmaker scheme 2021 and she's developing new work on the Wild Child's Oli Lansley mentor scheme, mentored by Sarah Solemani. She has previously been part of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab and the LGBTQ Arts Review #RaisingOurVoices scheme for queer and trans writers. Current commissions include the Unicorn Theatre, The Place, Kilter and Pentabus. Alongside their passion for writing, Tabby is a facilitator and runs creative arts projects for young people from the LGBTQ+ community. She is developing various stage and TV projects including a new trans musical.

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